We were spoiled to have my dad come and spend two whole weeks with us. The kids had so much fun with Papa (Kylie sobbed for days after he left) and I loved having the company and the extra help. He was excited to get a break from the winter blizzards in Indiana and we made sure to take advantage of the beautiful sunny weather with lots of bike rides, park days, BBQ's and hiking. It was also fun having him here for Valentine's day. We had a pink themed breakfast with a little gift bag on everyone's plates. Papa turned into the "Valentine's Santa" with presents stuffed in his shirt, the kids thought it was hilarious. The kids love to pretend like we're at a fancy restraunt so that night we made a fancy dinner with fancy candelight and fancy music and a fancy dessert. It was quite fancy. Not only was he nice enough to watch the kids while we went to Vegas, but he also watched them while we went to a Suns game, thank you! I'm a self proclaimed Daddy's Girl, so I loved having so much one on one time with him. It was especially fun going on a good old fashioned daddy daughter date to see "Avatar". Thanks so much for coming Dad, we love you so much and can't wait to see you again! I have so many pictures, but I'll just limit them to some of my faves...
V-day breakfast and the "Valentine Santa"
Jayden's baseball game
Kylie was so excited to have him chaperone her field trip to the zoo
hiking the "heiroglyphic trail"
Time for the annual polar bear plunge. I am still a proud non-member of this club. Jayden gets the award for staying in the longest (he took a good couple of laps and kept jumping back in. crazy.) and my dad gets the award for jumping in when it was the coldest during a pouring rain storm. Once again, crazy. :)
We all took a 2 hr Sunday nap and left Kylie and Jayden to fend for themselves. We woke up to construction paper confetti covering the lawn and a party zone set up. Here Kylie is giving Papa dance lessons in the pouring rain at the dance station.
kite flying and frisbee golf
We tried going sledding two weekends in a row, the first we got about 15 min away and realized we forgot the sled so we went hiking instead. The second we got to Payson it was freezing, raining, the kids were miserable and there was no snow in sight. After grabbing lunch at the 260 cafe we decided to hike around Tonto Natural Bridge. It was FREEZING, but still fun. The kids liked Papa's rock skipping lessons but complained every step of the hike. So many great memories, thanks for coming dad!!
Have I mentioned how much I hate having Jason travel? Ignore that because after this week I may have changed my mind. He's been in Vegas working for the past several weeks and my dad came out for a visit (more on that later), so I was so nice to dump the kids on him as soon as he got here and jet off to Vegas with Jason in the name of Valentines Day. He really is an amazing "Papa", not only was he nice enough to watch the kids but he was genuinely excited about it (so were the kids) AND the house was sparkling clean when we got back. How many grandpa's do that?? Thanks so much, Dad, it was so nice to get away and not stress about the kids. As soon as I flew in Jason whisked me away in a convertible (we felt 10 years younger, but probably didn't look nearly as cool as we felt) to our beautiful high rise suite overlooking the strip before making our dinner reservations then off to a show. So romantic, so fun and so spoiled. We go to Vegas all the time but we've never been to a real show so I thought it was time we splurged. We went to the Cirque de Solei show, "Ka" and it was such a dissappointment. Maybe I would have liked it more if we hadn't spent $150 on the tickets. It was too artsy fartsy and I kept bouncing my leg and wiggling in my seat just to stay awake. Afterwards we were both so tired and it was freezing outside, but we just had to take a drive in the convertible, cause how often are we in Vegas without kids in a convertible? The next morning we ordered room service and dined on white chocolate and raspberry french toast in our bath robes. Dreamy, I know. Then Jason was off to work and I was off to bed for another 2 hours, waking up just in time to get ready and meet up with Jason and his sister for lunch. The only thing I had on my agenda after that was shopping, and lots of it. Four hours of shopping without kids just flys by. It was the perfect little getaway, thanks Jay for letting me tag along on your business trip :). It was so fun spending time together and pretending like we lived the high life. We've been together for like 11 Valentine's Days and this was by far my favorite. Happy Valentine's Day Jay, I love you! (Oh yeah, and I chopped my hair. It was so fun having the extensions, but after 2 years the new old Jamie is back).
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