One nice week

(This is an actual bill board along I-94 just west of Steele. I knew Jason would enjoy some ND humor.)

This past week I flew to North Dakota with Sam and Livia to go to my Aunt Donna's wedding. I was a little worried about getting two kids there without Jason's help, but they did pretty good. Fortunately it was a direct flight from Salt Lake to Bismarck.

Waiting to board the plane. (They are in PJs because we arrived at 11 pm.)



Sam got pretty restless on the plane so he buddied up with the flight attendant. She was so sweet and patient with him. She gave him a personal tour of the plane. Right before we got off she showed him where the pilot was... but he didn't stay long enough for me to get the picture on time.


Looks like seasoned travelers...



We spent the first night at my parents' apartment in Mandan, so we got to see Nancy, a very close family friend. The kids played on the pony until my dad finished his half day working.


As always, we had to stop by the local cafe, Carol's Kitchen.




Jason finds it funny that Carol is the owner, the chef, the waitress, and the cashier. This is Carol: (yes, she is sitting at the table with us)


And this is Carol eating our fries:

She gave us extra because she forgot who I was. And then ate some.

The hours board made me laugh. (Look at the closing time for Mon-Sat.)

At least Carol was willing to let me take pictures... even though she told me what she thought I could do with my camera.... (I won't tell you since this is a family friendly blog.)


Another usual.... stopping by the bank. The bank ladies always love the company of the kids. If you're wondering... yes, the kids are behind the counter. They're pretty chill there.


Sam and Preston were just wild and crazy.


Our next adventure took us to the Tuttle Store.


Just to give you an idea of the size of this store... this is the entire produce section.


This was new since my last visit. I laughed out loud.


The left side of this formerly-refrigerated section is now a lil' bookstore. You can read the books and then bring them back. The right side is a lil' craft store. I love Tuttle. (Go ahead all you North Dakota knockers.... let the jokes begin!)


A major highlight for Sam was my Uncle Duane's 4 wheeler. He spent a lot of time at the farm with us, most of the time giving rides to the kids. Sam loved it!



Now for the main reason I went... My Aunt Donna got married! She married a great guy, my new Uncle Mike. Welcome to the craziness, Mike!


The happy couple:



Congratulations Donna! We're so happy for you!

My little cutie:


Sam had a lot of fun with Jill's little boy, Preston. I was worried they would fight, but they didn't all that much. They were pretty much inseparable... and I now know what the term "double trouble" means....


Livia with her Papa:


And her Nana:

This is at the airport when we arrived in Bismarck, Sammy was so excited to see both Papa and Nana.




Just a little glimpse at their week long fun together:

pink lady livi

A couple of days ago, I got a surprise package in the mail. I opened the box to find this beautiful quilt.

It was a gift for Livia from a good friend of mine, Lisa Giles. Lisa moved to Arizona a while ago, but is still so thoughtful and sweet to use her amazing talent to send my baby girl a quilt. Lisa is one of the best quilters that I know... I am so lucky to have such great and talented friends!

When I showed Livia, she gave me a huge smile! I think she likes it.

Thanks Lisa! It's beautiful! We love it!

June highlights thus far

Since the computer had a little issue last week (ok it was a big one... but almost taken care of,) I have been a little behind on my busy blogging world... sorry this one will be long.

At the beginning of June, as noted in an earlier post, we had our baseboards put on. In order to get the entire main level, we had to pull the washer and dryer out. So I decided it was the best time to get the 1/2 bath/laundry room painted.

Before:
After:

I finally got around to sewing curtains for the kids' rooms. Hopefully they'll sleep in later now that it's a lot darker in there!

Sam's room: (obviously since Lightning McQueen is his latest hero)
Livia's room: (aren't little girls all about sunshine and rainbows?)
Jason made a swing for Sam....

which he loves!

And so do his little friends.

Another project we have been avoiding the tackling of.... removing the strange, and very large chunks of concrete in our yard... this picture does not do justice of the amount that is in there...

We rented a jack hammer from Home Depot and Jason worked on breaking it all up for about 3 hours. (I helped a little too.)

Fun broken up chunks, ready for removal:


On Sunday, June 7, we went to my sister, Ronda's house for dinner. Another sister, Jill had just arrived in Utah the night before.

All the Danielsons were there too. The Danielsons are basically our family... yet there is no actual relation. I won't go into all the similarities now, but most people in our lives have always gotten us confused with each other.

The four of us girls on the couch are me and my sisters. The four on the floor are the Danielson girls, and the two Danielson boys are on the ends.


And then, we have all the kids....
not as cooperative as the adults. Apparently Sam likes to show off his bare side more than his face. Little stinker. The rest of the kids did pretty good though!

Serena was helping Sam hide his cake and ice cream.
A random shot of the party:


We also celebrated some birthdays. Ok, so there were a lot either recent or soon to come, so we just sang Happy Birthday dear Everyone. (But Jason's birthday was the next day, and Alycia's a few days later, so that's where the whole idea started.)

Jason, being a goof, and not letting me get a decent picture of him, like usual.

Too much cake for Livi?
For Jason's birthday, on June 8th, I wanted to surprise him by picking him up from work and taking him out to Lunch on the Lake. But due to the awesome rain.... we ended up going to a movie instead. We'll do lunch another day. I'm sure we can find something else to celebrate!

I thought my flowers all died. But I am again seeing some sign of life in the rose bush!


On Monday night, my sister, Jill and her family came down to stay with us for a couple of days. There is an excessive amount of snails around here, so Braden and Kari found about 150 snails and put them in a bucket.
Then Sam saw it. In his head, the only reason you'd put something in a bucket, is to dump it out again. Hence, the next picture. Preston agreed with Sam.
Yeah! A sandbox playmate!
Kari and Braden loved the swing.


Another long day for Livia. (I honestly do give this kid naps in her bed!)

For Jason's birthday we got him a new bike. I convinced him to use the toddler seat, and Sam was happy with the results!

And so was Maggie.
And so was Mommy. :)


Livia has been helping me blog today.


She's getting a little bored now.

Ok, cranky Hank says it's time for Mommy to be done.


Happy June!