Texas Ice Storm

On Wednesday we were living the life! It was nearly 80 degrees outside. We spent the morning at the park with friends, came home ate lunch then spent the hour until nap time outside.

 I was wearing jeans but I got so uncomfortable I went in and put on a pair of shorts.

I knew this weather wasn't going to last long, so after nap time we loaded up the stroller and went for a walk.

I was hoping, since we spent just about the whole day outside, that would tide us over for a few days. I had no idea how LONG the next few days would be!

We woke up Friday morning to snow! Everyone was really excited, so we hopped out of bed, dug out our warm clothes and headed outside.

We had FUN! But that lasted for about 10 minutes. It certainly wasn't the light fluffy powder we got in Utah. Weston had fun just tromping through it, but Landon was done right after we went out. He definitely does not like the cold (he's a true Texas boy). It was really surprising that the entire Metroplex shutdown after 1/2" of snow. But I'm beginning to understand. First of all, though it looks a lot like snow, it's pretty much just ice. Devon described it as the way snow gets after it's been compressed for a few days. Secondly, they're just not equipped to clear the roads here. And finally, people here just aren't comfortable getting around in snow.  So, the whole rest of the Friday was spent indoors. Even Devon worked from home.

Saturday started out indoors...

Until we couldn't take it anymore and ventured out to Walmart. I've never enjoyed being at Walmart so much!!

Church was canceled today, so yet another day inside. I did a little art project with the boys to keep them busy...

While I'm about to go crazy, I am thankful we're all safe and there's no damage to our house. There are tons of tree branches down in the area, due to all the ice. We only lost three small branches, though we have a whole tree that is leaning to the side.

The temperature is finally above freezing and I hear a lot of dripping coming from outside. I'm hoping we can get out of the house tomorrow! Wish us luck ;)

California

Landon was finally able to take his first trip to California! My friend Beckee (we've been friends for almost 30 years, YIKES!) was getting married in St. George, UT. Instead of just flying in for the wedding, I decided to fly into LAX and make a week long trip out of it.

I was a little scared to fly alone with both boys! They weren't perfect, but we survived!

 

The first thing I HAD to do when we got to Long Beach was meet my new nephew, Mason!

Isn't he seriously the cutest little thing!!!

The second thing I had to do was go to Dominicos (our FAVORITE family restaurant)!

A few months back a friend posted on Facebook about this cool little park, so I had to take the boys...

The boys loved meeting their new cousin and we were able to get a cute picture of them all.

The Marengo Cousins

Devon noticed in this picture that Mason and Landon are holding hands. Seriously, how cute is that?!?!?

 

 

 A HUGE benefit to having the wedding in St. George is that I got to stay with my other bestest friend, Jen and she finally got to meet Landon.

(A little side note, I also spent time with one of my most favorite high school friends and her two little boys, but I got no pics, boo me!)

And finally, the reason for the trip, the wedding. It was in a canyon just outside of St. George and it was BEAUTIFUL! Weston had a blast playing in all the dirt and trying to climb all the rocks, just like the big kids. 

I just love this outtake!

The beautiful bride

I LOVE seeing old friends!

We've all been friend FOREVER!

It was a fun trip, but I was SO excited to get home and see my hubby. I'm glad that Devon is coming on our next trip to Cali!!

Oh and a couple more cute pics of the boys from the trip...

And DONE!

Grandma Yoak

Devon's grandma passed away a few weeks ago, right after her 91st birthday. I am SO grateful that I was able to know her and that both my boys were able to meet their great-grandma.

I just LOVE this picture, the way they are both smiling at each other melts me

We flew Utah for her funeral. Although it wasn't under the happiest of circumstances, I was really glad to get an impromptu chance to see family and celebrate the life of an amazing woman.

The day of the funeral the boys got all dressed up...

The funeral was beautiful! One of my favorite things was the blanket display. 

Grandma crocheted a blanket for EVERYONE of her 38 great-grandchildren. The display took up a few long tables and showed the love she had for all those kids. The blankets are such a treasured gift.

And the graveside, there was a flower arrangement that had the exact number of flowers to represent all of Grandma Yoak's posterity. There were two lilies representing Grandma and Grandpa Yoak, five flowers representing their children, 21 roses for grandchildren and 38 carnations for each great-grandchild. Everyone was allowed to take their corresponding flower. I just LOVED that! I let West choose a carnation for himself & Landon and a rose for Devon.

 During a BEAUTIFUL violin number by his Uncle Ethan, Weston was literally mesmerized. So much so, that he didn't move an inch the entire piece and the Bishop, that was officiating over the funeral, pulled out his phone in the middle of the service and took a picture.

So, of course, when we got home West got a chance to try out the violin for himself.

We also had time for some fun! The boys always love playing with their uncles, but this time they really had a great time playing with Grandma and Grandpa Black. Every morning Weston would walk around the house yelling, "Gandma Lack, get up Gandma Lack!"

Weston also really appreciated the fact that he has a TON of cousins in Utah. It was so fun to see him running around and playing with everyone. The day before we left we went to the Discovery Science Center with cousin Creed. The boys had a blast!

It's hard to be so far away from family, but it really makes you grateful for the time that you do have with them!

Houston

If there's one thing Devon misses about living in Utah, it's College Football! We definitely don't have a shortage of it here in Texas, but there's just something about seeing 'your' team play. Luckily, BYU played a game in Houston this past weekend. We loaded up the boys and five million other things (it's amazing the amount of crap you have to travel with when you have kids!) early Saturday morning. It's only a four hour drive, so the boys were pretty good in the car. The first thing that surprised us about Houston was how beautiful it was! As soon as we hit the northern suburbs it was like we were in the forest. It was so green. Devon loved the combination of palm and pine trees.

After a stop at McDonald's to get the wiggles out, we headed to the game. Here are some cute pictures I got before the game started...

To say the game was exciting would be an understatement! It was the best game I've ever been to and I've been to a lot of games! About 1/3 of the people in the stadium were BYU fans, so the atmosphere was electric. The louder the Houston fans got, the louder the BYU fans got. Both of the boys LOVED it!

West is SO his father's son!!

 Both boys even got a little nap in (how they slept in all the noise is beyond me!)

Over four hours after kick off, BYU was finally able to pull out a 47-46 win. I was literally shaking the whole 4th quarter!! The coolest part of the game was BYU's victory lap after the game. West loved giving a high-five to all the players.

After a VERY restless sleep Saturday night (we have got to figure out a better way of sleeping with two little kids in a hotel room!), we headed to NASA Sunday.

Devon waiting to play some blast off game

A couple of tram ride selfies

As West would say, the boys as 'astrosnots'

This is a Saturn V rocket, they used this series of rockets for the Apollo missions

You would not want to be standing under this as it lifted off! In this picture West was saying 'OH WOW!' He said it about 500x, it was cute the first 2x.

Devon and Landon checking out the astronaut training facility

The best pic I could get of Landon and mission control

By the time we left NASA we were exhausted! I think I'm still recovering ;) But all in all it was a great first Texas and Landon road trip!