Retirement party on the railroad!

I'm still playing catch up on my blog. I couldn't let this fun trip slip through the cracks! Darren's Dad just retired in June after working for the railroad for 48 years. Can you believe that?! It's incredible to me. Anyway, to celebrate, Darren's Mom put together this wonderful train trip and we had quite the party with as much family as could make it to Hood River, Oregon. Carol gave all the kids engineer caps, and the rest of the fam got bandanas, so we were styling! Check out these future engineers:Then we took a beautiful train ride up to a little town in the mountains and had a nice picnic before heading back down. The boys thought the train ride was so exciting and hung out with Grandpa most of the time. What a cool grandpa for a little boy; one who knows everything there is to know about trains!Here are some pics I stole from Carol (thanks!) of our picnicking. She also brought a pinata that was the highlight of the kids' lunch.It was so great to see so much family and have time to chat with them on the train. We love you all. A huge congrats to Bruce and thank you Carol for the great day! We love you and we hope to see more of you at our house now.

Justin is 3!

It was a fire truck birthday in Utah for Justin! It was so fun to celebrate with so much family. The only bad part was that Darren was home in Seattle working a deadline. We missed him. But the rest of us had a great big party. We had pizza for dinner, had cake and ice cream and opened presents. I wish I could say I made this beautiful cake, but instead I have to thank my mom for ordering it for Justin. He was thrilled with it.
Mommy and the birthday boy.Thanks, Dad, for putting this fire truck together for me.Wow. 3 years old. Love you, buddy!

Utah, Part 2

Here's a little more in pictures of the fun things we did while we were in Utah, post-wedding. Grandma has a great backyard for fun in the sun! We put the sprinkler under the trampoline, had a slide going into a kiddie pool and put up a slip and slide and it was fun for all. And I do mean all. This is Alexis on the slip and slide right before Darren's turn popped a hole in it. Oops.Thanks to my parents, my sisters and I enjoyed a lovely overnight vacation sans kids in Park City. Thanks for letting us enjoy your time share with you, Michelle! We hit the outlet malls, ate yummy food and watched chick flicks all night. It was great.Then the kids joined us and we practically lived in our swimsuits and hopped from the pool to the hot tubs all day. The kids were in heaven and didn't want to leave. We also enjoyed swimming at Grandma and Grandpa Mangum's pool. Michelle's ingenious idea to get my boys these floatie rings made them right at home in the pool.Joseph and Alexis with their great grandparents.Storytime with Grandpa. My dad took my boys to a movie and to McDonald's while my mom and I shopped one morning and he had to rescue Justin at the top of the tubes at the playplace! Justin still talks about how his brave Grandpa came to his rescue.We had too much fun at the Strawberry Days fair in Pleasant Grove. The kids loved the rides!


Joseph was brave enough to get on the ferris wheel, but came off looking white as a sheet. We plopped him right down on a bench next to the garbage can until his color came back. Poor kid. The kids got tattoos on our way out of the park and they were very proud of them. Transformers for Joseph, Hello Kitty for Alexis and Batman for Justin.Grandma and Grandpa, you spoil us too much. Thanks for the great time!