March 2014

The week of March 18, we spent a few days at Oma's house for Spring Break. We spent one of those days at the children's museum in Phoenix. The boys touched everything, tried everything, climbed everything and when they were done with all the exhibits on all the floors they asked to do it all again... so we did.

March also brought the end of season hockey banquet and most importantly the end of hockey season. Cole was so excited for his new hockey shirt and puck. Grant is a very hands on artist and learned about paper maiche. His jeans show just how much he enjoyed that experience. Cole finally gained enough confidence and strength to make it part way up the climbing wall at the Aquaplex.

March always brings the beginning of baseball. We went to a Spring Training game on March 7, 2014. Of course, it was a Giants game. They played the Royals. Little did we know that they would be facing each other in the World Series later in the year.

Over Spring Break, I took the boys with a large group of friends and kids from the ward to explore Chocolate Falls. Needless to say all kids were sufficiently muddy and dirty by the end of the day. Sadly, the water was not flowing much this season.

Grant played in the 8U FYHA jamboree again. He played a few of the games as goalie, his first passion in hockey.

Barry and Sooner up to their usual ways.

I still do not understand this. I woke up one morning, opened my bedroom door and found these two bent over in prayer? pleading? I have no idea. They thought it was so funny, they did it the next morning too.

Oma came for a visit on one of her days off. We played outside riding bikes, driving the Jeep and playing baseball. The boys always enjoy their time with Oma.

February 2014

Cole earned his green dot in hockey. We watched the Super Bowl to cheer on the Broncos. The boys were super excited and made signs. Sadly, the excitement died quickly as the Broncos didn't do well starting very early in the game.

Cole got to dress up for cowboy day at preschool. Tyler just had fun dressing up at home. Grant loves to dress up Tyler in his hockey gear. The pantsless hat ensemble was all Tyler's own creation.

On February 17, 2014, we took a day trip to the Petrified Forest. We enjoyed hiking around such a unique area of the country. We also wore out the boys.

January 2014

January was a fun, crazy mish mash of same old same old. We had hockey, gymnastics, friends over to play and of course, naps in the aisle at Target. 

Below is Chad dressed up as and impersonating our friend Dave Schultz.

Grandma Mellen came at the end of January for a long weekend visit. While here we took her to Sedona for some easy hiking and sightseeing.

Family photos

A major event for 2013 was that we had our first official family photos taken ever. A friend in our ward is a photographer on the side. He took some for us when the sunflowers in full bloom in August. I was one happy mama to finally have some pictures for our wall.

December 2013

This is how we opened December 2013. Thankfully it only stayed like this for about 10 minutes before the rest came off.

As always, December was full of celebration, parties, family and friends. Our tree goes up right after Thanksgiving every year. This year we decorated it on Sunday night. The boys love looking at the ornaments, putting on the hooks, wrapping the lights around the tree and opening the Christmas season.

The other thing that we do fairly early in December is our annual graham cracker house decorating party. This year was a full house. We had to borrow a folding table so that everyone had a space to work. We put Grant and his friends standing at the folding table, Cole and his friends at the dining room table and Tyler and Alexander Studley at the Cars table. There was so much frosting, sugar, candy and graham cracker everywhere by the end it was like a bomb went off. It was a success again though. Every year, the crowd is different the masterpieces vary and it gets just slightly more wild and loud than the year before. It's a tradition I hope to continue as long as I have kids at home. I think even the boys as high schoolers will have a good time with it.

We were blessed with a pre-Christmas visit from Aunt Brooke. She came just in time for a giant blizzard to roll in and roll out. We did manage a day trip to the Grand Canyon and gave her lots of snuggle time with Sooner. She came with us to our ward Christmas party and would have come to the annual bar association Christmas party but for the blizzard.

We managed to maintain some normalcy in December. Tyler still went to open gymnastics on occasion and the boys still played hockey.

We also got a couple days visit from Brad and Amanda and David, Melissa and Andrew on their way to Phoenix for Christmas. It was fun to spend some quality one on one time with my little brothers. It doesn't happen often. There was a rousing game of Monopoly involved, a pregnant Amanda and an announcement by David and Melissa that #2 was on the way. We took a quick trip out to Walnut Canyon to explore the ruins. Unfortunately, due to the blizzard we had had, the stairs down to the ruins were closed off. Grant lost a tooth on December 23 but decided to wait until December 24 to put it under his pillow so he could have a Santa and a tooth fairy visit on the same night.

