Ethan is Married!

Last Friday my little brother Ethan got married. He married a girl named Valorie whom I met the night before briefly.

They got married in the Mount Timpanogos Temple and it was freezing and snowing and the kids did not enjoy the picture taking and Aidan will be wearing a bright yellow rain jacket over his suit in all of their pictures. I was not prepared for the cold and the snow. Living in AZ has completely thrown off my climate tolerance. I forgot that March is not spring and the 30 degrees is indeed cold and requires a coat.

The love birds were almost an hour late for their own luncheon we went ahead and started without them.

Aidan really enjoyed his lunch Addi only ate her chips dipped in her water.

With the nieces and nephews.

Addi wanted her picture taken with her silly faces.

We had a fun time at the reception. The kids liked all the desserts and running around with their cousins. I embarrassed myself dancing with my sisters.

I think Ethan and Valorie enjoyed themselves as well.

Someone changed the letters around on the sign outside the reception.

Nations Capital

April 15th-17th {disclaimer: I did not edit any of these photos and I now weight 25 lbs less the I do in these photos and Jared weighs about 40 lbs lighter}
Before we moved away from the east coast we wanted to take a trip to Washington D.C. so we packed up a few things,including our children and headed out for the weekend.

This is what Addi looks like most of the time on long trips.
First we headed to New Jersey to stay the night with Jared's sister and then they joined us for the rest of our adventure.
First stop the D.C. temple. The kids were glad to get out of the car.
Not sure what's going on, but I think its cute.
Finally made to the city and got some food.
By the time we got to D.C.checked into our hotel and got the kids some food it was dark but we decided to head out and check out some of the monuments. This is the white house in case you couldn't tell.
Washington Monument.
Lincoln memorial
Kids were super excited to be up late can't you tell. Let me just tell you how unprepared I was for this trip. Normally I am overly prepared and have everything planned out but this time I didn't plan anything. We were under dressed for the cold and then rainy weather we experienced. I hadn't planned what we were going to do before hand and thus we missed out on a lot of tours because of it. I was super stressed about everything this night and was determined to have a fun family adventure. Once I got over it and just went we the flow the kids had a little more fun.
Jared's uncle died in Vietnam so we were able to find his name on the memorial wall.

The next day was rainy and cold, but we spent the day going to all the musuems.
The kids enjoyed this much more then the day before.
The best part is that they are all free and it is a great mix of history and fun for the kids.
Luckily Aidan was able to nap in the stroller. We kept trying to cover him up from the rain and he just kept getting mad so we stopped trying to keep him dry and he he fell asleep with rain dripping on his face.
Had to checkout Julia Child's kitchen.


More monuments in the day light.
Our last day in D.C. the weather was much better and we were able to she more of the city.
We waited in line to see the Declaration of Independent.

My favorite part of the trip was the botanical gardens at the capital buliding.
They had kids area where Addi got to water the plants.
Bubs enjoyed eating the plants.
I enjoyed taking pictures of flowers.
Jared enjoyed having his hair pulled.
The capital looked beautiful with all the cherry blossoms.
We took pictures of sleeping Aidan at different land marks then we can show him that he had been there even if he doesn't remember.
Overall a great trip. I would love to go back when the kids are older. As long as I don't have to spend 10 hours on the New Jersey turnpike.

I'm 3

March 27, 2011
Addi turned 3 and is very proud. She tells everyone "I'm 3!" She has been into Dora lately, so we threw her a Dora birthday party.

Everyone was given either a Dora backpack or a diego rescue pack. I sewed 20 backpacks the week before her birthday and filled them with party favors and things they would need on their adventure. All the kids were told that swiper swiped our pinata and we needed to get it back.

First Map told us we needed to go through rainbow tunnel. We also had to keep our eyes open for explorer stars [star stickers] so to help us get through the tunnel and find the explorer stars we check backpack for something to help us. Each child and a small key chain flash light in their backpack.

Once we made it through rainbow tunnel, Map told us to go through balloon forest, but told us to watch out for wild balloon animals. In order to scare away the balloon animals each child had a noise maker in their backpack.
Lastly the kids had to climb cupcake mountain where they found the pinata that Swiper had swiped.

It was a ribbon pull pinata, because although I might be crazy enough to throw a birthday party for over 20 3 year olds I am not crazy enough to give them a bat.

Everyone had fun collecting their prizes.

Even boots made it to the party.

I made Addi a Dora cake and although it didn't look perfect it was really really good.

And we made cupcakes for everyone at the party.

Addi was spoiled and even though we said guest didn't need to bring presents she received lots of them.
She was one happy three year old.