Our visit with Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom

The last two years my Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom from Colorado have come out to live in Yuma from January to March.  They were back again and this time, they drove out to visit!  They arrived on Friday and we had a nice dinner here at the house and then Tatum showed how well she could read.  Aunt Mary, who use to be a teacher for many years, was very impressed! 

And on Sunday, after we met for church and brunch, we met up later at the Bernardo Winery, our favorite hang out, for some goofing off.  Smiles!

Tongues!

And surprised!

We got a nice table over by the music and while we chatted and drank, Ty took some pictures with my camera.

Too cute...

Here's Uncle Tom.  I think Ty could be a photographer if we could teach him how to move his hand away from the lens. :)

Grandma chatting with Aunt Mary,...

and Aunt Mary listening.

Then he figured out how to get a picture in a picture and took one of him with a small one of Uncle Tom.  I don't even know how to do this!  Our little master mind. :)

Before we left, I got a few family photos.

We had a wonderful visit with Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom and we definitely owe them a visit out their way soon.  Either for skiing or for summer hikes, we can't decide.  But soon!

Keira's birthday party

Our friend Keira was turning 5 and invited the kids to her birthday party at a paint place in Liberty Station.  The kids loved it!  They each got a small canvas and the teacher showed them how to paint their very own super hero!

Even though art is not one of Ty's favorite things, he LOVED this and really enjoyed creating his hero.

While they waited for their paintings to dry, they decorated cupcakes next!

And here are the artists with their finished products!

And the birthday crew!  What a fun, creative birthday idea!

The parents loved it too because the paint place was a few doors down from Stone Brewery so we headed there for dinner after the party.  The kids enjoyed the outdoor area ad played with some of Keira's new toys.  Fun times!

Park Play

On Sunday, we headed over to Scripps Park for some riding.  Can't say it was bike riding since this little man won't ride a bike.  He was an awesome Spiderman bike with training wheels and we've done just about everything to get him to ride it.  Nothing works.  But he loves his three wheeler!  He got this razor for Christmas and he loves it!  It's hard to steer but he's mastered it and kept up with us bikers.

But after a long ride around the park a few times and then down to the baseball fields, he was tired and ready to walk. :)

I love tooling along on my cruiser.  So fun!  I love that our family is getting to this point, where we can all ride and get out together.  Such a wonderful stage.

And Tatum is awesome on her new dirt bike.  She loves it! 

We had lots of fun playing at the park, look at these sweet kids.  They are really good friends, despite the bickering here and there.  But when one is gone, the other can't wait for them to get back.  So cute.

It feels like we don't get these lazy park days enough.  Mental note to plan more of these days and moments. :)

The next morning, the kids and I headed to Irvine since it was our winter break and they had the week off school.  We met Jenny, Mattie and Cameron at Chick fil a for lunch, played at a park and then decided to all go to Irvine park to meet Grandma Judy to see the zoo.  I got a few cute pictures that didn't come out but I caught this one of Tatum brushing the goat in the petting area.  She's come a long way from when she use to freak out in the petting area. :)

Each kid also got to ride a horse!  The boys went on the small horse side where Jenny and I had to lead the pony's around a circle three times.  Difficult to take pictures while leading a horse.  But Ty loved it!

And here's Jenny and Cam!

Tatum and Mattie got to ride on the big horses, how exciting!

The first time around, Tatum was with another girl and then Mattie got on after this shot but I couldn't time the photos right since I was still leading Ty around at this point.  But you can see the big smile on Tatum's face!  We stayed in Irvine just for one night since I had to get back to work that week.  And at this point, I can't even remember what we did that week off.  I think we hit the beach one day and otherwise, just hung out and enjoyed a slow week of life.

Family Valentine's Fun

Valentine's Day fun is always started off with the Father Daughter dance at Creekside.  It was Thursday night, the night before Valentine's Day, and both of them were really looking forward to dressing up and going on a "date" together, so cute! 

And here are some pictures Garrett caught of all the dancing fun.  Look at Tatum grooving on the dance floor!  After they were there for a few minutes and they danced together, Tatum told Garrett she was going to dance with her friends.  Poor Daddy. :(

Our pretty little girl

Here's Tatum with one of her good friends Destiny.  Such hams!

And her and her handsome date. :)

The next morning, the kids found lots of Valentine's Day presents waiting for them from Grandma Dini.

Each were so sweet to take turns opening their gifts and loved all their treats and surprises!

At Friday Flag, they had a big Chinese New Year presentation with lots of dancing dragons.  The kids loved it, so cool!

At home, Papa Jerry, Matt and Ty decided to pick some lemons and oranges in our backyard and make lemonade.  Here's Papa Jerry with the fruit picker, picking the most juicy and sweet lemons he could reach.  Ty was coaching him from the side lines of course. :)

Lots of work squeezing those lemons and oranges.

Enjoying the fruits of their labor, literally. :)  Ty LOVED having Papa Jerry and Matt here, they all really bonded and he was sad to see them go the next day.  They even went to McDonalds for lunch that day while Nadine, Lori and I went shopping.  We really miss them and wish we could see them a lot more often.

My romantic husband was so sweet to bring a beautiful bouquet of roses and lili's home to me as well as a rose to each grandma.  What a man!

After we cleaned up the juice and dropped the kids off at Grandma Judy's house, we headed downtown to Mr. A's.  It's a restaurant at the north end of downtown with the most beautiful views.  Here's a few pictures before sunset.

And then, after the sun was gone, all the twinkling lights came on, pretty.

Our three course meal was different but delicious and we all enjoyed the amazing views.  We drove over the Coronado bridge to check out those beautiful lights as well, then went down to the landing to grab a drink.  Every bar there was packed, we couldn't even find room to stand at the bar.  So we headed home and the first place didn't serve liquor, only beer and wine.  Crazy!  We finally ended up at the Poway Pub where Lori and Matt learned how to play rings and we all enjoyed the live band.  It was sad to say good bye to everyone the next morning as they headed home.  We really love our family and look forward to the next visit!

Ty's last soccer class

This was Ty's second session of soccer and he moved up to the purple shirts this time, which meant the team would scrimmage against each other the last part of the class. 

He seemed to enjoy it, but not so much the learning part.  Much more the scrimmage part. :)

And since this was their last class, everyone got a medal.  So cool!  You can tell Ty was proud of himself and enjoyed getting hi fives from his coaches.

Another fun session!  We didn't sign up for the following session since we were hoping to get into Tball but I guess you have to sign up for that in December and we missed it.  But maybe we'll try soccer again soon!