The Kandells: April 2008

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Kent, Ohio

This is the perfect little house Eric grew up in. Isnt it so picturesque?? I love it and pictures can't even quite do it justice. It's like a perfect little house. The kids and I flew out here Monday morning early. It was my first time traveling with the 2 kids by myself. It was a little busy but not to bad. I would do it again. Monday and Tuesday it was cold out but today is started warming up here so we were able to be outside and enjoy the incredible surrounding out here. I cannot even quit telling Sue how beautiful Ohio is. It really is the most quaint, pretty place and so green too. This morning I went on a run into downtown Kent and I wished I had my camera with me everytime I passed and old house or cute little corner shop. It is such a cool place.

Ady and Max is grandma Sue's garden.

The Kandell's beautiful home and yard

Max in the woods... he kept trying to eat all the pinecones...What the heck Max?

Ady and Grandma exploring the mushroom cave.

Can you believe this is their yard? What a dream!!

The pond in the Kandell's yard is home to some ducks that Ady and Max want to chase...

Feeding the donkeys "Gabe" and "Gladie", the whole plane ride Ady kept saying "We are going to Grandma and Grandpa and the donkeys house!!" She LOVES the donkeys... what kid wouldnt't?

I wanted to post all these pics of Grandma and Grandpa Kandell's place because I am always telling people that their home is "kid paradise" so I thought I would show why we think that. They also have a pool the kids can swim in once it is a little warmer later in the summer. Now, can you think of anywhere better for kids to play? We can't!

Where is our Spring??

This video clip was from the little barnyard animals fair we went to today at Thanksgiving Point. The kids DID enjoy the pony ride but "Oh my gosh, it was freakin' cold!!" We are feeling a little jipped this Spring. We spent the chillier months trying to be in St George as much as possible, but it is almost MAY!! And we were so cold we could hardly even stay long enough to wait through the pony line. And we have been trying to be positive and do fun "spring " stuff but it's just not the same in this weather. Last week we even went to the "Tulip Festival" at Thanksgiving Point also. And like none of the Tulips had bloomed since it has been so cold. We totally got ripped off. $10 bucks a person to see some pre-bloomed buds. I try and keep this blog upbeat and positive but I have not much good to say about the Spring Festivites and weather so far. We are NOT impressed.

(Photos from The Barnyard Animals Fair today and the Tulip Festival last Saturday.)

Also the kids and I are leaving on Monday morning bright and early for Ohio to see the Kandell Grandparents. Sue (my mother in law) has been saying how beautiful their Spring has been so green and in the 70's, and she said the day we arrive in is dropping down to the 50's...so maybe it is us??? We are being punished for trying to escape the cold these past couple months. It is finally catching up with us. Oh well. Ohio is kid paradise, especially Sue's beautiful yard so I am sure we will have tons of fun!

Daddy Night at home with kids

This is Eric chiming in real quick. I am actually at work and was just thinking about how much fun I had watching Max and Ady last night while Hailey was out with her girlfriends. My kids are so happy and are so fun to be with. We took a bike ride, ran around the house, wrestled and just had a good time. There is nothing better, NOT EVEN LOW INTEREST RATES, than to have your kids smile at you and to be able to just feel how much they need and love you. Families are awesome!

Elder/ President Spencer Smoot

Ok, I am going to take a second to brag about my amazing little brother. Spencer has been serving an LDS mission in Mozambique Maputo (africa) for a year now, well in just a couple weeks it will be a year. And he is having an incredible experience and doing so much good service. I am so proud of him. His last 6 months he has been working in the mission home and was just recently transfered to the depths of the jungle in a place called Inhamizua. He has been made the Branch President and he and his companion are the only 2 missionaries in this area.

He and his companion live in the ONLY house in the entire area, everyone else lives in little huts, and they attend church in a little pavillion outisde Spencer and his companions little shack. They have 96 members and 30 of those are under age 10. CRAZY!! I cannot imagine my little brother conducting church, teaching in sacrament and counting tithing all those responsibilities on a 20 year old missionary. I am so proud of him.

Here is a little excerpt from his last email

" I sincerely feel so blessed I have been so warmly received into this area: the people are so nice and try so hard to make me happy. I don't ever want to think of leaving. Lucky for me, President Packard called on Wednesday night to check up on my branch, area and all, and then proceeded to tell me since I have been called as actual Branch President, not just acting BP, I will likely stay for 4 transfers. It's good to know I have the next 6 months of my life planned, and my work cut out for me. I feel really honored to have been called to serve as Branch President, but at the same time, very inadequate. There is so much work to be done and we still have a long way to go. I'm sure I will grow a lot in the next several months and probably bruise my knees with the amount of time I will spend praying, but I know the lord will qualify me to his work with faith."

His letters are so inspiring and wonderful to read. I love you Spencer! And we miss you so so much!

Caitlin Wilson

I cannot say enough good things about the interior designer who helped us do our new house. SHe did the entire project from top to bottom and even is still doing little things here and there to make it "HOME" for us! She highlighted some of the before and afters of our house on her design blog with pics of the house mostly finished (she did leave out a couple of rooms that she has now almost finished)

To see the pics go to her Design Blog at

caitlinwilsondesign.blogspot.com

So happy to be home again!

We are still recovering from our 3 day extravaganza in Disneyland. The flight home was nuts, we wanted to maximize our time so we took the flight that got us home just after midnight Monday, bad bad call. Let's just say we wont ever do that again. I had a Disneyland sized headache and my kids didn't get to go to sleep in their beds until like 2 am. BUT, the trip was tons of fun, and we are so glad we went. Yay for Disney!

Here are some pics from the Disney Princess lunch we took Ady to, she got to meet all the princesses but I am just posting pics of her favorites!! We got her a framed picture for her room of her and Ariel, she loves it!

OH MY DISNEYLAND!!

We started our second day at Disneyland early too, we were hardcore Disney-goers today we even stayed late enough at the Park to see the 10 pm Fireworks show. It was such a fun day, and the kids were loving it! Eric and I love to watch what great buddies they are now. They love being together, it is so great! I am so so so glad my kids are so close in age. It keeps getting more and more fun. This week we have especially noticed how much they love each other which we, of course, love to watch.
Since we have been going non-stop all day, we are so ready to go to bed right now, the only reason I am even still awake to type this is cuz we are waiting for some room service to arrive. And if it were just food I would have probably already have gone to bed, but it's DESSERT so I am fighting sleep to wait for it. So, in summary we are loving Disneyland, and we are exhausted from all the fun!

The "A" in cAlifornia is also for Adyson

We took a mid-day break today for a dip in the pool.

Our Minnie Mouse, I tried and tried to find a Mickey costume in Macky's size but boy costumes are just not around like all the girl ones are. Bummer.

Dad and Ady at dinner at a sushi spot in the Paradise Pier

Mom, Ady and Mac Mac in front of the carousel in Fantasyland

After the firework show

Max in Downtown Disney, dosent even seem to notice he is up 2 hours after bedtime

We're Here!!!!

At the "happiest" place on earth! Today was a great day with the kids at Disneyland! But we are soo exhausted we arrived in Anaheim late Thursday night. We are staying at the Grand Californian at Disneyland, and we have been non-stop all day...so here are some pics and we are going to bed!! We could not be more tired! G'night!