A Pit Stop in Utah

Well, we packed up our little brood and said our "sayonara"'s to Denver, our beloved summer get-away. :) We waved good-bye to our neighbor, Anthony, who was a little out of it because of something he was smoking and drinking, and were on our merry way, towing our life behind us in a rackety trailer.
We met up with John's Dad's Uncle Tom and his wife, Betty, who were visiting from Florida.

I spent most of the evening trying to keep these two happy and under control. It was a process. Luckily they are so dang cute.

He was so hungry, he would just clasp the pouch and his eyes would be all wide and crazy, ha ha.

 The rest of the Denver Brassell Clan was there as well

(Tom and Betty and their Uncle Ray.)

Then we made our way to Michael and Shannon's (again), and enjoyed a night talking with them while our children chased their children hap-hazardously around the house (they are troopers to have us over.)

(Michael worked with William on his walking.)

 We spent the night at John's grandparents. William slept in his pack and play, and the remaining four of us shared a bed.  It wasn't so bad, but Johnny kept elbowing me in the eye, ha ha. He would always apologize after, which was sweet...but it was still and elbow in the eye!  At some point, John peeled that son of ours off his pillow and scooted him over to mine, I wouldn't have minded, except I was also sharing a pillow with Caity. Not to point out the obvious, but I was the first one up the next morning and we were on the road to Utah by 5:30 am. It is always a little hard saying good bye, but I am sure some wedding or other will steal us a visit from John's grandparents soon.
I like driving with John. We talk a lot...well, I do anyway...ha ha. But really, we just get to learn new things about each other, every single time.  We went south from Denver instead of north through Wyoming, and it was breath taking scenery.

If we didn't have such a long drive ahead of us, we would have stopped and hiked something, it was that pretty. But since we didn't have time, we just pulled over and stole a kiss...well, we are married so it was more like, pulled over and enjoyed a rightfully-ours kiss, if ya know what I mean.

 OK, so it was a little Cheezy. Caity was insistent though! ha ha.

 We (finally) pulled into my parent's house. James and Tayci were there with Noah and Miles and Matt is home from College so it was a big ole party. We headed to my cute cousin's wedding reception:

The kids had fun running around and playing with the other kids there.

 My cute nephew, Miles.

Johnny, Noah and Miles.

It was fun seeing my cousins and catching up with everyone.

 When we got home, everyone pretty much crashed.  This is how we found William and Johnny an hour after bed time.  Johnny moved from the bed he was sharing with Caity, to the crib to share with William, and at some point in the middle of the night moved to the floor...sometimes it's tough being the middle child.

It has been a fun visit with my parents so far, I don't feel like have gotten enough pictures- too busy having fun, I suppose. Remind me to pull out my camera today...like, for real. 

 Like, the only picture I have is the one I took of myself before I went to prank Matt. 

And if that isn't creepy....

Highlights of our visit so far

• Going to the gym with my mom
• Watching all the cousins play together
• Visiting my Grandma Ogden
• Going over to Tayci's for a play date- she had a homemade waterfall toy thing on her back porch, she is the cutest mom.  She is due to have her little girl on Saturday! I hope she gets here soon!
• Watching movies with Dad and Matt
• Staying in Becca's room (I miss her!)
• Dance party with Matt.
• Going to church with James and Tayci

Anyways, here's to another good day in Utah! :)

Missing Random Things from Denver

Today I, once again, grabbed that wiggly baby of mine and sat in the foyer at church to listen to Sacrament meeting. As I sat there, it all hit me at once. This summer in Denver is officially a thing of the past. And I missed it.  So strange.  It was wasn't sad leaving and from the beginning we viewed it as a temporary home, but it was just that: our home.  Though the time was short, that attic of ours housed some memories I will always cherish.  I miss the "views" from our house.

I miss us coming home from a long day of Denver exploring, and playing with my kids in that crammed space.

I miss Cheesman Park and our daily walks there. 

I even (kind of) miss our neighbor, Anthony. Never a boring day with that one. John took this picture of him, after Anthony discovered a tattoo he never knew he had.

Denver was good to us.  We grew a lot and grew closer. Though unconventional at times, I wouldn't have changed a thing.  I sat down as a visitor in my brother's ward, and missed the people I went to church with. They were amazing, and I admired their genuine faith. It made me homesick for a place I had only known 2 months.

I'm sure Boise will bring great new friends and great new memories, which I look forward to, but I am sure every time I say "Remember in Denver when..." there will be a smile on my face.

Hangin in the Hood

Tonight John and I had a romantic evening under the stars. Fixing our trailer. And to be honest, there was really only one star visible since we were in a parking lot that was lit up just enough to black out the sky and unlit enough to welcome at least one drug deal during our time spent fidgeting with wires.  Johnny ran around. Caity talked. William just kind of sat there- he is such a pleasant baby, that William. It was a miserable, but was really a great time too. I am always so impressed with that husband of mine and his handy skills. Hopefully all will be ready for our big move on Saturday!

Update: The next day, the light randomly started working! Kind of crazy, ha ha.

