Cannon Crew Spring Break

We loved having Shelley and her kids visiting this week from LA on their Spring Break!

Sunday: They arrived and we had Sunday dinner together when Michael got home.

Monday: We spent the day at the zoo.

Tuesday: We spent the day in Hanford and visited Rosa Brothers Creamery, Rosa Brothers Farm, Superior Dairy, and a local park.

Wednesday: We hiked the San Joaquin River Gorge trail and played some games together.

Thursday: We walked to the donut shop near our house and brought them to the park nearby for a fun morning outside before they drove home to LA.

They are so much fun and we loved spending time with them this week! Anthon, Quinn, Ella, and Clayton are such fun cousins and the boys were in heaven. Shelley is so kind and I love talking with her.

Michael:

is the best dad. Last week Westin seemed like he had allergies or a cold, which then worked into ear pain on our drive from Fresno to Utah, which then seemed to go away -- but then on Sunday and Monday he started complaining about his neck and slowly became so stiff that he wasn't moving it from side to side or back. Then Monday night he had red rashes appear on his arms and legs that were really itchy. I ended up texting pictures to my pediatrician and he called me to talk about some options, and we opted to keep our eye on him that night to hopefully skip a trip into the ER. That night Michael got home late from the hospital, helped check on Westin, then slept by him in his room all night because he was worried about him. He is such a sweet dad and so good to his boys. He has such minimal time with them right now but always loves the time he has and is so fun with them. The next morning I took Westin into the doctor first thing and we started him on an antibiotic, and he's been great ever since. It's so sad to see kids hurting. I felt bad that Michael couldn't be around more during his sister's visit. He sacrifices so much for our family and we're grateful for him.

Maddie:

loved going from a Utah trip to visitors, because I stocked my freezer full of meals before our road trip and it felt like we just extended our vacation and family time. I was happy to have three weeks of trauma fly by like that. It was hard when Westin was so sick and acting so mean and grumpy during our full days but I'm learning more and more that there will be time to rest, and that kids will only remember the good parts of those days that we wear them out. I only let his mean words make me cry once :) Haha I've come so far. I hit 24 weeks pregnant this month! And the nausea noticeably scaled back when I hit 23 weeks. Finally! I'm so grateful to be able to laugh hard again without running to drink something so I don't throw up. This baby feels so much higher than I'm used to. I am always so out of breath and I just would choose laying down over basically any other activity and that feels lousy. Laziness doesn't feel good, and for some reason pregnancy doesn't justify the things it should probably justify in my mind and I end up feeling annoyed a lot. But this is a stage and it will pass, and I'm grateful for it. Baby boy is moving more and more and I can see him kicking from the outside now, which is always wild. What's his name???

Westin:

Is feeling much better after his little sickness scare. His T-ball game on Saturday was adorable. Michael had to work a booth at Big Hat Days (the kick-off festival to the Clovis Rodeo) which started at 9:00, so he was able to go to Westin's game at 8:00 Saturday. That is our last game scheduled for 8:00, and we thought Michael was going to have to miss all the games this spring, so it was happy to have him at one. He's currently playing T-ball with Westin in the backyard right now :) Westin's neck was super stiff at his T-Ball practice earlier in the week, so he looked much improved at his game Saturday. He loved having his cousin Clayton around to play with and loves his older cousins too.

Bennett:

tends to always be following around his biggest cousin, whether that's Jaren in Utah or Anthon in California. He loves his big cool cousins! He also loved showing them his turtle and everyone had a good time catching snails and worms for Mr. T to devour. Bennett eating a donut is still the greatest site. He is such a good sport with long days and road trips and has stayed happy and healthy through 98% of our crazy packed last three weeks. He's such a joy and I love him. 

If Bennett could live at the zoo and hand the giraffes romaine lettuce all day, I think he'd do it.

Westin ran out of practice when his cousins came by from playing on the playground and said,
"Hey guys, do you want to see me hit the ball?"
He felt so big and loved having them there, even though he was a sad little sight with his stiff neck!

Then the spots came. Poor guy! I'm so glad he's doing better.

Cannons and Daetwylers

Rosa Brothers Creamery, home of the greatest chocolate milk in all the world.
Quinn loved the Root Beer milk, and we all liked the Vanilla milk as well. We also tried Orange Cream, and skipped the Egg Nog and Banana.
But that chocolate. Nothing beats it.

Milking (watering) the (pretend) cow.

This did not smell good.

You have to schedule tours in advance and they were full, but we tried to go get a glimpse of all the cows.
Then we saw one have a baby. So, we'll count it.

S.O.S. Sundae at Superior Dairy. That thing was tall!

Bennett and Clayton ran multiple laps around a little pond at the park to chase each and every duck into the water.

Hikers! It was a two-mile hike and in the beginning the three littlest hikers ran and ran.

Made it to the bridge!

San Joaquin River Gorge

Lots of backyard fun all week.

Walking to the donut shop, finally Michael's day off for the week!

That cinnamon donut and their fresh apple fritters... I dream about them!

Bennett looooove Quinn's hat.

We brought home three snails from our donut walk for Mr. T.
One he devoured. One he killed and sampled. One crawled on his back and rode him across the yard.

Bedtime stories with dad.

Back to preschool with friends! Westin missed these guys.

T-Ball Talks