Spring Break 2011

A few pictures that were on Preston's phone from earlier this month first.

This picture is from earlier this month when we went to Phoenix for a couple of days.

 Zack was really excited about his new Mickey Mouse sunglasses.

 Drew puts them on like this nearly every time he does it by himself.

While the boys have been practicing baseball we play at the park and Drew loves to swing in the big kid swings.

This year, Preston didn't have any certain days off and we hadn't made any set plans.  We had a bunch of ideas but never really put any effort into planning anything so we just made it up as we went along.  We spent the majority of our break enjoying the absolutely perfect weather all week long outside!  We went riding the 4 wheelers on 3 of the days & the boys rode bikes everyday that we were home.  We decided to go do some shopping in the Valley & visit Garrett's family & had a nice bbq with them.  Of course since we were in the valley the boys had to go swimming!  It was a very laid back & relaxing break.  

 Ty's fedora he picked out.  

Aydon's new hat.

Enjoying the rushing water behind the creek.  This is our favorite place to check out when the water is up at the creek.  

Riding Bikes

Zack won this red bike at the end of summer last year and let his brother have it.  We decided to give a 2 wheeler a try at our house for the first time and Ty did great!  In fact, he did better at our house than he did when we went in town to ride on a nice smooth surface.  

 Drew was jealous of Ty's bike helmet and we didn't have an extra bike helmet so he wore the four wheeler helmet.  He walked all over the place with that on and it's so heavy he could barely keep his balance.

 Zack was very upset that his bike was at his Granny's house and he couldn't ride it.  I told him he could ride his Jeep to the other Granny's and that made things all better.  He made it all the way there but I had to help him get back home...well I guess Drew helped him more than I did.  That's what little brothers are for, to push you, right?

 Zack had had enough so Drew finally got a turn driving the jeep.  When he pushes the pedal he's usually holding onto the wheel wells instead of the steering wheel and it looks funny.

 When dad got home we loaded up the bikes and went to ride in town.  Zack's bike tires were flat at Granny's so he had to ride the tricycle like Drew but he didn't seem to mind too much.  He had lots of fun.  

 What Drew really wanted to do all day long was ride the big bike like his brothers.  

 He did take his tricycle around for a little while though.

 Preston & Aydon having races.

On Common Ground

 We got a call on Monday of this past week asking if Aydon would be interested in being part of a play that was going on Thursday & Friday as part of the week long festivities of celebrating the settling of our area.  He had practice each evening from 6-9pm and with the baseball practice that they had he was quite busy this week.  He had several scenes but only a few lines and he had them all memorized & was ready to go when the play started on Thursday.  He said he was only a little nervous & we think he did great.  

He played Joseph Smith, son of Lot & Alice Smith who were Mormon pioneers sent from Utah to settle the area known as Sunset along the Little Colorado River.  

Drew looked so cute I had to take a picture.  Sitting in a chair acting like he was reading the program.  Little knucklehead was a little angel for the 40 minutes before the play started and then immediately got fussy.  I had to leave and missed half of the play so I went on the 2nd night & loved it!  

 Aydon, far left, front row along with the rest of the cast.

 When we got the program and saw who his family was in the play I pointed out to him that the boy he played was brother to 3 of the children buried at Sunset Cemetery where we went back in December.  I pulled up the pictures we took to show him.  I think it made the play more memorable for us since we had recently gone to these sites and were able to look at our pictures and think about what the pioneers went through.

 

On Saturday, they had a large group of people riding horses come into Brigham City after a week long trail ride from Lee's Ferry...another place we have been to visit in the past and read about the Mormon pioneers.

They boys saw this horse & carriage and were able to hop in for a picture.

Pinewood Derby 2012

Aydon received his pinewood derby car at his Blue & Gold banquet a month before the derby.  Knowing our busy lives, we decided to use the 4 day weekend for President's day to get the majority of it knocked out.  Aydon decided he wanted a Bumblebee (Transformer) car like this.  

 

Preston only made one derby car when he was in scouts so I think they both enjoyed getting to work on it.  

This was progress after day one.  We were playing some Wii after they finished up and Zack kept saying he wanted to paint it but we told him it wasn't ready to paint.  The kid loves to paint and helped himself since we were playing video games.

Is that a guilty face or what?

Zack did a pretty good job of painting it all by himself.  Aydon was thrilled with having pink on it.  :)  The next day they got back to cutting and sanding the shape of the car so all the paint Zack did came off.  It was quite funny.  

 Aydon & Lucas Milligan racing the first race.  Aydon is so easy to read, luckily he did very well tonight and was a happy kid most of the night.

 Racing another opponent...just a view of the race track.

 They were responsible for setting their cars and ensuring they were centered and ready to go.  Here he is checking to make sure it was ready.

 Aydon's car on the bottom right and the winning car behind his, David Milligan's.  I really liked Gage's (holding his) because it had a driver and an engine.

 There was an iphone, a "battery charged" car, these kids were very creative.

 We were all very excited that Aydon did so well.  He thinks he was 3-3 in the races.  He knows he lost to the 1st place guy & twice to the 2nd place guy.  

 When he wasn't racing he enjoyed watching the others with all his friends.

 Ty was in heaven with his best friend Jhett.

 Zack sat down and watched for a while after playing Angry Birds on Preston's phone.  He downloaded that app about a month ago and plays all the time.  How do 3 year olds know how to use smartphones??  It's a different world.

 This picture is great.  Drew trying to escape.  That's a normal routine these days.

After the excitement of the races wore off I found them playing duck, duck, goose.  I was so happy they were being good.  Then not 2 minutes later Zack is crying his eyes out.  Him & Ty ran into each other and Zack ended up with a black eye.  By the end of the night, Ty had a big goose egg on his head that had already bruised as well.  I promise I did not beat them!