Out with DADDY!

On the rare occasion that Courtland has an hour or two to spare he takes the kids out for some daddy time while mommy has some much needed 'me time'.

This is at the jungle play place called Safari Run- we got a groupon punch pass here so we come often and love it!

I have to go to a training for my job about every other month and Courtland usually just takes a long lunch off work to take the kids to chucky cheese so I can go. Mckell LOVES that place and if you print a coupon off you can get tokens at a much lower price.

The library by our house has fun guest entertainers every so often and this time it was 'the bubble lady' which Courtland said was pretty cool.

Always getting into trouble on daddy's watch!

And another round of chucky cheese- I think she's spoiled with how often we take her simply for something to do!

She picked a lollipop for her prize- She LOVES suckers and popsicles!

We wish daddy could play more often but he sure makes the time he has count! Grateful for such a hard working hubby!

Crash! Welcome to Utah!

A couple days after getting to Utah I was going to pick up some cafe rio for lunch and after I had backed out of my parking space, I got slammed in the back and that's when I made my first mistake... I looked around confused as to what just happened and then pulled my car back into my parking space- what I should have done was put my car into park and got out to access the situation and that is my valuable advice to all my fellow drivers who get into accidents- NEVER MOVE YOUR CAR AFTER AN ACCIDENT if possible.

Anyway, the girl who hit me came to my driver side and immediately began apologizing saying she was so sorry and going on and on about how her dad was going to kill her because it was her fault. Mistake 2, 3, and 4- I didn't have my phone, a freakin pen, or a camera with me.

She had no idea what to do at this point (she was 19 and had never been in an accident) so i asked her to call the police to come make a report. However, the police said they couldn't come because it was a parking lot on private property and unless anyone was hurt they wouldn't come.  So then I started asking the people who saw what happened if I could get a written statement from them or their numbers in case I needed them for insurance and because it was definitely not my fault and every single person said no and walked away in a hurry! What the crap! Where is your samaritan consciences??

So I told Anabelle (the girl who hit me) to call our insurance (we had the same insurance, which I thought would be a good thing but definitely was not) to make a claim and see if they had any advice for us as to how to proceed.

Anyway, we made our reports to the agent, she took pictures and supposedly called my phone so I'd have her number (which she totally did not call my phone) and we left.  I drove straight home (had some explaining to do since I was gone over an hour and was only supposed to take 10 minutes to grab our lunch) and headed back to the scene to take pictures of my tail light pieces scattered in the road that showed where the accident actually occured. Then I called my agent (I have geico insurance) to give another statement and ask where to send my pictures to prove this was not my fault.  And because this post is getting way too long... LONG story short: Anabelle tried to claim it was both of our faults and that we'd both backed out 50/50 and hit each other and since I had no witnesses or police report geico was calling it an equal fault and we were responsible for our own cars. However, I was definitely not taking blame for something that was not my fault and physically impossible proven by my pictures and diagrams I sent in. And after days of back and forth and me finally threatening to talk them to small claims court they declared me at no fault and I wouldn't have to pay a dime and my insurance rate would not go up. 

Morale of the story: Don't move your car after an accident, get a witness and take pictures before cars are moved, and don't take blame for something that is not your fault.

I was actually super surprised I won the case as it was a parking lot and very hard to prove whose fault it was based off of her word against mine. But the point I made is it was physically impossible for our opposite corners of our bumpers to hit if we had both backed out 50/50 because when backing out you have to back out straight and then turn your car once out of the stall (especially since she had cars parked on both sides) and the space between our cars didn't allow for both cars to back out completely and turn to hit opposite corners.

WOW! Ok and that was my rant about stupid people lying to get out of paying for an accident that was THEIR fault!

The end!!!

The drive back to Utah

Because we were able to pack everything up and into the moving truck so fast we decided to get a head start on the drive and left Saturday afternoon. We drove to Reno, stayed the night, and drove the rest of the way Sunday- Easter Sunday! Such a fun way to spend Easter! NOT! But at least we finally made it back to UTAH!

