Spring Break

Brandon and his table clinic partner, Greg were invited to present their table clinic last weekend at the Operative Dentistry Dental Convention which happened to be in a convenient location for us...

Chicago.

It just so happened that the week following this convention was Brandon's spring break so we all made a trip out of it.

My dad was invited to the luncheon and made a trip to see all of Brandon's hard work. I would have liked to have been there to see it but I stayed back to hold the fort down. I heard it was quite the attraction. They did a good job. Back at Grandma and Grandpa's house it was hard keeping the kids inside. Freshly fallen snow had just fallen the night before we arrived. As we were leaving the airport Brayden took a look outside and said, "It's Christmas!" "Mommy, did the snow wake up?" Here she is with some of her cousins. (Brooke, Kaleb, Brayden, Blake) These two were a riot together.

I think these are my dad's boots I'm wearing. I wasn't planning on doing much in the snow. I've never been a snow person.

Brayden didn't take after me though. It's hard to keep her out of it...especially eating it. Uncle Randy stepped in to play with the kids and make a snowman.

Brayden was giving the snowman a kiss...either that or eating it.

And here is the final product with a princess hat, princess gloves, beaded necklaces, a hula skirt, and swedish fish for lips.

It was pretty cool.

The convention was only a few days and when Brandon got back we all made a trip to my dad's office for a cleaning. It's nice to be able to step in whenever we visit to do some cleanings.

I didn't get a picture of Brayden this time but she was a trooper. She especially liked the polishing cup...but only on her fingernail. Maybe next time we'll make it into her mouth.

Brayden was invited to her cousin Ally's princess tea party.

I wasn't there to see them all dressed up in their princess dresses but when we got there they all had their hair done up with sparkly clips and hair glitter, their nails were painted with sparkly nail polish, and they had eye shadow on and Brayden still had cupcake residue on her face. She was the youngest one there and the poor girl didn't have much hair to be "done up" but they worked with what they had. Cousin Tyler came by for a visit. Kaleb's wearing the same shirt Tyler wore at his age.

Brayden had a lot of fun coloring with her cousin Chelsea.

Giving hugs and kisses good-bye.

Our timing couldn't have been more perfect making this trip because my grandparents decided to come for my uncle's 60th birthday.

Four generation picture.

We had a big family gathering for my uncle's birthday. It was so nice to visit with everyone and we were fed well. Brayden and the kids played in the basement

I love the Children's Museum out there. We always find time to make the trip. I wish so badly we had one like it where we live.

There's so much for the kids to do. We can't even get it all in in one day.

I thought this was such a cute picture.

This is what it would be like to have multiples of Kaleb.

It would be so much fun I'm sure.

Brayden got some of her own lip gloss at the princess party so she must have thought she was at liberty to use any lip gloss she wanted....

She got into Grandma's make-up and surprisingly this is as bad as it was.

She actually put it only on her lips.

Well....

a few days later she went back and got into it again only this time she wanted to try the other tube that was there, only it wasn't lip gloss...

Once again, I'm really glad she got it only on her lips.

She's not the only one that was getting into mischief.

Kaleb's favorite place to hide out was in the coat closet.

This kid is becoming quite the handful.

While we were there we came to find out that Brayden isn't at all afraid of snakes, lizards, or any other reptile.

My brother Bruce got out his kids snakes for them to play with.

She was making me nervous with how comfortable she was with it.

No matter how many times we would tell her to not poke it in the face or look it in the eyes she just wouldn't listen.

We gave Kaleb a chance but he didn't seem to care and just pushed it away.

These reptiles went along great with the theme that we used for Kaleb's birthday party. His birthday is next week so while we were visiting we threw a little party for him and gave the kids a safari expedition through the heart of the JUNGLE!

I'll post those pictures and video next week.

While we were gathered at the party we were able to get a nice family photo. There was no sweat, no tears, it was free, and it only took a few minutes. That's the way I like to do family photos.

We had a great time. It was sad to see it end.