We are a tradition keeping family so we put out the obligatory letters to Santa, the cookies and chocolate milk and the carrots for the reindeer on Christmas Eve. This year Grant was able to scribe for Cole and Tyler (and maybe help with ideas for what to say and ask for). Grandma Mellen was nice enough to add a pooping and farting Santa on a toilet to our collection of Christmas decorations. We put the cookies and milk next to it on Christmas Eve. The boys were also able to open one present each. They each opened their dinosaur digging kits. The one downside to Christmas this year was that Chad got deathly ill. He was dead to the world so I was on my own for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning traditions. Chad was so bummed to miss it all.

Of course, Grant and Cole were up before light ready to open presents. We let them pillage their stockings and gifts from Santa until Tyler woke up and Chad could move himself from the bed to the couch to try to participate. The boys got all sorts of new toys and sports gear. Grant got a BB gun and a new hockey stick. Barry took his obligatory spot in the middle of the pile of used wrapping paper. It wouldn't be Christmas without him in the middle of it all.

After presents we had aebleskivers, packed up the presents and the car and drove to Phoenix to spend a few days with Oma, Kitty, Shelli, David and Brad. It was a full house at Oma's house but it was fun. The boys and I got some good quality Kitty and Shelli time. We also had some Glenn family photos taken. Chad was able to make it to the photos and back to the couch. By the day after Christmas Chad was doing better so we were able to go play mini-golf with the boys and try and recover some of the lost holiday with Chad.

November 2013

November was a busy and active month. We hiked the McMillan Mesa Trail on November 2, 2013. It's a fun, easy, in town hike that gave us a great view of Flagstaff. The kids always love hiking and munching on suckers.

On November 11, 2013, we took advantage of a free state park day to explore Montezuma's Well and Castle with the kids for the first time. I hadn't been to either of these places since 4th grade. The boys loved the well. We started at the top then hiked down to where the water drains out into the creek. We waded in the freezing cold water and the fall color changes were beautiful. We took I-17 down then drove through Oak Creek and Sedona on the way home.

Grant discovered card castles and lost another tooth. Tyler figured out how to get on his bed when he was ready for diaper changes.

Chad celebrated his birthday on November 13, 2013. We got him a turtle pie from Baskin Robbins. His biggest birthday present was a horseback trail ride. He'd never ridden a horse. We were able to take the trail ride during one of the first snows of the season. It was gorgeous, peaceful and so much fun. We were the only ones on the ride with the trail guide. Chad had a semi-good time on the ride. He enjoyed it was but uncomfortable being on a giant animal and had sore legs for awhile afterwards.

It doesn't seem to matter how much or how little snow we have the boys always find a way to enjoy it. Grant builds snowmen with the scantest amounts of snow and Cole and Tyler sled down the driveway even if there're only 2 inches of powder. This is why Flagstaff is awesome.

November culminated with Thanksgiving. I think I love Thanksgiving more than Christmas. It's such a fun holiday for me. Shelli, Papa, Janet, Annie, Dave, Boston and Charlie came to dinner. Shelli and the boys made the rolls. Chad, Grant and Cole played in the turkey bowl in the morning. Each of the boys had a Thanksgiving program before school let out for the break. We went and did some family bowling on Thanksgiving weekend.

October 2013

For Columbus Day weekend we headed to Tucson to visit Papa and Janet and see their new house. We arrived late Friday night. Saturday we tried to go to Reid Park Zoo but by the time we got there it was closing because they were setting up for Zoocuson. We had to make a quick change of plans and go to Desert Museum instead. We saw all sorts of cool and interesting animals. The funnest part was stamping Cole's torso. You're supposed to pay for a stamp book and collect the foot print stamps throughout the museum but who needs a stamp book when you have Cole's belly. Grant loved stamping Cole at every stop. Eventually, Tyler and Grant got in on the action but Cole definitely had the most stamps. On Saturday night we had a delicious BBQ of ribs and steak. While we were preparing for dinner I walked straight into the closed screen door at full speed, knocked it off the track and landed flat on my back fighting the attacking screen. That morning I broke the shower head off of Papa's guest shower trying to fix the crazy spray.

