Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was fun! My brother Leif and his family came in from Alabama. Of course, my other brother, Kam lives in Murfreesboro, so they were in town. Unfortunately, my sister, Malia wasn't able to come in and Mike's family was together in Idaho. We really enjoyed the time with the family we had here. Constance was thrilled to find out she would have cousins to play with. They climbed the favorite tree at my parents house,played in the piles of leaves, and just had fun running around outside.

We took a day and some of us went to help my brother work on a roof. The kids had fun running around and playing together on the farm, as always. Nothing better than spending time with family ...

Puddles

My parents came by our house the other day. I went out to meet them and next thing I know, here comes Jordan running out of the house without his shoes. At first, this is no big deal he just ran to the car to see Grandma and Grandpa. While Grandpa was helping me carry something in the house, Jordan discovered the nice puddle of water left from the rain. First he ran through it. Then he decided to sit in it. I ran in to get the camera ... might as well let him play since he was already nice and wet. Then he discovered he could share the joy. Thankfully Grandpa was quicker ... Sissy was too. He sure did try though.

Of course, a nice hot bath was first on the list when he was all done.

Surgery

Mike had surgery on his right foot this past Monday. He has been having pain for probably 9 months. Of course, mowing doesn't help it any ... He started seeing a Dr back in July and they exhausted all avenues ... Nothing worked so we scheduled surgery.

It went well. Dr. Neuhaus was pleased and we all feel this will take care of it. All we have to do is keep the kids away from the foot and make sure they don't run too far with the crutches or hit anyone or anything with them.

We are excited because this means Mike is off work until his foot heals. The kids are quite happy each morning they wake up and Daddy is home. Constance is a big help. She loves to do stuff for her daddy. The boys are good at snuggling. They don't always understand why Daddy doesn't hold them or pick them up when they think he should. Mike is just tired of not being able to do what he wants ... and it has only been 3 days.

Rides

Jordan loves to get piggy-back rides. If you are on the floor ... he will be on your back ready to go. Of course, all my kids love them.

It is funny ... Dominic is crawling, of course, and the other day Jordan went up to Dominic and said ride. I had to hurry to keep him from sitting on his baby brother's back. I tried to explain Nick was too small for him to ride on.

Fall Leaves

I love this time of year with all the colors. Constance loves it for all the colors and then there are the leaves. She finally convinced Mike to blow the leaves in the backyard into a nice big pile so she could jump into them. Of course, Princess had to join the fun and jumped right on her stomach. This morning when she was getting in the van to go to school she saw her "pile" had shrunk. She learned today that her dog likes to sleep on the leaves. She wasn't too happy ... her big pile is gone.

A cane

Jordan got a set of those plastic golf clubs for his birthday. He hasn't really used them for their purpose, of course. They have mainly been taken apart and then handed to either Mike or I to fix and then immediately taken apart again. A nice cycle. Anyway, the other day we went to a friends birthday party and there was a guy there who was using a cane. To start off, Jordan tried to take the cane, that was nixed. Well, when we got home he immediately too his golf club that was had been left in the van and proceeded to walk in the house using it as a cane. Crazy kid!

Vacation

This is a brief view of our insane drive to Idaho.

On the way to Idaho
Kansas City ...
Jordan "Plane!!". We drove right by the airport and he got to see a plane land. He thought that was pretty cool.
Nebraska ...
Constance finding out all the "smudges" on the windshield were bug guts. "ooooo, gross".
Jordan was quite excited to see a TRAIN. That made his day.


Wyoming ...
Jordan asks the question, "Mommy, where'd the trees go?".
We ended up driving through snow storms at which point Constance was quick to remind me that I said we wouldn't see any snow and I was wrong. I was quickly realizing we were not packed for winter ... I had planned on fall ... OOPS!
We got stuck in Rock Springs, Wyoming for 3-3 1/2 hours. They had shut the interstate down both ways and there was nothing we could do but sit and wait. The kids LOVED that.

Jordan seeing one lone sagebrush on the side of a hill and telling me "Mommy, look ... TREE!"
Utah ...
Utah never looked so good! Thanks to Rock Springs (We have never gotten through there without some problem) we arrived 3 hours later than planned. Thanks to sister-in-law, Kathy, for letting us spend the night. Our kids were so happy to be out of the car.

After getting goodnight sleep ... time to take on the last of our trip.
Surprised Grandma and Grandpa Crane ... kids enjoyed Grandpa giving them rides on his walker. I just enjoyed the time with my Grandma and Grandpa and letting them love on my babies.
Temples ... Every steeple Jordan sees is a "Temple" ... so we are stopping at a few Temples to get pictures and let Jordan have fun seeing "TEMPLES". He had a smile glued to his little face. As we walked around he would wave at everybody he saw.
We went to the Jordan River Temple

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Salt Lake City Temple

As we were headed to the truck to head to Idaho ... we were all ready to be done ... Jordan got to see a "FIRE TRUCK!" That made our kids days ...
Our boys crying everytime we went to put them in their carseats ... actually screaming is more acurate.
Idaho ...
Jordan ... "My seat". They were so ready to be out of the truck ... everything was getting on their nerves. In this case ... Constance was touching his seat with her knee.
Almost to Grandma and Grandpa's and seeing Moose

Tractor rides

Spud Picking

4-wheeler Rides
Jordan saying "Hi Grandma" or "Hi Grandpa" each time he saw them.
Everytime we would get in the truck (which we kept to a minimum) Jordan saying "Home?"
Idaho Falls Temple

Jordan learned to slide down the stairs on his tummy.
Jordan also starting throwing things down the stairs. Thankfully, the pool ball didn't hit anyone or break anything.
Yellowstone... attempted but had to turn back due to snow and temps in the low teens.
Cabin ... 4 wheeler rides

zip line
Big slide

Cousins
Yellowstone ... Here we go again.
Weather better ... although there were roads closed due to snow and ice.
Constance was in heaven. She loved all the animals we saw.

Jordan ... he kept saying "all done", "dordan's house", "dordan out"
I was just in heaven taking pictures.
Of course we had to pick up a few things along the way ... For some reason it is usually stuffed animals. Constance got her "grizzly bear", Jordan a "mountain lion" and Dominic a "black bear".
Trip Home ... it was long.
Wyoming ...

Cold ... thankfully no snow storms where we drove. Hit heavy fog around Laramie and had it all the way to Nebraska line.
Nebraska ...
Rain across the entire state
Missouri ...
Jordan ... "Mommy, TREES!"
We had a lot of fun, but there is no place like home. This is our trip in a nutshell.