Pictures of our condo!

This is mainly for my mom and April, who've been asking for pictures since we got here. I think I got pictures of nearly every nook and cranny, just for you guys. My only disclaimer is that it's not entirely decorated yet. We're not sure if we're going to buy it or not (I vote YES!), so I don't want to spend time and money decorating the place if we're only going to be here a year at the most. But I have big plans for decorations if I can ever convince Derk to make the purchase!

Warning: lots of pictures, so feel free to skip over this post if you're really not interested. :)

Outside

The window right in front on the left is Kyrie's room. The one in the middle is Asher and Bri's (the one on the far right isn't our condo). The garage is right their windows.

Our front patio and 2 car garage

Living Room

Our front door (obviously). The living room is right to the right of the front door. The stairs are right behind you as you face the door.

Our living room. The front patio you saw is right outside that window.

Behind our couches (you can see the stairs on the top right). The door right by the bookshelf is our half bath, the other door is to the garage.

The Kitchen

If you're standing at the sink, the living room is right on the other side of the breakfast bar. My favorite part of the kitchen is the space I have above my cupboards to display my signs, which makes Derk happy because they're not on the walls :) . The green one (thank you, Jenna!) says "Stephens" with an overlay of "Families Are Forever". The black one is President Hinckley's 9 Be's.

Kyrie's Room

I couldn't get all angles of her room because she had friends over, and they were waiting eagerly, so I had to hurry. :) Her desk is on the wall opposite her bed, and her closet is right on the other side of her play kitchen.

Asher and Cambria's Room

Don'tcha just love that walk-in closet?! I sure do! Hello, my name is Hillary, and I need AA for my shopping addiction (as you can see). The closet is right to the left of their bookshelf. I really wanted the girls to share so I could decorate a really cute girly room and a really cute boy room for just Asher. If we end up buying this place, I think I'll do that.

Kids' Bathroom

I love their bathroom. I was so excited when I found that shower curtain because that's all of their favorite animals. I have more plans for this room as well. I'm going to print off some coloring pages of a giraffe, elephant, monkey and zebra and have the kids color them. Then I'll frame them nicely and put them up on the wall opposite the toilet. It's going to be really cute.

Master Bedroom

My (okay, "our") walk-in closet

Our balcony and bathroom

More of our bathroom - and also my really great new shower head that Derk bought - love it! I didn't snap a picture of my large soaker tub. It's a shower/tub combo, but the tub is a large, round garden tub, so it's still just fabulous.

And my favorite part of the entire house....

The laundry closet!!!!!!!!!!!

So there you have it. We sure love it, and what a huge upgrade from what we had before, eh? Now I'm just hoping to buy it so I can do all the cute things that are spinning around inside my head. *crossing fingers and toes*

Goggles

Our condo complex has a swimming pool, so we went out and bought the kids a few toys for the water. We got a package of goggles for everyone, and Asher instantly loved his and refused to take them off....even for his nap. :)


(**As for the sore on his cheek, we have absolutely no idea where it came from. Luckily hydrogen peroxide is helping a lot, and it's much better now - whatever it is.**)

Not Idahoans any more!

We're officially in Arizona (Arizonans?)! The drive wasn't nearly as bad as I feared - only one minor set back, which is actually a funny story. Well, it wasn't funny to ME, but Derk got a good laugh out of the whole ordeal. See, we planned on driving overnight on Wednesday to get to Boise while the kids slept. So Derk bought a couple of those 2 shot 5 hour energy drinks to help us stay awake. Worked great, and we made it to Boise in record time.

The setback occurred on Thursday. I'd been up for about 24 hours and was exhausted. I really wanted to stop in Boise and sleep, but Derk really wanted to make it to Vegas. He asked if I thought another energy drink would help me make it a bit further, so I agreed to give it a shot. I decided to chug it. Ha! BIG mistake. Huge. Had I not been in a stupored haze, I would have realized that Derk had purchased an *extra strength* drink that time. I can't even tell you how sick I got - nausea, heart palpitations, very jittery limbs, diuretic effects, the works. Needless to say, I was out of commission for the day, and we ended up stopping at a hotel in Wells, which is just outside of Boise.

After a good 16 or so hours of sleep, I felt 100% better, and we were back in business and on our way to Vegas for some fun. No, not "that" kind of fun. :) We booked a hotel room at Circus Circus and were going to enjoy the amusement park and circus fun with the kids. And we sure enjoyed it, just as expected! We stayed out until midnight riding on the rides and catching a circus performance (some freakily-flexible chick who did very odd contortions with her body that I didn't snap pictures of).

The city sure is pretty at night. This was the view from our hotel
room at Circus Circus.

