Much Needed Vacay

**Note: We did lots of fun stuff this week and there are tons of pictures below. Consider yourself warned :)

Last Sunday we enjoyed some nice casual time together outside. It was quite a nice end to the day. S would live outdoors if possible!

Picking raspberries together

Mourning the fact that I only have a few weeks left to enjoy these :/

Sharing raspberries

We left Monday morning for business with Brett. He was scheduled to work through half of Thursday. S has been fascinated with planes for several months. I was really looking forward to this trip with her. I wondered what she would think/do.

She was trilled and kept saying, "planes, planes."

The three of us squished onto the last row of the plane.

Our first stop after dropping dad at work was the park.

The humidity Monday was extremely high. I put S down for a nap at the hotel after we had lunch with dad. 

When I got her up from her nap this is what we got. It was crazy what the humidity did to her hair!

Dinner together at The Cheesecake Factory. Their portions are so huge that the three of us shared and still had left overs.

They have a great Children's Museum not to far (15ish miles) from where our hotel is. Because we have memberships to Thanksgiving Point we were able to get in there for free. We went last time as well and S loved it! Below are pictures of some of our highlights:

Painting on a wall that automatically washes itself.

She LOVED climbing on this thing last time. This time the best I could get was this picture.

She was pretty taken by that spider. 

Loving slides!

Fun, funky mirrors.

Riding bikes.

A S sized bridge. She climbed over it again and again.

Playing with huge foam blocks.

The sign I continually got this week, accompanied with the phrase "carry you".

We went to another children's museum the following day that we also were able to get into for free. It wasn't nearly as big, but S really enjoyed herself.

She loves babies (real or pretend) and wanted to share with them.

This is likely her favorite part of going to museums. She LOVES talking about them the rest of the day and point to them.

This was one of her favorite things there. She loves things on wheels that she can push.

They had a pretty great space exhibit. ^ being an astronaut.

Dressing like an alien.

Trying out the compression chamber.

Playing on the bus.

This was likely her other favorite. Those heels she didn't want to take off.

Riding on the carousel. She chose to ride on a pig.

On our way home from the museum we started counting in the car. We count a lot at home. She counted from 7 to 10 on her own. She kept saying again, and we'd practice from 1 to 10 repeatedly as we drove in the car.

That evening S wasn't a stellar eater at dinner. We wanted to make sure that she had enough so we hit a smoothie shop on the way home. She was in heaven :)

Thursday we just did a few things while we waited for dad to be finished at the office. We were all SUPER excited for our uninterrupted time in San Diego. We checked into our hotel then hit mission beach. It was only about 5 miles from our hotel. It also had this great place called Belmont Park with all sorts of amusement park rides and such. S LOVED the beach! There were repeated giggles and squeals of laughter at every wave that came in, but often bigger giggles as the water went back out and she sunk into the sand.

I love this shot I was able to get on my phone.

Playing with dad in the ocean.

Pure delight!

After we had to head back to the hotel to at very least get Scarlett into some dry clothes. We were wet too, but she was soaked!?! We decided to go to Old Town San Diego for dinner. It was a fantastic authentic place. Besides getting chips and salsa as you wait, they also brought you queso. It was a great way to end the evening, including the walk back through all the festivities :)

Friday we did Sea World. By buying a single day pass we were able to get in for the rest of this year plus 2015 for free. We loved everything (minus a bit of heat and humidity) about our day.

These fish were pretty cool. They came and ate all the germs off yours hands. It was pretty tickl-ie.

We were pleasantly surprised at how she enjoyed this ride.

A fun bounce mat for small kids.

We couldn't get her to stand up straight, but think shes about 31".

One of her favorite animals, the walrus.

The killer whale show is always amazing.

A cool tide pool where you could hold or touch any of the animals as long as you kept them under water.

A sea lion who made friends with S.

What happened toward the end of the day when she said, "Carry you!"

Watching the penguins in their outdoor area. She was totally fascinated.

Observing the killer whales from the viewing area below. This was our last exhibit of the day. While we were there an employee came over with certificates for free drinks and also a stuffed penguin for S (the one souvenir we said we had no desire for...any stuffed animal). If was a fantastic end to the day, and S was quite pleased. 

The stuffed penguin :)

I think we could've gotten her to look if we'd done it at the beginning of the day. None of us wanted to stand in that line though.

By the time we drove home from the airport on Saturday S was able to count from 1 to 10 o her own. We always clapped and said, "Yea, S!" By the end she joined in celebrating herself :) I'll have to see if I can get a video of her doing it.

October Fun

We have had so many fun things that we have done this month. This week has had its super highs and lows. It started off with both Brett and I getting the flu. Thankfully S stayed well. By Thursday I finally really felt better and needed to get out. We went to Thanksgiving Point Gardens. It was SO beautiful and S had lots of fun. I got some really great photos with my "real camera" with her. I was so glad I took my good camera with :)

Fun playing in the leaves!

I love her big toothy smile! 

