Road Trip to Grandma & Grandpa's

It's pretty obvious how much I adore my parents...I tell any of my friends who might be far from home that whenever they want to do a trip to go to Southern California to my house...Well when I got back from St George I got the sad news that our good friends the Mishler's were moving to Arizona. Heather and I had talked about going to Valencia but hadn't gone yet. I told her it was no big deal that we didn't go, but she found a couple days to squeeze in for a road trip with our 3 kids ages 21 months, 20 months and 2 months old. Are we crazy!? Yes, and was it fun? Yes, so thanks for the trip!

The ride down, I thought went pretty well. Kena and Joe read books, played with puzzles, ate snacks (so many that they didn't want McDonalds chicken nuggets, and played hide and seek. Benson slept, ate, and slept, he was such a good baby. Joe and Kena then slept after lunch until we got there. For a 5 1/2 hour drive, I was pretty impressed with how it went.
Yay, out of the car, exploring the backyard and hoping that Ellie stayed away from them.
Swimming in Grandma Sue's big bath tub.
This is what Benson thought of the bath fun, actually what he thinks of his cute mom!

Kena loves to clean up messes, kiss, nurture, be mom's helper and clean Joe...obviously no arguments from Joe

OK, Joe never wanted to sleep when the big boys, Uncle JK and Uncle Ben were playing ping pong or tennis with their friends. I had to put him in his playpen where he screamed bloody murder, and I could only do this when "mama" wasn't home. She came home and was shocked and my dad, Mr. Toughie gave her permission to go get him. Not only to get him and his blanket, but to get him a popsicle too. I try not to be too mean, but I couldn't be upset when I saw his super swollen eyes and when he came out he just kept saying mommy mommy. sigh...it was pretty sad. To help make up for it, he got to share 2 popsicles with grandpa. He would look at everyone and say nummy after every lick, like thank you for saving me!

All the kids relaxing with Grandma Sue when we were done swimming.
OK Joe, that hurts! Thanks still to Sammy for keeping this tractor at my parents. Joe just loves to sit on it!
Swimming with "mama"
Oh, the diving board! I sometimes tend to think my baby is older than he is. I was jumping off with Kena & Joe in my arms just about giving my mom a heart attack! "Jen, you are going to bla bla bla (can't remember), but Joe can't hold his breath for that long." Luckily we jumped off and because I concentrated so hard, took in a lot of water, and love these kids, they barely went under. Thanks for the relaxing couple days and mom thanks for all your help! On the way back we left at night and the kids slept. Thanks Ben for letting us borrow your family! Thanks Heather for the company and for driving!