Disneyland, Seaworld, and the Beach

As many of you know Mark's mom has terminal cancer, so we decided to go on a family vacation to create some great memories for the grandkids. This vacation had been a dream of Mark's mom for a long time. We rented an awesome house about a mile away from Disneyland which was our base. As you can see we had a great time.

One of Kim's clients gave Kim a bonus for finishing a project for his office, but the bonus came with one requirement. It had to be used at the Blue Bayou restaurant at Disneyland. Mark's brother Matt, and his wife Stephanie decided to join us. It was one of those things that you do one time, but probably won't do again.

Tips for going to Disneyland
1) Take someone in a wheelchair (you get right to the front of the lines and you can take 5 guests to join you)!
2) Buy the multi-day park hopper pass, and sell the days that you don't use.
3) Take someone that loves to run around the park getting fast passes. Thanks Matt!

Mark, Kaden and Chase petting the stingrays at Sea World in San Diego.

One of Kaden's favorite attractions was playing on the water pad at California Adventure.

I love Kaden's face in this picture.

One of our favorite activities was just hanging out at the beach. This is how we keep track of our kids at the beach, we just bury them in the sand.

Here are the guys hitting the waves at Huntington Beach.

Kaden keep your eyes on the road! I guess that is why they don't let kids under 16 drive.

After the third try Mark finally made the rank of Space Ranger 2!

Las Vegas Here We Come!

On our way to Disneyland we stopped in Las Vegas to visit Kim's Dad. We had a great time relaxing and visiting Kim's Dad. Kaden is checking out his emails and making sure his investments are doing well.
Kaden loves to be involved in everything, so he decided to hitch a ride with Grandpa Keller.
Then he decided to take a ride down the street.

May 2010

One day Kim was taking a shower and came out to find Kaden in the Kitchen fixing his car with a pair of scissors. She took the scissors away, only to come back a couple of minutes later with Kaden trying to jam a pen in one of the axles. Kim quickly realized that our baby proofing needed to be taken to the next level. If you need some baby proofing hints, just let us know.

Michelle one day let Kaden hold baby Drew. Can't you see the fear in Drew's eyes, but Kaden was very gentle and instantly began rocking him. Kaden wanted to hold baby Drew for the rest of the night.

One of Kaden's favorite things to do is go to his grandma Lee's house. He loves to chase the horses, feed the cat, play catch with the dog, feed and water the bunnies, and dump out the chicken's water.

Popsicles at Grandma Caldwell's.

Kaden loves to play in dirt. We gave him some plastic tools to convince him that yard work is fun. All I can say is, we tried.

Our First 5k!!!

At the start of the year we made a family goal to run a 5k. We did some research on the internet and found a race that Weber State was doing for Huntsman Cancer Institute.

Here I am approaching the finish line. I was feeling really old and out of shape at this point.
We all finished the race and had a great time

Finally we are updating our blog!

Life has been crazy, but we are going to make a valid attempt in updating this blog. Here are a few things we have been up to for the last eight months.

March 2010

Kaden loves animals. He is learning to be gentle with his grandparent's baby chickens.

Gateway Discovery.

Easter 2010

We are on our wards activities committee, and were in charge of the Easter egg hunt. As you can see Kaden loves candy. He loves candy so much, I can just imagine what he is thinking: "Candy get in my belly!!!!"

"Good thing Mom and Dad are in charge, so that I can eat all this candy before all of the other kids get here."
Easter Morning.
Kaden flexing his muscles for the camera.

Kaden and his cousins.
Easter egg hunt at grandma Caldwell's.

Kaden Our Musician

Kaden loves music. Here's a shot of him making some. Sorry for the shaky camera, I was laughing too hard to hold still.

The Joys of Kaden

A few days ago I set out to clean the house and began singing "Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere . . ." Within seconds Kaden had pulled out the mop and broom and began mopping the floor. Check out his perfect form!He proceeded to help me wipe down the table.

All of the hard work must have tuckered him out.

While I continued to clean Kaden played with his blocks. It was the first time I had seen him make a tower so I got out the camera to take a picture. Once he realized what I was doing this is the smile he gave me. Last week our furnace quit working. We woke up to a 55 degree house. Burr. We bundled Kaden up and waited for the repair man. He thought it was so funny.

Kaden had fun helping Grandpa Keller make cinnamon rolls.

Kaden discovered this dremel case at the bottom of the stairs and was so determined to carry it to the top. He tried multiple ways of carrying it while he tried to climb the stairs. We may have a little tool man on our hands.

December

Christmas Break - Kaden's new favorite thing to do is go swimming. He loves to have the water hit his face.

Christmas Morning - Mark went into the living room to get the video camera while Kaden and I waited in the hall. Kaden could tell something was different and although I tried to distract him by going into the bedrooms he was focused on getting to the living room. Finally, I put him down and he ran into the living room straigt to his presents.I think Mark might get a son who loves basketball as much as he does. Kaden's first word, aside from mom and dad, was ball. Luckily some of the other toys were a success too.
Christmas afternoon at Grandma Lee's.
Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Caldwell's
Our little shepherd was more interested in clothes pins, ladders, and hitting baby Jesus with his staff than he was in performing. This is him trying knock the star (Clara) and the angle (Jenny) off of the ladder. Luckily Grandpa Woolley was there just in time.

Celebrating with Grandpa Keller.

Snow day - In between preparing breakfast for 200 and hosting a dinner for 16 we tried to have a little fun.


Kaden getting ready for Christmas with his Little People nativity set.

Sushi Party

My family enjoys getting together to make sushi. This time we made about 30 rolls and fed 14 people.

Mark - Our master chef.

Stacey

Stacey and Jeff

Brian

At work

Mark and Jeff

Me and BrianJessica