Family fun

We finally made it! Our last travel day went well, and we got to Kansas about 4 in the afternoon on Wednesday. We have been pretty busy since we got here...seeing family, eating out, running errands, playing with everyone's new toys, etc. we definitely need a rest day. But here are a few pictures from our first few days. 

Emma slept in Wednesday mornings ng, we got a late start. Time zone changes are hard. 

Aunt Faith had her a Frozen bed all ready!

Aunt story had bumble bee wings for her.

We went out to lunch with Grandma Joy on Friday, Emma got a cake pop with her meal.

Grandpa and Emma have a new game.

Aunt Grace's wedding shower

Wedding showers are exhausting 

'Zona'

We are almost to Flagstaff, Arizoba, or 'Zona' as Emna calls it. We decided to go the southern route due to storms up north. It added a couple extra hours, but it beats snow and ice. And Emma has done fabulous. Seriously, she didn't complain about getting back in the car one time, and has done a good job of playing by herself. And...no movies or iPad today! I consider that a successful first, long day of driving. (I'm saving them for when she does complain and start going crazy.) Today was our long day...12ish hours of driving, but with construction, Rush hour and stops, we will be traveling about 15 hours today...yikes! But it has gone very well. Our next two days we will only have to drive 8 hours each...much more manageable. We did have a long stop in Bakersfield, where we found a park to play at, so that helped her get some wiggles out. :) I only took a couple pictures today...

Heading out!

Emma took a couple of pictures

Yes, we brought toilet paper and her potty...it saves a lot of time.

Nap time

Pepper is a good traveler, too.

Found these magnet doll things at a gas station. She can change their outfits.

Travel day 2

For those that don't know, Emma is a good sleeper...very easy to put down at night. Except on vacation, apparently. We finally pulled into our hotel in Flagstaff around 11 pm. It was a long day, I'm glad we got it out of the way. I got a room with bunk beds so Emma could sleep in her own bed, but then she changed her mind and decided to sleep with me...which by the way, she has never done, even as a baby. So it was late, and very exciting to have a sleepover. Too exciting to sleep. And the snoring of one dog and grandpa proved too much for her. I could see her trying to sleep with her hands over her ears, which was hilarious. So finally after trying everything else, at 2:30am I gave her half a melatonin and we went to sleep...until 6:30 when the sun came up. She was pretty funny in the middle of the night, but I was so tired. Anyway, we both took a nap in the car today and will probably be catching up on sleep for a while. 

Too crazy to smile.

Swinging at a park on one of our stops

Elephant slide!

Oh Texas how I have missed you!

My sleepover buddy.

Didn't last five minutes, asleep at last. 

Salad and pancakes

Papa Steve is here! Which means I'm chopped liver. :) except at 5:45 am when he is still sleeping but Emma is not. :( so we skyped with Daddy, and now are waiting for breakfast. But since I haven't updated for a while, here are the last few pictures on my phone before it told me my storage was full. (And I love how when I want to take a picture it says my storage is full...but Emma can still manage to take like 25 pictures of blurry randomness around the house.) 

Anyway, I have been trying salads lately...gasp! So Emma the other day Emma decided she wanted one, too. Her favorite parts are the cranberries and croutons. But she ate the whole thing. And then the next day when Carter and Josiah came to play in the morning, we made pancakes for breakfast. Believe it or not, only Josiah finished his. What is with these healthy kids?! Oh well. They had fun playing anyway. 

Salad

Pancakes

Racing cars down the slide

Milk break

Can we stop now?

Well, we finally have the van back...after an awful lot of people helped us out. We know some great people here...and even some we don't know. But it's back. We walked to PWOC this morning, and the weather was perfect. And this afternoon we got the van, then went to a park with some friends until Awana. Emma and Carter went to Awana while Sarah (Carter's mom) and I went to our last PWOC board dinner. We all had a blast. I am so blessed to have been able to serve with these ladies. I will do a post about them later. :) but for now, I am tired. It has been a long 3 days...tomorrow all we have to do is dance class. :) Ahhhh, I like the sound of that. But for now: sleep. 

