Remembering Merrill

In early May, we celebrated the life of Jim's Dad Merrill with him. The service was lovely, and had quite the turnout.

It was nice to gather with friends and family to remember such a good man.

A portrait
So sweet...Jake and his son Dean
My handsome little man Caiden
Kiya enjoyed walking around without her shoes on

We also took this opportunity to take a few family pictures as well.

Kiya had fun running around...she's always on the go...

Caiden is SUCH a good brother.
He REALLY enjoys playing with his sister
And he watches out for her....
It's hard to get a family picture where everyone is paying attention

Happy Grandmother's Day

Every year on Mother's Day, I try to do something for the grandmothers' as well. This year was no exception, and since I have two little ones that are anxious to show their grandmas' how much they love them it was even better.

This year, I decided to go with artwork that they can hang in their homes. Not only will it freeze time (in terms of how old the kids were, and how small their hands were), but it is also lovingly made by the kids themselves...with of course a little help and supervision from me. :P

This was quite the project and we made three of them, but I think they turned out great, and each one is unique. First we took some pastels and traced their hands, and then colored them. Then we used watercolors to finish the look.

The outline and coloring of their hands with pastels...
The painting with watercolors...
Caiden did a great job!!!!

The kids worked hard at them, and were so excited to give them to Gigi, Grammie Sue and Grandma Susan. :)

Art work #2

Art work #3

I think they came out great!!!

Ice Cream in Big Bear

Is there anything better than eating Ice Cream in Big Bear with Papa Jim and Grammie Sue??? Not to Caiden and Kiya there isn't, so we loaded them up in the car and drove to Big Bear.

We had fun hanging out, going to book stores, and even out to BBQ at dinner (although Kiya was feeling a little ill there). Caiden and Kiya always enjoy hanging out in Big Bear with Grammie Sue and Papa Jim and the Ice Cream was the topping on the cake...mmmmm.....cake. :) From the looks of things, Kiya really made out...she was eating EVERYONE's ice cream.

Papa Jim and Caiden and Kiya
Caiden shares and shows Kiya how to lick (notice the tongue out)
Papa gives Kiya a taste of his

Thank you for letting us visit. :)

Happy Birthday Melissa (the other one)

We went over to Melissa's (not me, the other one) house to ring in her birthday celebration. We went over to her house for some homemade food and fun :)

Apparently, I was having so much fun I forgot to take my camera out and take some pictures until the very last moment, which is unfortunate because I have no actual pictures of Melissa, nor a birthday. :)

This is the only picture of Melissa I have...beautiful isn't she? :P And that is my Godson Gabe

But I DOOO have some cute pictures of kids playing, especially my Godson Gabe :)

Caiden and Gabe building a train track
Caiden and Gabe hard at work while Kiya looks for trouble...
Kiya loved this musical piano
I don't remember his name, but he is so cute, and he was fascinated by my camera. He kept asking for me to take pictures of him and he would take pictures of me. :)

I miss you Melissa. I am soo happy you will be hanging out with us this summer :)

National History Museum

One day, I wake up and Dave tells me to get the kids ready and get in the car that he was taking us somewhere.

We load up in the car, and over an hour later, I'm STILL trying to guess where we are going. Of course this makes David laugh because my sense of direction is SOO off that I'm guessing places that we are not even remotely close to. Finally, we arrive...at the National History Museum.

Now I haven't been at the National History Museum in a loooong time. I apologize in advance as my camera died (I was not aware we were going to go to the Natl History museum so I was not adequately prepared), and some of my pictures came out fuzzy.

It was quite interesting. I remembered it being mostly about dinosaurs, but frankly this was a very small portion of the exhibit. They had most of the dinosaur area closed down for renovation. It was interesting to see all of the different types of terrain, areas, and animals, although I did feel a twinge sad when Dave pointed out that all of those animals were at one time living and breathing. I mean they had SOOO many baby animals displayed :(

These animals are SO large. It's sometimes easy to forget when you aren't standing in front of them
Elephants really are amazing

The entrance Dinosaurs

There was a cool demonstration with an animatronic dinosaur. Caiden was really excited for it, but when it came out he was instantly in my lap with HUGE eyes and saying he wanted to go. Kiya was more interested, but also had the big wide eyed expression.

