Easter

We had Easter fun -  The Bunny left an egg trail for Korrali leading to various stuffed animals and candy and stickers. The Bunny also brought a squirt bottle and sidewalk chalk. We just happened to spot a bunny in the yard a few days before Easter, so now Korrali is somewhat convinced the Easter bunny is real and that he lives in Grammy's back yard. Bwahahah... 

Happy Easter!!

I have to admit though, we  had more fun doing General Conference brunch with our friends the day before Easter. Thanks to my sister in law Katie I used some fun child activity ideas to keep children happy and grown ups able to focus on the messages of Easter and Family and truth coming through our tv. We missed them the next day; I had more trouble helping one toddler to focus without all the other friends.

This is what happened between Arizona and Chicago

We flew home to Denver - Korrali, as usual, charmed the crew (yes, she is sitting on the Pilot's lap - her Grandpa Henderson would be proud). She turned left instead of right as we entered the plane and the pilot and copilot jumped at the opportunity to teach her how to fly ie: encourage her to push any one of the hundreds of buttons they use every day. For once my toddler was overwhelmed by excitement and almost didn't even touch anything. I was a little overwhelmed by their generosity and child-friendliness.

We got home just in time to dog watch a very sweet dog down the street. We walked over twice a day for a little over a week to play with and let out the tiny morsel of fluff. Korrali still talks about her - it's been over a month since we finished.

Shortly after we returned, my sister in law and her husband came to visit for a wonderful week. Korrali held these babies when they were only a few months old, and it was so fun to see them play together now that they are older. Well, after she got over the initial shock of sharing toys. The boys were sooo much fun - I can still hear their giggles and I miss them terribly.

A couple days later our very very good friends from Chicago rolled through Denver on their way to Arches National Park (we almost went with them... the hold up was that it would have been Korrali's first time camping, my first time camping alone with her, and she isn't old enough to be perfect at following directions like "don't run away from me over the edge of the cliff!") In case you're wondering why I have a random picture of a boy walking as my photo, look way in the back, you can see Korrali and her tiny friend sitting next to each other. They are about a week apart, and I think they're adorable together.

We went to the off-leash dog toddler park, where Korrali got to follow and pet many a puppy (talk about toddler heaven), and where I turned into the meanest mommy ever because I wouldn't let her jump into the tiny stream all the other dogs were swimming in.

It was around 80 degrees a for a few days, and we celebrated by making bubbles - a "bath" as she called it - and played with chalk. 

J and I went on a fabulous night out for pie day. We have loved having someone home to watch our baby monitor for us after bed time!!

Korrali made her first tea party - complete with frustration that her animals refused to eat her food. Those cheeky stuffed animals.

Cousins, cousins, and more cousins

K and I traveled to Mesa to visit her second cousins once removed and her Grammy Great. We had pretty much non-stop fun. If there is any truth to genetic memory, it was evident in the immediate friendship that sprung up between K and her cousins. It was as much of a vacation for me as for her; I always feel like I've found long-lost sisters when I spend time with the women from the Blau/Castillo clans.

This is especially true of the wonderful cousins who gave us a place to stay while there -

Geneva Convention of Fun

Our first day there K and J made friends - J asked for help getting the stroller with K in it to the tile so she could push her easily.

M was going down, K was going up, and J was patiently waiting her turn, and commenting on the dirty puddle of water remaining from the last rain at the top of the slide.

No barriers will prevent downwards sliding - especially when those yellow barriers truly don't mind being sat on.

Oh, this car. M Loves this car - I think it might be his go-to toy - but his mom would know better than I. K loved it too, so naturally everyone had to play on it.

Sharing is car-ing 

Our next stop was a blast... just Wach us have such a great time!

K loved loved their baby chicks

 We visited the day they also watched some other children (13 in total, counting K), and K loved the house full of children for a while, especially their indoor swing and back yard roller coaster. What a fun, fun house. After a few hours K decided she just wanted to be with me for a while - I didn't realize she had a play/chaos limit, but she definitely needed some space. We watched some tv while I got in some work in the guest room they let us stay in, and then she was right back out and playing.

We visited the Lehi Days Rodeo - we missed the pony rides but they let us sit on the horse

We watched the rodeo - I don't know what it was called but they galloped down and picked up a passenger and then rode back. It was pretty tricky looking and I was impressed.

We loved our stay with them - and realized that while K and Benji couldn't stay away from each other, they also couldn't play long without screaming "MINE" at each other and chasing one another with Intent... It was pretty funny.

Great Times with Grandma and the Richardsons

Our next night was spent in Grandma Great's spare room - and we loved playing with even more cousins and our beloved Grandma.

They played outside, and everyone needed a hat, 

They were playing Ghost Airplane I think, and someone said "someone should tickle us - YOU should!!" 

Photographic evidence that Aunt Donnie makes excellent smoothies, and that everyone should have as fun an older sister as "Auntie Laila" (Korrali has an auntie Laila, so when her 2nd cousin once removed had the same name, she defaulted to the familiar one. I guess, in Hawaiian culture, it's probably pretty accurate). 

More evidence that we love our Arizona cousins. We were so grateful for the shuttling, and housing, and feeding and playing that everyone was so gracious to give us! 

We had so much fun, so much sun, and came back feeling so much love!! 

Daddy time

One of the main benefits of building up a case load is that Daddy has a lot more time to spend solo with K these days. I am taking advantage (trying not to get too used to it though), and he is just very cute with her, teaching her life skills and such.

Picture 1: teaching the basics of anti-alien mind reading techniques.

Picture 2: zombie apocalypse obstacle course (playing IN the bike rack).

Popcorn and Sunglasses

A friend of Grammy and Grandpa's lived here with them until recently, and gifted us some off-roading movies (which K loves), and even brought theater popcorn the day he brought the movies. K loves popcorn too.
She also loves sunglasses - go figure; here in CO it's hard NOT to love sunglasses in the winter because the sun shining off of that snow is killer.
She also loves throwing things (eg: Sharknado).
A(sunglasses)+B(throwing things)+C (popcorn) = a convenient way to wear sunglasses indoors and still see your treat.

Have you seen the Buffalo?

We went to visit Grammy at her school, and we enjoyed a lovely time learning about Hi-Liters and sticky notes, stacking dice (no, not gambling. Literally stacking large dice), and meeting Grammy's team mates. In an effort to create conversation with our shy-to-talk-around-strangers toddler, one of her team asked "Have you seen our Buffalo?" The cue worked its magic, unlocking K's heart and loosing her tongue to speak to all of the team and especially to talk about seeing the great metal beast.
It also took us on an adventure to visit The Buffalo.

The Buffalo

We narrowly missed an eternity with The Buffalo - saved only by the promise of treats in the car. (Her boots were not waterproof, and it really was cool enough for a coat in the shade, so I pulled out all the stops to get her out of the snow with minimal chasing and screaming.) As we left, we waved and promised inanimate The Buffalo to visit again soon.

Animal Farm

This is what George Orwell's book should have really been about.
Sunshine in February, family from out of town, pony rides, baby animals.. friendly dogs. Yep. It's a farming life for us. Well, to visit anyway.

We had so much fun on the pony, K didn't say much about it right away so I thought she wasn't sure about it. I guess it just took a few days to process, because then she talked about it for days and even woke up once in the middle of the night and said "Ride Tangy?".

We returned again later and played - K loved the "baabaa sheep".