Rodeo Break visit to Grandpa in California

To "celebrate" the end of my chemo treatments we took a road trip to CA during Rodeo Break (end of Feb) to visit Ammon's grandpa. We love going there. As soon as we arrived, Connor got out of the car and said "it smells like California!...it smells like grandpa's house!...it smells like grandpa's grass!" I think he's right- California has a distinct smell. It smells like the ocean and palm trees and grass (which we lack in AZ) and we love it!

We headed down to the beach early one morning. Ammon ran along the boardwalk, Connor went in the ocean and Amelia and I just watched from a blanket.

Connor was irritated that I didn't bring his swim trunks (I didn't think he'd want to get in the freezing water in February) so I suggested he go in his jammies and we'd wash them after. He definitely took me up on that suggestion and was soaked from head to toe! I'm sure he was quite cold. The water was frigid evidenced by the die-hard surfers all wearing their wet suits (all the black dots in the water are surfers in the picture above this one).

After we returned from the beach, we were told by Ron, grandpa's helper, that one of us had left the back door open and while we were gone, a squirrel had run into the house! Ron spent about an hour trying to chase the thing back out! He didn't appreciate that very much. It wasn't all bad, we all had a good laugh talking about it and I'm sure it also got his heart pumping. Besides, it's fun to have a little adventure in your life. ;)

Connor enjoyed making Angry Birds out of great-grandpa's legos.

Great-grandpa Maughan wanted to get a picture with each kid to put in their copy of his life history "A Glorious Struggle".

I love this picture

Kissing through the glass. Grandpa has an enormous front window that begs to be...kissed.

Connor's turn

Oh no, mommy caught me kissing boys!

A favorite father-child interaction is to play "tick-tock". Each kid loves to take their turn. Check out their videos below.

I love grandpa. I think of him like my own.

Grandpa likes to spoil us by taking us out to eat when we visit.

We love you grandpa!! We're so glad we were able to come see you!

Winter Happenings

Fall Leftovers

The Frankenstein crowd at the ward Halloween party.

Ammon and I sang with other ward members at the Stake BBQ in November. We sang John Denver's "Grandma's Feather Bed". It was so much fun!

Look at those hill-billies! Several of us blacked-out a front tooth. "Do I have something right here?

 

 Christmas

Angry bird snowman...

Coo-coo for legos

What is it?

So happy with her new stroller to push her baby.

A pogo stick

Goofball...for Romney!

The aftermath...

Peek-a-boo

New Year's Eve

We headed to Tohono Chul Park as a family. What a beautiful botanical garden. We enjoyed it!

Visitors 

Ammon's family came just after Christmas but how it is possible that I don't have any pictures but one that I can't even get to transfer from my phone is beyond me...Thanks for visiting us Larsens!

My sister Laura came to visit in January with her daughter Olivia. One day we went to Sabino Canyon. Here are Olivia and Amelia climbing onto the tram.

Close up of cousin Olivia and Amelia

Walking down from the top

Cute girlies together

Cousins snuggling and reading.

My mom came for my last chemo in February.

Thanks Mom, Laura and Olivia for coming to see us!

  

The Tree House

Starting the tree house project by digging post holes.

Lots of hard work but Connor is the one looking tired.

"Hooray! Good job dad getting those huge rocks and dirt out to build my tree house."

The framework is up.

Shaping the rungs of the ladder.

Twisting in the anchor for the monkey swing.

Testing said swing. Amelia loves to be sung the "coo-coo clock" song as she swings.

Platform installed. Connor tests it out with his friend Hayden.

Amelia enjoying the new access to the otherwise too-tall tree the tree house allows her.

A little assistance still required.

Even mom takes a few moments to enjoy the tree house.

The tree house is not yet complete because of what happened next...

Winter Storm!

In January, we had a leak in our ceiling that gushed down the walls and ceilings nearly flooding our entire first floor!!

The gold is where the plumber repaired the destructive leak.

Here is the ceiling all swollen and puckering.

Ammon helping to clean up the water on the floor. It was actively leaking where the pots are located. I had already moved the furniture outside before Ammon arrived home from work. I had also already removed several gallons of water in that little 1-gallon wet-dry vac you see there. Not fun!

We realized the job was too big for us so the "professionals" came in and did this...

 

 

It was shocking to see our walls and ceilings ripped out to the studs! (When Connor saw our house like this, he said it looked like a haunted ghost house ! He was afraid to sleep in it the first night.)... Thankfully, our insurance paid for everything to be repaired.

The first thing we did with the insurance money was replace the offending polybutylene pipes. The red and blue tubes are the new pipes.

We had the contractors make a few changes to the space while the walls were open. We added recessed lights, more A/C lines, thicker insulation in the walls and ceilings, and removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room adding an arch instead.

Once the contractors came in and re-drywall and textured everything, we decided to do the painting ourselves. That turned out to be the biggest job! Besides doing most of it, I was sick from my last chemo. 

I actually did smile a few times during the process...it was caught on camera!

Ammon finishing up the ceiling.

Little helper.

 After we finished painting, we enjoyed it for maybe a week when we decided to redo the flooring...

Mostly intact kitchen floor with the broken up floor in the distance. The life-saving removal tool we rented. Worth..every..cent!

I love how you can see a huge cloud of dust even in the picture from the tile demolition. Maybe I shouldn't have painted first...it looks good though, huh?

Utter...destruction

Same room as above cleared out, crack filled (red), and first line of tile laid in the distance.

My man working the wet saw.

We did hire some help to give him guidance and because I feared it would never get done if not! Thankfully, was all done in a week. Good job Ammon!

My Ammon's pretty handy. I love that he did much of the tiling himself.

Connor so cracks me up sometimes!! Trying out the new floor...uh...face down with his bears.

Moved the furniture back in and it's messy already again! But Amelia looks happy with her bear that's nearly as big as she is!

Kids enjoying the new tile in the kitchen...

Connor loves to play Angry Birds with his magnets on the dishwasher. Amelia has found the magnet bowl is a great seat. Both kids are pretty creative. 

(As a side note, can you see Connor's knee? For one of my mending projects I made some of Connor's holey jeans' knees into monster knees. Now his multiple pairs of ripped jeans can be worn to school again!)

Ammon put the baseboards in last week (mid-April) and we painted them Saturday and touched up the walls. We plan to have the house finally all straightened up this week. Can't wait!

Birthdays

Melanie is...flaming old!

Amelia turned 2...

...and enjoys her brother.

 

What a goofball!