Visit with the Petersons

Thank you so much for your thoughtful and kind comments on my last post!  It meant a lot to me to hear from you!!  The last few days have been kind of crazy getting back into our routine, and unpacking the two big suitcases full of clothes still in the hallway :P  It really means a lot to me to read your sincere words of encouragement. Thanks again!!!!

After a couple of wonderful days with my family last week, we headed down to the Y to meet up with Dan's family. 

Oh, how we love Grandma and Grandpa Peterson!!! It was such a special treat for us to get to stay them while we were in Utah. The kids absolutely adore them all and the boys are still asking to play with Amy, Rebecca and Rachel!  We even got to see Emily, Blake and their cute little Taylor.

Taylor and Addi are only seven weeks apart so it was fun to see them play "together".  Although, there was a moment when Addi took Taylor's "Quack Quack" lovie and things got a little dicey! ha ha!!!  Taylor is pretty mild mannered but she did not like that one bit.  Addi has learned to be assertive with two older brothers so she wasn't going to give it back without a fight, he he.  They are both two young to really play together, but it was still fun to watch them point to each other.  Taylor seemed to enjoy watching and being around the boys too.  We were all entertained watching the cousins interact with each other.  It was great to finally meet Taylor!  We just wish Sydney and Taylor and our kids could all hang out together more often.

Being in Provo again was a blast!  I made several stops over the the BYU bookstore to browse all the cute stuff they have there and, of course, the fudge (I didn't buy any though...can you believe that?  I don't know what got into me...criminal isn't it? :) I did buy some chocolate covered cinnamon bears...a sentimental favorite that got me through many late night cramming sessions for finals, ha ha!)

After the kids were asleep the first night, Kriste encouraged Dan and I to go to a movie.  So, we took her up on her offer and actually went on a date! It was surreal.  We weren't too surprised, though, to come back and find Kriste holding a very grumpy little separation-anxiety-girl.  Ah well, what can we do?

Dan's mom rocks!! She kept telling us we weren't out long enough and needed to go out again the next night! She is an ANGEL!!!  So the next night, after the kids went down we got to take a walk around campus together!!  Just like old times. We even stopped by the Creamery on 9th and got some ice cream. It was a short walk though, we were only out for an hour and a half :P  ha ha!!

Grandma Peterson and Aunt Rebecca treated the kids to an afternoon at Rock Canyon Park! The boys loved both playgrounds up there and enjoyed the beautiful view..or maybe that was me :)  They also took them to the Bean Museum where Rebecca used to work.  It has totally rekindled the boys' love of animals.  They've been pulling out all their animal books since we've been home. 

Andrew also couldn't get enough time with the Peterson's massive Lego collection!  He played for hours and hours creating castle after castle.  Dan told me it brought back a lot of fun memories!  Amy and Rachel were so cute with the boys, sitting down and playing with the boys.

It was an unexpected visit, but we are so happy we could go! It was great to see everyone again! We're just bummed we didn't get a picture of Emily, Blake and Taylor :(  We had a fun Costa Vida/ Cafe Rio night together.  We'll have to get some pics when we see them again in July!

Kriste also bought the boys an ocean book at the Bean museum and they adore it!  They are obsessed really.  Yesterday Andrew wanted us to create an ocean scene so I quickly cut out some ocean animals out of construction paper (when I say quickly, I mean don't look too closely, I whipped those babies out in about ten minutes :)  Then the boys directed me on how they wanted it to look.  A little string and tape later, this is what we came up with: 

After getting our Ocean Scene set up in the window, Andrew thought it would be fun to set it up on Forrest's bed:

Then, we hung blankets from the top bunk and created an "aquarium" fort all around Forrest's bed. The boys had a great time playing with the sea creatures in their new, dark ocean.  When we hung the blankets from the top bed, I took the ladder off the bed to make room.  After playing a few minutes, Forrest began insisting I put the ladder back.  I asked him why and he said that he didn't want to play in the "Twilight and Midnight" ocean zones, he wanted to play on the top bunk, the "Sunlit" ocean zone.  Ha ha!! I guess Andrew's read the book to Forrest enough times that they picked up the names of the depths of different ocean zones.  I laughed at that one, pretty cute!! :)  So, thanks again Grandma!