Adventures in Richmond

One day, a few weeks ago, I got a text from a good friend asking if Grayson and I would like to drive to Richmond with her and her little boy.  Of course we said yes!  We made a morning of it and had a really good time.  Our boys are about 9 months apart and they sure like playing together.  We went to Hobby Lobby first, which we unfortunately don't have in town, the boys kept each other entertained.

We went to some other stores and then ate lunch at Sonic.  Grayson had a grilled cheese sandwich and thought it was delicious.  I also got him chocolate milk to try for the first time and he was a huge fan.

Grayson had to try on AJ's sunglasses and they were pretty cute.

We enjoyed some good weather and a little fun outside.  Then, we headed home and the kids fell asleep in the car on the way home.  They both slept the whole way home and we got have a nice chat.  We have been so lucky to make so many good friends here.  I have been so happy to have nicer weather and be able to enjoy doing more things outside.

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was a busy one, but we had a lot of fun.  On Saturday, we got to go to a Ward (Church Congregation) Easter activity.  It was held at a Girl's Scout Camp not far out of town in a beautiful area.  

We all gathered around and heard a message from 'King Benjamin' delivered from  a top his tower.  It was our Bishop (pastor) dressed up in period clothing and he had even made his own tower...lashed together precariously with ropes I might add, but it held the whole time.  He read out of the Book of Mormon, from King Benjamin's speech when he spoke of the birth and life of the Savior.  It was a special moment and a good reminder of what Easter is really about.  Grayson liked sitting on the wooden benches and he stayed put the whole time sitting next to another little girl.

After the spiritual thought, the little kids ran a fun run.  The just ran a lap around the camp.  I think little kids running is absolutely adorable.  This little girl was in front the whole time and she accidentally started running onto a random side trail so some parents had to get her to turn around.  The kids had such a good time.

Trevor and I took Grayson in the jogging stroller and then ran the 5k with the other adults.  It was a lot of fun and was our first 'official' 5k.  We hope it will be the first of many more.  Although we decided not running for a week beforehand was definitely not the best way to prepare.  

We survived, though, and even made it up the giant hill that was in the middle.

Grayson fell asleep on the way back and had himself a good nap.  We enjoyed some tasty bagels and fruit after our run and spent some time with friends.  Then the released the kids on the hundreds of Easter eggs that were hidden around the camp site.  It was like a swarm of locusts had come through. Those eggs were all in baskets in about 30 seconds.  It was amazing!

Grayson slept through the whole Easter egg hunt, but one of his friends was nice enough to share a few eggs with him.  Which he enjoyed playing with immensely   He got to play with a dog too, which also helped to make up for that.  This kid loves dogs like you would not believe.  

Grayson proudly holding his 'loot.'


On Sunday, we put Grayson's Easter basket out for him to open.  He was very curious and had a fun time searching through his bucket to find his presents.  We got him some animals and a few coloring books, he had fun with them.

Daddy helped Grayson look through his bucket and find all of the surprises.

He got these awesome bunny ears from his grandparents and he was kind enough to pose for a picture.  He sure makes a cute Easter bunny.

Reading a new book with Daddy.  This is a Finnish character and I was lucky enough to find this book in a  toy store here in town.

He thought this duck puppet was great, but he kept hugging it with my arm still in it.  

Here Grayson is checking out his new toy from his grandparents.  Trevor and I decided in the future, we will put toys together the night before instead of the day of when and impatient boy is waiting very excitedly to play with it.

We enjoyed a beautiful church service and afterwards had some friends over for a nice dinner.  I love entertaining!  I got a new table cloth and made our center pieces with Easter candy.  We had three families over and we enjoyed a delicious meal.

Edible decorations!

Trevor cooked his first brisket for Easter dinner and it was quite delicious.  He even made homemade barbecue sauce which was also a huge success.  We had such a good time.  What a good way to celebrate the holiday commemorating the resurrection of our Savior, spending it with good friends.

Spring Time

Grayson has always loved balls and I have noticed he likes the bigger ones best.  We have been meaning to get him a giant ball for a while and I finally picked one up.  When we were at Target, we walked by a large basked of balls and Grayson got very excited.  I picked him one out and he insisted upon holding it himself.  It was so big that he had a hard time holding onto it, but every time I would try and take it and put it in the basket of the cart he would try and climb into the back so he could get his ball back.  It was really cute.  He has absolutely loved playing with it.

Daddy's helping Grayson bounce on his new ball.

Can't get enough of those baby blues.

Grayson now likes to climb on us if we sit or lay on the floor.  He loves to be bounced around or do head stands with dad.

We also got some bubbles and sidewalk chalk when we were at the store.  I realized that we have a wonderful balcony that can serve as an extension of our living room in the nice spring weather.  I opened it one day for Grayson to play with me outside and he loved it.  He kept walking in and out, in and out.  I think he liked practicing walking over the sliding door tracks.  I decided we needed to get some bubbles and sidewalk chalk to play outside with.  When we tried the bubbles, he just laughed and laughed.  I had to take a video.

Spring Break Week

Trevor had Spring Break last week, so we had some fun.  We took family pictures, tried some new restaurants, went to an antique store.  Also, we played both of Trevor's new games he got for his birthday.  We had such a fun week.  One of the definite highlights was our day in DC.  We went to the temple in the morning and then we spent the afternoon touring the Capitol.

We took the Metro downtown and arrived a little early, so we spent a few minutes walking around the Library of Congress, well one of the buildings, I had no idea there was more then one.  The architecture on the building was absolutely breath taking, even though we were only inside for a few minutes, it was absolutely worth it.