On Sunday, I woke up with the stomach flu which put a damper on some of our plans. Chad and I still went and stayed the night at Marriott Starr Pass Resort while the boys stayed with Papa and Janet. We ate at a yummy new restaurant in downtown Tucson. I forgot my swimsuit at Papa's house but Chad hit the hot tub and tried out the lazy river. The resort is high on the mountain so the view as amazing. The boys a BBQ and feet in the pool with Papa and Janet.

We got home Monday afternoon and took a walk with the boys to the park by Papa's house. On the way home Chad was leading the boys in a rabbit chase. Cole wasn't watching where he was talking and ran right into a cactus before Chad could grab him. He got a good chunk of cactus in his hand and screamed the entire walk back. Papa put on his dentist magnifiers, grabbed some tweezers and pulled out the tiny remaining spines. I somehow ended up with a big spine in my thigh and Chad had some in his hands too from helping Cole. Before our walk Cole and Grant were running around Papa's car and Cole smacked his head straight into the rearview mirror of Papa's car. That night while getting ready for dinner outside, Janet walked straight into the sliding door that Papa and Chad had put back on earlier in the day. She stabbed it with a knife and knocked it back off the track.

Tuesday we took the boys to the zoo, ate delicious Magpie's pizza then dropped off Chad at UA for his preceptor preview. He's trying to recruit 4th years to do rotations in Flagstaff with him. While Chad was at the function, I took the boys to visit Donau & Bolt and see Papa one last time. When we finished there we parked at UA and played on the grass until Chad finished up. We then headed home to Flagstaff.

On October 16, Cole went on a field trip to the fire station with school like last year. On October 17, Grant participated in his school's annual jog-a-thon. He had a great time running laps with his classmates. Last year he only made it two laps because he was really sick. This year he was able to redeem himself and ran quite a few laps. Cole and Tyler cheered on Grant and they all got popsicles at the end. Tyler gets to go to open gymnastics when we don't have anything going on. He loves to jump in the foam pit and climb on the giant shapes.

Of course, October is Halloween season. Our house was decorated up for the season starting with Cole's zombie birthday party at the end of September. Grant wore three different costumes and Cole wore two. For the ward Halloween party, Grant and Tyler were zombies and Cole wore an Indiana Jones costume he found at the Mountain School clothing exchange. For the school Halloween parties, Cole decided to be a zombie and Grant decided to be a vampire. However, for trick or treating later that night Grant changed his mind again and put on his hockey gear to be a hockey player. Tyler was a zombie all season and loved wearing his bloody t-shirt and scary face paint. Cole, Tyler and I spent a night in Phoenix with Oma because I had a hearing in Phoenix. Cole and Oma carved a pumpkin together, which Cole was proud of all season long. Just before Halloween, Chad and the boys carved another, larger jack-o-lantern. We didn't pass out candy this year. We took the boys to Walnut Meadows for trick-or-treating. The boys didn't last very long though so their haul wasn't quite as plentiful as last year.

The boys got worked up one night and started belly sliding across the ottoman:
http://youtu.be/tDroVQ0wmBg
http://youtu.be/3hnD-wVujSY

The home teachers were over one evening and all of the sudden during their visit, Tyler started singing his version of "If You're Happy and You Know It." A couple of days later I convinced him to sing it for me on camera. It was a feat to get him to do it.
http://youtu.be/OOfdOufIWjc

These are my other attempts, which show just how coy, cute and stubborn this boy can be:
http://youtu.be/JCDw8zE1HuI
http://youtu.be/-5I6goz_Tys
http://youtu.be/17Jchxs8x_g

Cole turns 5

On September 17, Cole turned five years old. He got to celebrate his birthday with us, Oma and Grammie, who came up for the day to visit. Cole started his special day with honey puff pancake, one of his favorite things. Chad bought him a Smurf cake for his birthday cake. We had basagna and asparagus for dinner, per Cole's request. He received a Spiderman mask, a Superman shooter thing, some zombie t-shirts, a Ninjago glow in the dark t-shirt (Oma and mom both got him the same one) and his very own baby doll (so he and Tyler don't have to fight over them anymore). A week or so later he received a zombie bowling set and some other zombie things from Grandma and Kitty.

