To Grandmothers House We Go! And other places

We headed off to Yuma, Arizona to go see Adam's Grandparents. We last saw them about 3 1/2 years ago. They saw Ashlee when she was about one, but have never saw Peyton in person. We drove to Laughlin, Nevada the first day. What a drive! 10 hours in a car. The kids did great. We left really early so a lot of driving was done while they were still sleeping. The next day we drove another 3 hours to Yuma. When we got there the sun was shining and it was 70 degrees. It felt great, considering it was in the teens when we left Idaho. We went and saw Grandma and Grandpa Bray. We returned the next day to say our good-byes to them. That was hard. It was great seeing them and talking with them.

Grandpa and Grandma Bray


Then onto San Diego. Back in the car for 4 hours. The weather was about 70 but it was windy. We spent 3 nights in San Diego. The kids loved feeding the ducks. Every morning about 9:30 10-12 ducks would come to our camping spot and look for food. We also walked on the beach (which was about 350 yards from where we stayed), drove to various beaches and boardwalks and went to a Winery. We also went and toured the USS Midway We didn't do the theme parks because we did them last year when we went to Florida. By then it was time to head for home.

Feeding the ducks


Del-Mar Beach


The girls on an airplane on the USS Midway


Walking on the beach near our camp spot.


We then drove to Las Vegas (5 hour drive) and stayed the night. The kids were still great in the car. Thank you people that invented DVD players for the car, Leapsters, and coloring books and crayons. They were life savers. We kept telling Ashlee we would go to M&M World and we did. She was so excited. She had never seen so many M&M's in one place. We had to get a bag with some of every color in it. The girls both loved Las Vegas. "Look at this, look at that" they kept saying. Being in Las Vegas meant only 8 hours more in the car. After 30 hours in the car I was never more happy to get home. Don't get me wrong we had a blast but it was great to be out of the car.

Dad and the girls at M&M World


Oh all the colors of M&M's


Ashlee asleep in Vegas


Peyton asleep in Vegas

Gymnastics- Rec. Leauge

This year they started a rec. leauge for the 4 year olds at gymnastics. Ashlee loves it. They get to go into the big gym, as she calls it. They just had their Reindeer Games last week. They performed on the bars, vault, balance beam and floor routine with the help of Big Ashlee, their teacher. It was a mock competition for them. They were judged and then awarded ribbons for each event. After it was over Santa gave them a medal, their ribbons, and a present. Below Ashlee is doing a bridge. Ashlee with her medal and ribbons after the Reindeer Games. Ashlee's Rec. Leauge team photo (she's back row in the middle) and her individual photo.

Lights in South Hills

We decided to go see the Lights in the South Hills. The girls loved it. Peyton was overwhelmed by all the lights. The neighbors down the street had Halloween lights up at Halloween, so she calls the Christmas lights
"Halloween lights." She keep saying look at the Halloween lights. She could of stayed there for hours. This year they had a bunch of new lights and more lights then in the past.
Ashlee couldn't wait to see the camel.Peyton even let him eat out of her hand.


After we feed the camel carrotts he just stared at us. Later someone told us he eats 40 lbs of carrotts while he's there. I guess he wanted more.

Peyton's Birthday and Halloween

Hard to believe she is 2 already. Poor Peyton it seems when it comes to her birthday she has to get sick. Last year we thought she had H1N1, this year she had croup. Thank goodness for Mortin. She had a blast opening all her presents. Now where to put all the new toys. Guess its time to clean out toys.




I was pretty proud of myself this year. Ashlee decided she wanted to be Strawberry Shortcake and Peyton could be Strawberry's dog Pupcake. So I decided to make their outfits. I already had the outfits so I just had to buy felt, ribbon, yarn and a Strawberry patch. Got off easy this year. Everything only cost $6.00.

One Last Outing Before It Gets Cold

We took one last family outing before Fall hits. We decided to go to Dierkes Lake to fish. The kids all started out fishing but it soon turned into a swim day.

First Day of Preschool

Ashlee's first day of preschool.

Yellowstone & Bear World

Recently we went to Yellowstone with my in-laws. On the way there we had to pull over just outside of Island Park because it was raining so hard we couldn't see and the trailer was fish-tailing due to the standing water on the road. We had to wait about 15 minutes. We then headed off again. When we got into west Yellowstone there were trees blown over and roofs ripped off buildings, emergency responses had barely got there. We didn't think anything of it. We figured the building was being remodeled and trees fall over all the time in the forest. The next day we found out it was a tornado. Thank god we had to pull over or we probably would have been it. We then headed to Yellowstone Park. The girls loved seeing all the wildlife. Peyton called everything "eeellllllllllkk." It was cold (ran into sleet and were told one night not to be surprised to wake up to snow) but awesome. We took the girls fishing at Island Park Reservoir. It was cold and we didn't catch anything. Could of been we were only there 20 minutes because it was cold, rainy, and windy. Ash didn't want to leave. She would of stayed there all day if we let her. On the way home we stopped by Bear World. The girls liked the bears but loved feeding all the animals.