Family - Part 1

We feel very blessed to have families who love us and support us and make us laugh. I enjoy reading their blogs and viewing their cute pictures. It occurred to me that although I'll print out our blog every year, it won't contain all the cute pictures and stories I read on their blogs. So, I've decided to include a few of their photos on our blog. Thank you, family! You are cute and we love you!

Part 1: The Meyer Family (Jenny's brother Harley, his wife Angie, daughter Avery (2), and baby Cash (due in May!). Also, the Loftus girls (Jenny's nieces - daughters of her brother, Brian).

I'm partial to the first picture since Avery is wearing her Ute sweatshirt passed down from the Banks family. The 2nd picture shows Avery in the well-known Meyer pose of nose-picking. The third picture shows her as she is today--cute and mischevious according to her parents. Angie is showing quite the tummy for 8 months, but still glowing. Kylee is taking after her Aunt Jenny and playing volleyball (you go, girl!). Kairene is (yikes!) almost 19 and very much a responsible adult.

Ashley in Glasses

At Ashley's last doctor's appointment her vision did not test well, so we went to the Eye Expert, Dr. Lee. It turns out that Ashley is farsighted, with one eye slightly weaker than the other. She does not have the same retina problems as her big brother (since that only runs in males). She was very proud of her glasses when she got them on Saturday, but now (Tuesday) she is reluctant to wear them. "The ground is deep" she says. The newfound depth perception has a little getting used to. I remember that. It's hard to see your kids have to get glasses--you never want anything to be "wrong" with them--but we must admit it's not too bad in the grand scheme of things. I've gone through a few doctors to find the best one and I now know to always pay extra and get the warranty on the kids' glasses. All in all, not too bad. And isn't she cute in her pink glasses?

Spring Break (Part 4)

Spring Break (Part 3)

Spring Break (Part 2)

After Legoland we decided to take a few days to enjoy the water. The ocean was freezing (notice there are no pictures of Jen in the ocean!), but Jeff and Peyton boogie-boarded until their lips turned blue. Ken (from SLC) came to join us one of the days and he and Jeff rented a paddle board to try out the waves. Jen even took some time to teach Peyton some volleyball moves on the beach--do you realize how hard it is to jump in the sand? Or is it just because we're old now? I guess it wasn't that hard for Peyton...

Knowing that we needed some exercise we decided to take a walk on Venice Beach the next day. It motivated the kids to see the Santa Monica Pier as our finish line. Of course, the sunny, warm weather wasn't bad at all. And after spending too much money on games at the Pier, we went to In-N-Out for the best cheeseburgers in the world!

Spring Break (Part 1)

This year for Spring Break we decided to take the kids to Southern California for some warm fun. It was going to be a road trip, but after we contemplated that much time in the car together, we decided to look into flying. We found some good deals on Jet Blue out of SLC so we drove to Utah on Friday night and stayed with the Jeff's parents before flying to CA on Saturday (bonus: Saturday picnic with the extended Banks family).

We woke up Sunday to a slight drizzle of rain, but it didn't deter our plans. In fact, we thought it would lessen the crowds at the theme parks so we packed our rain gear and headed to Legoland. The brochure says "50 million legos" and at first you wonder how they could possibly use that many legos, but a tour around the park shows you masterpiece after masterpiece made out of legos! The park was only open until 5:00 pm and we didn't get to see it all! It was amazing, though, and the kids loved it. What a job it would be to work at Legoland and build stuff out of legos all day long...

Peyton Banks = Chess Master

 

Ashley Banks = Growing Up!

 

Swim Lessons @ YMCA

Fun with Friends in McCall

It's been a while since we were able to escape to McCall--our busy schedules and holiday plans kept us away. Needless to say, we eagerly awaited our weekend in February when we could flee to the mountains. We invited some friends along to enjoy the fun and hopefully relax a little bit. The Burnetts have two sons--Ty is Peyton's age and they go to school together and play soccer and basketball together; Jack is a year older than Ashley and just as theatrical as she is.

We had an eventful Friday on our way there. Scott is a P.A. and was stuck in surgery later than expected. Jeff, Ashley, and I headed up around 4:00 but left Peyton with Melissa (thinking they were leaving "any minute as soon as Scott gets home"). We made it to McCall while Peyton and the Burnetts were still waiting for Scott to get home. Well, it's a good thing Scott got stuck in surgery because Jen and Jeff forgot the key to the McCall house! Melissa took Peyton home so he could crawl through the dog door and get the key for Mom & Dad! They finally left Boise around 7:00 pm and made it to McCall around 9:30. We had a nice dinner in McCall as well as an extensive drive around town while we were waiting for Peyton to come unlock the door!

Thankfully, the rest of the trip went smoothly. Melissa brought a week's worth of food which we managed to consume in 2 days--thanks to her and Scott's delicious preparation of every meal (you guys are invited back ANY time!). We took the kids on the tubing hill at the Activity Barn and we all came away with smiles. We decided it would be nice to visit the hot springs, but none of us brought our suits. No worries! Melissa, Jeff, and I ran down to the thrift store and bought suits for all 8 of us for $20! ("Suits" being a loose term since Melissa's and my "suits" were actually men's boxer shorts and t-shirts, and Scott's "suit" was a bit too baggy in a non-flattering way.) Oh, the hot springs were well worth the unfashionable wet gear. Darn, I forgot to get pictures of us in our swimsuits!

We did get in some relaxing time--after Ashley made us dance.