Pat's Run

I forgot to blog about Pat's Run in April.

Ty and Leo both ran.

Ty was done before we got down there with the camera, but Leo did a great job in the kid's run.

(Even though he was a little disappointed that we had to leave behind the bounce houses in order to participate.)

If you ask Leo what his favorite part was, he'll tell you it was the train ride over there.

Hooray for the light rail.

Leo and Jay have decided that going to bed at 7:30 is way too lame for them. Now when we put them in bed they just play for literally hours and hours. Last night it was after 10 when they fell asleep. And that leads to mid-afternoon scenes like these:

And scenes like those lead to too much energy at bedtime.

Which leads to hours and hours of playing.

:(

Grand Canyon

On our way back from Utah we stopped at the Grand Canyon.

Leo kept calling it "The Big Hole."

The boys were pretty excited to climb on all the rocks.

Though their favorite part was probably the pool at the hotel.

This was my favorite part:

Utah

We went to Utah for a week earlier this month.

The highlight of the trip (In Leo's opinion any way)

was the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point.

There were so many hands-on exhibits that the boys loved.

They got to design their own dinosaur:

Build dams in the sand:

And then watch them break:

And wash all the dino-villages down river:

There were tons of things to touch:

And they even got to excavate dinosaur bones:

They had a blast! Leo is really into dinosaurs right now and he was in heaven. He could have stayed there all day.

The biggest disappointment of the trip was the lack of snow. We were all prepared for cold weather and even planned to go sledding if we could, but there was no snow to be found. It ended up snowing on our drive home so we stopped on the side of the road to let the boys play.

Of course all of our snow gear was buried under everything else so they had to tough it out with no gloves, hats or coats. Which meant that they only lasted about 5 minutes before they started to cry because they were too cold. Maybe next time.

Living in Arizona has its advantages. 

Like being able to play in Papa's irrigation.

In April.

I think we might die when it actually gets hot.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I can't handle the heat any more.

Why do people live here again?

Oh yeah. 

It's because this is where all of our family is.

Jay's been practicing to be a bagpipe player when he grows up.

I think he's almost got it.

Jay's Birthday

On Saturday Jay Alvin turned 3, and we actually celebrated.

(Last year we ended up doing absolutely nothing for his birthday.

I'm not even sure why, but there were no presents,

no cake and ice cream and no party.

We're lame, I know.)

 In true Reber fashion we made Jay eat breakfast with his presents sitting on the table to torture him.

 He was pretty excited about the watermelon.

 We let him open one present after breakfast.

 This is the moment he unwrapped it enough to tell that it was a soccer ball.

He was pretty excited, and he and Leo have been fighting over the ball ever since.

 After breakfast we went down to Cannery Row and rented a surrey.

What you can't tell from the picture is that it's absolutely freezing outside.

When we left home it was nice and sunny, but by the time we rounded the bay we were in a cloudy, windy mess.

We ended up riding for about 5 minutes and turning around.

We took the surrey back and went to Ghiradelli for ice cream instead.

(Funny story:

One of the workers at Ghiradelli had a laser pointer.

My kids totally chased it all over the floor like cats.)

By the time we finished our ice cream the sun had come out so we went down to the beach for a while.

  We climbed out on the rocks and found a little tide pool.

 Leo and Ty even found some hermit crabs.

 And then Leo fell in and got soaked up to his waist.

 Once we got back home Jay promptly made a mud hole in the back yard and proceeded to dirty up his snowmobile. (Making mud is one of his new favorite things. He generally uses the water from the fridge instead of the hose, so there's always a lovely trail of mud from the back yard to the kitchen. It's awesome.)

And then he got to open his other present:

New clothes and Skittles.

We ended the night with cake and ice cream and remembered why we hadn't done anything to celebrate the year before. Having a birthday is hard work! Especially when it's not your birthday.

Some of Jay's favorite things:

This outfit:

 He finally fell in love with those fire pant and wants to wear them all the time.

He does not love sitting on Ty's bike, but how can we not put him there when he's wearing those pants?

Riding his bike.

Holding babies.

 As long as they're babies that "come to our house and then go away."

He's not on board with getting a new baby of our own.

Having his picture taken.

He always wants to make this face though:

I have to trick him into making this one, which is just so much cuter:

 (Funny story: Whenever I take his picture I say, "Jay, smile!" And he says,

in his most gravelly voice and with a straight face, "Smile.")

And, of course, burying toys in mud.