Ririe - April 20-27th

I just loved watching Grammy & Papa playing with, coloring with, and feeding their grandkids.  They love them so much!

Shordy & Pres playing outside.  

Grammy took us to the big dinosaur exhibit at the Idaho Falls Musem...it was TOTALLY AWESOME!!

Love the cheeser smiles.  :)

Shordy in front of the Stegosaurus.  He knew that the plates on their backs are for cooling off...thank you "Dinosaur Train"  :)

Tiny Girl chillin' in her stroller.

Playin' house in the cabin in the children's discovery center.

Riding' Double!  :)

Look at that fat lip!  She fell against Grammy's kitchen table and did a number on her upper lip.  But...she still smiles...always smiling!

Uncle Bo-bo came over for Sunday dinner, since I wouldn't see him while I was in Malad and he was living in Rexburg going to school.  Shordy and Tiny love playing with Uncle Bo-bo...though Shordy asked him to get off the trampoline after awhile, b/c he was tired of Uncle Bo-bo launching him in the air.  :)

But, this little girl never did get tired of him throwing her around and jumping with her.  She LOVED it!

At the Tautphaus Park Zoo w/ Grammy

Checking out the tiger...sorry I didn't rotate it.

Cheesey smile for the lions.  :)

Checkin' out the zebras

Gettin' up close and personal with the monkey...I forget what kind it was.  Shordy thought it was pretty cool it was so close to him.  :)

We went to the park after the zoo and Tiny LOVED the swings!!

They loved the swings!!  And the sunshine I might add.  :)

Checkin' out Uncle Dustin's baby chicks.

What a funny grin!  :)

Tiny loved the baby chicks too...we let her hold one for a second but then had to removed it from her clenched fingers.  :)  Don't worry it was fine.  :)

Checkin' out Uncle Dustin's salt water aquarium...he found Nemo and Marlin.  :)

Playin with the goats...

And riding them?

This baby sheep was trying to find somewhere to nurse.  Tiny wasn't so sure about this.  :)

Then it wanted to give Shordy a hug.  :)

Running after the ball with Cooper...Uncle Dust's young Golden Retriever.

And then Shordy found a new friend.  The sheep kept running where ever Shordy went.  It was pretty cute.

Shordy wanted to take him home...not happening.  :)

Playing at the park with Grammy while I went and got my hair cut.

Wresting around with Papa on the floor.  Tiny has Papa wrapped around her little finger. 

I usually make a trip to Idaho in February or March when I'm about done with the winter and basketball and I'm starting to go crazy.  So save my sanity and my friendship with Shayne, I leave and go and visit family and get a little bit more sunshine than I would otherwise have here.

Shayne's parents came in February to see him coach his last couple of basketball games, so I decided to wait until March to go down.  However, Shayne's heart kept acting abnormal.  He'd had a cardiac MRI done in January but hadn't heard any results from it.  When his heart wouldn't go back to it's normal rhythm we decided to set up an appointment with his cardiologist.  His appointment just happened to fall when I was supposed to be flying to Idaho.  So, I postponed our trip until April 18th so I could be with him at that appointment.  (As a side note: his appointment went really well, and his cardiologist said that there are no real serious health-risk associated with his A-fib and that when he was done dealing with the abnormal rhythms and more frequent episodes of A-fib he would either do an ablation, which wasn't their first choice b/c of Shayne's funky heart anatomy, or put in a pace-maker with medications to control the abnormal hearth rhythms and A-fib.  We are hoping it's a long time before we have to do either of those procedures.  So, the appointment was very good at alleviating some concerns and apprehensions we had about his heart.)

So, on April 18th I flew out with both kids by myself and flew in Boise.  It was a very early flight so both kids slept most of the way.  Tiny only screamed for about 5-7 minutes while I was forcing her to hold still and then she passed out for the  majority of the trip.  Shordy just watched his movie and chilled.  Such a good traveler.  We spent the first week in Ririe with Shayne's family.  We did all kids of fun things with Grammy and Papa.

On Friday we went to the big dinosaur exhibit in the Idaho Falls Museum.  Last year they had the Bodies exhibit we went to, so they get some good stuff.  This one was a blast for both Shordy, and his cousin PresLee.  They had fun looking at the huge fossils and playing with and touching the different exhibits for kids.  Shordy is absolutely fascinated with dinosaurs from watching the PBS show, "Dinosaur Train".  He can name off all kinds of dinosaurs and when they lived, what they ate, how they stayed cool, or if they used their crests to make noises...all sorts of random facts.  So, this museum exhibit was right up his alley!!

We also went to the Zoo in Idaho Falls where we saw Tigers, Lions, Monkeys, Zebras, along with the animals in the petting zoo and lots of other random animals.

I was able to have lunch with my little brother Bowdrie and his girlfriend, Ashely, on Saturday with Tiny.  Shordy was hanging out with Papa most of the day.  Bowd also came to dinner on Sunday, b/c he's in Rexburg and I wouldn't see him while I was in Malad.

Our little Tiny girl is so close to walking.  She can stand up where ever she is at, without using anything to pull up on, and stand forever...but she won't really take any steps.  But, while at Grammy's and Papas she started to crawl down a couple of stairs on her own, which is a good thing b/c of the stairs in our house.  Part of this not quite walking thing means she also falls down quite a bit.  So, one day just before lunch with Bowd, she was standing next to me while I was sitting at the kitchen table and she fell and hit the leg of the table which was a square block carved into the leg.  She totally hit her upper lip and busted it open.  Poor thing was bleeding and crying, but was pretty dang tough.  She only cried for about 2-3 minutes and then she was done.  However, she had a huge fat lip and a pretty nasty looking scrape below her nose.

On Saturday I was able to see my Aunt Stephanie and her daughter Bailey b/c they were at a track meet at Ririe High School.  I actually got to see Bailey race her 100M race...and win it by a fairly large margin.  That was too fun.

Shordy spent lots of time with Papa running around doing errands and working on the farm.  He got to chill at Uncle Dustin's house playing with the goats, sheep, turkeys, chickens, and Uncle Dust's big puppy, Cooper, and watch his Nemo fish in his fish tank too.  Lots of fun things!!

The best part of being in Ririe for me was the WONDERFUL weather!!  As you can see from the pics, we were in short sleeves and spending lots of time outside...I loved it!

I love visiting family and getting to be outside, when there's still 3-4 feet of snow still on my front yard.  I also am so grateful I have such a good relationship with Shayne's family.  I love that I feel completely comfortable spending a week in their home, just me and the kids.  I really am lucky to have such good in-laws who love and treat me like a daughter.  It's pretty awesome!

It's pretty awesome how much they love their grandkids too.  They only have 3 grandkids and 2 of them live in Alaska, so when we come down they try and make the most of the time they have with Shordy and Tiny.  And Shordy and Tiny love to spend time with their Grammy & Papa...that's for sure!