Then we woke up Saturday morning and explored The Strip in Vegas before leaving for the last leg of our journey. I wish I would have taken pictures of all the cool buildings we saw. Kyrie loved Excalibur and was bummed when we told her the inside wasn't a real castle. :)

My 2 sweet girls, very excited about their turn in the Uhaul.

Kyrie laughed at me when I snapped this picture. "You're taking a picture of the TRUCK, Mom?" Yes, I'm a nerd. But it's fun to chronicle the entire journey. That's Derk and Asher in there driving down the stretch of desert on the way to Las Vegas.

Here are some pictures from our Circus Circus fun.

This frog ride thing was their absolute favorite, and I lost track of how many times they rode on it.

Here's a video of them on the ride (sorry it's so blurry).

After a long 20+ hours, I finally saw the best sight imaginable - it says Yuma!

We arrived in Yuma around 7:30pm on Saturday night. We're loving our new place so far. I'll post pictures of it and lots more fun we've been having tomorrow after our internet gets hooked up. Yes, I'm "borrowing" internet from someone else's signal at the moment. So shoot me. :)

You find the fun....

And *snap*, the job's a game! Is the song running through your head now? Huh? Huh? I love that movie. Which reminds me, I need to buy it again considering our DVD just vanished into thin air. Strange how that happens. It's like the Mysterious Vanishing Sock from the washer or dryer.

Anyway. Packing stinks. It's even worse when you have 3 kids - not to mention all the stuff that accumulates because of said 3 children. But Derk found a way to make it fun for all. Once again, I'm smart (wimpy?) enough not to participate, and I'm glad I did because they all ended up with sore bums, and Derk ended up with a gash on his arm to boot. But they had a blast.

What month is it?

This is yet another confirmation that I am so ready to get away from Idaho and all its glory. Today is the day before moving day, June 10th, and what did I wake up to this morning? See for yourself.

Did you hear me when I said it was June 10th? Seriously. It's all good - I'll be sunbathing in a few short days (or is that sunbaking?). Either way, I'm stoked. No more snow for me.

A good-bye weekend

Moving day approaches, so we decided to spend the last weekend in Idaho with our families in Coeur d'Alene - and what a fun, albeit very bittersweet, weekend it was! Derk spent Friday and Saturday with his best friend, Mikey. They went to a Type O Negative concert on Saturday. Why did he not invite me? Yes, I'm a tad bitter, but what can you do?

It's all good. My sisters, one of my brothers and my mom and I all got to hang out, talk and let the cousins have a ball playing together while Derk was gone, so I wasn't missing out on anything. In fact, I think Derk was the one missing out. I could just gobble my sisters' kids right up - they are too dang cute for their own good. I will miss them way too much.

My sisters, my niece and Kyrie and Asher looking at
the cows in my mom's backyard.

All the grandbabies - Logan (though his face is blocked by the sippy),
Cambria, Jonni, Kyrie and Asher

My sweet nephew, Logan, turned 2 this weekend (well, Monday, but close enough) as well, and I love a good excuse to party and eat great food. Time flies fast enough when it's your own kids, but I swear it goes by faster as I watch my nieces and nephew grow. I sure love that boy with all my heart. Here's a video of Logan and Cambria, aka Cutie Patooties, playing at my mom's.

We also decided to take the kids to Silverwood one last time while we were there. Derk's youngest sister, Jenna, graciously offered to watch Cambria for the day for us so we could go and have a blast, and of course we took her up on that offer. Yes, she's 7 months pregnant, and yes, she already has a 1 year old, but we used her anyway. :) Of course Bri had a blast. She loves playing with Z. I wish I had pictures of them together. They're only 2 weeks apart and are, once again, too cute for their own good.

Derk's other sister, Jessica, and Derk's high school buddy, Doug, went with us, and we sure had a fun time! Doug knows one of the magicians who does an act there, so he was able to pull some strings and get us in for free - huge bonus! We sure love Jessica and are so glad she was able to come with us. And it was really fun for Derk to hang out with one of his old buddies again - the last time they saw each other was at least 5.5 years ago when Kyrie was just tiny.

Doug, Kyrie and Jess on the ferris wheel


The bumper boats...

The aftermath, though you really can't see how soaked they really got in this picture. Was I brave enough to get drenched, you ask? Not. a. chance. What're dads for anyway?

More ride pictures.


Kyrie, Derk and Asher rock climbing.

And here is proof that there is a fundamental difference between boys and girls. No trip to the amusement park is complete without a tatoo (right?)....Okay, maybe we're odd. Anyway, when asked what they wanted, Kyrie emphatically replied that she wanted a "beautiful butterfly". Asher's response? "I want a TANK", tank said with a growl in his voice to make it even more manly. And the fact that they had him roll up his sleeve like that? Just an added bonus to make the picture even more adorable and "biker-ish". He kept flexing his muscles and saying "Mom! Look at my TANK (said with the growl, of course) for the rest of the day. And, by golly, those tats were sure worth the $8 a piece - they didn't wash off for over a week, even with vigorous scrubbing on my part.