On September 27, we had Cole's birthday party. It was a zombie birthday party. Grant, Gavin Peterson and Joel Ward dressed up like zombies while all of Cole's friends ran around and shot them with Nerf guns. I made red velvet cupcakes topped with zombie brains, candy bones and a glow in the dark finger. The kids each got to keep their Nerf guns. They loved running around chasing the zombies and shooting them. Cole has a good group of friends who were all very generous with gifts of superhero items, art supplies and even cash.

We love our 5 year old Cole. He's growing up fast and has decided that now that he's 5 there are things he can now do that he couldn't before. We're going to work on getting him to ride a bike, buckle his own seat belt and stop the finger sucking. Cole is a very social boy. He loves school and his friends there. He's working on learning his letters and writing. Cole still loves his Netflix and video games. His sense of humor is hilarious and he's usually the comic relief of the family.

September 2013

On September 1, we went camping again. We went to one of our favorite spots. Cole ate his usual bag of chips. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. We took a small hike, played catch, shot the bow and arrow and let the boys run around.

On September 10, Grant did his belt testing for his yellow belt. He did a great job. He tested with his two friends, Blake and Wesley Ralston. Tyler has taken a new liking to baby dolls, spending lots of time dressing, undressing and feeding his doll.

Videos of Grant's belt testing:

http://youtu.be/Uqh6Yx1iao0

http://youtu.be/vdwrFlVM1Ds

http://youtu.be/GIVCC93edpw

http://youtu.be/otbGfmfUaho

http://youtu.be/14CkiMgHkf0

http://youtu.be/BLDpUieIDiE

http://youtu.be/im1xNIg46lA

http://youtu.be/Kq6HmBxiG1U

http://youtu.be/yJ3FWHyFB_Q

http://youtu.be/oFMFyX8DjB0

On September 20, we attended the annual Mountain School Chili Cookoff. I brought my usual crockpot full of regular old chili and made a few loaves of cornbread. That morning before 8 AM I had made my batch of chili and 4 loaves of cornbread. The kids ran and played with their friends and Grant participated in the entertainment. Here are the videos of the performance:

http://youtu.be/cKSq9uGoBW4

http://youtu.be/4ORt5wd9hSI

http://youtu.be/7bBedAhkDik

http://youtu.be/sUi75bEHDqI

On September 22, after Stake Conference we headed down toward Payson to try out another of the Flagstaff Hikes hikes. This one is called the Railroad Tunnel trail. It is a fairly challenging but luckily pretty short walk then climb to an abandoned partially blasted railroad tunnel. It's literally in the middle of nowhere. You can't see it from the road and when you're at this tunnel it's impossible to even imagine how someone planned to put a railroad there. The tunnel is fairly shallow as it was started in anticipation of the railroad and then abandoned when the railroad venture went bankrupt. You can climb all the way to the back of the tunnel. There is some pretty challenging up and down climbing to get to the tunnel. All of the boys made the climb really well. It was far more challenging than we anticipated and yet again we were in way over our heads with nothing to do but keep pushing through. I had to carry Tyler most of the way out toward the end. The adventure didn't end there as we decided to finish driving the Mogollon Rim road rather than backtracking. The drive was far longer than we thought and we ended up in Payson at about 8 PM. Our adventure started at about 1 and were thought we'd be home by 4 or 5. We had to make an unplanned dinner stop at McDonald's and finally made it home about 10 PM with five exhausted Mellens. Despite the "3 hour tour" it was a hike worth doing. Where else are you going to get to climb in an abandoned railroad tunnel?

 The boys started hockey on September 23. Grant and Cole were both ready to get out on that ice and start skating.

These are other cute pictures of the boys from the month.

Tyler kind of walks like Cam from Modern Family. I was trying to get a video of him doing the walk but he saw me and didn't like it. Here's my attempt:
http://youtu.be/8bGg_mhzq3Q