Home Again, Home Again...Jiggidy Jig

It's been a long week. A very long week. Our whirlwind vacation took us to Idaho, Montana, and Alberta, Canada. We saw 1 great-grandma, 3 grandmas, 2 grandpas, 4 uncles, 2 aunts, and 13 cousins. We went to a parade, a national park, and Tim Horton's (more than once), and watched a fair amount of the Olympics. We discovered that Curtis does NOT like his car seat, does NOT like sleeping in his pack n' play, and is mighty angry when he's teething. Although we had a grand time I'm not sure the Jones family will be up for a road trip any time soon. There was just too much screaming.

Here is Curtis visiting with his uncle, Rich. It just happens to be a good non-crying moment. We stopped to see grandpa and grandma Jones in Pocatello. The girls spent a long time playing in their back yard. Apparently their yard is "lots funner" than ours.

We next moved on to grandma Barbara's house where the girls were able to show off their expert bike-riding skills to their "purple-haired" grandma (we're not sure why they call her that).

We next stopped in Polson, Montana to visit with my brother, the optometrist. He bought a practice there last year and seems to be doing well. I got my eyes checked out and picked out a new pair of glasses (thanks, Jeff!) while the kids enjoyed running amuck with their cousins. Kasen taught Lindy how to ride her bike down the long hill in front of their house. Luckily there were no injuries that couldn't be taken care of by a simple band-aid. Kasen also tried to teach us the finer arts of the Wii. Unfortunately, he pretty much schooled me...so I gave up.

We eventually made it to our final destination: grandma's house. My older brother and his family were in town for his 20-year H.S. reunion, so my parents house was filled to capacity! And did we ever have fun! Grandma even showed off some serious headstand skills!

We got to know Liam a little better. He's a little mohawked firecracker. This "yawp" was a precursor to a well-strategized attack on his uncle Ian. 

The Cardston parade was a highlight. It was the epitome of small-town festivities. There were very  few floats...mostly horses and random people who wanted to be in the parade. (I spent a minute or two wondering why Thing 1 and Thing 2 were on a Book of Mormon float.)

The big draw of the parade? Candy. Almost everyone in the parade throws candy. Brandt, was all about the sugar!

We had a blast visiting Canada. Grandpa and grandma sure took the houseful of craziness in stride and made it a great vacation. It's always so much fun to get the family together for a little insanity. We can't wait to see you again! Here's to you! 

Ouch!

Our poor little Curtis is teething all over the place. This kid doesn't seem to be happy unless he's gnawing on someone's knuckles. 

Grandpa's:

Dad's:

His own:

He's been such a sad little boy on our vacation so far. Since our two girls had teeth come in at 4 months I suppose we shouldn't be surprised he's getting them early as well. Boy, I'm going to miss that gummy smile!

On the bright side...my parents actually have internet connection at their house. Unbelievable! Welcome to the 21st century, Mark and Karen. Thanks for making it possible to access my blogging world while in the Great White North!

Is This New to Anyone Else?

Did you know that you can "schedule" posts to your blog ahead of time? That's right...you can type up a post, click on "Post Options", change the date to a future day/time and hit "Publish Post" and it will schedule your post to be published at that future time. 

Cool.

I'm still gone, but you'd never know it cause I wrote this before I left.

Over the River and Through the Woods

If you start to wonder why I'm not rabidly blogging like I normally do, don't worry...I'm just on vacation. I'll miss the blogging connection whilst visiting my hometown and getting back to my roots.

To grandmother's house we go!

Picture Perfect

For the last few months we've been trying to teach Lindy a little something about saving money. In February, she told us she wanted her own digital camera. Instead of grabbing the wallet and forking out a bunch of money to buy it for her we worked out a plan where she could earn money by doing odd jobs around the house. Over the last few months she has voluntarily helped out in many ways. She also learned how to pay tithing on the money she earned.

No one was more amazed than I was when we counted her money last week and found out that she had saved up $69.45...more than enough to buy the camera of her dreams. She is now the proud owner of a pink camera. As of today I think she's taken approximately 450 pictures. 

You did such a great job saving, Lindy! We are proud of you!