The Longest Post Ever... (or Michael's first roadtrip)

And so begins the longest post ever... (Our Spring Break/Easter Vacation)

We started off to Carson with high hopes (which quickly were dashed in the first five minutes)

And though we were slightly intimidated by the fact that it would take us twelve-thirteen hours to get there, everyone was excited! yes, that is a pink blanket - we were running low on clean ones :)Who knew we would drive through Beverly Hills (NV, that is - a next-door neighbor to Pumpernickel Valley - thrilling, I know)
I have no idea where this is - it just has rocks, so Rand made me take a picture of it... :)We asked Michael how he felt about stopping at Elko's Burger King for a burger and fries. This was his response:He did pretty well, overall - He slept most of the way and only non-stop cried for two hours of the trip. Not bad, when you consider it dragged on forever and ever...
Elise, well, she did alright...

She only slept for a half an hour. We became very inventive in keeping her entertained. Who knew singing "EIEIO" for forty-five minutes (or chanting "Granny, Papa" over and over) at a time could be so much fun?
The trip was actually a lot of fun - Elise was so excited to see her grandparents (she adores Papa) and had a blast! Michael has never had so much attention paid to him (that is, in Rexburg), and smiled and cooed whenever anyone looked at him. The best part about it, though, was meeting our new neice.

Caylee Evelyn Greenburg

(Just in case you couldn't tell, Michael is the one on the right - the gigantic one)

On Monday night, we went to Sonoma Park to go fly some kites - Elise, for some reason has some strange fears. Swings, jelly stuck to her fingers, and now kites - I'm not sure where they come from, but she had a lot of fun playing with Papa on the playground...far away from flying Elmo.
Michael sat in his carseat... We think he might have enjoyed it?And we went to the Carson Children's Museum - Elise really enjoyed the supermarket/Asian diner. A little boy whipped her up some yarn (noodles) and poured her some tea. I have no proof, though, as all of the pictures turned out blurry - I credit it to my excellent photography skills :)

Rand, chillin' like a villain
Elise enjoying Mickey in an impromptu puppet showElise playing puzzles with Grandma
This one's for you, Uncle John

After Rand quit his job, Elise has hit the work force and is taking on the bills (namely our new outrageously expensive, bottom of the line washer and dryer).

don't worry, Rand still kept his day job :)

We all had a ton of fun and it was a great stress relief - only the stress came back once we arrived in Rexburg (we moved the next day and our Internet was giving us some major problems). We like our new place (even though it's slightly smaller - there's the lack of a third bedroom), specifically because there's an amazing amount of closet space and a ton of windows (finally! I live in a place with actual light)! School has started up again and we won't get out until the end of July. It's pretty time-consuming, but since there's a park in our backyard, Elise and Michael don't seem to mind. Well, it's been fun - thanks for making it through this entirely long post :)