hip hop, rain dances, and disneyland

Time for one of my famous catch-up posts! Come with me on a picture/video journey through the past few weeks....

This video is for my Dad. Caitlin came home from school one day and said she learned hip-hop at school. I said, "Oh..so what does hip-hop look like then?" This is what she thinks hip-hop is:

My Grandpa Patrick Dunleavy passed away last month. My dad and my uncle Dennis came through our way on their trip to Westlake Village, CA for my Grandpa's graveside service. While they were here they taught my girls the 'rain dance'. Here's the picture. Lucky you, there's a video too. Just as a side note, after their rain dance was when California (and AZ) got torrential rain and flooding a few weeks ago. So it's all my Dad and Dennis' fault. :o) And yes..my girls think that it was just because they did the 'rain dance'.

This girl loves her monkey..I tell you what!

I know she wouldn't say it at the time...but she always says "Tay-too Damma Yeyo" when she has her monkey. (Thank you Gramma Yellow is what that translates to. For some reason Nate's mom got the nickname Grandma Yellow for Emma.)
So she woke up one morning and found this bowl of popcorn on the table from the girls' and my 'game night'. She thought she was the BOMB finding such a treasure left out.
Nate was gone for a total of 6 weeks, but in the middle he came back and surprised the girls for a couple of days. They were SO excited!! Didn't take long to get back to the 'Daddy is a jungle gym' stage. The things we do to stay occupied without Nate for weeks and weeks...
And forts under the table... We had planned to go out to SoCal and visit Nate while he was rotating out there. We were going to go to Disneyland with my mom as well. But a couple of little girls did a RAIN DANCE and the whole state was under water, so we had to go a couple weeks later to visit and hit Disneyland with my Mom. When we finally made it out...Nate was already in Utah rotating. :o( But we had a great time! Thank you Matt and Cindy for letting us stay at your house!! Nathan, Breanne, Cindy, Emma, Russ, Caitlin, Jake, Abby. :o) Thanks guys for hanging out! We had so much fun!

On the tram to the parks!
Emma's favorite ride of all time. She gets on Small World and goes into a trance!

Poor exhausted girls after Disneyland.

Tink.

Rosetta.

Emma LOVES merry-go-rounds! She threw a fit every time we had to get off.

Part of the fit-throwing.

Pixies with the cowgirl boots. Yeee Haw.

The traditional Valentine's Day hairdos for school.

Well, there you have it. THANK YOU MOM for the wonderful time at Disneyland and for all your help and company for a couple of days!!! We miss you already!!

Things are going well (because Nate is finally back) and we are LOVING the 75 degree February weather. Match day for residency is coming up in March...so we're excited to find out where that will take us for the next 3 years. Stay tuned!