It's Friday!

Got to get this posted before we head off on an adventure today.

1. For Family Home Evening on Monday we had dinner at one of our favorite places, Canyon Crust. We sat out side so James could play in the splash pad. The splash pad wasn't on that day, but it didn't stop him from having fun. He even made a few friends. When the kids more his age left, James tried to make friends with an older girl. It was cute. He kept trying to get her to play with his cars with him, but she was chasing her older sister.
I love that James is so readily to play with anyone and he is great at sharing his toys. Perhaps that means he'll be a great big brother, someday.

2. James and I brought a gift to one of my friends who just had a baby. He got to play with his friend Mark in their back yard. Mark and James are just too cute together. Hopefully it isn't too hard on them when we move away.

3. There's a program through the university called EDGE that different geologists come and give talks to the general public. Part of Tracy's job the past few months has been to arrange the speakers schedules while here and take them to the places they need to be. Wednesday, Tracy was downtown meeting the paleontologist that was speaking that day, checking him into his hotel and taking him to his appointment at the museum, so James and I went and met them. Kind of fun seeing daddy in the middle of the day.

Also, we were able to join them for dinner with some of the other people from the department, mostly it was with the other grad-students and Tracy's advisor and her husband who is also a paleontologist professor at the university. It was a lot of fun. At one point James and Tracy's advisor's son, who we pick up from school, were sitting there talking. It was adorable. I wanted a picture, but it was too dark out to get one.

4. Speaking of school pick up. I seriously could keep those boys as my own. Tuesday they were talking about how fun it would be to get snow for a day just for a day, something I've been saying since we moved here. Then on Thursday they were talking about band. Awesome! They are also so nice to James. It's great. Best job ever!

5. I bought some tool organizers last week from Amazon for James's Legos. They came the other day and we didn't waste any time organizing the pieces into the containers. It's nice not having the pieces all jumbled together and not only separated by type of piece, but by set. Making life very nice. Next step will be making cards for the slots, so James has a visual of what pieces go where.

He was upset I was taking a picture.

They even hook together. Pure awesomeness.

Easter Weekend

Today is Easter. I love Easter time, though I haven't created any standing family traditions. I keep thinking as the day arrives I should have done this or I should have done that. Well, hopefully next year I'll actually do some more Easter related things.

Friday evening Tracy was suppose to go on a Scout Camp-out, but when it came time to leave non of the boys wanted to go which meant we had him for the whole weekend.

Saturday morning we packed up our beach bags and headed to the train station.

Waiting for the train.

James and Daddy hanging out together.

Tracy started skipping rocks. James would try to copy him. It was way cute.

I love the beach!

At one point James wondered off on his own.
He even went down the embankment by himself. Yay!

He really wanted to get water in his bucket
but wasn't too sure how to go about doing that.

"Now how do I get back up"

Trying but not able to
 because he had a large rock in his bucket weighing him down.

Daddy to the rescue.

Sunday we all dress up in Easter outfits. I tried to get a photo shoot but James wasn't interested in holding still. He kept running around. I wanted to get a picture of James with each of us. Oh well. James was the only one with new church clothes on so I guess his is all that mattered. 

The face his made. LOL

So handsome.

I did manage to get this one of the boys.

After church James and I dyed eggs. I let him pick what color of dye to use, since I made less eggs than colors of dye in the package we had. To keep from ending up with a big mess I only let him dye each egg one color. I know I'm lame. Of course he doesn't know the difference so it works. In a few years I'll show him the awesomeness of multi-color eggs.

That was our Easter weekend. Hope you all had a great Easter.

Friday Five

Friday has finally arrived. Wish I could say we have big plans for the weekend, but we don't really have much planned since Tracy is going to a scout camp-out tonight. Now onto how our week went.

1.  Monday James finally let me cut his hair. It was getting unruly and a cut became non optional. I had to promise to get him ice cream to let me get it done.

Now he looks cute again.
OK, he always looks cute but now his hair isn't crazy.

2.  I had purchased a bubble blower gun from the Dollar Store about a week ago. I finally pulled it out one afternoon when James was in desperate need of some new entertainment. He loved it.

3. Wednesday I was in need of some fun. I usually try to do a mom and James lunch or dinner date once a month when Tracy goes camping with the scouts. I decided to do it a couple days early and we went the shopping center a block from us and enjoyed some pizza and chicken nuggets from Canyon Crust. They do a lunch special: a slice of pizza, side salad and a drink for $6 that I got and James got the kid's chicken nuggets. After lunch we went to the kid's boutique got James a new outfit and a gift for a friend who just had a baby.

Having lunch.

