Wahoo! It's President's Day!

That means Amy gets to go to work and Hailey and Makayla get to go to Grandma's!!
Excuse today's blurry pictures. 
Someone messed with my camera settings and I didn't notice till too late.

It was a balmy 30 degrees, so the girls went outside to jump the snow off of the trampoline. After they were wet, cold, and muddy they came in and let me wash their feet in the bathroom sink. That turned into

making the bathroom into a swimming pool

and somehow managing to get even wetter themselves. Geesh. Some responsible adult should keep an eye on these two.

I found some t shirts to wear while we dried clothes and the girls played "Hot Lava"...

...a game MY daughters also played. It basically means you cover the family room in pillows and blankets and jump around the furniture while trying not to touch the ground. Yep. My kids were ALSO not allowed to jump on the couch.

Makayla really needed new shoes. I was thinking we'd go buy something like this for her:

 However, Hailey and Makayla liked these better:

Somehow they managed to talk me into them. Amy says they look like "Rainbow Brite Threw-up Shoes". That's ridiculous. I've never heard of Rainbow Brite being nauseous.

The best thing about these shoes is that they light up when you walk, run, or kick cabinets.
I don't just mean a few twinkling flashes, I mean burn-your-retinas strobe lights.

Amy's going to love these!!

 

I bet their teachers will, too.

And finally, as I sorted through pictures I realized I didn't post this cute picture from a few weeks ago of my amazingly gifted grandson. Apparently Caden has virtually no cartilage in his ears.  I'm still having nightmares about his ability to all but pull his ears off of his head.

Colorado Excitement

Stan and I have just not been having enough fun lately, 

what with Megan's wedding and Backman's baby. We decided to remedy that. After recalling how fun it was to take a long drive with Hailey and Makayla to Utah in December, we knew what we wanted to do.

Oh yes! You guessed it. We loaded Amy, Hailey and Makayla into our trusty 'burb on a cold and windy day and drove and drove and drove!

 

Naturally, these two love nothing more than being strapped into a car seat all day as we travel across the frozen tundra of Wyoming.

There was only one problem: after five or ten hours in the car, someone couldn't seem to smile and smell the sagebrush and had to go for a walk down the freeway until they could stop throwing a tantrum.  It's okay. Makayla eventually got Grandpa to calm down.

Fortunately, Grandpa DID remember to bring what Makayla calls "the dog food", helping keep mouths busy for some of the time.

We finally made it to see these cute people!!

The clock said it took us 7 1/2 hours,

but that's wrong. I'm almost positive it was closer to three years.

And here is the main reason we came: cute Jordan.

Can you believe this adorable, sweet girl is already eight, and being baptized?

 We love this family!

Here's everyone at the baptism on Saturday, February 1st: us, Grandma and Grandpa Bassett, Aunt Brenda from the Bassett side, Aunt Jackie from the Bassett and Jones side, Amy, Scott (Kelsey is home with the flu), and enough cousins to populate a large country.

We totally broke the Bassett's house in for them. They have a large unfinished basement, just meant for cousins to ride bikes together in,

de-shelf toys in,

and just generally have a fun-filled cousin reunion in.

Stan, Amy, kids, and I stayed with the Bassetts and so did Ken's parents. We actually all got warm showers every day.

Shelly, in her normal, unflappable way, had pre-made each of the meals for all of us, including a sandwich bar, some delicious sweet and sour chicken, and our favorite lasagne. 

Don't worry Chase, there's going to be plenty!

 

 Look at these sweet little cousins at their own special table.

Ava is really into babies right now. She's almost 2 and talking sooo much.

After the baptism and lunch on Saturday, we headed over to the Fossil Creek Park.

This is just like that park in Billings that....oh no, wait. Billings has NOTHING like this.

 It was a beautiful day, well into the fifties. As you can imagine, at those extreme temperatures, us Montanans were concerned about heat stroke.

The park has a giant mammoth, prefect for dozens of Bassett/Joneses to climb.

Ava was happy to find the only snow left in the state to play in.

Ava left her own baby behind, but she managed to pluck one out of a stroller and walk off before anyone stopped her.

This is a great park, full of great physical activities to tire kids out.

 Caden and James, eating the brownies Ken made.

Here's Grandpa, demonstrating how he can push Ava AND Makayla, while Ken and Scott supervise from a safe distance.

I took Stan for a walk around the pond on the other side of the play area to talk him into seeing the benefits of moving to Colorado.

My efforts were thwarted by the distinctively duck/goose poopy smell emanating from the water behind these million dollar homes.

Maybe this view of our descendents playing together is a better selling point.

When we got home that evening, we all played a game together--princess dresses optional.

Sadly, on Sunday we made the long trek home. We left behind the quilt I made for Jordan and the 1921 silver dollar Grandpa contributed. Thanks for letting us be part of your big day, Jordan!!

Here's Jordan's quilt:

This is the one I made for Kailyn 18 months ago. 

They are identical except that Jordan's has more blue on the border

 so that she can tell which one is hers.