snapshots of the trip

snapshots with my iphone

The trip started off a little rough, then was great, then rough, then great again, then home. The second flight of the trip, from Minneapolis to Salt Lake City, I had to ask three people to please give up their seats so I could sit with my little ones. The flight attendant at the gate gave us three separate seats, then it was up to us to find people who would move. It was terrible.. no one wanted to help, and finally the people who did, made me feel like the terrible person I already felt I was for asking them to move! After I was unable to stop the tears from rolling, the kiddos sidled up to me and both fell asleep for the entire flight. You win some, you lose some, right? 

The day before we left home, Emmy was practicing her travel etiquette: 

After the flights, we landed in Utah, drove to Grandma's house and promptly played with all the toys we could, forgetting all about the unpleasantness of grumpy people: 

Legos, excuse me, Big Boy Legos were found and Mont spent hours building houses and boats for the little legos people: 

Swinging on the back porch with Emmy and her beloved bubble necklace (with no bubbles):

Mark headed up the second leg of the trip to California, as there were only 3 non-rev seats available. He was able to successfully handle the stroller loading and unloading onto the shuttle to the hotel by himself with the two kids, and late night mamba-candy distribution. What a hero!

We reunited the next day in Anaheim where we were anxiously awaiting our time at Disneyland: 

Molly was dared by her father (no less!) to run through the water fountain at its highest height. She was already in her swim suit, so the dare was accepted! 

Emmy was dead set on getting this particular pink set of ears when Mark took them to downtown disney that morning. She wore it as much as she could our entire time there:

A pay phone I remember my dad taking a business call on when I was really young. 

Hasn't changed in over 20 years!! 

Mont and his cousin Maxwell. Mont loves this kid sooo much.

Exhilarated Mont on Soarin' Over California... he absolutely loved this ride:

However, Emmy was not all that pleased when Alice in Wonderland broke down while we were in the Wrong Way Forest (not sure of the name, but that fits, right?):

Mont loved the toy story rides, being able to shoot the guns and rockets:

Visiting family is the best... late nights, cookies for breakfast, popsicles for snacks, etc. Happiness is summer at the grandparents'. 

Stacey keeps an owl paperweight on her desk, and when Emmy found it she would not let it go for a good long while!

While getting ready for an all-too-short hour long visit with my sister, I noticed the tag on my shirt was the same name she's given both of my babies when they were really little.... so a picture seemed appropriate! Made me laugh.

Vying for Tessa's affection and hugs:

Emmy's new "Picture Face":

Minneapolis near midnight:

garden greens

red barn wood beds 

 sweet mint (reminds me of summers in Bellevue)

peppermint plants 

tomatoes  

flowers for the bumble bees

chutes, ladders, and swinging solo

He's done it, ladies and gents, he's figured out the swing!! He can hop on (a little bit of a scramble to get on), and begin to rock back and forth enough to get started, and within a couple minutes his feet are as high as my head. My tips on Friday when he finally was willing to listen and try till he succeeded were a mixture of, "let your feet fly really high! then drop your feet back, then let them fly high!" Somehow something stuck and he was flying.

everything's more fun with a tail

A couple of weeks ago I spent some rainy days inside making these dinosaur tails out of canvas, velcro and stuffing. They have been as big of a hit with the kids as we had thought they'd be and it makes me smile ear to ear to see them laughing so hard at each other when they wear them; they must not realize how goofy they look, themselves. ha! Oh, I love it.

Mark plays dinosaur catcher, above

Mont runs away fast, below

Emmy prances along, pretending to be a princess dinosaur, I'd imagine:

And the two little dinos run off on a hunt:

reader reading

Hey there fellow bloggers! It's been few and far between these days that I get around to posting; then when I do, it's in a collaboration of catch-ups. Thank heavens for Instagram to post our happenings somewhere [on the record].

Question for those that are users of the great and glorious Google Reader: I saw that it is sputtering to a kaput on July 1 of this year. I am gearing up to go old style where reading blogs is concerned: a blog roll once again on the side bar, checking early every morning. Maybe it will bring back the old magic the blog world used to hold for everyone. What my question is, is what are you planning on doing to gear up for this change? Are there any programs that would take the place efficiently?

I'll end with a fun factoid.. on this day in history in 1819, Walt Whitman was born.. here are a few favorable quotes:

"I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends."

"Keep your face always towards the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you."

"Re-examine all that you have been told... dismiss that which insults your soul."