In his new outfit.

4.  Last weekend we bought James another new Lego set. When we come across something this cool looking how can we pass it up?

We've been building one of the 3 cars each day this week. So much fun!

5. In two weeks James and I will be heading to Utah for some event happening in my family. We're super excited. When I told James we were going to see grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins, he immediately said, "Yes, I get to see Aunt Kandace." Then I had to break the news to him that he favorite aunt won't be there because she's in Mexico on her mission. He was sad for a minute, but I think he'll have just as much fun with his other Aunts and Uncles as he does with Kandace.

Saturday Fun!

Yesterday, Tracy had some errands to run so we made it a family outing. He's been busy all week long coming home late a few days. It was nice to spend some time together. One of the stops was to get new shoes. We went to the Sketchers Factory Outlet Store. It's nice to have their outlet store so close, since we both love their shoes.

James was getting a little restless while Tracy was trying on shoes.
I took him out to side to play. Behind me is a huge fountain of water.

All shoes are buy one get one 1/2, except the clearance.
James got new sandals which he picked out himself
and here are Tracy's new shoes.

After shoe shopping we had lunch at Rubio's and then a quick stop into Cost Plus World Market (good thing I don't have a ton of money or I'd spend way to much at that store). And then came home for a bit.

We had a short discussion about what was for dinner, but my kitchen was still a big mess from the day before. Tracy decided to just go out to dinner instead having to clean it up and cooking. (I think he secretly already had plans for dinner or at least a specific craving.) He took us downtown to Gram's Mission BBQ. Some of the best pulled pork I have ever had and their baked beans were the best I have ever had.

After dinner we walked around downtown for a bit and ended up in the antique store. We had been inside before but just for a few minutes. This time we spent about 30 mins and didn't even get through half the store. We did come across their used books. They have a collection of all Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys books. Pretty cool! We did pick up some books for James for a $1 each. Now I know where to go for children books.

Books we got for James.

Last night we stayed up way too late, like close to 3 am. Comparing family trees. We did discovered a common ancestor, Charlemagne Emperor of Rome. It was way too much fun. Love spending time with my guy.

Friday Five!

I'm stealing this idea from a friend, because I love reading her weekly list. It is a a way to post about the 5 highlights of the week. A good way to keep up on my blog, since I use this as a sort of journal too.

1.  The high has been close to or at 90 degrees this week, which feel very hot compared to our barely 70 degree highs last week. It makes me not that excited for the 100 degree temps in the summer. Good thing we have a pool. James and I took advantage of the sparkling water on Wednesday to beat the heat.

2. James has this bad habit of always pestering one of our cats, Lightning. So I'm constantly telling him to be nice, don't pull on her tail, say sorry, give her a kiss (if he hurt her in any way). Monday, I dumped the laundry on the floor to fold and it had startled Lighting so she took off running a bit. James saw what had happened and this is the dialog that followed:

James: "Mom, say sorry to Lightning."

Me: "Sorry, Lightning."

James: "Now give her a kiss."

Me: "O.K. (Trying not to laugh)" I give Lightning a kiss.

James: "You have to be nice to her."

Me. "O.K. James. I'll be nice."

Maybe does listen to me after all. 

3. I started a bit of a Job Tuesday. I will be picking up Tracy's adviser's son and 2 of his friends from school and taking them home twice a week. It turns out to be quite fun. Looking forward to be doing school pick up for James and his friends.

This is us waiting for school to get out. 

4. We love our bank. It is awesome that they have a kid room. James loves it and we usually end up sitting there long after our business is taken care of because he never wants to leave.

5.  Last weekend we took a trip to the beach. It had been over a month since we've gone and it was nice to spend time together as a family before Tracy got busy trying to finish his thesis. We stopped at the Lego store on the way home and James loved it. He walked away with a new Lego Train. With his growing Lego collection I was looking into ways to store them better. I came up with a system, but just need to get the supplies now.

The Answer to the Riddle

Now that my April Fool's Riddle has been up for a day, here's the answer:

We're off to Davis, CA in September. Tracy will be attending the University of California's campus there and working towards a PhD. We're pretty excited for this next adventure and looking forward to making Davis our home for the next 5ish years.

April Fool's Riddle

This isn't an April Fool's joke, but more of riddle. See if you can solve it. Please excuse my sub-par poem writing skills.

       During March Tracy received some news

       An acceptance letter to a PhD program from a University.

       Very excited, we could hardly snooze.

       It gave us hope for the future.

       September, we will start our next adventure.

       Can you guess where we will be?

       Are you able to solve the mystery?

*Hint: Look at the first letter of each line.