Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Our New life in Utah continued....

Shortly after we moved to Utah Kristen came with the kids to visit for a few weeks. Or should I say..for her to work and do school 24/7 (she had to come for clinicals) while her kids played:)

Between living with parents and having Kristen here at the same time as us, it almost seemed like we were on vacation instead of actually living here! We are always visiting at the same time, staying at parents houses, not working.... the only difference being we are actually staying this time!

One day we took Abby, Aidan, and Gabe to the pool. Dan went out in the deep end with the older kids while Aidan and I hung out. He was quite a handful but I loved it! He is at a really cute age right now. He was scared of the big water to an extent so we spent lots of time playing follow the leader. I followed him as he walked across the shallow part of the pool, up the steps, across the hot cement (where he kept on trying to run, which after telling him not to would turn into a hop/skip sort of movement..), back down the stairs, and back into the pool. After awhile we added me carrying him to the deep end and back as part of our workout. Towards the end of our pool adventure the small pool finally opened and all of us were able to relax together in "safer" water.

Afterwards the kids came back to our house to play for a few hours. We love hanging out with them as much as they look forward to seeing "uncle".

Abby, Aidan, and I.

Gabe & Abby in the deep end.
A few days later we got to take Abby and Aidan out for another day full of adventure. Dan's brother, Jordan, works at Lagoon so we were able to go for $10 a person on family day. Dan's mom, his brothers, our sister-in-law, and a few nieces and nephews were able to come. We had a great time. For most of the day Dan and I stayed with Abby and Aidan and once my sister-in-law, Cami, came she joined me and Dan was able to go with the big kids on a few rides.

Us right before we entered the park.


Our first ride. It is probably hard to see but if you look closely you can see that Aidan is about to strangle me:) This was the first ride we went on and he was REALLY nervous. He was holding on my neck so tight and wouldn't budge an inch. Once the horse started to move up and down I just had to do my best to move up and down with it. Finally at the very end of the ride I had convinced him that nothing was going to happen and his security blanket became the pole instead of my neck:) Abby loved all the rides right from the start.

The very next ride we went on was Space Scramblers...which is REALLY fast an spins you like crazy. Aidan LOVED the ride and giggled the entire time. When we got off all he could say was "dizzy" and kept on spinning his head round and round and giggled. Funny how nervous he was at the carousel and then was perfectly content on a big kid ride after that! For the rest of the afternoon he kept on asking to go on all the big scary rides he was too little for.

Dolores, Abby, and Jo.

Morgan and Gabe.

The Musical Express. Abby kept on "squishing" Dan on this ride. Once it starts moving really fast everyone gravitates to the outer edge. Dan said that she better not squish him. It was funny to watch her try with all her might not to move to the outside edge.

Aidan just giggled away. At one point his body was laying sideways across the seat when the ride was going really fast.

The plane ride.

Abby and her diva pose. Aidan and his smile you could never see with his hat!

Aidan loved the cars. Abby loved the swings (I didn't get a picture of that one because I was on the ride with her!).

All of us!

Kristen sent money for the kids to buy souvenirs. Abby came home with a kitty.

Aidan came home with a giant lolly pop.
We had a great time getting to spend so much time with them and can't wait until they come and visit again!

4 comments:

MG said...

What fun you are having in Utah, I am jealous. You have such cute nieces and nephews. It is fun to be the young aunt and uncle that everyone loves. We miss you guys. Enjoy your new change in life, I love your new name on your blog. Melissa

Crandalls said...

Thanks Melissa! We do love being the young aunt and uncle. That is what we are trying to do...enjoy our new life instead of dwelling on missing our old. Good luck to you guys as well in your new adventure!

Dan said...

It was a great week with Aiden and Abby, boy do i love those kids. I can't wait til Sierra and i have kids of our own. Kinda crazy the first month and a half here in utah but now that we both have jobs and have been approved for a morgage loan, things are really looking much better.

Anonymous said...

Great pictures, Sierra! Thanks for including me! It was fun at Lagoon with many of my wonderful grandkids, handsome sons and beautiful daughters-in-law!