The Oregon Trail

 Our little family is hitting the Oregon Trail for real in a couple of weeks. Christian received a job offer near Portland and so we are packing up and getting ready to move. It is going to be hard to leave friends and family here in Utah but we are looking forward to new adventures and opportunities too.

This game was the best. Christian and I both remember wasting a lot of time playing it in elementary school. The version we played looked a lot like the one above. Really old school graphics and programming. Hopefully we won't have any broken bones or dysentery on the drive.

Jack and Anna

When we posted pictures from our trip to Rexburg we found a bunch of pictures that Jack had taken with the camera. Since we had some new pictures, we figured we"d do a kid-centric post and give an update about the rascals in our house.

Jack has fallen in love with Star Wars. It was amazing how quickly it happened really. He got a light saber for Christmas and wasn't sure what to do with it, so we showed him a clip from Star Wars. It was over at that point. It is all he talks about and all he thinks about. His first question for everyone he sees, including strangers at the store, is if they have seen Star Wars. Some days he wants to be a Jedi and some days he wants to be on the Dark Side. Here is an example of his indecision:

Jedi Face

Darth Face

He and Anna enjoy each other about half the day. The other half they are pestering each other. We hear that is normal. They love bath time and will spend hours in there if we let them. We figured out a fool-proof trick to get them out happily- heated towels! Just pop them in the dryer for a few minutes before the end of the bath and they are excited to get out. No more bath time battles!

Anna is definitely two years old. Sometimes she seems older and I have to remind myself that she is only two. She has some favorite angry phrases that she uses when she's upset. Right now, when I ask her to do something she doesn't' want to do,  she yells, "I WON"T!"  For a while she would just yell "EVER!" which didn't make a lot of sense, until we realized she was quoting a movie. It was hard not to smile with that one cause it was so random. She is a real sweet heart though. She loves to act like a cat or dog and will carry on conversations in meows and woofs. She loves to draw and has colored on lots of things, including on the TV with a pencil.

She is our little bag lady and will fill any bag she can find with random toys so she can carry them around the house. When we lose things, we just look in Anna's bags.

Here are some pictures that Jack took on our camera:

Sibling self portrait

Anna asking, "Who made this mess?!" (not really but I wish she would!)

And finally, the view from the kid's window

Rexburg and the Dunes

Last weekend we drove up to Rexburg to visit Mikie and Li-Sha. The weather was gorgeous and we had a lot of fun playing out at the sand dunes.Christian and Mikie threw a frisbee around and had jumping contests. Li-Sha and I played with the kids in the sand. We were all pretty covered in sand when we left. Luckily our hotel had a pool (which was unheated! seriously who has an unheated indoor pool?!) and we played in that when we got back.

Later that night we went to a park and played. They had a cool wooden carousel in the park which we rode on. The pics of the kids were blurry but we got a good one of Mikie and Li-Sha. Hope we get to see them soon!

Birthday Morning

Jack turned 4 yesterday, and he woke up to some fun birthday morning surprises:

Lots of balloons in his room

 A new Yoda t-shirt

And some rainbow pancakes

Since we celebrated Jack's birthday last month we didn't have a party yesterday, but we tried to make it fun anyway. After his birthday breakfast we spent the day visiting some friends and playing at Kangaroo Zoo. Hopefully Jack enjoyed his birthday, because today he had his 4 year old doctor visit and got two shots. What a lame way to acknowledge a birthday! Next year I think I will space it out so that he doesn't feel like he is being punished for turning a year older.