why, thank you!

     It's been kind of a whirlwind week...last week Kip started in Grand Junction, doing seismic upgrades on the VA Hospital there.  He is excited and thinks this will be a fun change!  He came back to Gypsum on Tuesday and we all packed up and headed to Denver for his Corps of Engineers training.  The kids and I head fun running around downtown Denver with the help of our GPS friend, Tom Tom.  That thing is awesome, I have to say!  We got to see the Denver Mint, the capitol building, and of course, the downtown McDonald's, which was quite possibly the nicest McDonald's I have ever been to.  I'll have to get online and write some fabulous review or something so they know how good it was.  After we picked Kip up we went to dinner at Romano's Macaroni Grill - we love their food, and the kids were thrilled that we had picked someplace with "macaroni" in the title.  We couldn't go wrong!  Here's the best part: As we were winding up dinner and getting ready for ice cream, another customer came up to our table and said, "I just wanted to say that you have the most beautiful family and they are SO well behaved."  WOOO HOOO!  That's enough to make my day.  I mean, I know they are beautiful and fun and I am super-blessed, but to have someone compliment their behavior...why, thank you!  Makes up for the other times when they are yelling or fighting and people are wondering why I even bring them out in public. :o)

So we had a fun trip to Denver, then Kip went back to GJ for work, then turned right around again and came home for a baptism that he spoke at Friday night; Saturday was the bi-annual Free Family Fun Fair, then Valentine's date while the Allens watched/played with the kids (thanks again guys!), then an Eagle Court of Honor that recognized five different boys, two of whom picked Kip as their "mentor."  Caleb was very impressed that Dad got two shiny gold pins on his shirt, although when I asked if he wanted to grow up and be an Eagle Scout, he said, "Eh, maybe."

Of course, Valentine's was exciting for the kids with the whole school party going on; we volunteered to bring drinks and there was candy, cupcakes, and sugar galore.  The kids loved it.  Their teacher let them open their valentine mailboxes and eat all their candy, which was OK with me because then I didn't have to worry about it at home.  This morning as we were getting Caleb ready for school, though, he was trying to pack this Valentine into his backpack:

 

If you can see, apparently this kid Kodi spelled Caleb's name wrong on the valentine, so Caleb got a red pen from Dad's pen bucket, and wrote "coueb NO," crossed it out, "CALEB YES," circled it, put a check and was determined to take it and give it back to Kodi.  I confiscated it, and we had a little talk about just being thankful his friend was nice and gave him a valentine.  I have a feeling he is still going to talk to Kodi about it.  Sigh...

Ella and Rachel have been having fun since our Denver trip with Rachel's new stroller...

 

Ella pushes Rachel all around the house, and Rachel seems to enjoy it.   Win-win!

Kip taught primary, I taught Relief Society, and then we headed fro Junction since Caleb didn't have school Monday.  We looked at a few houses for rent but since we don't know exactly when we're moving it's a little hard still.  We did decide for sure not to sell the house, so we'll be hoping/looking for renters and working on cleaning and packing. 

Sorry this is so long, you're almost to the end, yay!  Here are some pictures from the Free Family Fun Fair: