California

We went to California for a week to visit family. The main reason for going was that my brother Joseph just returned from a 2 year mission in Micronesia. It was so great to see him again. Dallin loved playing with him.

Dallin and Connor did really well on the airplane. Sometimes we forget how great our kids are. When you're flying for 6+ hours, it's easy to get irritated at each little thing your child does, but they were both very well behaved on the flight there and back. We would hear other babies screaming around us (like the one that screamed for an hour straight before we even took off), and then I'd look at Dallin covered in stickers and quietly coloring, or Connor happily chewing on a straw, napkin, plastic cup or anything he could reach, and I would just smile and feel grateful for my good kids.

The sudden elevation changes during take off and landing were a little rough for Dallin, but as long as you were holding his hand and talking to him, he did alright.

By the time we landed and got to my parents house, it was almost 9pm pacific time. That is midnight for our Indiana bodies. But Dallin and Connor were both so excited to see people and play, they did not want to sleep. They were still up happily playing til 11pm (2am in Indiana!!), but Mckay and I were exhausted so we forced them to bed. Dallin was the first one up the next morning at 6:30am. He wondered why Grandma and Grandpa weren't awake and ready to play with him. So he took some toys to the back door and played by Rocky, the dog.

Dallin and Connor loved playing with their cousin Scott. I think Connor was excited to be bigger than someone and he liked climbing on top of Scott.

 Sometimes Dallin and Connor would both come at Scott at the same time. Good thing I was there to protect him.

It looks like they're plotting together on the best way to get Scott.

 Dallin was in heaven the whole week because he had so many people to play with. He got to see his cousin Lucas.

Dallin and Lucas were born just a few months apart and used to live right next to each other. I'm sure they missed being best buddies. We went to my sister's house and Dallin played in the pool with Lucas.

It was a cool day so Lucas had already left the pool but Dallin wanted to stay in there all day.

Connor was not happy when I put him in the water.

 But he was happy whenever grandma held him.

My parents live close to a park so we took the kids there one day.

Dallin was on this tire swing with another little girl while her mom was pushing them. Dallin liked it at first, but when he got sick of it, he just let go of the chains and flew off the tire. Luckily, it was a soft landing and he wasn't really hurt, just startled.

Connor sat happily in the grass for a long time. I realized after a while what was entertaining him: he was eating the grass.

 It made him so happy!

 Dallin LOVES pancakes. He's eaten at least one (usually 2) each day for the last month. When my dad heard how much Dallin loved pancakes, he made some delicious buttermilk pancakes for him.

 Dallin also loves watching/helping people cook, so he was in heaven.

 The end result: yummy!

Connor learned how to crawl on this trip.

He doesn't quite have a perfect hands-and-knees-back-and-forth crawl yet, but he can really move around.

 At my parents house, there is a landing/loft area at the top of the stairs. When the kids played up there, we had the baby gate up for safety.

 Connor tried to get past it.

 At first he thought it was pretty funny...

 but then he just felt stuck.

Dallin did a similar thing last time we visited my parents house.

More pictures to come, including the places we went. We didn't just sit at my parents house the whole time.