"I exist as I am, that is enough."

"Oh while I live, to be the ruler of life as a powerful conqueror, and nothing exterior to me will ever take command of me."

"I see great things in baseball. It's our game - the American game."

"Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes."

"Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth."

Happy weekend!

captain mont reeder

Have your read or heard of the book How I Became A Pirate? It's a favorite here at our house, and nearly every night it is requested before bed. We change Jeremy Jacob to Mont Reeder and he gets a kick out of it, checking to be sure that in each picture, "That's me?" "Yep!" And every day he wants to dress like a pirate, stripes and all. If it's not a "Smee shirt" (striped) then it must be a shirt with dinosaurs or dynamite or something equally as boyish. But pirates have green teeth, when they have any teeth at all, so whenever Mont asks for something good, he asks if it will help his teeth stay white and strong. So funny what some kids take from certain stories or situations. I love this little land lubber to pirate pieces.

may showers

Mark took this picture out our front door of the maple tree sprouting it's leaves during a rain shower. It's been one of the last to let it's new leaves out, but it has made this whole process even sweeter. Just as these two:

practice makes perfect

perfect match

While Buckwheat is only 9 pounds, he still controls the speed of Emmy's walking for the most part when she's the one with his leash. Pretty funny watching these two zip around to satisfy Buckwheat's need to sniff and search. Emmy couldn't be happier than when she is outside with some sort of animal, be it Buckwheat, a bird she's chasing, a deer she wants to hug, a horse, a sheep or a chicken. She loves them all.

clay pigeons and water jugs

Friday morning I took the kids to our friends' house for a visit and a bit of play, and as we got to talking, we decided to do a spur of the moment date night. With a last minute yes from a babysitter, we raced off for some target practice with a couple friends. I hadn't shot a gun since Mark and I were first married and visiting the Reeder Ranch for Thanksgiving. It'd been almost 7 years! I wasn't that great, but I did hit my first clay pigeon using our friend's shotgun. I wish I had stopped with that one.. because I missed the next three. : )

Here are two pictures Jenny took of the fun:

sailing ships and sealing wax

 Our nephew Maxwell turned two on May 14th, and as I look at our children... pirate ships seem to be all the rage right now with them. ha ha - So a "pirate" ship was painted and sent off in the mail. It's the smallest I've ever done, only 4" x 5", and it took me quite a while.. so much little detail that required so much time! I'm laughing at it, because it was such a challenge! Water might be the hardest thing I've painted.. I kept repainting over it and layering, then getting frustrated with it and doing it again. I believe it was redone 3 times. There's a good amount of paint on this little canvas! Maybe he'll like it for a few more years before it moves to a box. Happy birthday, funny boy!

springing

The buds came out this week and we have been out to see every one of them. While we're still in coats and pants, it's nice to know the plant life is even acknowledging some sort of atmospheric change! ha ha

17/52: three amigos

I love these three of mine!

Link to the hilarious article I mentioned below: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2156

Enjoy. : )

Lawrence Welk's birthplace

About a year ago, Mark introduced me to the actual Lawrence Welk show. All I'd seen prior were the clips from SNL's renditions. Both the real thing and the clips were hilarious. Mark was doing a little research Lawrence Welk and read that he was actually from North Dakota! What?! The article we read had us both laughing so hard. It was brutally harsh on why he left and never came back to North Dakota. While we like it here, he did not have our same experience; not in the slightest. Here's the wiki link. He was born in the german-speaking community in Strasburg, ND, and was the sixth of eight children. His parents spent their first ND winter under an upturned wagon covered in sod. Can you imagine?! When Mark told that to me, I couldn't wrap my head around it for a good long while. I cannot even fathom that. These winters are far colder than the ones we spent in Anchorage, Alaska. Those were some hardy folk.  Anyway, this past Friday we went to Bismark for the ward temple trip. It was our first time going, and we had a lot of fun. Then on the way back on Saturday afternoon we detoured to Strasburg, North Dakota!

We were heartily let down to drive up to it being closed with no tours beginning until Memorial Day. No accordion music for us to follow off the highway. ha! But it was still very nice because we had the whole place to ourselves to run explore a bit; it was warm, windy, and quiet.

Mark said "all his North Dakota dreams had just come true!" ha ha!! What a sport. 

16/52: ready for California

We're gathering clothes and fun things for a summer trip to California to visit a certain mouse in another month. We can hardly wait! For the trip and for Summer!