My best picture from the park. 

Busy, long days

Yesterday and today have been very busy days...lots going on. Yesterday we did a hard workout, went to the park, started cooking dinner early, did laundry, cleaning...then Carter and Josiah came to play, then we took dinner to a friend's  house. Today, I decided we needed a break...so we took a rest day from working out, and ran a couple errands (including getting a shot) on base. Then we took our car into the Sears Auto Center in Roseville to get an oil change, and get it checked out before our trip. We were supposed to meet friends at Wack Tacky, a fun place for the kids, but our car wasn't ready in time, so we just stayed at the mall and Emma played outside. We had lunch and even a little ice cream. While we were enjoying our ice cream, they called and said it would be tomorrow before the car would be ready. So we called our friends who just got done playing, and they picked us up and brought us back home. So thankful it all worked out...we even had nice weather and Emma got to play outside for an hour or so. But it is good to be home.

What do you do when your world turns upside-down? ;)

Post sugar exercise: running, leaping over Pepper ...

Landing on Daddy's chair

She madea'cupcake' out of the onion. Then proceeded to take it apart and put it back together like a puzzle.

Doing mommy's hair blind folded.

Pre-shot

She survived, but her dollies had to get shots when she got home.

The Promenade at the mall. Not a bad place to be stuck.

She made friends with the other little girls. 

We stopped at Sonic on the ride home...they all wanted corn dogs. That is Carter's smile. Josiah is in the middle. So thankful they could give us a ride home!

Cake pop and doctors office

Yesterday at Awana one if the girls had a birthday and brought everyone a giant cake pop. Emma ate her's as we takes to daddy. :) Today she had a doctors appointment, just a check-up. She has very waxy ears and is 28.2 pounds and stands almost 3 feet tall. She was very reluctant to go in today, but she did good. However, waking up so early caught up with her after dance class. She just couldn't make it all day, never can. 

Eating the eyes first, like Pepper. 

Helping her dollies learn their Awana verse. 

Silly face. 

Nice face. 

Sleepy ballerina.

Central Time

Emma seems determined to get us used to Central Time before we get there...which means I'm tired. I am glad we waited to go home, but I'm glad we are going soon. It will distract her from daddy being gone, but also I will get more rest (hopefully), to go to the bathroom by myself, and in general just get breaks. I had a friend watch her the other day while I had a meeting, as we both were needing a change of environment. I do feel like we have been doing really good, we have gotten into a good routine, but 3 year olds like to push the limits. So this is why the blog is not up to date, it's exhausting keeping up with Miss Endless Energy. Hopefully I will get better as the summer moves along. I plan on signing her up for ballet and swimming lessons on Kansas. :) but for now, here are a few pictures from our week.

Mommy, take our picture! This is in the gym/garage.

We did a lot of laundry this week. Between the JBF sale/new clothes, potty training, and Emma's dislike of wearing anything with even a drop of water on it, she went through almost all her clothes last week. This is almost all her clothes combining 2t, 3t, summer and winter since we are in between sizes and seasons. Oh, and she now needs a whole drawer for skirts, bc she wears one with almost every outfit.

I let her blow dry my hair today. If only you could have heard her excited giggles! She thought it was great. 

Smilies, parties, and shopping

We have had a full, fun week. We did all our normal stuff, and also some fun extras. Wednesday it was nice and warm out so we gave Pepper a bath...which she tolerated. Yesterday we went to a friend's birthday party, and today we went to Rosevile for lunch, errands and to shop at the JBF sale. 

Playing in her beautiful house. She and Luna were eating ice cream, while I got cold cabbage stew, a puppy sandwich and a peeler to eat with. 

She loves her new headband. 

Climbing all the way up!

Getting as close to the cake as possible. 

Everyone left so she had the bouncy house all to herself. 

Shopping at Trader Joes. 

She was tired before shopping...

But apparently I really wore her out.

She tried on her new clothes. 

Emma has her own workout clothes!