Fun in Tennessee with Grandpa Riggs

We had lunch at Cici's Pizza and Matthew got so dirty that I had to was his hair in the sink in the bathroom. His hair was sticking up everywhere after, so we gave him a mohawk. He loves it!
Grandpa's play pen!
Grandpa and Matthew

The kids liked riding around in grandpa's "tractor." Summer cracked me up, she was riding around like she was in a parade!
A still shot, because Matthew would have climbed out of it in a heartbeat, moving or not!
Getting ready to do watercolor painting at the school.
T Jay's turn. The kids really liked this after being in the car for 3 days. It was a nice change from watching movies and playing video games.
Dad and Kenny

Road trippin' to Florida with Uncle Kenny

Kenny came out to Colorado to drive with me to Florida. We had a great time and he was a sanity saver! Thanks for the help, Kenny!
The kids, day 1, not so bad!
Uncle Kenny's secret weapon, the harmonica! Any time the kids would get testy, Kenny would start playing the harmonica and they would stop crying. Way to go kenny!
The arch is right there!!

Fun in Colorado

The kids wanted to ride in the U-Haul trailer to Colorado! What's wrong with that?!
Matthew's favorite spot at grammy's, besides on top of the table!
Grammy playing primary songs for the kids. I didn't know she still had it in her.
Hangin' with Uncle Chris.

Bowling with Uncle Carson and Aunt Lana.
Grammy duty.
Ice cream after bowling-what a great night!!
Build-A-Bear workshop. We now have "Monkey", "Puppy" and "Bunny" in our family. The kids got really original in the naming process!

New Year's Day at the Livingston Rod and Gun Club

While the guys were out shooting, T Jay & Grandma played this fun game.
Summer doing her "art." For any of you who don't know, "She's an artist!"
Mike, Dad Melin & Jess after shooting. Look at the view behind them!!
Being silly.

Museum of the Rockies

Posing at the Bat exhibit with Uncle Mike.
T Jay hearing like a bat.
Uncle Mike and Matthew.
Hanging like bats.
"I can do it too, Mom!"

Christmas morning

All Summer wanted for Christmas was the Barbie as the Island princess dress up, Santa obliged.
T Jay's cool Transformer gun/airplane.
Matthew liked the boxes and paper more, but it's all gone now, so he is settling for his toys from Santa.
Another dress up for Summer.

Our Christmas Eve fiesta

Cousins having fun.
Our little shepherd, Matthew.
Melin Nativity. It's a Melin family tradition to have a themed Christmas Eve from another country, hence the Mexican. It's a Riggs (along with everyone else) tradition to dress up and read Luke 2, so here they are. Summer wasn't interested in any of these dress ups, because there was no sparkle to them. Note that she has a dress up tutu on in order to appease her inner diva!

Catching up-Fun in Montana

Summer and Grandpa the Sunday befoer Chirstmas
Matthew at his best, doing his usual!
Lovin' the daddy time!

Catching up-T Jay's school Christmas party

I went to T Jay's school to help with his party. It was really fun. He loved that we were both wearing red, his favorite color.
This is his "I am posing because you asked me to, but I'm not really into it because I'm focused on something else" face. Snack would be his actual focus!
T Jay and Mrs. Haas, the best kindergarten teacher ever! T Jay only did half a year of Kindergarten and with all of the changes that we have had, (T. Jay does not like change)I decided that a new school shouldn't be one of them, so he will start Kindergarten in August here. (If we had stayed in Minot, I would have waited until this year to start him because I want him to be a little older. Since we were moving I let him go to Kinder with his preschool friends for a bit and then do it for real here. Mrs. Haas will be a very hard act to follow! She was great!

We Made it!

We made it!!!! After a 5 day drive with Uncle Kenny, a visit with Grandpa Riggs in Tennessee, Grandaddy Joyner in Birmingham, and Aunt Sweetie Pie in Pace, we made it to Florida! The kids were so glad to get out of the car! So far we have been working on getting the house unpacked and organized. We managed to take a break on Saturday to go to the beach!
T Jay loved the waves crashing on him, Summer did not.
Matthew's first time seeing the beach! He loved the sand! He collected shells and put them in a bucket. I enjoyed watching him look for the shells and then bring them and put them in his bucket.
Matthew got wacked by a wave and didn't care one bit! He loved it!!
Yea for the beach!!! I am still working on the organizing, but I will be posting a few pictures from the past few weeks to catch you all up! Stay tuned...