Showing posts with label Griffin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Griffin. Show all posts

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Happy Birthday Griffin

Griffin's 3rd birthday happened while they were in Salt Lake City. Griffin is definitely a daddy's boy, and not seeing his dad for three weeks was tough for the little guy.  Jim arrived in town just in time to celebrate--and that was Griffin's favorite present!

He got plenty of other gifts to help him celebrate...including Cranky the Crane for his Thomas and Friends set.

He also got Octonauts station and all the gups we could find.  And if you don't know what that is, you need to spend more time watching the shows on Disney Junior.

Griffin got to open presents at a party at Ty and Amy's new house....

Blow out candles on his blue (yes!  blue!) bundtlet birthday cake...



Then go back to grandma and grandpa's house to open even more presents.  It sure seemed like a lot of toys, but because he is such a sweet brother, Griffin loves sharing all of his things with his brother.  Most of the time.

Happy birthday to our special little Griffin!


Summer Adventures


The kids tell me I'm waaaaay behind on blogging, and I literally haven't done a post for over two months.  The summer has been so full, and I've enjoyed every minute.  I think I could blog for hours about all of the things we've done in the last few months....but I'm going to cheat, and condense it into one measly post, but with a ton of photos!

We made a last minute change in Jim and Kathie's summer schedule, since they were supposed to fly out for a week to go to Lake Powell the first week in September.  But when Jim got assigned a project in Hong Kong for a few weeks in August, they decided to send Kathie and the kids out earlier--so we could enjoy them for the whole month!  It was a blast to have the boys here to play, and little Brynn is already getting so grown up--we got to see a whole month of that!  

Some of the highlights of the time they were here:

Landon and Kathie built some complicated multi-track railroads for the electric Thomas and Friends.   The boys spent literally hours down here switching tracks, fixing derailed cars, avoiding collisions etc.  It is so fun to watch these boys play with this train set.  

Brynn was entertained by watching her brothers play.  If you put her down, she would roll, scoot and army crawl all over the place to join the fun.  This little girl really gets around!

We always have to fulfill the request to go bowling when the boys are here--for some reason that has become a tradition when they are visiting.  And Lily and Tyler got to stop by for a quick visit to check out the fun.


Brynn really is our little ray of sunshine....she is happy and smiley and content to just hang out and go wherever we took her.  I love her sweet disposition.

One of the places the boys enjoyed was Jungle Jim's.  I remember taking my kids there when they were little, and we had a great afternoon trying out all the rides.


The best was when they rode in the bumper cars together.  Gavin would turn the wheel one way, Griffin would pull it the other.  The net result was total chaos.

They loved the rocket ships, where they could control their own craft and go up and down to their heart's content.

When they rode the jeep, Gavin was more interested in how the track worked and was very diligent in turning the steering wheel correctly.


Griff was brave enough to ride the Amazon with Grandma....

Another day, we made a trip the This is the Place Heritage Park, where the boys got to "milk" a cow.

"Hey mom!  This isn't milk coming out!  It's just water!"

A nice calm pony ride...


Landon helped with the boys as they learned about blacksmithing.

They took a "train" ride around the whole Park.

while Brynn stayed back and talked to grandma!  

We did Native American crafts, beaded necklaces, and leather work.

And we took train rides around the lake...

.....panned for gold...

And saw what it would be like to live in a Native American hogan.   We loved having some summer time adventures with our "California Kids."


Monday, June 10, 2013

A Quick Fix

It's like an addiction, this grandparenting thing.  I can't make it more than a few weeks without need a quick fix.  The California kids are coming in June for a couple of weeks, but when Scott said he was going to fly out over Memorial weekend to meet Brynn and see the boys, I jumped right on board.  Pretty soon, Lauren called up and asked if there was room for her and Claire to tag along.

Um, yeah.  Twist my arm.

We had a great visit just hanging out, eating out, and getting out.

Grandpa got to meet Brynn.  I think he was a good influence on her.  Well, and she on him.  Brynn loved grandpa...



Griffin loved Claire...


And this grandma loved every single moment!
 The tech museum craziness....
 Brynn slept through most of it...
 Jim and Kathie danced their way through it
 Griffin crawled through it...
 Jim practiced his space maneuvers
 And Brynn came home happy as could be!
 There's nothing as sweet as cuddling a sweet sleeping baby....
 Unless it's being surrounded by a whole bunch of sweet awake ones...
 Tuesday, we went to Happy Hollow--the perfect sized zoo and amusement area for little ones.
 The boys found plenty to keep them entertained
 Brynn was happy to have grandpa haul him all over the place.
 ...and grandpa got a double work out some times.
 Here's 4/5th of heaven!
 Look at the adorable dress Lauren sewed and brough to Brynn.  She wore it to church on Sunday.
 Okay.  This is seriously one of my favorite pictures ever.  Get the feeling these two are going to grow up to be much like their grandpa?
 Four beauties!
 Happy Hollow
 Happy girl!
 Gavin got a little adventurous as the day went on, and even went on this ride without anyone sitting right next to him.
 They don't get much cuter than Griffin!
 After a long day, the boys gave grandpa a nice swing ride in the shade!
Thanks, Jim, Kathie and kids for letting me and Grandpa and Lauren and Claire enjoy such a fun weekend!