Derk's been anxiously awaiting the day that Kyrie would be tall enough to go on the Panic Plunge with us. She wasn't tall enough last year, and he was beyond stoked to learn that she was *just* tall enough this year. Then the inevitable happened - she refused to go on it and literally hid behind my leg and refused to let go. After much coercion and bribery (is any parent above bribery?!), she agreed to go on it and had a b-l-a-s-t, instantly begging to go on it again. Go figure. I thought she'd lose her lunch dropping the 140 feet at 50mph, but she surpassed my expectations (thankfully). After that, she declared that she was "suddenly feeling adventurous and brave" and wanted to go on every "dangerous" ride in the park. Kids. :)

And here's a video of her death-defying plunge, along with Daddy and Aunt Jessica, of course.

We'll sure miss being so close to our families, but what a great "out with a bang" weekend!

We love you all!

Play place police

Betcha didn't know there was such a thing. I didn't either. Until now. After graduation yesterday, we took the kids to the mall to play. It was pouring rain out, and we've been so busy packing and doing moving prep that our poor kids were desperate for some fun. It's a really fun play area with several cushier plastic things for the kids to climb on. And it's surrounded by a wall with only one way to get in or out, which makes it easy for the parents to sit back and relax while the kids play.

We get to the play area, and there's this mom there with her 3 kids. Her daughter was just younger than Cambria. This mother was completely hovering over her kids and didn't leave their side for 2 seconds. If they went down the slide, she climbed up the steps to watch them go down and then would rush over to the bottom of the slide to meet them as they came down. She followed their every move. It was just obnoxious watching her literally smother these poor kids. Let them breathe, explore, be kids for crying out loud.

But that's none of my business. Until she starts yelling at my kids, that is, and then her habits become my business. Big time. And I do mean yelling - as in, all the other parents stopped talking and just listened to this lady telling a 6 year old off. Kyrie started climbing up the slide to help Cambria go down the slide, and this mother went ballistic. She went off about how Kyrie was ruining the fun for all the other kids, was being "nasty and mean and trying to block the slide", was a "mean little girl", and then she proceeded to tell Kyrie she was going to tattle on her ("I'm going to tell your mom!"), as if we weren't already aware of the situation. It was just ridiculously overboard.

Yes, I do teach my kids to go up the stairs and down the slide, but I'm not going to get up and down a bajillion times to get them down every time they're climbing up the slide. That's just what kids do. There's something irresistible about climbing up the slide, and as long as there's no other kid waiting to go down, it doesn't bother me that much. I'll pick my battles.

Anyway, so I called Kyrie over to tell her that she was just fine, and that we would let her know if she was doing something inappropriate. Then I told her to just steer clear of this lady. I figured that would do the trick. Not so much. She was back down Kyrie's throat shortly after for yet another silly "infraction". I turned to Derk and said, a little too loudly (which I'm not apologizing for in the least), that I was confused as to when the mall hired Play Place Police and wondered where her badge was. Then he joked back that next she'd be handing out citations for climbing up the slide. She came over to us and said she wasn't trying to be rude to which I just rolled my eyes and told her my kids were just fine, thank you very much.

Kyrie's going through this (albeit slightly annoying) phase of wanting to "help" Cambria do nearly everything, so she kept picking her up to help her up the stairs and into the different play things. This annoys Bri a bit, but she's a good sport. This lady gave Kyrie a hard time about picking up a baby and told her to leave the baby alone. She shut up fast when I told her they were sisters and that Kyrie was just being a good big sister. Thank goodness.

She just had to stick her nose in one last time before we had it and had to leave. Our old neighbor arrived at the mall, so we started chatting with him for a bit. Cambria called for Daddy. As a parent, you can tell when your kid needs you and when they're okay to wait a minute or two while you finish up a conversation. Well, this was completely unacceptable to this lady, and she marched her rear over to where we were sitting and said, "Uh, EXCUSE me, but your daughter is calling for her Daddy!" Derk just looked at her and said very matter-of-factly, "She's just fine. I'll handle my own daughter." I guess she finally got the hint because she didn't say another word after that. What is it about men that just makes things so final and leaves no room for argument? I wish I had that power because it sure would have spared me a lot of headache through all that.

Derk kept telling me to relax, but I have to defend myself by saying it's "that time of the month", complete with all the wonderful symptoms, I'm sick with a head cold/sinus infection thing and was feeling pretty icky and wasn't in any mood to take any guff from some stranger. She's just lucky I was able to bite my tongue because her head was * this close to being completely severed. There is no greater pet peeve of mine than someone, especially a complete stranger, bossing my kids around. If I am present, I will handle it, thank you very much.