First Tooth

The day we got home from our reunion, Jaxon told us that a tooth had become very loose. He seemed very concerned. My heart cried a little bit (just a reminder he's growing up so fast) and I told him it was normal, told him about the tooth fairy, etc. He didn't really understand the fairy part, but he's all for money so he went with it. (Sometimes instead of us singing him a song at night, he'll ask if we can instead talk to him for a few minutes about money. Seriously.)

The tooth came out the next day.

What a cute kid. Fun times. :)

In other teeth news, Ginger's officially teething. In fact, she decided to go all out with 3 new teeth at once. It hasn't been as fun...

Chicago Anderson Reunion

We just got back from a fantastic reunion in Chicago and Nauvoo. Brady and JaNae were in charge this year and they did such a wonderful job organizing everything!

We decided to fly out for various reasons and use up some of Travis' miles. Because he had miles on two different airlines, we had to split up and fly separately. I had Jaxon and Ginger on Delta and Travis took Violet on American. It was the kids' first time flying. :) They thought it was great!

The first evening we just relaxed and caught up a bit. Violet had lots of fun playing with cousins in the sprinklers. Jaxon got a little dehydrated and after his long day, went to bed early.

The second morning we headed for Lake Michigan for a day at the beach. The water felt great on such a hot day and the kids were having a ball swimming and building sand castles all afternoon.

The next day we drove into Chicago and did some sight seeing.

A far more accurate depiction

We took a riverboat tour of the city that also went out onto the lake where we could see the beautiful Chicago skyline.

On the boat

After the tour, Grammy and Pappy treated everyone to a show, Aladdin.

I had tried to prep Jaxon ahead of time because I figured he wouldn't be able to understand everything and he hadn't seen Aladdin before. So I borrowed Aladdin from my sister a week before and we watched it for our monthly family pizza/movie night.

Fancy schmancy...

It went great, and an additional thanks to JaNae and Natalie for driving the littlest ones home and watching them!

The next day we left for Nauvoo (which is a four hour drive from the Chicago area). Once there we enjoyed the sights and activities around us.

Cousins making rope

We went to a little play and at the end the main character got off the stage and ran to Jaxon and quickly asked if he wanted to join her on stage. Of course any normal kid would jump at the chance but Jaxon had no idea what was going on. It all happened quickly but I encouraged him to go with her and he reluctantly did. Once on stage she asked him to pinkie promise something and held out her pinky to him. Jaxon was so confused and just stared at her. He told me later he was just confused the whole time because he couldn't understand everything she was saying (he was probably really thrown off by the whole "pinkie promise", ha ha...poor guy.)

Meanwhile to the rest of the audience, he looked like the world's biggest party pooper. I was thinking, Out of all the kids in the audience, why'd she have to pick him? Poor girl, she was probably thinking the same thing at this point. She finally just took his pinkie in hers and they all broke out in song around him. Anyway, that will be a fun story to tell him in 10 years...

We camped that night at the Nauvoo campground and the kids chased and caught fireflies for a good while. That night we woke up to some CRAZY thunder and lightning storm. The wind was so strong it brought down a couple trees. I actually thought we might be in some tornado danger. I was planning in my mind our emergency escape route (grab kids, run towards bathrooms...)while Travis was admiring the non-stop lightning that flashed above our heads.

Fallen tree in our campsite

Violet and Ginger surprisingly slept through it (actually, that was one of Ginger's best nights of sleep yet!), but it did wake Jaxon but he seemed unconcerned about our seemingly impending doom. We are so grateful our tent held up well that night. Actually, now that I remember, it was really warm that night before going to bed, so Travis asked if I wanted him to take off the rainfly. I almost said yes. Almost. This close. But then I wondered if it would rain and said not to worry about it, mostly because I didn't want to get up in the middle of the night half asleep and try to put a rainfly on the tent. So glad we kept it on. So glad.

The next morning, most of the adults went to do a session in the Nauvoo temple while JaNae and I stayed behind to watch the kids. After lunch we went to Carthage Jail (30 min away). Travis and I had a good talk with the kids on the way there to prep them for what they were about to see/do. Unfortunately Violet slept through half of the tour, poor thing. But Jaxon was very interested in seeing the rooms and hearing what happened.

What a trooper

Afterward we took some pictures, had a small devotional, and went back to Nauvoo.

We enjoyed going from home to home, Travis and I really enjoyed the brick yard and the tin shop. The kids loved playing at the outdoor activity center with all the pioneer games.

Ginger was such a good sport during the whole trip. It was very hot all week, and I'm so glad none of us got dehydrated (other than Jaxon that first day).

That evening we had a nice meal and listened to Grammy and Pappy tell us stories and then presented everyone with fidget spinners and their mission book that they put together. That will be so special to our family, especially since Travis was such a big part of it.

We drove back to Naperville, spent the night at Brady and JaNae's, and flew home the next day. Ginger slept the whole flight home. So nice!

It was such a fun vacation, and it was nice because we probably won't be back in that area again for several years (until our kids are old enough to understand/appreciate more about Church History). We are so grateful to Brady and JaNae for putting on a fantastic family reunion. We can't wait for the next one, wherever that'll be. Whoever's in charge of that one better start brainstorm-...oh wait...

Violet Turns 3

June has been a busy month so far, and it started out with a special birthday for Violet (aka "Violeta" at church) who turned three years old.

We celebrated with her favorite food, pizza (takes after her mom), and then mint chocolate bundt cake.

We wanted to get a picture of her hair the last day she was 2 years old, so we could always remember how long her hair got when she was 2. Here she is:

Looks like a wig, doesn't it? The length is pretty impressive (it's never been cut, nor trimmed), but what gets me is how thick it is. I like to joke that she has the genes of "my people", which is true. Latins are not known for their thin, wispy hair.

Violet's our little cuddle bug. She loves to cuddle with blankets (or her dog, "perro") and hug and give/receive kisses.

Sleeping with Perro

She's also pretty timid around strangers, or if she's just in a bad mood then she'll give you the look of death (doctor visits and photo shoots have become traumatic experiences...). If she's not standing RIGHT next to you at the store and you turn a corner, she will scream and think she's lost and start running in the complete opposite direction (ugh). Violet's such a little mommy to Jaxon and Ginger. She'll tell Jaxon to get out of the street (parking lot) and panic if he doesn't listen. She loves to bring Ginger toys and hold her hand and love on her.

We certainly do love our little Violet.

Lil' Smarty Pants Preschool Graduation

Jaxon graduated from preschool the end of May (his second year). He absolutely loved his teacher, Mrs. Fox, and his classmates. I will forever be indebted to Mrs. Fox for her patience with him, especially that first year when he spoke/understood almost NO English.

He was quite the popular guy at school, I loved dropping him off and seeing all the kids running to meet him shouting his name. Made me feel warm and fuzzy inside, especially since, you know, I was never the popular one, I can live vicariously through him... I told Travis, "Maybe it's because of his accent", but he reminded me that a Spanish accent doesn't have quite the same appeal as, say, a British accent.

This is his classroom (it was run out of his teacher's home). The clubhouse was his favorite part of school.

Just a heads up, he's really been into this kind of smile lately...

Him and his best friend, Dalton.

To celebrate he chose to go to the Cannon Center at BYU for dinner. He loves it because of the variety of desserts and all you can drink chocolate milk. ;) He's really looking forward to kindergarten next year, wherever that will be!