North Dakota Bound

Apparently you can only have ugly templates when you make your blog private and want to invite more than 50 people.  I'll work on that later.  No real juicy reason for making the blog private (sorry for those who though there might be), I just want to talk freely about our comings and goings between here and North Dakota and not worry about who is reading and taking note that we are out of town a lot.  I also like the idea of being more private with pictures etc of my kids.

Life is so busy right now.  Jason has been working a ton.  Moving bee yards back to Newcastle every morning at 5am and then at 8pm loading semis to send to North Dakota a lot of nights (you can only move bees early in the morning or late at night).  Needless to say we haven't seen much of him and when we do he is pretty worthless because he is so tired.  Ollie's last day of preschool is this Thursday, Jason is taking Friday off so we can finish things up and the plan is to head out Saturday morning.  We will drive to Blackfoot, Idaho and stay a day with Jason's grandparents, then head to Medora, North Dakota, stay the night there, then cruise into Gackle.  People are always asking what we are doing with our house while we are gone. We are closing it all up and have our neighbors and family keeping an eye on it.  We have some family that will stay in the house here and there while we are gone.  If anyone is in Northern CA and needs a place to stay let us know and we can give you the temporary alarm code.

The plan is for me to stay in ND until Jason's family goes to Lake Powell in August.  I am really hoping Jason will be able to go as well.  After that I will head back to CA with the boys so Ollie will be home to start pre-school again in September.  We aren't sure how much longer Jason will be in ND, but it could be as much as 6 weeks.

Lots of people ask me if I am looking forward to the summer.  I haven't really been, but at this point I am really looking forward to things slowing WAY down.  Sure I won't have friends or anything to do :) but I am looking forward to spending lots of time as a family.  We plan on taking a trip to Mt. Rushmore and a few other sites along the way, at some point this summer which should be fun.

Alright here is a picture dump, all of our happenings over the last couple weeks.

We watched the solar eclipse.

Max helped my mom with her watering, it was really cute.

Jason's sisters came to town which meant fun time with cousins.  I really wish we all lived closer.  Ollie and Ezra really seemed to get along and I would love to be around baby Taylor as she gets big.  Maybe someday :)  One afternoon we took the kids to the school by our house to play.

 It started to rain, luckily Ez was prepared.

Ezra is right between Ollie and Max's age, so he played well with Ollie and Max.  This day Ez and Max were having fun sticking these little flags in the ground.

 We went on a walk.  I just love these father/son walking shots.

Jason with his sisters.

I think Max looks so cute in these shoulder pictures.  Look at that cute grin.

Max in one of the semis.

 That is the look we get from Ollie when he thinks we are coming to take him away from grandma and papas.  Ollie and Ez loved riding the lawn mower and tractor.

 How freaking cute is Taylor??  She really is a sweet, content little baby.  My boys LOVE her.

The boys couldn't wait to celebrate Jenny's birthday.

The birthday girl, I won't mention her age ;)

 Memorial day Jason worked a half day.  I took the boys to the local cemetery for a memorial day tribute.  Senator McClintock, the Mayor of Auburn and and few others spoke.  They had a fly over and released doves, oh and a gun salute.  It was a really nice morning and my kids did pretty well.  It was a great way to start memorial day, I think we will make it a tradition.

 We did some baking.  This was the first time I let them both up to help.  Max did surprisingly well.

Taylor smiling.  Michelle totally lied to us and said Taylor didn't smile much or coo, well she defied her mother and did a lot of both, it was so cute.

As I mentioned before, the boys absolutely LOVE baby Taylor.  Ollie likes to kiss her hand and Max likes to gently pat her tummy.  This encounter was highly supervised, don't worry.

 Ollie and Ez liked to sneak outside where they would try to play without adult supervision.  I came out and found Ollie bossing Ez around, Ezra was a good sport. 

What? You think I'm too big for this??  Nahhh.

 On Memorial day we also helped my family clean out my grandpa's garage. Afterward we ate at my aunt and uncles house.  Max enjoyed lots of watermelon.

 That evening Ollie and I met Jan, Michelle and Taylor for frozen yogurt.  Ollie's creation could not be more different than mine.  He loves that place.

This week our friend Simon had his 4th birthday party at the fire station.  They learned about fire safety and then got to look at the fire trucks and engines, play with the hose and tour the station.  Ollie got shy and didn't want to do anything, but Max on the other hand tried it all.  He really loved the hose and would have stayed there all day if I let him. 

I made a couple of these for Ollie's preschool teachers as a thank you.  Ollie absolutely loves preschool.  We have been very pleased (except for the spelling mishap, if you are on instagram you know what I'm talking about).

Alright, I am all caught up. Our next posts will be from the beautiful, flat, mosquito filled state of North Dakota, assuming we make it through the 26 hour drive :)