Let's Go To The Movies

I'M DONE!! Done. Done. Done. No more homework for this girl. For a couple months anyway.  I'll be honest, I almost didn't make this time, you guys.  But I did it. I am glad I have learned what  have learned this semester and am grateful for the experience...yet, almost as grateful the experience is over! :)

As soon as I submitted my last assignment, I got a call from John's grandparents inviting us to a dollar showing of "Rio 2." So we rushed quick and piled in the car in order to get there on time.  It was such a fun afternoon.  As soon as he sat down, Johnny started dancing to the music, it was pretty cute.  It was a cafe-cinema, so all the seating had tables and menus- it was really cool and there was a lot of crawling space for William to explore. We ordered some french fries and Johnny about had a heart attack when he realized I also got some ketchup- I, f'real, was his hero right then and there.

 About a third of the way into the movie, William just got too happy and I had to take him out.  So this is how I spent the last hour of the movie...

...In the foyer watching Master William chase his own chubby toes.  He was sure a riot this afternoon and he kept me pretty entertained as he attempted to dance and escape to the stairs multiple times.

 After the movie, we hung out at GG Brassell's house for an hour and enjoyed the warm company and cool air-conditioned house.

Caity enjoyed reading about Balto with Grandpa

Johnny enjoyed lining up every toy he could find (while his brother interfered...)

And William...well, I suppose William got a little thirsty.  

(he may have had some cat food with that cat water...I'm just going to plead the fifth here. ahem.)

When we got home we made some homemade mac and cheese and the kids told John all about the movie.

Cate's version:  Dad there was like these blue birds...and like did you know they had kids since the last move? Yeah, they did. And so like there was this white bird that was kind of mean and he was trying to get them and they flew all around everywhere trying to find like more blue birds and like the dad was like scared and the mom- like she wasn't. AND GUESS WHAT, dad? She found her dad but he didn't like him and (7 minutes later...) So yeah, the frog really wasn't poison and so they could kiss. It was so good, Dad.

Johnny's Version:  It was about a lot of Birds!

So funny. It was such a good day and I am glad we were able to spend it with Great Grandma and Grandpa Brassell!

And to make you laugh, here is a Weird Al clip that I enjoyed, even IF he was probably responding specifically to my blog! :)

Story Time in Denver

Denver has such a great children's section of the library. Not to mention they have escalators, so you might as well call it Six Flags in my kids' eyes.  We only brought a few books to Denver (this one being our favorite), so the library is like a fantasy land with so many options. I always feel so at home in a library. We got there early and after unsuccessfully trying to teach the kids checkers, we found a comfy corner and read some books. 

 I recently watched THIS clip with the kids, and today they kept giggling and whispering, "QUIET! This is a LIBrary!" We thought we were so funny.

I don't know what it is with babies and power sockets. William wouldn't leave this thing alone.  He loved just crawling around...this trip he discovered the books. Bah! I had to follow him around to insure he didn't yank them all off the shelves! Little stinker. I was proud of him.

There wasn't enough cushions left so Johnny and Caity shared. They offered to let me join them...which was sweet...but let's be real, people. That wasn't going to work. :)

Today was about the letter "P"

Johnny had this face expression the entire time they did this dance, it was like "are these people serious?" He doesn't "do" gimmicks very easily.

William kept bounding in on top of Caity and Johnny. The parents behind me were a little concerned with how William's siblings handled him. I wanted to them not to worry, that Wills was an Idaho baby...but I didn't. Good thing, because a moment later I spied Johnny gently gnawing on William foot. Whoops. Ha ha. Speaking of which, last night we has the Sister Missionaries over and in the middle of a prayer, Johnny blew the biggest, wettest raspberry on William's chunky thighs.  It was hard not to laugh. 

After story time, we headed to the exploration corner, where the kids played with puzzles and blocks.  I pulled a puppet and had a lot of fun with Wills.  He thought it was so funny.  The kids and I tried to do a puppet show of the three little pigs. Well, Caity and I tried. Let's just say Johnny played a good ravenous wolf and it was hard to keep him focused. If he didn't remind me so much of his dad...

Then we headed to the computers for a couple minutes.

I wish John could have come with us. It would have been even more fun.  He was on a field trip of his own though... to HERE:

Denver's Super-Max Prison.

Oh, I only freaked out a little when he told me they were going to be in the courtyard with the inmates unprotected.  I have been checking my phone all day waiting to hear from him, I can't wait to hear about his adventure.  He has been looking forward to it since May.  All the interns went, his adviser tries to arrange the visit every year because she feels like it gives the lawyers a reality of what they are doing when they send someone here for a an extra ten years.  I think it will give John a good perspective. If you didn't know, John is very interested in National Security, and there happen to be a couple convicted terrorists here...kind of crazy!

Also, good news! 

John just called and we got the house we wanted in Boise!!!

So, so very excited.

Now, how the heck do I get this girl signed up for Kindergarten? I am a total newbie at this stuff, and it kinda freaks me out that I am registering her so late in the game...any advice is mucho appreciated!

A Day in the Life.

A day full of little moments with my little people. 

Life is good to me.