Trevor and Grayson standing in front of the Library of Congress.

The main gallery inside.  Absolutely beautiful!!!

We went to meet a friend and when we went through security, Grayson got a cool sticker.  It was cute, Grayson walked through the metal detector all by himself.  The security guards sure thought he was pretty cute.

Here Grayson and I are standing in the crypts below the Capitol in the exact center of the DC grid system.

These are the old supreme court chambers.

Grayson loved the rotunda!  He loved being able to run around.

Grayson loves pushing his stroller around!  He is such a big boy.

Best view of DC I've every seen.

We wore Grayson out, we put him in his pj's for the drive home and he was asleep within about 10 minutes.  Our tour was about two hours long and he was calm the whole time.  He had fun too!  We went into the house chambers at the very end and got to watch them vote, which was really interesting.  Of course, that was when Grayson started getting restless, so we called it a day.  He was really well behaved the whole time, I am so grateful for such a well behaved and mellow kid.  It was absolutely fascinatings learning about the history of the Capitol, it was a rare treat and a wonderful experience.  My friend was an excellent tour guide and we learned a lot.  We have absolutely loved living close to so many parts of our nation's history.  

Trevor's Birthday Bonanza

Trevor's birthday was epic!  For his birthday he got a snow day, so he got the whole day off from school !! We got about 8-10 inches of school and although we lost power for a couple hours in the morning we still had an awesome day!!  It started out with me waking up at about 5:30am and realizing I had left my contacts in...not fun.  I took them out and the power had flicked off twice already.  I decided to go ahead and get up to try and get Trevor's breakfast made before we lost power for good.  I was able to get the sausage cooked and the potatoes mostly cooked for our breakfast burritos before the power went out.  So, if the pictures are a little dark, then you know why.  After breakfast and showers (with candles in the bathroom), I sent Trevor on a scavenger hunt for his birthday presents.

He was able to find them pretty quickly, I didn't make the clues too difficult.  Grayson helped me to hide them and write the clues....mostly he just played with the cards I was writing the clues on but he sure was cute doing it.

Grayson did not like the flash on the camera, hence the goofy expression.  Dad was nice and let him hold his new tie clip.  Grayson loved that box.  

After presents, we had to go out and play in the snow.  Grayson wasn't sure how he felt about snow.  When we put him down, he walked around for a minute but then he usually tried to head back to the apartment.  The snow was still coming down fairly hard and he really didn't like it getting in his face.

Trevor made him a snowball and he wouldn't put it down.  He loved that snowball.

We tried to show him how to make a snow angel, but he was not a fan.  It was probably because the snow was falling in his face.

We were so excited to see so much snow!  We have missed having snow in the winters, so we really enjoyed getting to use our snow gear again.  We had a beautiful walk around our complex and enjoyed ourselves.

Our friends came over for lunch and luckily by then, the power was back on so we were able to enjoy a hot lunch.  We got to play a new game with them after Grayson went down for a nap.  We had a great time and really enjoyed the game.  It was so much fun to have Trevor home the whole day!  That evening, I made Trevor a birthday cake and we enjoyed it after dinner and watched a movie.  

Last night, we made Trevor's birthday dinner because we didn't have a chance to do it on Wednesday. He wanted pizza and sushi.  We have been talking about starting a tradition of making pizzas on Fridays and he wanted his birthday dinner to be the kick off.  

We got a sushi kit for Christmas a while ago from my parents and we finally put it to good use!  Trevor made some beautiful sushi if I do say so myself.  It made a lot, so we shared with our neighbors and they were very grateful and encouraged us to experiment making as many different types of sushi as we wanted.

We kept it easy for our first try, so we made a California roll.  I made the rice, but Trevor tackled the difficult part rolling the sushi.  I was very impressed with how it turned out!  We relaxed and ate our delicious dinner and watched a movie.  After the movie, we played one of Trevor's new games, "Ticket to Ride" and had a good time, despite the fact that Trevor beat me two out of three times. I am trying not to be bitter. 

Valentine's Day Weekend

Over Valentine's Day Weekend, Trevor was in DC from Thursday to Saturday for a Law Conference.  All of the wives agreed that it was not the best timing to plan a conference.  Grayson and I kept ourselves busy while Trevor was away.  We went to the park both days and met some friends there.  It was a lot of fun!  Grayson is really starting to enjoy the park.  He actually likes the big kid equipment better, which makes it fun for me since I get to chase him.  He really liked climbing through this one tunnel, which I could get through but it was interesting.  The funny part was when he kept trying to climb up the slide, he got very frustrated when he couldn't do it, but he sure made a very valiant effort.    After we left the park, we stopped by Whole Foods and got us some dinner and then went home.  We had a picnic in the living room and shared our tasty dinner while we watched The Aristocats.  The next day we went to the park again and then went to Married Institute (church study group) and enjoyed some time with friends.  Also, Trevor and I won some movie tickets (well I won technically but I figured I'll share with him ;) ) there.  Trevor came home late Saturday afternoon, but still enough time for us to go out to a tasty Valentine's Day dinner.  We went to Outback and enjoyed a delicious steak dinner!  We got appetizers and everything!  After we got home, we watched a movie with our friends who were kind enough to watch Grayson for us.

(Trevor here now): My conference in DC was great.  It was the 25 annual J. Reuben Clark Law Society Conference.  The Society is mainly for LDS lawyers, but is open to anyone wanting to promote religious values in the practice of law.  The highlights of the conference were speeches by Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve.  There was also number of break-out sessions discussing various legal topics and a lot of time to get to know other law students and lawyers from around the country.  All in all, it was a great time and hopefully I will get to go to others in the future.