Pointing out an airplane in the sky :)

I put her behind this tree and told her to play peek-a-boo with me. I am in love with the results I got!

We also had our annual family Halloween party with Brett's side of the family. Scarlett had so  much fun. Huge thanks to my sister who let her borrow the costume. S LOVED it. I think we may need to start practicing saying "Trick-or-Treat".

Brett dressed up at a "tree" with her :)

We get this when we ask for a "happy face".

She wanted to try this game all by herself! "Do it!" she kept saying.

Her favorite room at Nana and Papa's house.

Forgive the motion shot. She LOVES this horse. It "gallops" and "neighs". She kept saying "more" and "again". 

SO happy riding the horse!

Saturday was filled with lots of work. We got stuff done inside and out. We cleaned out the garden of the things that were done growing. I cut Brett's hair, and we finally took a break late afternoon. Our last thing that we did for fun was go to a pumpkin patch as a family. I was really excited for this outing. S has LOVED pumpkins! I couldn't wait to see her reaction to a whole field full of them. We went to Peterson Family Farms in Riverton. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a fun huge pumpkin field.

Trying to pick up the biggest one she could find :)

Walking through the pumpkin patch with dad!

Lovin' driving the tractor!

Occassionally she'll just plop down in the middle of the patch and hold random pumpkins.

So happy watching that hen :)

Long Week

I volunteered this week to put together a memorial video for my grandfather's funeral. For people who haven't ever done these, they are way more work than you think. I started receiving photos on Sunday and it continued through Wednesday morning. It was more work than they normally are since some people sent a PDF file instead of a JPG, resulting in having to edit each photo they sent.

My brother was kind enough to offer to help me with things. We did some of it via "gotomeeting.com"...its nice to have a brother who is so good with technology. A good chunk of it we did together at his home. He has a Mac and a much better video program than I do so we did things at his place. I literally was there all day, but we got it done. Here is a link to it. I'm not sure how long it will be able to stay up on youtube, but its here for now.

I needed a break with things on Tuesday. I met up with a friend at the children's museum so our kids could play together. It was one of the best breaks to the week.

Thursday we had a private family viewing for grandpa before the public viewing later that evening. The mortuary had a special talk with the younger grandkids and great-grandkids. They opened the casket all the way so that the kids could see that all of grandpa was in the casket. They talked to them about the spirit and the body separating at death, and about the plan of salvation. It was nice to have time that was just for family.

Friday we attended grandpa's viewing and funeral. It was a really nice service. All of the grandkids sang at grandpa's funeral, and all of his kids spoke sharing a few memories. Singing at his funeral was one of the hardest things I have done. I had moments where I had to just pause so that I could continue singing. I miss him so much. There have been many tears this week. I have been SO blessed to know, love, and be loved by such a great man.

Leaving the church

Grandson pallbearers 

Military Honors

Our family after the services

My parents and siblings

Grandpa's final resting place

My mom and her siblings

Last but not least Saturday we were supposed to have family pictures taken. Brett and I got up about 6:30 and got ready. I went in to get S up and felt something wet in her hair. I asked Brett to turn on the hall light so we could see. She had thrown up during the night, and there was vomit everywhere. We put her in a bath right away, canceled pictures, and snuggled with her with a bowl for the next several hours. She threw up about 7 times. Thankfully after 12:30 she didn't have another problem. We are thinking she ate something bad at the luncheon the day before. I ate all the same things as she did. There was something somewhat sour that we ate. I didn't think much of it, but apparently she was small enough and ate so much that it really had an effect on her.

Witches

We really try to make the best of our family time together! We talked about what would be fun to do together and I suggested the Witches at Gardner Village. It was the biggest hit! I'mm so glad that's what we did!! It has been one of my favorite family outings :) S ran everywhere and was SO excited! All of the pumpkins were so exciting to her!

Seeing the ducks in the pond.

Sitting with the witch.

Trying to get through the gate to see the witch.

A hula hooping witch!

Pumpkins!

As S says, the witch is playing the "nano".

Catching the witch.

Proof that mom was there :)

A Hero To Me

This man has held such a special place in my heart forever. We shared a birthday. We both loved ice cream and peanut butter (not together). The past few months we both enjoyed Frosties together...it was one of the few things he could tolerate eating towards the end. I made sure to get him one whenever I visited. We both enjoy yard work, and making our homes more beautiful. He taught me so many things that are important to me in my life. He had such unconditional love for others. He saw great importance in doing family history work. He supported missionary work. He supported the welfare program of the church even when he had not yet been baptized. He always showed great love and respect for his wife and said what a lucky man he was. He served others. He had an active lifestyle. He had so much gratitude for things done for him. He has the best attitude of anyone I know. If I could find a way to duplicate it, I would.

He was the grandpa who would always play with us. He would always do cartwheels for the family talent shows. He was the guy you watched Jeopardy with who would answer  the questions before the contestants. He will always hold a special place in my heart. Because of you we have been changed for the better. You are missed!