Grandma Comes to Quincy!

We had Kathy out here for the last week!  It was soooo nice to have her out here.  We had been slowly moving across town for the two weeks before she got here and we were done!  Moving is the worst.  You would think five moves in five years of marriage would make us good at it...not true!

So Kathy came in with a ton of new energy and cranked out the rest of the move!  She also made homemade scones, dinners, lattes every morning, and basically spoiled us in every way!  We needed it though!  :) 

We were able to sneak in a hike as a break from all the moving.  We went up to Bear Lake and Long Lake in the Lakes Basin area.  It was beautiful and nice to get away from a house full of boxes!  

Homemade scones with Grandma!

Breakfast in the beautiful weather

We hiked to Big and Little Bear Lakes and made a loop to long lake

 

The Happy Hiker!

Throwing rocks into Big Bear Lake

Levi's reaction when he didn't get to get out and swim in the lake.  WAAAA-WAAAA!  (water in Levi language)

Beautiful Plumas County!

Little Bear Lake

Lots of breaks for Maya and Owen to climb rocks

Owen doesn't like to take the easy route

Careful Owen!

Our little rock climber!  Wonder where he gets that???

Climbing more rocks at Long Lake!

Super dad takes over when Owen gets tired!

Time for a beer at the Brewing Lair--such a fun brewery in Blairsden. 

Tball!

Owen started T-ball this year!  It has been pretty cute to watch him practice and play with his team.  The first practice Owen wouldn't go on the field with his team and practice, he just kept wanting to sit by us and play with Levi.  :/  It didn't help that we didn't get him a glove.  He wondered why everyone else had a glove and he didn't.  We told him to just grab someone's glove who was batting and wasn't using theirs.  Of course he grabs the left handed kid's glove which took some explaining and our work-around didn't go as smooth as we had hoped.  There was a lot of "this is why four year olds shouldn't be playing a sport!" talk in our minds for sure.  To say the least practice number one almost had us not coming back for practice two.  But we ALL persevered, we got Owen a glove, and it has been fun ever since!

On our way to opening day!  Go Giants!!

I didn't want to get too close to the fence and be the mom that takes a picture at every at bat, which is why you see mostly fence as I slyly snap 100 pictures from the background.:)

Go Owen!

Coach Sam showing him how it's done!

Not so sure about Brynn giving him a big hug whenever she sees him!  Owen loves the Blesse girls!

Is there such thing as T-ball without a snow cone???

Owen Rides a Bike!

Last weekend my parents gave Owen a "mountain bike" --as Owen calls it.  He has only had a balance bike before which is the bikes with no pedals.  So when he first got on this bike that had pedals he had no idea what to do.  He kept backpedaling which would slam on the breaks...  So I figured I'd order training wheels and that the balance bike straight to a bike thing wasn't going to work for Owen.  The next day Joey took him out to the gravel road by our house and he was RIDING the bike!  It was crazy!  He LOVES riding his mountain bike just like daddy does!

Grandpa showing Owen how pedals work and then the next day (below video) riding on his own!

Visit to Colusa

We followed up a week in La Quinta with a long weekend in Colusa to visit Mary's family which turned out to be a get together with all the cousins!  It was so fun!  We even got to see our own cousins, Susi and Jenny, and their families!  Cousins weekend!!  It was beautiful spring weather and we loved getting to be outside so much!

Dying Easter Eggs!

Lots of kids! 

Sprinklers already!?  March felt like May last weekend--it was so nice!

Levi loves being part of the big kids these days but he had to stop for a breather it was so exciting!

Climbing trees with cousins

More climbing trees with more cousins

La Quinta

We had so much fun spending almost a week down in La Quinta with my parents!

Flying kites!

Levi can't sit on the sidelines anymore--has to do whatever Owen does

Like if Owen is jumping off the side into the pool so is he!

He never stopped smiling!

Rafting with Grandpa

Picking grapefruits at the resort

Then teaching Owen how to pick fruit too...

But the kids loved the grapefruit for breakfast so it was worth working hard for it!

Going for a hike with daddy

Mr. Independent HAD to walk on his own. 

He did get some help from Owen

We made it to the top!!  Woohoo! 

Time to play hide and seek...if Owen can't see you--you must not be able to see him.  Still mastering the skills of hide and seek...

Owen is FOUR!

Owen came into our room this morning asking if it was his birthday--YES it finally was!  Then he asked if he could open his package.  He got a  package from Bennett that had been sitting on the kitchen counter since Friday --just waiting to be opened.  When he opened it had six JETS in it which apparently is the best present in the whole world as Owen called it.  Thank you Beltrans for a great start to age four!  :)

Owen got to have a birthday party today!  We had Audrey, William and Steven over for pizza, cake and ice cream and to play in the backyard.  He was SUPER excited about it and I think the "party" lived up to all of his expectations.  He had so much fun with his friends!
 

 

Assembling Owen's "Ripsliger" cake

Doesn't it look just like Ripslinger?  I have to say it looked better in person.  haha!

A pizza picnic in the backyard!

Happy Birthday Owen!

It was windy so we had to relight the candle a few times--Owen was dying to blow it out

Finally we just kept the match over the candle and he (and the wind) blew it out real quick

We were supposed to get snow this weekend--not quite!

Owen wasn't the only one having a good time at the party...

Joey pushing Audrey and Owen on the tire swing--they weren't afraid to go high!