We made our way to Idaho and took over Grandma's basement. Literally. The boys had their own room and a playroom and it was dirty all of the time. They were in mischief all of the time. Grandpa would constantly say, "we're raising boys, not gardens, or nice stuff, or perfect cookies, etc." Grandma went to get potatoes from her storage room and found they had gotten into the extra toilet paper and wrapped the potatoes up like dinosaur eggs, then they used another few rolls to wrap themselves and be superheros. Another time, Grandma caught Ryan peeing into the window well. And another time, she caught him peeing in her flower garden. And another time, under the trampoline. And I caught both the boys peeing in the garage and asked them what they were doing. Ryan said, "Don't worry mom, we're peeing inside. just like you said to." Nice. Grandma woke up to them using their squirt guns, courtesy of Grandpa, to clean her entire upstairs. I think they said they were getting all of the bugs out. There was water everywhere. Dripping from the ceiling, covering the counters and the walls. They must have been very busy. They were so proud of being such great helpers so it was hard to punish them too badly. Great Grandma and Grandpa Vaughn stopped in to say hi for a bit. Ryan asked her if she would jump on the trampoline with her and she told him no, she couldn't. He said, "oh, because your knees will break because they're old." I'm sure she appreciated that.
We had to take a trip or two down to Weston to visit Great Grandma Buttars and help her out a bit. Ryan loved the tractor and Trent took them 4-wheeling and they met some friends across the road and played on their bikes for a few days.
While Grandpa and Dad mowed the yard(it took them a few hours), the boys sat in the back of the lawn trailer getting buried deeper and deeper with each bag. They had their dinosaurs in there and went riding all over with Grandpa.
Smily Goobs
Raefster
Then Daddy had to leave to COT in Alabama for 5 weeks and we began the party. No. Actually we had a lot of lazy days and playing on Grandmas trampoline and tromping through her flowers. We took them to the zoo and then to this small ride park and they were addicted.
Thank goodness for Erin. Again! I get sick just standing next to these rides. Raef loved it and Ryan smiled the whole time but he never took his eyes off of the middle section. I couldn't decide what he was looking at.
They miss Erin if they can't see her everyday. She is an amazing Aunt and plays with them for hours. They truly adore her.
Raef got a new bike when we got to Idaho after Trent ran over Ryan's strider bike. Just a bit of major devastation. It was hands down, Ryan's most prized possession. But he inherited Raef's and seems just fine. Raef was thrilled to be on a big bike and to our surprise, never faltered one time. He just took off. Trent was running after him frantically waiting for him to crash but pretty soon Raef was long gone and Trent was left in the dirt. After that, the boys went on a bike ride almost everyday. We took them to the riverwalk to feed ducks and ride bikes. Other days, Grandpa or Grandma would take them for a ride to the school and let them play on the playground for awhile.
Still as cute as could be possible.
The Air Show came to Idaho Falls and Grandma was very excited. It was extremely hot but we made the trek over there and tried to stay hydrated with 7 dollar snow cones. Maddening! The boys insisted on taking this picture for Uncle Cam.
I love this picture. Ryan looks so peaceful as big brother lightheartedly shoots his target.
The boys have become completely obsessed with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Raef is Leo and Ryan is Raphael. They agreed to switch their favorite colors only for this exception due to the fact that Leo is the older and wiser leader and they both agreed that that should be Raef. Erin made the mistake of coloring masks on them one morning and then it became a regular morning routine after the coloring had smeared during the day and their sleep. Then they needed their bones drawn on them and also their girls' names. You can see Remi listed on Raef's leg and Alyssa listed on Ryan's. Erin, where's your boys name?
Grandma found this perfect little spot on the river and we got to relax while the boys played dinosaurs for a few hours. It was shaded and beautiful. There was sand areas they could dig in and water to play in. A perfect haven for two little boys. Yes, that's another day with another drawn on turtle mask.
Our perfect little hiding spot.
Raphael with a very wet and runny mask.
Mom and Leo
Another day that we repeated a few times was a trip to Rexburg. We got Little Caesars pizza, breadsticks, pop, u-swirl frozen yogurt(a new fav of ours), snowcones and even had time to swim between all of that. Yikes! That's a lot of spoiling in one day.
Drying off at the splash park. Raef only wanted to go on the slide a couple of times but Ryan went constantly. He figured out he could go up the stairs and around the entire line and sneak right under the bigger kids that were waiting and go down the slide quickly. They barely even noticed him. Grandma and I thought it was so cute and waited for him to get caught but it never happened. He had a good system going.
