Arizona Week 3

This week started out with the scattering of my Nana's ashes. (It ended up being Nana and Mimi's ashes that were scattered. Funny family story to go with that.) I left the kids with Grandma and Grandpa B and went with my parents and brother to Punkin Center (basically the middle of no where) and a plane flew by and released the ashes.

Wasn't quite what we expected and we ended up hiking through a thick patch of weeds and trees to make sure the job was done all the way. Note to self, next time you're going to the middle of no where don't wear Coach high heels. That afternoon we headed over to Frankie and Krista's for Boston's birthday dinner. I can't believe this kid is 8 already! I remember when he was born. (Cody and I had just started dating.) I remember going to Utah with Cody's family for his baby blessing and now he's 8 and getting baptised! Crazy! Anyways, Rilyn ejoyed her cousin time and so did Casen.

Later on in the week we went on a picnic to the park with Grandma.

kids love parks and Grandma took them to the park lots of times while we were in Arizona. Grandma took Rilyn to get a pedicure and she came home feeling like quite a princess.

I didn't even get a pedicure! Spoiled girl! On Thanksgiving the kids woke up to a surprise... Their Daddy! We flew him in the night before because he decided last minute he could come. Lets just say he was very lucky we could find him a flight last minute. The kids were so excited. Then we rushed off to the Turkey Trot where the kids and Grandma ran the one mile fun run and Grandpa, Aunt Kelly, and I ran the 10K.

 Grandpa did awesome considering the only training he did was mental. I was impressed. After the run we swung by Grandma and Grandpa B to show them our special guest then we ran home to clean up for the BIG HAKES FAMILY REUNION! I loved seeing everyones reaction to seeing Cody. It was great! Cody loved being home. Its been 2 years since hes been back to AZ and seen his family.

While he was back we had to eat at all of his favorite places so we ate at Joe's BBQ, Priates, Nellos, and Mattas. I'm pretty sure I gained 5 pounds in the 2 days he was there. It was crazy! We did Thanksgiving with my family too.

Aunt Jenni and Uncle Raymond and their kids flew in from Nashville and it was fun to catch up with them too. Maybe someday we'll get a chance to live in Nashville and see them a lot. While Cody was in AZ we went to the zoo.

The kids had fun running around with Dad. We also did a Lewers family picture since everyone was there (its a little easier than the Breinholt picture thats for sure!)

Cody was also lucky enough to be in AZ for Boston's baptism. It was great and Rilyn loved watching Boston get baptized. I think it helped her understand that when you get baptized you don't get crucified. She gets the two confused sometimes. After the baptism we went to Frankie and Krista's for Boston and Beckom's birthday party.

Krista did an awesome job. It was so cute and fun. There was even a pony ride! Rilyn loved it!

Arizona Week 2

This week we had a fun get together with some of our family. Rilyn got to play with her cousin Camryn and Casen got to play with his cousin Koen.

They both had so much fun and it was great to get to catch up with everyone. We really missed Vanessa though. I wish she could have come down to visit too. We went to the zoo again and this time Rilyn rode a camel!

She did so good and had a blast doing it. We also went to go see Santa.

We met up with all of our cousins and took a picture. There are 19 kids on the Breinholt side this year and since Danny is leaving on his mission the first week of December we decided to get together.

Santa was a little overwhelmed. At first he thought that all of the kids were brother and sister and that we were crazy (or poligimsts). It was pretty funny. We went to Bass Pro Shops to do it because they are awesome. They give you a free Santa picture and you can take your own, and they have this awesome set up with stuff to play with.

They ever had a merry go round this year. I wish we had a Bass Pro in Scranton! On Saturday my parents took me to the ASU vs U of A game. Its the first one I've been too and man its a good thing I didn't bring the kids. Some people got a little too intense and lets just say my ears felt like they were full of rainbows from all the colorful word choices around me.

The kids still rocked their ASU gear and even though we lost (so sad) it was a fun time and I'm sure next year we'll show those Wildcats whats up!

Arizona week 1

We made it to Arizona on Tuesday and boy was that an eventful day. Rilyn woke up bright and early Tuesday morning throwing up. Yuck! Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Cody and Aunt Andrea had driven in the night before and we were all going to cram into a mini van with at least 30 suitcases and my huge jogging stroller and 2 car seats and the dog to drive the 2 1/2 hours to Philly where we were flying out of. Needless to say after a long morning of mastering our tetris skills to load the car and of cleaning throw up out of my carpet over and over again we all hopped in the car and headed off to the airport. This is what the kids and I looked like crammed in the very back.

The kids kinda napped. We shared the backseat with Rilyn's barf bowl too. That was fun.

Somehow she magically made it the whole 5 hour flight without puking, she did sleep the whole flight though so that must have helped. Casen has sitting still issues so I couldn't wait until bed time when I got to hold him screaming until he finally passed out. Sorry other passengers. Anyways, we made it to AZ safe and sound and we've been having a blast catching up.

Rilyn got to play with her cousin Tatum

and Casen got to play with is cousin Titan. They've spent lots of time with both sets of grandparents already so they should be thoroughly spoiled by the end of the month. They got to stop by Great-Grandpa Billys too and loved splashing in his fountain.

We made a trip to the zoo this week.

We got a membership since I'm sure we'll want to go more than once. The kids loved it! They were in heaven! We don't have a zoo in Scranton and they've really missed getting to go. I ran in the shun the sun half marathon on Saturday so that I wouldn't totally slack off of marathon training. I did ok. I ran it in 2:18. My favorite part was my cheering section.

My mom, Aunt Kelly, and the kids all came and cheered me on with signs. It was awesome. This week I got to be a part of something very special for our family. Our oldest nephew, Danny, is going on his mission in a few more weeks to Pittsburgh, PA and I was able to go to the temple when he went through for the first time. It was great and I'm so proud of him for being such an awesome example to our family. He's worked very hard to get ready for his mission and he is going to be such a great missionary.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was so much fun this year. We started the day with some yummy pumpkin pancakes.

Rilyn was the most perfect Cinderella I have ever seen! Her class did a cute little parade after we dropped them off. It was so cold!!

I think it was like 32* outside (thats why she doesn't look too thrilled to be outside). Even Casen didn't want to run around like his normal crazy self it was so cold!

Anways, she was the only Cinderella and she looked so dang cute! After they walked around the parents a couple of times the classes stopped and sang us their Halloween songs. It was so cute! (http://youtu.be/koDmfaEa92s) The kids went trick or treating on our street.

Casen was Superman and he kept Princess Cinderella safe all night! (Just incase you were wondering, Casen is not crying in his close up, that is his cheese face and it is very hard to catch on the camera) Later that night we went over to the Lundbergs to have some fun. Our trunk or treat was moved to Tuesday because of the snow and we had so much fun there. Aunt Cassidy had to help me out because my costume made it hard to move my arms.

Rilyn and Casen didn't mind. They LOVE Aunt Cassidy. We decorated our trunk all cute and the kids got to dress up again. There were a couple of Cinderellas this time. Rilyn and her friend Savanna walked the stage together to show off their pretty costumes.

Ashlee, Cassidy and I were Rock, Paper, Scissors but Ash had to work so I carried a picture of Ashlee all night.

Cassidy kept reminding me that she was winning all night (Scissors cuts Paper).

I needed you Ash!