For Sage

We drove by the municipal horse corrals almost every day, we made it a point to visit. Shane even said he wanted to take some pictures for Sage (we will email all of them soon)

There were plenty of different horse friends to see and feed.
Once he saw me feed one, Shane was fearless.

This pair were the favorite.

Shane wanted to feed just the Shetland, but the big dun would nip at the little horse whenever Shane had food. It took a lot of grasses and some sneakiness to get the dun to one side of the corral and Shane on the other.

Toot!

We went on a few special trips while hunkered down in Green River. This was to the train yards. There was a walk-way over the myriad of tracks. Both boys got a kick out of seeing all there was to see. Like these loads of tracks waiting to be laid.

After a bit of a wait, we got to see a train coming in.

It went on and on and on and on...

Shane loved the "Woo Hoo" double-ended engines.

Looking up at where we were; and watching the engines reset.
I got the engineer to toot his whistle, Shane wasn't too keen on that
All in all, it was a wonderful experience. Shane is still asking to go back and see the trains.

At The Park

We spent a few different days at the different parks around town. It was sunny and warm! After picture day, we let them loose at the park too. I'm not going to seperate them out for you. :) Shane, James and Ada peeking out the holes.

Brett doing playground duty and being cool at the same time.

It's a skill.

Weeeee!

Up and Down and Up and Down...

Trying to be a big boy- Austin, not Brett.

Shane and Ivan

Austin (I LOVE his grown up pose!), Olivia, and Evan.

All will be 2 this year-ish

Austin was so very proud of this... the adults were all talking, when someone (I can't remember who) pointed out Austin at the bottom of this slid, clapping to himself. Everyone watched as he made his way back up the steps and over everything to the same tunnel slide. Down he came, head first on his stomach (a first for him!) He picked himself up out of the wood chip and cheered his achievement! Then toddled off to do it again!

This we found by accident, or at least the timing was. We'd just left the actual train yards... or was it the horse stables, I don't know, those posts will have to wait for tomorrow anyway. Anyhoo, we were driving around trying to put Shane to sleep 'cause Austin already was. Shane was demanding to go over a bridge. Where that came from I don't know, but Brett was humoring him and found a small bridge we could drive over, and right there nearby was a little park with this train car parked in it. Shane spotted that thing from a mile away.

Forget napping!

Grandpa & Grandma's House

We got to spend a whole week at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Dad and Grandpa were an excellent team for wrestling little monkeys.

Austin proved without a doubt that he was Brett's son.

It didn't take them long to find the rocking horse that Brett's Grandpa Banks made for him when he was little. It's one of those classic toys that will live forever and never lose it's fun value.

Daddy got to go out on Uncle Kenny's motorcycle a few times, all decked out in leather.

Then Uncle Kenny got his new sound system. It came in a box. For most, that's enough said. A box is almost as wonderful as a rocking horse.

In the box.

Peek!

It took all thier will power to wait for Uncle Kenny's ok before jumping ON the box.

Grandma showed them how to make it into a slide and became THE coolest ever!

Friends

Whenever we head south, we try to stop and say hello at Inland Scuba in Idaho Falls. Brett has alot of great memories with his extended family there and we love to visit them all! But when big kids talk, little ones get bored, so the boys made a friend of thier own.

One of these days, I WILL get scuba certified, and we'll have to go out on a dive! Or send Brett out with you sometime so he can keep his hand in.

Travels

We got to spend some time with each set of cousins, and I tried to pick out the most prevalent activity with each group.

At the McKinnons

the boys discovered the joys of a kid-friendly piano! They played for us many times throughout the day, repeatedly.

It was also cousin Ivan's 4th birthday. Shane took it on himself to be in charge of quality control testing the frosting for the Thomas the Train cake we made. (thankfully, Aunt Dayna had this nifty laundry bar that saved his clothes, I need to get me one of those!)

At the Miller's

We took Shane into the hot tub with us for a bit. We didn't manage the camera too, but he did enjoy the big bath/pool, unless Dad tried to turn on the jets. Other than that, he spent ALOT of time playing with his new Thomas trains, and throwing fits when he had to put them away.

Brett got to go out to Tahrgee and ski for his birthday.

Austin found a very interesting place to play... he'd never seen such a cool place, contrived just for his enjoyment for sure!

We met up with the Robinsons bunch at Mom & Dad's property. It only took one word to get us out there... snowmachine.

We got to see the new house start.

And had tons of fun snacking and playing around. It was very windy and cold, so we didn't hang out too much in the snow.

On The Road Again

The kids were wonderful on the road. The right toys, snacks, milk, and timing for naptime travel made for keeping it real.

Austin had issues with his car seat restraints. However, I'm not going to post a picture of him skewed sideways, chewing on his feet. Mainly because I don't want the proof of it all out there for anyone in law enforcement to see. (nudge nudge like Jared!)

Austin also liked to steal Brett's insanely big Maverick travel mug. I'll be sending another pic I have (on my phone) to the Mt. Dew people to see if we can get into some ads, he was that adorable drinking out of a mug almost as big as he was.

Dad was just glad that we weren't knocked off schedule too terribly much. And when we were, it wasn't by too terribly much.

Airport Fun

Our trip started with a very tired Shane asking to go home. He wasn't terribly excited to travel via air at any point. The blanket was a huge help. He often had it pulled over his head in his "hat". I guess it blocked out some of the hustle and bustle; the trick was keeping it up off the floors.

On the planes, Shane was content to sit or cuddle; while Austin was keen on making new friends. I tried to keep him from being obnoxious. On the way home, when Shane was being sick all over, Austin's big blue eyes and ready smile found a friend (a minister at a local church) willing to help entertain and hold him while I was occupied with Shane.
Seattle Airport had this cool play area for the younger kids. We made a few new friends and had a grand time getting out the wiggles on all the airport themed play stuff.

Shane was thrilled to find a slide, no matter how short. It was lots of fun; until some bigger kids came in (they had one of those carnival signs- "you must be under this tall to play in ..." ) and started being rowdy and climing on non-climbing toys. Then Austin dropped a load and it was the perfect excuse to leave tactfully.

The moving walkways was an INSTANT hit. Escalators, elevators and anything that moved attracted these two like flies to honey!

The phones were discovered very quickly too. Mom was mean and refused to hand over any money to make the magic toys work.

But it was loads of fun any way!

Not everyone was enthusiastic to explore these strange new places and the joy they bring. Dad did his duty, letting my use the little girls room alone once or twice, and then took up luggage patrol. (what I think is funny is that the kids and I were able to sneak up and get things out of our bags, even the ones under him, and Brett didn't even stir!)

Lots of new things to see and do, but we're glad we don't do this all that often.