Well Craig and I left on Thursday night to head to Utah. We got about an hour outside of where we live and realized I had left my cell phone in the Accord where we took it to get parked to sell. Whoops! So we went back because I needed to have it so that this girl could get a hold of me to buy our PS2 from us there in SL. So we got back on the road and enjoyed the drive. We saw about 150 jack rabbits on the side of the road here in New Mexico. We hit a WICKED rainstorm that we both thought was totally awesome. However it did slow us down a bit. It lasted a little while and then we were smooth sailing. So we went from Gallup in NM over to Arizona to go straight up to Utah when after about an hour of crusing along, we saw a sign that said "Welcome to New Mexico!" WHAT???? We were supposed to be in Arizona and entering Utah. Well it turns out that Craig had turned left where it said to get on the 191 but then just kept going and didn't take the next turn where the next sign was. So we drove a good 45 minutes out of the way back over into New Mexico. So we had to back track. So lame but it was funny and we just laughed! Anyways...the drive wasn't as bad as one might expect. Craig and I thought it flew by. We left at about 6pm and then went back for my phone and then headed out again around 7:00 ish. Craig was Mr energy drink and went the whole night without so much as a wink of sleep. He said he was fine the whole time. He drove clear through the night and into the morning. We got there around 11:00am. Crazy boy~!! We slept all day while Jamie tended Linkin boy. When we woke up, my parents took us to Sizzler where we met Jake, Samantha and Nikson for dinner. I love Sizzler. I don't know what it is but it's sooo good so that was Craig and I's number one choice for dinner since we don't have one here. ha ha! All you can eat shrimp. mmmmmm! Friday night we went to Craig's parents for dinner and to hang out and play games. It was a lot of fun. They got us Cafe Rio take out (our request) which was SOOOO good and much needed for my belly! It's all about the food people! I was very happy and thankful that they got it for us! mmmmm! So Saturday, we spent the day cooking and getting ready for Linkin's big birthday party. Decorating and what not. It started at 5:00 and it ended up being a total blast! We had the party in my folks beautiful backyard. I'm sorry to say but if you look at the pictures of the slideshow, you will see that it's beautiful~!! :) Which by the way, everything I mention here will have a picture in the birthday slideshow. There was so many pictures that I just put them in a slideshow instead of posting them all. The theme for the party was monkeys. I put together a little grab sack for the kiddies. Yellow bags with monkey faces. I made monkey faces on brown cups. I made Linkin his own Monkey cake. We made a normal cake for the adults to eat. Krista was there and helped come up with the banana idea on the top. I had banana milk, banana candies of all kinds decorating the table, Banana twinkies, I made cupcakes and Craig decorated them to look like Monkey faces. Craig and I made a homemade bean bag toss with monkeys on it. You throw the bean bags into the monkey's mouths. My sweet mother made the bean bags for it with this darling monkey fabric. We had pin the monkey on the palm tree for the kids to play. I had a craft table where the kids made a monkey with paper plates and foam. We also had a Monkey pinata! We had palm trees for decoration. In the grab sack for the kids I had a little keychain of a barrel with monkeys inside it, they had monkey tattoos, an activity pad, a palm tree pen, a monkey bracelet, and some banana candies. It was fun! We had a good group there. All of our families almost plus a few wonderful friends (Josilyn and Tyson, and Jos's Mom - YOU GUYS ROCK!!) Linkin got some great gifts. He got some much needed clothes and some really fun toys. He loves his walker from Grandma and Grandpa (Thomas). He just cruises around walking with it and has a huge smile on his face. I'll have to post pics of that later. He has mastered the piggy bank toy Tyson got him where you put the large plastic "coins" in the slot. I think it would be hard for a baby to do, but he does it well. Then he claps for himself. It's cute! He loves all the other toys too. He honestly plays with everything. It just depends on the moment. He's pretty ADD so he goes from toy to toy real quick and even with all my child care toys, he manages to give them all a try each day. He's funny! Loves to make messes!




the cob as well. MMMMMMM!! Told you it's all about the food. Jamie and the kiddies came over for dinner and I had this great plan to sleep outside in the backyard under the stars. Well it started to sprinkle a little so we set up the tent. We played outside all night. Played with the fishies in the pond, played duck duck goose, and played lots of other fun games. At one point, Jorgen got this idea to put the little kid chair on his 3 wheeler and have Linkin ride on there. So with close supervision, we let him do it. We stuck Linkin on the back and Jorgen cruised around super fast. Linkin was thrilled. He smiled the whole time. It was so funny! Jorgen was also pretty pumped about it. He thought he was so awesome! ha ha!!

One it got dark out, we all climed in the tent to tell "scary stories". Well Grandma went first. She told this story that this Mom and her kids went for a drive late one night without the Dad. She said her car stopped going and that she had to pull off the side of the road to this dark place. She said they were sitting there when all of a suddent there was a THUD on the side of the car. She kept trying to get the car started, but the THUD kept hitting the car like it was getting closer and closer to her side of the car and her door. Finally her car started moving and she drove off really fast and they got home and when they got there and got out, they looked and there was a hand stuck to the side of the car under the handle. It had long creepy fingernails and it was trying to get the Mom out when she peeled off. SOOOOOOOOOO the point of me telling this story is that it SHOT the rest of storytelling for the night because the kiddies didn't take to it very well!!! Well Jorgen was horrified. ha hahaa! He didn't want to tell ANYMORE scary stories the whole night. He was clutching Craig's legs. It was so funny. We (Jamie, my Dad and I) were totally laughing and joking about how we are with a bunch of little kids and Mom busts out the first story of the night as an R rated horror film. We determined that she watches too many forensic crime shows. ha haha! Poor Mommy! It was fun! We ended up telling some lame goofy stories after that.

So after we pretended to be asleep for a while and the kids fell asleep, Jamie and I snuck out of the tent to go watch The Office with my Dad. Craig was zonked with the kids and didn't want to wake up so he stayed out there! We stayed up until about 1 and then Jamie went home and I slept on the couch. Weird night. Especially for it being my idea to sleep outside on the grass, and then I slept inside while they all slept outside. ha haa! Oh well! Craig's sweet to sleep uncomfortable to be with the kids because they needed to have an adult out there probably.
WOW!!! You weren't kidding when you said you guys were so busy the whole time while out here! That is awesome! Happy Birthday Linkin! Love the pictures!
Posted by: Jenn | September 10, 2007 at 08:46 AM