Colorado

In celebration of the end of tax season, (and also probably because they were missing their youngest grandson!), Bryon's parents flew us down to Colorado for the weekend.  We had a lovely time - Bryon and I because we had lots of free babysitting, and Kai because he was royally loved and spoiled :)

Of course I took no pictures of the fun times Bryon and I had with friends and each other, but I did get lots of pictures of Kai!  

So thankful for a good airplane traveler...well, for a 2 1/2 hour flight anyways!  I'm not sure if I want to attempt anything too much longer with him yet :)

Kai discovered Gramma and Papa's stash of old trucks and tractors which daddy and Uncle Dale used to play with.  He was in heaven, especially when he was told he could choose some to bring home with us.

Hiking around Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Taking a little break to fill up his little dump truck with gravel.

Kai made it all around the lake, and then we celebrated with some apples :)

Checking out Papa's van which he dubbed "Fillmore".

Kody came to hang out with us at the park and won Kai over very quickly by bringing a box of strawberries.

Telling Kody all of the alphabet letters' names although he claimed that the lower case "d" was a "c" and an "l" since it was rubbed off in the middle :)

Goodbyes :(

Waiting for our late night plane.  I was hoping Kai would sleep, but as usual no such luck!  He did great, but was very alert the entire flight, and then fell asleep as soon as he was buckled into his car seat to drive home from Spokane.


Thanks for a fun weekend Gramma and Papa!

Sunshine and Other Happy Things

I'm glad to finally say that we've had some lovely sunshine-filled days, warm enough to even be worthy of shorts and tank tops!  And, to top off the happiness that the sunshine brings, tax season is finally over!  We were all extremely excited about that, and had a great weekend TOGETHER!  We haven't had an official "celebrate tax season being over" day yet, but we do have a couple of little trips planned within the next few weeks.

But, before I get ahead of myself here's what we've been up to for the past couple of weeks.

I keep randomly finding words/made-up words lying around our house.  This is one time when Kai actually spelled his name right.  Usually he spells it, "KIA".

He informed me that this spelled, "tuque".  At least he's a good Canadian!

My big yard work helper.

First outdoor picnic of the season.  Hooray!

Tracing all of his stuffed animals, and of course practicing his current favourite letters "H" and "I".

Kai's first trip to the dentist.  Surprisingly it went really well, although he did look this serious the entire time.

Bryon popping his last tax-season countdown balloon.

Kai waiting with his sign to welcome daddy home from work.

Kai's good buddy Hunter turned 2 last week and had a fun train party.

See the 3 moose behind the yield sign?  That is right across from our house!  Crazy.  We saw them after we woke up one morning, working their way from yard to yard eating everyone's gardens.  We found all of our tulips completely devoured beside a big pile of moose poop.  Sad!  Kai had been checking on the tulips everyday to see if they were blooming yet, proclaiming, "they're growing just like me!" each time he checked.

Learning new skills is always fun, especially when you can do it in your pjs :)

Helping me make hamburger buns for our first BBQ of the season.

First day of soccer camp, complete with a personalized t-shirt.  I'm not sure who was more excited, Bryon or Kai.

Each group of kids has a coach and a team colour.  Then all of the teams rotate through different stations where they play games or learn new skills. 

This was Kai's favourite station.  They got to kick over as many cones as possible :)

Kai and another little boy got to demonstrate the rolling game.  It's weird for me to think that my "little baby" is now participating in organized activities.  Time flies!

Bryon attempted another sleepover in the shed with him that night, and this time it worked!  I think it helped that we gave Kai his own bed this time, instead of having him share with Bryon.  Personal space is apparently a sleeping necessity for him.

Building a shelf at the Home Depot kids' workshop.

Bryon and I worked hard this weekend while Kai slept.

We're so thankful to live just a couple of minutes from this beautiful lake.  The combination of rocks/sand/water provide never-ending entertainment.

Easter

Despite the fact that Bryon had to work most of Easter weekend, we managed to fit in several celebratory events.  Yes, there were lots of eggs involved, several yummy meals, and a bit too much chocolate, but as we tried to explain to Kai, Easter is really about Jesus.  He is risen!  And, we are so thankful for that.

We had a picnic in the living room after making zucchini muffins together.

On Saturday morning we went to the community Easter Egg Hunt at the park by our house.  I wasn't sure if Kai would be intimidated by the hundreds of other kids, but thankfully they divided them into age groups so he was only with the 2 and 3 year olds.  He was so focused and completely filled his bucket in no time!  Good thing I only gave him a small bucket :)
These types of events are one of the reasons I love living in Sandpoint.  Not only does Kai get to participate in lots of fun events, but we know half of the people there and it makes our small town feel like family when our family is so far away.  

He also got to tour the fire truck which he thought was very cool.

After the egg hunt the park cleared out, the sun came out, and we stayed and played with a few friends.

These three were just like a little group of ducks, following each other all through this huge puddle and getting completely soaked in the process.  What better way to spend a sunny spring morning?!

On Sunday morning we woke up a disgruntled Kai at 5:45 a.m. (after not going to bed until 10:30 the night before) and headed up to Schweitzer for their sunrise Easter service.  When I got Kai out of bed he said to me in a groggy voice, "I don't want to go up on the mountain with Jesus."  I'd explained to him the night before that we were going to celebrate Jesus at the top of Schweitzer, but obviously it wasn't such an exciting thought at such an early hour.  Hopefully next year he'll have a better attitude!  

The chairlift ride started off nice and warm, but got windier and colder as we neared the top.  Poor Kai was miserable.

Here we are after a very cold but beautiful service.  Kai's face very accurately depicts how he was feeling by this point.  Not impressed!  We heard many, "My feet are cold. My hands are cold.  My face is cold.  I want to go home." types of comments, but he survived!

After a very long nap for Kai and an afternoon at work for Bryon, we had a little Easter egg hunt with eggs from Papa and Gramma (Thank You!) before enjoying a yummy dinner together.

Then today, Bryon's tax-season-countdown surprise was an Easter egg hunt just for him (with a little help from Kai of course).