2016 Family Vacation - Utah Videos

Here are some videos:

Utah Vacation Mar 2016

Our vacation was amazing wonderful and extremely exhausting.  Glad to be home, but loved every minute were were there.  It was packed with family, friends, food, and FUN.  What more could we ask for?

FAMILY

We were able to spend time with family.  We spent a good chunk of time with my grandparents who are 86 and 87.  The kids have met them twice before and still remembered many things from their visit we made when they were turning 4.

We also got to spend some time with my Uncle Ronnie's family.  No group shot but we did get some one of them playing games together.



As we planned and talked about the trip I mentioned to Logan that Grandpa likes to play chess.  So Logan wanted to learn so he could play with grandpa.



He enjoyed playing for a game or two and got tired of loosing.  Other games played were:

Smurf Ahoy:



Tri-ominos:


Aggravation in English:


Splat:


and of course no visit to Omi & Grandpa Ruske's house would be complete without playing Rummy:


FRIENDS

No sadly no pictures with our friends, but we got to visit a lot with our friends the Mitchell's.  We spent lots of time visiting and got to go out to dinner together one night. Monday is free pie night at Marie Callender's.  We did get a picture of the kids playing on their pool table.  I guess that is another game they are trying to pick up.

  

FOOD

We got to enjoy lots of great food while we were there.  Places included:
The Pizza Factory

pizza was good and the bread sticks were delicious too...


La Fountain good food and good prices

Cafe Rio:

Marie Callender's

Waffle Love - we had never heard of it until about a week before we left so we went there.  We all wanted to try something different so we did.

I think I got a sample of each and I approved of them all :)

 

and Sill's Cafe

 We were told we had to go there and try the scones.  We agree the scones were delicious and so was the hot chocolate.  Not big fans of the SOS. Glad we had them put it on the side.

And if all of that wasn't fun enough

FUN

  

okay all of that was not so fun, but the rest was :)

  

So we were north of SLC and had some time so we drove to Logan for our sweet boy and he loved it

  He had his own temple, library, sign, pay day Logan, quotes from him that night:

People LOVE ME.

I've got my own city.

We also stopped by the Brigham City Temple

    

We stopped by the Provo Temple:

  

Then we went to the Provo City Temple Open House:

   

And we got to spend 2 afternoons on the mountains:

 

  

    

And last, but not least the kids found a pet that Mommy could live with:

My Photo skills are too slow

As the kids were stripping down for their showers this morning Alyssa took off her shirt and said "you have to be strong with my shirt off" and this was in conjunction with her and Logan pretend boxing topless. 

I ran to grab the phone to take a picture/video, but I was too late...they were down to their b-day suits still boxing...that didn't seem like as great a photo/video :(

Pretend Names

All week Alyssa has been telling me "I'm Uncle Mike".  Other names she really likes to be are June and Mavis. 

Sometimes they are Mom or Dad, Logan or Alyssa and actual gender is really not a factor in pretend play.

3 yrs 8 months

Here is a quick list of notes I have recently kept to keep track of them

As we drove to Katy in July and we passed the statue of Sam Houston in Huntsville the kids started calling him Statue Sam

they still call shamu shampoo - ongoing at least a year now since they went to sea world

grandmas crutches are crunches

they call lemonade lem-o-lade...and then the other day Logan said "Lemon-lade...mommy I said it right" with the biggest smile

Alyssa got a little sick recently and was throwing up and was saying...I don't like grow ups

We are starting to speak a little more Spanish with the kids and we have begun some colors...Logan's blue blanket is Azul and Alyssa's pink blanket is grossa

Today Alyssa learned how to blow up a balloon.

Sweetest Little Boy

Anyone who has spent time with Logan knows that he is a sweet little boy. 

Well this sweet little boy made my day today.  I don't even know where he got this from, but I have to write it so I don't forget. 

This sweet little 3 yr old at the end of church ran to the the truck and opened my door while I was helping Alyssa into the truck and putting my bags in the passenger seat.  When I got to the driverside I opened his door to help him in and he said:  Mommy I opened your door for you (and as I was about to tell him the usual...jump in and buckle up) he continued with:  I am going to close it for you when you are in.  And he did just that and then got in his seat and buclked up.

What a gentleman.  He opened and closed my door for me...and melted my heart.

I hope my little boy stays this sweet forever.

Imagination Play

Alyssa is always facinating me while I overhear her conversations while she is playing. 

Today while I was working on my GD lesson and Alyssa was playing with her little people I heard one of them tell the other: Your I-pad is not working anymore.