A Very Bunny Visit

Clearly, Fairfax, from Marissasbunny.com  (a site that promotes Infantile Spasms Awareness), was a bunny on the loose! He went from the east coast to the west coast. Now, he's on his way to middle America. Who knows where the wind will blow him next.

We were able to grab a latte with Fairfax, California style. He said he likes his coffee like he likes all the children he visits, SWEET!!



We also took Fairfax out for a Valentine dinner to Cheeburger Cheeburger where he was delighted to take a spin in a convertible.



We took him from San Diego to Los Angeles to pick up Grandma, then to the bright light city of Las Vegas, NV. Wish we could have gotten a night time shot of him on the strip, but we only went out at night once and he said he was so tired from the long drive, he wanted to rest in the stroller (we actually were so excited about the volcano, we forgot to get a shot of him).

Fairfax is enjoying the rare view of California's snow capped mountains.

Fairfax is helping to navigate.

Fairfax, in the middle of downtown Las Vegas

Fairfax had fun at Shark Reef Aquarium in Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas

We ended our visit with Fairfax with taking him to KIDS Therapy where Kaylee receives her occupational therapy and physical therapy.


We sure had a great time visiting with him!! Hope he has a safe journey!

Viva Las Vegas!

We had a really great time in Las Vegas with Grandma. We got to see the sites...we went to see the volcano erupt at the Mirage, we saw the Pirate Show at Treasure Island, we went to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay, we went to Circus Circus to ride the Canyon Blaster roller coaster. We even managed to take care of Grandma's condo biz while we were there, which was the reason for our trip. We ate and ate and ate and ate! We went to buffets, restaurants, it felt like we ate the whole time we were there. We also got pay per view in the room and watched The Four Christmases. It was really good. I even managed to play $2 in a slot machine ;) I actually planned to play $20 either at blackjack or slots, but I got tired the evening I was going to gamble and decided to just hang out in my pj's.

Well, here are the pics. Hope everyone has had a wonderful week and had a wonderful Valentines. I look forward to catching up on my blogs to see what everyone has been up to.

Yosemite Trip

www.flickr.com We're home! Had a great time on our trip. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work. I was so exhausted, I just crashed out all day long. We took some great pics. I spent all night tagging an describing the pics. Click on the badge to see the set. I finally caught up on reading everyone's blogs. I haven't commented on them yet, but I will get to it when I can. Hope everyone had a great week! alphastatedotnet's Yosemite Trip photoset

No man's land

I have affectionatly called our cabin's location "no man's land"
because of our lack of cell phone coverage in this area. It is
beautiful country, but feel like an amputee without my phone having
full capabilities. No RSS, email, SMS, blogging, flickring, or talking
in the phone. So, if I have been MIA all week that is the reason for
it. I have been using whatever time I have had service when we are in
town to talk to daddy and to upload pics to flickr for him.

I will hopefully get a chance to catch up on Friday afternoon. As it
is, I am typing this post now (at 10:15 on Wednesday night) and hoping
that when we get a signal in town I will be able to pull it from my
draft folder and send it.

If you have followed any of the few pics I have been able to send out,
you will know that we are in beautiful country. We went to see the
giant sequoias, the old village and stage coach area, the falls, half
dome, and we drove through most of the park. Tomorrow we are going to
take the Jenny logging train in the morning then we will probably head
back toward half dome and Madera River.

Ethan and Javi loved the falls. I thought they would jump in the run
off creek that was connected to the falls. We took tons of pics. Will
post some when I can.

It has been a great trip, so far. A little stressful with the kids,
but still fun. Javi and I took a nature walk at night last night and
it was great. I got eaten alive by bugs, even with repelant on.

Ethan has been having a blast. He's definitely had fun being a boy. I
think he has been the dirtiest he he ever been in his life over the
last few days.

Kay is getting more teeth, started to crawl a little and just as loud
as ever. Finally got her to stay in her playpen tonight, hopefully she
will sleep better tonight.

Ok, bedtime. Early morning to tomorrow. Hope everyone is well!

Shanna Grimes
(Sent from my iPhone)

Yosemite Trip

We are going to take another trip as soon as the kids get out of
school. We booked a little cottage in Mariposa (where my sis lives)
just outside of Yosemite National Park. We are pretty excited about
seeing everyone and also getting to see the beautiful park. We are
going to take a real live steam train ride (my little engineers are
thrilled about that part) and we are just going to hang out and relax.
We are going to see the giant sequoias, the beautiful waterfalls and
nature. I got the boys some little lanterns so we can take some night
time nature walks. I loaded up on the all natural bug repellant for
that :)

I have some pics of the cottage we booked courtesy of their website.
They boys are excited about the pool. It is supposed to be in the
upper 80's while we are there.

Pilot Butt

Yesterday we went to the top of Pilot's Butte. My MIL affectionately
calls it Pilot Butt. It's essentially a large mound of earth that
doesn't qualify to be a mountain or a hill. It's pretty high up there.
I am afraid of heights, so it seemed really high to me. On a clear day
you can see all of Bend, but yesterday it was pretty foggy. You can
kind of see how high it is through the trees. I got a little weak in
the knees while taking this pic, but the view was stunning.

We also took the kids toy shopping in downtown Bend at this cute
little specialty toy shop called Leap'n Lizards. GG spoiled everyone
yesterday. Ethan chose new Thomas Trains after playing at the train
table and Brio car table and Kay chose a Whoozit Photo album. We are
going to put some pics of daddy, GG, Grandma Von and Grandpa Jim
before we leave. We did find quite a few surprises for Javi while we
were there, since I promised I would bring surprises.