 A big BIG thanks to the Astill's for driving to Cali, helping us pack up, and drive back to Utah- seriously so thankful to you guys and appreciative for all you do for our family!

Moving back to Utah over Easter weekend!

Let me just say that I have THE BEST IN-LAWS EVER! They are the most helpful people and will drop anything to lend a hand. They have already driven to Cali twice to help us move and they just came out a third time to help move us back to Utah over Easter weekend.  You heard me right.. We're moving back to UTAH!!!! Courtland studied for a few weeks and took the LSAT just to see how he'd do and did REALLY well (especially for not really even studying like most people who study for months if not a year). Anyway, so he applied to law school and got into 3 of the 4 schools he applied to (BYU, U of U, and Vanderbilt, not Stanford). And we decided to accept the offer to the U of U (even though that means we are selling our souls because we are cougars through and through- ha) because the U offered him a scholarship which pays for about 70% of his schooling! How awesome is that! I have a real smarty pants for a husband. GO COURTLAND! So proud! However, that means we will be moving yet AGAIN, which makes our 15th move since we've been married not even 4 years yet!!!! CRAZY!!!! I HATE moving but I'm ecstatic to be moving back to Utah and thankful to know I will at least be living hopefully in the same place for 3 solid years! (but I'm not holding my breath!)

Anyway so Courtland's dad, mom, and sister Natalie drove out to help us pack up and truck it back to Utah and we are so appreciative because we could not have done it without them!

They came a few days before the move to hang out and check out some of the sights.  The first day we went to a forest that had tons of gigantic redwood trees. We didn't go to 'the redwood forest' because it's a couple hours away and with the driving we had ahead, we didn't want to add on any more car rides.  But this place was amazing and we saw some pretty spectacular trees! 

(Courtland wasn't able to come because it was his last day at work)

 Mckell loves her aunt Natalie

 Colter and Grandpa Astill

 Me and Nats- love that girl!

 Mckell was grinning ear to ear when the Astill's arrived! She could hardly wait and was in desperate need of some relative time! (I'm pretty sure she gets bored of just being with me ALL day so we're very excited to be moving back close to family to help break up the days)

The next day we took them into San Francisco to Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf

 Sea Lions in the background hanging out on the pier

 Proof that Courtland came with us (somehow he wasn't in any of the pictures)

 Of course we had to do the carousal

 Alcatraz in the background over Riley's left shoulder

 Playing in the water fountain at Ghirardelli Square

 teasing Mckell, I'm such a nice mommy as she was screaming her head off and people were staring at me like I was crazy

 And we drove down the ever famous Lombard street

The last day in California Courtland took his family to half moon bay which is a gorgeous beach only about 20 minutes from where we live in Belmont. I stayed behind and got a good chunk of packing done (which is nearly impossible to do with the kids around so I was glad to be on my own with no distractions).  And by the looks of the pictures- they had a great time!

It was a little chilly, but still fun to be at the beach and relax in the sand!

 Grandpa Astill is SUPER grandpa- he keeps us right along with my kids and plays with them for hours on end.

 Natalie's proof that she got in the ocean!

 Grandpa and Colter scoping out the seagulls...

 and Colter bolting after them!

 Grammy playing with Kelly in the sand

The next day was Saturday and a bunch of guys from our ward came to help us load up the moving truck which made it go pretty quick- so thankful to have such a supportive ward even though we only ended up living there for 6 months. While the truck was getting loaded up- Grammy and Natalie took the kids to an easter party with a hunt, face painting, and blow up toys- which was nice to have them out of the way... especially because Kell has a melt down every time she sees her stuff getting boxed up. I don't think she understands she's going to be much happier when we're living so close to family!

Easter Egg Hunt

The girls in my ward and I organized an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids one afternoon, and everything turned out just right. The kids raced out to collect some eggs and everyone had a good time.

Mckell checking out her stash!

 All the kids on the hunt!

 Checking out all their eggs and the surprises inside

 Kell and Colt- my babies

 Our attempt of getting a picture of all the kids afterwards.

This was the first of 3 egg hunts we did- Kell absolutely loved it and Colt will be running along side next year!