Jimmy * Esther * Zeke * Lilly

Last Friday, Lilly’s paternal grandparents, Dave & Linda, arrived for a visit! It was so fun having them here! We had been looking forward to them coming, and I could hardly wait for them to see how adorable Lilly is in person. Her personality, and mannerisms are darling! Zeke bonded with Grandpa Dave very fast, they played in the toy room together, and the rest was history. Zeke always wanted to make sure Grandpa Dave was watching his tricks, and stunts.

They brought huge suckers for the kids, Zeke used his as a drumstick before it was out of the package, and broke it into a lot of small pieces :)

pure joy

Saturday afternoon we went up Little Cottonwood Canyon for a little adventure walk.

the boys

We went to my favorite place – Cafe Rio, for dinner. Mmmm…mmmm…MMM!

Lilly walking Grandma Linda all around outside Cafe Rio

Hanging out before bedtime. Lilly loved Linda’s bracelets and would put them on, and then pretend like she was going to share by holding them out, then she’d pull them back and smile. She’s such a little tease!

We sure enjoyed the time we were able to spend together, and it was so cute because about 10 minutes after they left on Sunday, Zeke asked, “When is Grandpa Dave and Grandma Linda coming back?” Trying to explain to him that they live an 18-hour drive away is tricky. In his mind, driving 5 minutes to the library “takes forever” and “it’s so far away” :)

Thanks for taking time out of your vacation to come visit us Dave and Linda! We love you!!

I have some catching up to do with the pictures I want to post on my blog, so here they come :-)

We went to Cowabunga Bay with Samantha’s family, a big thanks to Grandma Charlotte! (Jimmy and Zeke getting off the little pink slide. Carlin is holding Lilly next to Grandma on the left.) We had a lot of fun!

Cute kids!

Say “cheese!”

Seven Peaks water park was also a lot of fun this year with Lilly and Zeke being another year older, and I love Lilly’s Princess towel she got for her birthday :)

Last Monday we went to Provo to hike up to the Y with Dave, and Kirty, and their boys. We stopped at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts on the way. Zeke and Lilly were fascinated with seeing how they make doughnuts.

The hike was fun. It always looks shorter from the bottom, but it’s actually a good hike. Jimmy, Carlin, and I were all sore the next day, it was worth it though.

Finally, we made it to the Y!

The Y is so huge, bumpy, and steep. Zeke wanted to run down it, he said he had super powers.

Lilly wanted to keep crawling further up the mountain :)

Last Tuesday was Zeke’s final T-Ball game. (Zeke is in the middle with his arm up.)

Funny pose

Zeke with his MVP medal for T-ball. Fun times!

I had one of those perfectly wonderful moments. While Lilly took her nap, I took the opportunity to have some one-on-one time with Zeke. Usually I have him take a nap too so I can get things done. Zeke wanted to play outside in our dirt with his dump trucks. We filled up the trucks with rocks and dirt, then dumped them in a pile. We made a house for our trucks, a fire pit, and a fence. We got dirt in our eyes, dirt on our clothes, and dirt in the house -since we left the door open to listen for Lilly- but it was all worth it! While we were playing, Zeke said things to me like, “Mommy, look at my truck”, My tractor is big huh Mommy!”, “Mom, put dirt in your tractor.” and my favorite thing he said while we were playing was, “Mom, I love you Mom”.

While we were playing, I noticed how lovely the name “mom” is, and how delightful it is to bear that title. Before we were blessed with children, I wanted more than anything for a child to call me “mom”. I think I’ve taken advantage of hearing “mom” so much, and I have forgotten to appreciate the blessing of being called that most beautiful name, “mom”.  I caught a glimpse of Heaven, playing with Zeke, and treasuring each time he addressed me.

After a half hour of playing, I told Zeke I needed to go inside to get some things done before Lilly woke up. After 2 minutes of being inside, Zeke asked me if I got all my things done so we could play some more. I thought for a second, and said yes. We played until Lilly woke up, and had lots more fun. I have 2 loads of laundry waiting to be folded, dishes to be washed, and other things on my to-do list, but really, that moment of playing with Zeke in the dirt was priceless! I’m not saying I’m the perfect mom who always drops everything to play with my kids,  there are a lot of times where I feel guilty for cleaning while I could be playing, but today was just a great reminder for me to cherish being called, “mom”, and enjoy these moments while my kids are little, and still want to play with me.

(PS- I also love how Lilly calls me “Ma!” it’s very cute! :)

I tried to get a picture of the dirt around Zeke’s eye, the sunscreen made it stick really well

I sure love this little guy!