Spring break 2019

We had a fabulous Spring Break, despite the fact that we just stayed home! It was wonderful! We stayed home because:

• It was Chris and Davis's Spring Break, but not Tina's. We were going to go to Island Park, but . . . 
• This story made us think that it was maybe not a good idea.
• So we stayed home. And it was glorious.

On MONDAY--
We went to the Lego Movie 2. At first, I wasn't the biggest fan, just like with the first LEGO movie. However, by the end, I decided that it was pretty good! And Davis and Reagan loved it! We also had adventures with our car, which we found out later needed some help!

on TUESDAY--
We went to the Public Library, because they were having a LEGO party. I promise the rest of our week didn't have to do with LEGOs! It was pretty fun though!

On WEDNESDAY--
We celebrated the first day of spring by going to get free ice cream at Dairy Queen:

Reagan enjoyed it.
Then we went to the Museum of Idaho. They had an exhibit about Archimedes, which was super cool. But, as always, the kids play place was the favorite!

On THURSDAY--
We got the teeter-totter set up by Dad, which was awesome. The swing for our tree is soon to come!

The kids also played Candy Land in the morning, which they loved. I'm not sure what rules they played with, but they sure had fun!

Oh, and also, Davis lost a tooth!

The tooth fairy forgot to leave him money on Thursday night, which he was very upset about. He left a note for her, and she gave twice what she normally does, so all was forgiven!

On FRIDAY--
We played at the Artitorium, which was great fun! The kids had a lot of fun playing with their toys there! We also went to dinner at Chick Fil-A, and Chris saw some long-time family friends there, so that was fun.

On SATURDAY--
Daddy wasn't feeling good, so instead of going to the Museum of Clean, we just hung out at home, and took a quick trip to the mall. We will do the Museum later!

Also, to note, we are now OUT OF CREDIT CARD DEBT! This is a really big deal, and we are really grateful to not have to pay for it any more. And, we got some major blessings with being able to pay for the fixing of our car too, without going into more debt! Hallelujah! Feel free to contribute to our gofundme page, though. Just kidding!

It's been a great week, with lots of blessings! And now, starting this week, I'M ON SPRING BREAK! Yay!!

Halloween 2017

Halloween 2017 was definitely a success! Even though we are currently undergoing issues with unemployment and Chris, we were still able to have fun with the whole holiday! First, we had the ward trunk-or-treat:

Davis was a pirate for this, because no masks were allowed. Reagan chose to wear the Tinkerbell costume, because she could.

The day before Halloween, we went to see the hay bales in town that were decorated to look like Star Wars characters:

They do this every year. We really should make it a tradition to go see them, because they are very cool, and not too far away!
Then, of course, the pumpkin carving:

Davis wanted his pumpkin to be a ghost, and Reagan wanted hers to be a kitty cat. Chris is an awesome and skilled pumpkin carver, as you can see!
On Halloween, this little girl sat with me in the family room and watched Halloween kids shows while I was folding laundry. I know it's not too exciting, but there you have it. This was the only part of the festivities where she wore the original costume I got for Halloween, which is Belle. But that;s not really the point of getting costumes, right?

On Halloween, we went to the Halloween party at the library. It was a lot of fun!

Reagan was the very first one to dance along with the music before the festivities. And she decided to wear her Snow White dress for it.
And then, the real event, the trick-or-treating:

Davis was a storm trooper, and Reagan was Snow White. Notice the snow coats under their costumes. I love living in Idaho! We mostly went to see family, which was super fun!

This morning, Davis was disappointed that we still had Halloween decorations in our house. So, we promptly took care of those and put up the Thanksgiving decorations.

Davis is sitting by the boy scarecrow, and Reagan is sitting by the girl. Because duh!

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!!

Salt Lake half marathon/a week in Park City

We traveled to Utah on April 20th for the Salt Lake half marathon that Chris was running on the 21st. We stayed in Park City, with our good friends who got a condo for a really good deal. Chris stayed through Sunday, and then went home to work, and we stayed and played in Utah. It was a super fun week!

 Chris did the race in 2 hours and 37 minutes! Yay! He never tries to break his personal record, and some other runners said that he was their pacer in the race, because he is so consistent!

 Chris and Davis with their medals for the race.

 Some other racers gave their medals to Davis and Reagan

Our condo had a heart-shaped bathtub in it. Marcela's brother came to visit, and the kids played in the tub after they realized that the pool was outdoors and COLD!!

 Kids riding bikes in the parking garage of the condo.

Kids sleeping in the pull-out bed together.

 In the trolley in downtown Park City

At Utah Olympic Park

 Reagan got her favorite "gull" at IKEA

 Is there anything better than playing with your best friend and the water? I submit that there is not!

At the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point. This museum is like a paradise for kids. It pretty much is an entire museum of places to play for kids. But it is also really easy to lose your kids! I found a lost kid in it, and I feel like I was constantly looking for my kids! It was super fun though! The internet said that most people spend 2 1/2 hours there. We were there for like 5 hours! We thought that our girls would take naps there. Ha!

On our way home, we were able to see Whitney and Noah! It was fun to play in Salt Lake with them!

Davis is THREE!!

We had a fabulous little party for a fabulous little boy today! He is so much fun!
The one request that he had for his birthday was cake and ice cream, so we delivered on that!
I made an elephant cake for him, which has now been through three generations.
Here is me on my third birthday with an elephant cake:

 And here is Davis's elephant cake:

 Reagan liked it too. It was a warm-up for her birthday in a couple of weeks! She knew exactly what to do with it!

 

We also had some great friends come to help us with the present opening, like Alvin:

 And Great Grandma and Grandpa:

 And Damian and his grandma:

And Grandma and Reagan (playing with the balloon that Great Grandma and Grandpa brought):

 And Damian's mommy (sorry for the blur):

In addition to cake and ice cream, we opened presents and gave hugs to all those who gave them:

And Davis got a bike!

After the party, we took naps (Well, Daddy and Reagan took a nap) and then went to the festival of trees and saw a very cool tree with a train theme that we visited like 15 times. We also saw Olaf!

And then we went to a pizzeria and got pizza. . . and olives!

All in all, it was a fantastic and well-celebrated birthday!

Things I want to remember about Davis as a 2-year-old:

• He is so sweet to everyone. He is especially sweet to his little sister, and loves her so much. in fact, when she cries, he usually yells and cries too because it makes him very sad to see his sister sad.
• He USUALLY loves to share, which is pretty unusual for someone his age. He is just a kind little boy.
• Whenever I am upset, he tries to make me feel better by saying, "Don't worry, mommy. You are big!" because being big really helps things a lot. :)
• He has a profound love for his family. He loves mommy, daddy, Reagan, Grandma, Grandpa . . . he loves everyone in his family!
• He knows his ABC's and his numbers and colors. Not because I taught him, but because he is intensely curious about it all.
• And countless other reasons--we love you Davis Christopher Rusch!