Great Gardeners

Grandpa Jensen has an amazing vegetable garden in his backyard.  I really had no idea how much work he put into it until last month.  We volunteered to help him get the garden ready for planting while we were visiting one day.  R helped him rebuild a few of his garden boxes (he does square-foot gardening) while Dallen picked up a ton (literally) of compost in the back of his truck.  When the kids saw the giant pile of "dirt," they had to join the fun.

They started to help move the compost from the truck to a wheelbarrow...

...but the moving soon devolved into just digging around...

...which then devolved into burying themselves.

After an hour of goofing off with the compost, Grandpa and R were done rebuilding the boxes, so the actual moving of compost could begin again.

I don't know what it is about dirt that gives kids such joy, but I must say that the mess is occasionally worth it!  Thanks for letting us help with gardening, Grandpa.

Hanging with the Blackburns

More pictures of unscheduled hanging out time with the family.  The kids played basketball with Aunt Megan and Uncle Erick...

...and played on the swing set with Grandpa.

We can't wait for more hang out time this summer!

Jensen Joy

We love visiting our family so much.  We have most of our vacation time scheduled out so we can enjoy visiting as much as possible.  But there are times when it is nice to just sit back and relax.  The Jensens make relaxing a lot of fun.

Dallen taught A2 how to sword fight, Final Fantasy-style.  It looked like a battle between David and Goliath, but I believe the Goliath won this time!

The kids really enjoyed climbing the big tree in the backyard.  And my new camera took some great shots - do those look professional to you too?

And Grandma found her cotton candy machine, which may have been the highlight of the whole trip.  I can't believe how much sugar these two can pack in their tiny bodies - or how messy they can get doing it.

We love hanging out with you guys and can't wait to do so more this summer!

Ski Bums

We took the two older kids skiing for the first time in March.  Park City has an area for brand new skiers that is free to use if someone in the party has a paid ticket.  It's not even the bunny hill; in fact, it's not much more than a slight slope.  And since Grandma has a season ski pass, we took the kids for a few hours to learn how to ski.

They picked it up very quickly.  A1 even learned how to turn as she went down the hill.

A2, on the other hand, just enjoyed going straight down the hill as fast as he possibly could (I think he gets that from his father).  He giggled and giggled while R had to run to keep up with him as he raced down the hill (best exercise R has gotten in quite a while).

I hope this is the beginning of many years dedicated to a fun new hobby.

Fun with the Floods

Every time we visit our families, we have to take time out to visit our wonderful friends, the Floods.  They are so much fun, and we really miss them since they moved away.

This visit we decided to meet at a fun playground so the kids could play and Jenna and I could talk.  The kids didn't really need the playground to have play with each other - they just needed one another to feed off.

The playground did get used - just not as much as we thought.

It was so nice to visit with you.  We really miss you guys and can't wait to see you on our next trip!

Loving L2

Who loves their new brother?  These two:

At L2's three-week check up, he had gained 2 pounds!  He is in the 90th percentile for weight, the 90th percentile for height, and the 99th percentile for head circumference.  He is huge, especially compared to A1 and A2!  We might actually have a tall person in our family!

Gateway Children's Museum

During a recent trip to Utah, the kids got very bored just hanging out at home.  So we decided to try out the Gateway Children's Museum.  They have lots of activities to demonstrate scientific principles.  The favorite showed the principles of air flow and gravity, involving a series of tubes under vacuum pressure that carried little plastic balls around a gigantic room.  I couldn't get a detailed picture of the fun.  The second favorite was a water table to show the different properties of water.

They also have various rooms that have adult activities in kid size, like shopping...

...and gardening...

...and rock climbing...

...and horseback riding.

There was also a whole floor dedicated to various careers that the kids could try out.  They liked being newscasters...

...while Grandma was the weatherwoman.

As mentioned earlier, firefighting is always a popular choice...

...but the most popular of all was a retired Life Flight helicopter.

The kids loved pretending to be the pilot working the controls and the EMT taking care of a pretend patient.  I guess medicine is in their blood!

I would recommend getting an annual membership to the Museum if you're in the area.  It is a great place to spend a day pretending to be a grown up (even if you already are one).  We had so much fun.  Thanks for taking us, Grandma!

The Cabin 2012

The title of this post sounds like a horror movie, doesn't it?

According to family tradition, the end of January/beginning of February means the Blackburn family snowmobiling trip. I wasn't able to go snowmobiling (pregnancy has a tendency to ruin the best snowmobiling trips), so I spent the time relaxing and playing games. My dad made sure that those of us not snowmobiling had plenty to keep us entertained - we had three full boxes of food and five full boxes of games (only in my family would you have more games than food on vacation).

Of course, snowmobiling gets top billing. A1, as usual, went with Grandpa (look, even their winter coats match each other!)......while A2 went with R.Surprisingly this year A2 LOVED snowmobiling (he cried as soon as we started moving last year). He wanted to go faster and faster around the parking lot.

When the big people decided that it was time to hit the trails, the kids were more than happy to join me inside the cabin to read (just like me)......and to color and build a castle. I love this castle - it kept the kids occupied for the entire three days we were there. They're nowhere near finished with it, so they can still color it every time we go to visit Grandma and Grandpa!When they were tired of being inside, Uncle Casey was kind enough to take the kids out sledding. I think this was the highlight of the trip - they loved the feeling of flying down the hill and then Casey dragging them back up the hill (quite the workout for him - probably not the highlight of the trip for him).

I love this trip! Every year it gets better and better. I can't wait to go back again next year!

Winter Week

Southern California is not well-known for its winter activities (shocker, I know), so we have to go elsewhere for any winter fun. Luckily, Utah had a few snowstorms while we were there visiting in January. The kids took full advantage. Snowmen were built......and snowballs were thrown......and R got the worst of it.Occasionally it's better to be behind the camera than in front of it!

Disneyland Characters

As I ruminate over the last couple of years at Disneyland, I wish to share pictures of all the Disney characters we've had a chance to take pictures with. There are multiples of a few of the characters because we saw them in different trips to Disneyland - you can see how the kids have grown over the years. We saw most of these characters when friends and family came to visit, so there may be more people in the pictures than just our little family. This will be a really long post full of pictures that the OCD part of me is posting merely for completeness. You can skip this post if you like - it won't hurt my feelings.

Old School Disney Characters

Chip

Dale (and Tigger)
Mickey MouseMinnie MousePlutoPrincesses
ArielAuroraBelleCinderellaJasmine (and Aladdin)MulanRapunzelSnow WhiteTianaFairies
RosettaSilvermistTerrenceTinkerbellWinnie the Pooh Characters
EeyorePoohTiggerOther Disney Characters
Fairy GodmotherWoody and Jessie