Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Memories

On September 13th Kip's Grandpa Garr Robinson passed away. He passed away of old age and was lucky to have lived a very full and happy life of 92 years! He was very happy in his life before he passed and was surrounded by those that he loved and love him. We all pictured the reunion of him and Grandma Lina who had passed 4 years before. We are so grateful to know that family's are Eternal and that we will be reunited with the two of them some day!
We were so grateful to be able to plan the trip to be there to participate in the funeral services. This trip made for some MUCH NEEDED family time and days of memory making as well and remembering one we loved!
Our little family of 4 left on the evening of Wednesday September 14th. We decided to drive to leave at the kid's bedtime and drive to Las Vegas, NV and spend the night there. We LOVE the South Point Hotel in Vegas and they have the best prices so we choose to stay there again. The fun fact is that we stayed at the same hotel when Brooke was just 1 week older than our little Kipper was on this trip (he being 5 weeks old). Thursday we were supposed to pick up Uncle Rick at the Las Vegas Airport at 6pm so we had the day to play. We spent the first part of the day at their Arena watching the Horse's in a competition. We had a front row seat and Brooke was in heaven! We were there entertained for quite a while. Of course I loved every moment as well!
Brooke was in HEAVEN running around the hotel, especially when she got to ride with Daddy on the "moving stairs", a first for her!
Favorite statue at the hotel!
After the horsies we went and ate at our very favorite CAFE RIO which never let's us down, we had to check out before lunch so the kids took their nap in the car as we parked in a hotel parking structure, Daddy and I took naps as well in our straight up seated chairs, NICE!
After naps we headed back to the South Point Hotel for some bowling, another first for Brooke and Baby Kipper!
Bowling was A BLAST! We will for sure be doing more of it with the little family we got going on!
After Bowling it was time to go pick up Uncle Rick from the Airport. His plane ended up running a little late and I needed to feed the baby so Kip found us a SWEET place to kill the extra time and for me to milk. I LOVE the man I married, I really do, he goes places that people just don't go and with that we end up getting to see and do things the typical person just wouldn't get to experience. These pictures don't do justice AT ALL but we were seriously RIGHT THERE watching planes take off and land. Brooke LOVED IT, every single moment! I loved nursing my baby and watching my little Brookie run around giggling with her Daddy, making memories that I just want to set away in my mind and never ever forget! One of my favorite moments!
We watched Uncle Rick's plane land and headed over to pick him up right before the kid's bedtime. PERFECT!!! The second Brooke saw Rick she began calling him Junkle Ricky, it stuck! We got on the road and headed to St. George. When we got there a little after 10pm we found out that the GIANT Motor Home that the rest of the family drove up in was not functioning the way it was supposed to. Eeks! No water (bathrooms), no electricity (TVs), you know the things that make a Motor Home REALLY convenient for travel? No bueno! BUT it was already driven to St. George, it was the ride we were all planning on traveling in the remainder of the trip so it was a go! Our little family of 4 spent the night of a wonderful friends house that evening. The kids were AMAZING!
The next morning was the service in St. George which was beautiful and went very well! Kip got to give the Life Sketch at the funeral which went super well, he did a great job!
After the funeral we unloaded the car that we drove our little family up to St. George in (Grandma's SWEET car) and loaded all our stuff into the Motor Home. Grandma and Pepaw Robinson, Auntie Laurie, Hailee, Jake, Junkle Ricky, and us 4 = 10 people who were now going to travel together from St. George to Star Valley, WY for the burial service that was taking place the following morning. We were a little worried to see how it would go?
The drive went AMAZINGLY WELL!!! The kids had a blast together, they stayed busy, it was quite pleasant and we had a ton of time to just hang out and chat! It did not feel over crowded, it was surprisingly easy! I do have to say I always imagined a motor home being smooth like flying on a plane or something like that? NOT SO MUCH!!! You gotta hold on and be very careful while moving about! You can pretty much feel EVERYTHING, which made for some fun! I think the kids were THRILLED to be driving and not being strapped down in car seats! Kip and Rick were THRILLED to be driving the GIANT that none of us girls even had the desire to try and drive!
(YEP these are ALL taken in the Motor Home, we have decided it's the ONLY way to travel with kids :) )
The burial service was wonderful, it went beautifully and let me just tell you the site is one of the most BEAUTIFUL cemetery's EVER!!!! Kip and I have said we both wouldn't mind ending up there, in the end. The cool thing is that a TON of the gravestones are Robinson's. Is that cool to anybody other than me?
The huge mororhome couldn't make it into the little cemetery without getting stuck with no way out so Rick picked us up in a Budget van that was used to transport the casket from St. George, UT to Freedom, WY. Showing up in style!
I hung out with the kiddo's during a lot of the service keeping them busy so everybody else could enjoy the service. We kept busy by playing hide and go seek behind the gravestones, looking at all the beautiful scenery, playing tag, ring around the gravestone.....whatever we could think of to stay busy.
I wanted to get a picture of Baby Kip with all of his namesakes. I wish I would have been able to while Grandpa Garr was alive but since that didn't happen we got it with his gravestone. (am I strange that I wanted this shot?)
Afterwards we headed over to the church building for a luncheon. Let me tell you Freedom, WY is a photographers playground, it's awesome, it's beautiful, it's the perfect kind of run down! This is across the street from the church building. I really wish I would have had my nice camera with me, just had a small point and shoot.
A couple shots from the luncheon.
On our way out of town we stopped by Robinson Ranch. As far as I know Great Grandpa Garr grew up there, Grandpa Kip worked there as a kid on the farm equipment, My husband and his bro and sis took pictures there as little kiddo's, and now we were all back as a larger family with another generation of kiddo's and now spouses taking pictures. Love that the property is still in the family!
Daddy found a grasshopper and showed it to Brooke, she quickly grabbed it out of his hands and began loving it! SO FUNNY!
Total Robinson Shot!
Brooke was IN HEAVEN skipping rocks with Daddy, I think she could have done it all day long!
That was the last of the shots I took.
From that point we drove about an hour and a half to Rexburg, ID to drop off Junkle Rickey. The drive there was BEAUTIFUL!!! I was SO excited to finally SEE Rexburg since I had never even seen the place and we are considering moving there. We were not there long with sunlight but we did get to tour a part of the College and from what I saw of Rexburg I loved it!
After dropping off Junkle Rickey we headed to Great Grandma and Grandpa Ginos's for the night, even tho we didn't get there till like 4am. We got to hang out with them for a bit the next day and then did the drive all the way home from there. We stopped in St. George and our little family of 4 picked up Grandma's car that we left there and drove home.
It was an amazing trip with incredible memories! I can't believe that at 6 weeks Baby Kipper had been to 6 different states on a trip! AWESOME!!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

September Fun!

Here are a few shots of our September. I would still like to update the previous months I have skipped posting, but for now, let's get you all out there in blogger land current on our lives!
We have had lot's of days of playing in the blow up pool, the sprinkler, using sidewalk paint, and enjoying the outside in this summer heat!
Kipper hanging out!
Brookie and Kipper! Brooke sure loves her little brother, sometimes a little aggressively but she would never intentionally hurt him....at this point at least!
Brooke feels like such a big girl these days..... along with a BIG attitude too!
We like to get crafty!
This is what we have been finding at the top of our stairs almost every night these days as we head up to go to bed. Of course we encourage Brooke to stay in her bed every single night but I gotta be honest, this makes us both laugh. We both remember being kids and doing the same thing, trying to listen to our parents being awake as we were supposed to be sleeping. It's cute!