Sunset

One good thing (okay, maybe the only good thing!) about living in the desert are the simply spectacular sunsets we get! I walked outside to see this and just had to take a picture! Simply breath-taking! The picture doesn't even do it justice. It was the most gorgeous shades of pink, gold, and purple I have ever seen!

Our pumpkins, 2010

Here are our pumpkins for this year! Derk's is a tribute to one of his favorite bands, Type-O-Negative (it's an "O" with a negative sign in the middle, if you couldn't tell), Kyrie's is a vampire. Asher's is a skeleton, and Cambria's is a sad face. The kids had fun looking online to find a picture of what they wanted, and then they watched in awe as Grandma free-handed all the pictures onto the pumpkins so we could carve them.

The many faces of Asher

I love this boy!!! I just love everything about his beautiful little face. I could stare at it all day long!!

Our week with Grandma!

We're so blessed to have family that comes to visit as often as they do. Being so far away is definitely made easier when we get to see some of the family. It's not as good as living close by would be, but it sure helps!

This time around was extra fun. Jean was talking for a few months about possibly coming down, but it just never ended up working out for various reasons. We finally told the kids that she wouldn't be coming down until early next year. But then she surprised us by calling on a Tuesday night and telling Derk that she'd bought a ticket and would be coming in on Friday! We decided at that point to surprise the kiddos and not tell them anything. She was flying in to San Diego, so we planned a trip to Sea World for Saturday, which was also part of the surprise.

Thursday I spent the day getting everything ready. Derk had a meeting first thing Friday morning, but our plan was to leave right after that. I got the house all cleaned up and got everything packed while the kids were at school. It was a little tricky having Bri home (she was definitely inquisitive when the suitcase came out...), but I managed to still keep her in the dark. After I was done packing, I hid the packed suitcase in our closet to keep the kids clueless.

We put them to bed at the regular time on Thursday night, just like any other school night. Friday morning when they woke up, I had them shower and told them to get dressed for school after they'd showered. But then after their shower, I said, "Hey, guys? Instead of getting in your uniforms, how about if you come in here and put on these clothes I have out for you at the foot of my bed." They were both totally confused. Kyrie's initial reaction was to CRY because up until now she's had perfect attendance at school (and they give out rewards for perfect attendance). It was super funny! We were originally going to wait to tell them where we were going and what we were doing until we were IN San Diego, but since she was upset, I decided to break the news before we left home. And once she found out where we were going, I think we made up for her disappointment. ;-) Here's a little clip of the conversation that followed:

The kids did excellent on the drive over. Here's a picture of my sweet girls snuggling. I don't know how Bri can possibly be comfortable leaning that far over. Her car seat straps were digging into her shoulder from her leaning over so much. But it was too cute not to snap a picture before I helped her get more comfy. :-)

We arrived at the airport at the perfect time, picked Grandma up, then went to our hotel to check in. After that, we went to dinner and then went back to the hotel to swim in the pool for a bit before bed. It took a while to get those kiddos to settle down and fall asleep, but they finally passed out. In the morning, we were up early and went to breakfast before heading to Sea World. Breakfast was actually really amazing. There was this older gentleman sitting behind us who came up to us after he had finished and said he was VERY impressed with how well-behaved our kids were and that he can tell they have wonderful parents because of how they behave! It was really funny because both Derk and I looked at each other and him like, "Are YOU talking to US?" lol. I was so grateful that this man took the time to say that to us because it made my day!!! It was one of those wonderfully rare parenting moments where you realize that the things you're teaching (i.e. drilling into their heads every second of every day) are really working.

Sea World was fun! We saw some cool shows/performances, which the kids couldn't get enough of.

We had a lot of fun walking around and checking out all the cool exhibits and touching some of the animals. This was a huge step for Cambria! Last year, she refused to touch the manta rays, but this year she was totally excited to do it and even reminded me that she didn't want to do it last year! What a big girl! :-)

Kyrie was THRILLED because she got to meet "a real live mermaid!!!!!!!!!!!!" :-) This was really funny, too, because even though Bri was fearless this year when it came to the manta rays, the mermaid scared her to death! :-)

We had a blast in the kiddie area going on rides and watching a fun pirate 4-D show. You can hear my kids above everyone else in this video. ;-) Asher is the one that yells, "Hi, Mama!" :-)

