Wednesday Surprise

Wednesday was another fun filled day for us. In the morning Kai had a special date with Grandma Utah to the Red Balloon Toy Store to pick out his birthday gift. He thought the store was great and it seems like they must have been studying all of the toys very closely. I can tell he put a lot of thought in to his choices. :)

After a quick lunch he headed to Kids Camp and Rori and I ran some quick errands. She and I got home about 20 minutes before it was time to pick him up so we brought in the groceries and sat down for a minute. All of the sudden there was a knock on the door so we went to answer it and got a HUGE surprise. Standing on our doorstep were............Grandma and Grandpa Whitney!

Talk about the best birthday surprise ever for Rori and Kai. We were thrilled! They had taken a shuttle from the airport and had it drop them off at the bottom of our street so they wouldn't be spotted. I'm so glad Rori and I got home just minutes before them. So after a quick hello we headed up to Kids Camp to pick up and surprise Kai. It was so cute to watch his face as he rounded the corner to find them standing there.





He headed over to the hotel pool to swim with them while Rori took her afternoon nap and then they came back in time to surprise Lance by jumping out of Rori's room when he got home from work. Later they also snuck up on Brice, Colleen and Tyler when they came for the party.



This was Grandma and Grandpa Whitney's 3rd trip to UT since we've been living here. The other 2 times were when Kai and Rori were born. This trip was a really big deal because they left Whitney overnight with a babysitter (other than me) for the 1st time ever. No easy task. We missed Whitney but we were thrilled that they were able to get away for a night. I kept feeling like I must be dreaming.


(My Dad would like to have it noted that he was not in a fight but rather had a little skin surgery causing his awesome black eye)

Happy 4th Birthday!

Superhero costume from Kids Camp- Two 12yr old girls have been putting on this camp for the neighborhood kids - it is so cute!

Today Kai turned 4. He woke up this morning, stood on his tippy toes, and said to us "look how big I am now". He is big. Lance and I have commented a few times to each other recently that he really is getting so grown up. It's exciting but it also makes us a little sad that time is passing so fast.

Kai is a really good boy. At 4 years old he loves all sports, doing puzzles, learning about EVERYTHING, playing with his many buddies, tickling Rori, and playing games. He often busts out with a "Mom or Dad", followed by a long pause, followed by "I Love You". He has a sensitive caring soul which we love.

Today we made a run to Costco in the morning. Kai got a berry smoothy as a special birthday treat. Then, he headed to Kids Camp where the kids sang happy birthday to him over the cookies he brought to share. Tonight just Lance and I took him out for a surprise dinner and games at Fat Cats. We thought he might like the time alone with just Mom and Dad on his big day. To top it all off we also learned that the baby elephant was born at the zoo today. For forever we have been telling Kai that the baby would be born around his birthday so that was exciting. We went to the Zoo on Saturday and told one of the keepers that August 11 would be a good day. :)

Tomorrow night we will have a joint party for Kai and Rori at our house. At 4 Kai didn't even think anything about not opening presents until tomorrow.

It was a nice day!

Happy 4th Birthday Kai!


The breadsticks at the Pizza Factory are tasty.


We stuck to this bowling tonight.


He always goes to this first- no need to put in a token.


Having fun spinning the wheel with Daddy


With all of his carefully thought our token prizes

Fire Station 2009

This morning we did our annual summer trip to the Fire Station. It is strange to think that a whole year has passed since last summer when I was 9+ months pregnant on this trip. As always it was a fun time and the kiddos were in heaven getting to play with the hose. Rori also really liked getting to sit in the drivers seat. On the way home Kai, Amanda, Rori and I all made a quick stop at the grocery store for some milk. The firefighters and 2 different people at the grocery store all asked if Kai and Amanda were brother & sister. They sure do look alike with that light skin and white hair. Not twins but they have grown up together in lots of ways.

Let the Party Begin

It's that time of the year again for kid birthdays at our house - both Kai and Rori's are next week so it is an exciting time.

To kick off the festivities Kai and his buddy Drew had a joint construction party last night. They invited all the Sunbeams from Church (kids turning 4 before Dec.) and the neighbor kids on both sides for cake and ice cream, a pinata, present opening, and lots of water fun. Drew's mom made one of her famous cakes and his Dad made the awesome pinata. The kids were all great and seemed to have lots of fun. They are really a sweet group of kids and Kai can easily and happily play with each one which is so fun.

Swimming for the Babies Too

Rori and Matthew finally got their turn at swim lessons after sitting through weeks of Kai and Amanda's lessons. They were so cute and loved it. Rori was especially excited to get to take this class with her Daddy. I really think I heard her say "DaDa?" when I opened up the car door to get her out of her carseat for the last lesson. Another neat thing about this is Kai and Amanda took this same class together when they were the same age as Rori and Matthew. Fun!

Busy Playing with the Mullins

When we got home from San Diego the Mullins had just gotten in town for a 3 week visit which has been very exciting. We have been trying to get in as much play time with them as possible which explains our lack of blogging.

The beginning of their trip was marked with 3 big birthdays. Dave had his 40th, then Emme had her 4th, and then finally Kate had her 1st. Lots of partying and lots of cake. I'm sure Kirsten will be quite happy to not have another birthday party for quite some time.



We had Emme signed up to join Kai and Amanda in their swim lessons and Jake took a bigger kid class at the same time. They had a blast and have really been getting better at their swimming skills.







We've also been:

Hiking:









Lance did his own hike first to Catherine Pass and then met up with us at Silver Lake. Here are some pictures from his hike too:







Eating at Tarahumara in Midway (love the salsa bar):



Touring the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. It was really neat to get to take the kids though with us:





Going to the Bees Game and Watching the Awesome Fireworks Afterwards with all the Cousins (Thank You Tyler!):





Celebrating Pioneer Day (July 24 -which is a big State holiday here) with a BBQ at the Flynn great grandparents and a sparkler they gave us back home:



Wrangling the Twin Cousins:



Putting on Talent Shows:



And probably lots more that I'm forgetting and/ or I didn't get pictures of. We've got one more week with a few more fun things planned. How we wished that they lived closer.