We had lunch at a cute little bistro downtown. The food and service
was just so-so, but the building and ambiance was spot on. We could
people watch at our window seat. It was busy downtown, no doubt due to
the holiday weekend.

After that, we took the kids to the book store. The kids just love the
bookstore. Ethan kept bringing books for GG and me to read to him. We
did settle on a few including a children's book with facts about
Oregon called "B is for Beaver", an Elmo book for Ethan and Kay that
plays music, "The Boxcar Children" a chapter book for Javi that we can
read together (one of my fav's as a child) and a "How to Draw" book
for Javi. We had a great day.

Today we are going to attempt to BBQ, if the weather cooperates. It's
a 60% chance of rain, so it's questionable. I am making Mexican for
the family. Carne asada, refried beans, and rice. I've been marinating
meat, but it may be an indoor cook out.

Happy Memorial Day! Be sure to give a little thanks to all those men
and women who lost their lives for our freedom. Today, we light up our
BBQ's in their honor.

The Bend Update

Ok, so I haven't had a lot of time on the computer since I have been away, hence my one liner blogs with a pic sent from my phone. It's been a relaxing trip so far, but unfortunately we have spent most of it feeling under the weather. Guess it was that 40 degree temperature drop and the plane ride that did it.

Kaylee is getting four teeth at the same time, so she has been pretty miserable. She has also been fighting a cold that returned after riding on the plane. She was finally feeling better, but I think that the plane ride wore her down. Ethan has been going strong. He has been a little ball of energy as usual.
I have been fighting the good fight. I woke up today with a lot of fluid in my ears which off set my equilibrium, so I was having dizzy spells. That was no fun! I felt like I was on a boat in rough seas all morning. Thankfully it has finally subsided. I guess I got my sea legs. GG is now sick (sorry :_). Not sure if it was our germs that mutated or not. She seems to have something different than we have.

We haven't been too busy so far, just relaxing mostly. We had a nice dinner prepared for us by Great-Grandma Von when we arrived from the airport Tuesday. Wednesday we went out shopping for a bit and had some lunch. Yesterday we took the kids to the children's museum in Bend called Working Wonders. I will post some pics to Flickr later. We were house bound today, since we were all feeling sick. I made some chicken soup and we just hung out. It was raining, so there wasn't much we could do anyway. Who knows what the plan is tomorrow. We are just going to play it by ear. We have talked about going up to the snow about 15 minutes away from here, but we will have to get better before going to cavort in the snow.

We have arrived!

Ethan's first plane ride.

Weekend Report

It's been a busy weekend getting ready for our trip. I may not be in blogland until I arrive in Bend on Tuesday. I will try to keep up with reading everyone's, but if it's quiet around here for a bit, that's the reason. I will of course be taking pics and blogging daily when we arrive. I am a little behind on trip plannI was sick all week, I am a little behind on my trip prep.

I hope everyone has had a nice weekend and we'll be seeing ya real soon ;)

My Final Resting Place

We had spent two days at the Magic Kingdom. We went to Disneyland on Tuesday and California Adventure on Wednesday. We had a great time. We are all exhausted, so we are taking it easy today. We are taking a vacation from our vacation.

Needless to say, hauling three children on a road trip is never a recipe for rest and relaxation, but seeing the little twinkle in their eyes when they see Mickey Mouse or Cinderella makes it all worth it. I love getting that feeling I used to get when I was a little girl whenever you walk in the park. Seeing it reflected in your children just intensifies it. You get that feeling that dreams really do come true, even if only for a day.

Speaking of rest, Disneyland is my idea of what heaven must be like, where everyone smiles at you, everyone is always happy, and it's always really clean even with a million people a year walking through it (my house never looks that clean and it's just us!). We always joke about spreading some of my ashes there. What better place than somewhere I have always had fond memories as a child and with my own children? Some place where everyone is always happy and at peace. That sounds like my kinda place. Whenever my children or grandchildren come to visit me they will always be happy. Of course, I could never really be spread there, but I just thought the idea of it was nice. Mark asked me if I was going to pick out a nice spot while we were there before we left on Monday morning and I laughed. Hope he isn't planning on bumping me off, I did just get my life insurance squared away ;)

www.flickr.com alphastatedotnet's Disney Resort photoset

Washington Break

It's been a while, I know. It's been a busy week and ramping up to be an even busier week next week. The kids will be on break, so yes, that means all of them will be here at the same time. Ahhhh! It definitely won't be a break for mom. We do have a few things going on next week. A couple doctor's appointments, a visit to Grandma's, and Javi's Aitona will be in the hospital. We are hoping for a super speedy recovery for Big Javier. We will definitely make some time to do something fun as well. Maybe we will head to the Zoo or Wild Animal one of the days.

Javi had a special date with a special Valentine this year. Brianne and family took Javi out for a Valentine dinner, since Aita was out of town this week. What a lucky lady to have such a handsome Valentine! We are moulding Javi to be a real ladies man. He had a card and a box of chocolates for his date. I am sure he was a perfect gentleman, with only the occasional burp, and mention of pee or poo, which has been Javi's favorite topic of discussion. We have tried to counter this by simply telling him that poop talk belongs in the bathroom (a tip I learned from an old pro) and he gets sent to the bathroom until he gets it out of his system. I only wish he went half as much as he talks about it!