This trip was also big for Asher because he was FINALLY tall enough to ride on Journey to Atlantis! Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of that because I was on the ride, too. I really wished they weren't charging $15 for a copy of the pictures that get taken while you're going down the big drop on the ride, because Asher's face was HYSTERICAL. Poor kid was scared to death and said, "Mama, I do NOT want to go on that ride EVER AGAIN!" :-) It was even funnier because the guy working the ride put Asher and Derk RIGHT in the very front and Kyrie and I right behind them. So Asher's first time on a real roller coaster happened to be in the very front seat where he got drenched from head to toe. Luckily he's got a smart Mama who packed a complete extra set of clothes for everyone, just in case we got wet. ;-)

After Sea World, we headed back to Yuma where we had some more fun at home. We went to Chuck E. Cheese, which was super fun. Kyrie is getting really good at basketball! Grandma painted the kids' faces. Asher got a dragon, Cambria got a peacock, and Kyrie got a cheetah. By the time Kyrie's face was done, I was right in the middle of cooking dinner and completely forgot to grab a picture! :-( But it was all over her face like Asher's and was super cool!

Derk is just crazy on this game!

We carved our pumpkins.

Grandma taught Kyrie how to crochet! We took her to JoAnns, and I let her pick out her own yarn and her own crochet hook. She was so excited and has barely stopped crocheting since! They made a headband (not the one she's wearing in the picture), and then she and I have since started working on a matching scarf.

Derk, Jean, and I also went out by ourselves one night and went bowling. That was tons of fun! Derk whooped us! It's a little blurry, but it says Derk scored 120, Hillary scored 78, and Jean scored 84. In our defense, that was our first game -- we got a lot better after we got warmed up. ;-)

Thanks for the wonderful week, Mom/Grandma!!
We can't wait until you comeback!

Scentsy!

There's a girl I made friends with recently who is in my same math class this semester. We've gotten together to study a few times, and as we were talking we started talking about how she sells Scentsy and I sell Mary Kay. Well, we decided to do a little trade. I got the cutest Scentsy warmer! I love me some zebra print!!

Betty's Kitchen, revisited

Back in March of last year, we went and explored Betty's Kitchen. Today we decided to go back again as our Family Home Evening activity. It was actually a lot different now than it was last year. Mainly all the huge trees that were once there (there's a picture of Kyrie sitting in one in that other post) had been cut down for some reason. But it was still a nice little walk.

We realized before we left that Cambria's tennis shoes were a full size too small (oops!). We just live in sandals here, so she hadn't even worn her tennis shoes for a long time. So we had to make a quick stop to get her some new ones before we left. She picked out the same ones that Kyrie got a couple of weeks ago and was SO excited to match her big sister! :-) Here they are in their cute matching shoes! (This picture will NOT enlarge for some reason! Grr!)

Kyrie said, "Shh! I hear something moving around in the bushes!" I love how Asher and Bri copied what Kyrie was doing with her ear! :-)

Derk showing the kiddos a lizard hiding in the bushes!

Isn't she pretty?

Sweet sisters!

"Hey, Bri, let's take your hat off for just one picture. Okay?"

I thought it would be really fun to do some comparison shots from last year's post and this year's post. It's amazing how much they change, even in just 18 months!

Kyrie

Asher

Cambria

This next one was a huge pain to get the pictures the right size to fit, and I had to use a different program. But here are these 3 crazy kiddos! I was so excited to get (mostly) the same picture again!

I wonder how different they'll look after another year and a half?!
Makes me sad to think about...

Cookies and games

A couple of days ago after we walked Kyrie and Asher to the bus stop, Cambria asked if we could bake some cookies. I thought that was a great idea, so that's what we did! She thought it was way cool that we were baking cookies first thing in the morning! :-)

After baking (and an outfit change for Bri, as per usual), we decided to play a game. Today she chose to play Caterpillar Color Race by Discovery Toys. I just have to put a plug in for Discovery Toys. They are SO great! I'm going to get the kids several more games for Christmas/birthdays this year. I have been able to find them for much cheaper on eBay as opposed to buying them directly through the Discovery Toys site. We played several rounds, but in these pictures, Cambria is the winner!

It was REALLY hard getting used to having Kyrie and Asher gone during the day. The house was far too quiet at first, and it took Bri and I a bit of an adjustment period to get the hang of all our free time. But now we really enjoy our mornings together! She's such a neat little kiddo, and I'm really glad I have 2 more years before I have to send her off to school.