This was the animatronic dinosaur. It was quite cool.
Kiya's reaction :) I couldn't get you Caiden's because he was on my lap hiding :P

Towards the end we went down to the discovery center for the kids. Kiya LOVED the animal pelts and tried to cuddle up with them to go to sleep. Caiden was fascinated by the excavation dig site, and he spent a while digging up fossils.

Dave and Caiden become paleontologists
Kiya considering whether or not she wants to join as a jr. paleontologist
The three of them digging
You can't tell but Kiya has her thumb in her mouth. When she is tired she MUST hold something soft, and have her thumb in her mouth....apparently the pelts fit the bill.
The last picture my camera would take...not bad eh??

It was nice to go back and visit. Next time I will be better prepared with a fully charged camera.

Hiking With Josh

Remember I told you that I was behind in my postings??? Well this was from a hiking trip with Josh back in March...yes, that's right March.

Anyways, now it has been so long I can't remember where we were. Honestly, I could ask Dave and he would remember, but frankly he is working in the yard, and I just finished mowing and running around so I would like a little break. You can see my dilemma can't you? If I ask he knows that I'm not working in the yard anymore :P (Shhh....don't tell him.)

So let's pretend you know where we are hiking, or better yet, let's not. It will be very mysterious. :) I don't remember much about this hike, except that I was DOG tired...I mean pathetically tired. So much so that my 5 year old son was RUNNING with Josh to see if they could beat us to the end of the hike, while I was practically going backwards. I swear if I had had a rope I would have lassoed Dave and made him pull me the rest of the way. It must have been an off day, I mean I CANNOT be THAT out of shape, can I?

This was Caiden's first hike with his new Camelbak. It is the equivalent of an adult carrying about 30lbs, and he did great with it until the trek back. Once we removed it the running started :) Kiya is even a pro at drinking out of one too, which is great because it saves us from carrying other things such as bottles, sippy cups and all

Kiya taking a little break
Kiya proving she is quite the pro at drinking out of the CamelBak
And just a pose cuz she's a cutie :)
And my handsome 5 year old Caiden :)
Kiya and I stopping for a break. Look. I am even SITTING tired...

Josh

Along the trail we stopped and searched for Salamanders as its the season. Caiden has become so brave now as he willingly searches, touches and holds them. He used to just want to be a silent observer but not an active participant. Kiya, on the other hand, has no fear. She will touch, hold, and try pretty much anything.

Dave holding a salamander and Cade looking on
Caiden then got his own salamander to hold
Kiya has no fear, she immediately tried to touch it and hold it

Caiden also had a lot of fun climbing up the rocks with Josh and Dave. They climbed to the top of a ledge and sat down so I could take a picture. Caiden felt like such the "man". After they had proved how manly they were, they climbed down and tried their hand at a little baseball (of course with makeshift bat *tree limb* and ball *rocks*).

climbing up the rocks
Success!!!!
See how high they were :)
America's favorite pastime....baseball

Oh, and Caiden DID beat us to the end, along with Josh by maybe 5 minutes. Dave was VERY proud of Caiden and gave him a big High Five. Of course Caiden was beaming at that. :) Once I caught my breath (pathetic...can I claim asmtha, cuz I DO actually have that) I gave Caiden a big hug.

Karen and Gigi Come to Visit

I'm doing my best to catch up on my blogging. I am a bit slow, so bear with me as I just switched from PC to a MAC. I haven't quite figured out all of the nuances yet, and frankly I was much faster on the PC because I knew it, although I am growing quite fond of my Mac. :)

The day after the twin's b-day, Karen Baker and Gigi (my mom) came to our house for a visit. We went out to breakfast with the kids, and then visited a little before they left. 

Kiya looking a little perplexed...hey...it was relatively early still :)

Daddy and Caiden

Karen and I at breakfast

Karen and Caiden :)

It was nice to see them. We always appreciate it when people come out to our house :) We can't wait to see you next time.