NorCal Adventures Begin

Merry Christmas friends and family

Just for fun I convinced Easton and Layla to take some pictures for the purpose of comparing their features.  I did the best job I could with aligning their chins and then everything else just lines up as good as I could.  The eyes are roughly the same, but as you can see everything else is completely different.  Oh what fun it is to have two totally different kids who are the exact same age.

We drove the battle wagon safely Sacramento to spend a few days with Ouma and Oupa.  Record travel time of 12h:15m from door to door.  We achieved this by not stopping for dinner or meals because Kendra packed a cooler, and the absence of construction.  This is the first time we didn't have to stop or slow down for a single moment of construction!  The twins asked every 15 minutes or so, "are we there yet" in various forms.  The DVD players were minimally used.  We played all kinds of games along the way including finding all the letters in the alphabet by searching the signs.  We made it from A to F.  We also played rhyming games where someone says a word and someone else comes up with a word that rhymes.  I'm surprised by how good they are at rhyming, but also by how quickly the words always turn vulgar.  We work daily to correct their vulgar words, but i know this is just a stage!

I thought about how much travel we've done with Easton and Layla over the past almost 5 years.  here's the summary version of where the twins have been:

Phoenix, AZ - Where we live
Tucson, AZ - Air and space museum
Payson, AZ - Ouma and Oupa and Kristi and Doyle vacation
San Luis Obispo, CA - visit Uncle Logan and Aunt Robyn
Sacramento, CA - fairy tale town and state capital
9 trips to Folsom, CA - visit Ouma and Oupa
Tahoe, CA - Sierra ski park for snow tubing
Oklahoma City, OK - visit Aunt Mary
2 trips to Springfield, MO - visit Nana and Papa Webb

2013 will certainly be an extensive year of travel so this list will certainly grow.

Anyway, back to the current adventures...  Uncle Casey came by for dinner, which turned into a Nerf gun war with Easton.  That kid has great aim!



I got a still picture of Casey in attack mode for those who don't want to access the youtube clip.  He is convinced every household needs Nerf guns no matter what age you are.  I agree completely.

I'll close out this blog post early because I'm still working this week and getting up extra early to ride with Ouma.  One more day and then... vacation time!  I can't wait.  There is an article I read and found the following quote that is very meaningful to me:

it is our job to create a heart of gratitude, selflessness and thankfulness in our kids’ hearts.

The reason it catches my attention so much is because it summarizes well what Kendra and I focus on with parenting Easton and Layla.  It's difficult to know whether a parent is succeeding or not, but to the degree this comment is measurable, it proves whether I am being successful or not according to my own criteria.  I want the twins to have these traits in their hearts.  I don't want them to behave this way because of fear or out of duty though.  i want them to truly have these characteristics in their hearts.  Then they will naturally flow out of them through their day to day life.  

See you...  tomorrow!