Westin & Mom's 4th Grade Trip

We've been looking forward to this week!

A while ago during parent teacher conferences, Westin's teacher said something that gave me such a pause. He said he's taught a few different grades, but fourth grade is his favorite because it really is the last year he sees them as still fully kids. Fifth graders start a shift that middle school amplifies, and then it's on and on.

I couldn't stop thinking about that and finally just wrote out a whole one-on-one trip schedule with our boys, with a mom trip in fourth grade and a dad trip in sixth grade. We'll just go somewhere close enough to spend a long weekend, but knowing this one on one time was carved out gave me some peace.

So, Westin's pick was.... drumroll... Fresno!

But I told him he had to add Monterey or Disney to that because I wasn't going to go to Fresno for the whole weekend, ha. He went the Disney route.

We had such a sweet time together. I picked him up early from school on a Thursday, we were in LA by that night, in bed early after grabbing frozen yogurt for dinner, then lined up at the gate for rope drop at the parks the next morning. We did all we wanted to do in California Adventure before heading over to Disneyland for the rest of the day. He loved Thunder Mountain, and Space Mountain. We grabbed snacks all day and rarely slowed down. We walked and WALKED and walked and it was so fun to just pack so much in with just the two of us. I loved riding Soarin' with him, and we both laughed so much during Crush's Turtle Talk. I noticed he had brought his favorite stuffed fox in his backpack for the trip and that made my heart happy -- still a cute kid, even when he seems pretty big sometimes :)

The next morning we went up to Fresno (after stopping to say hi to Shelley and Clayton and Tony!) and we packed in the reunions. First the Zoo with all our sunbeam/home preschool friends, then dinner with Weston Y and Lindsey, a fun walk through our old neighborhood the next morning, some hugs before church at the Alluvial Ward, a stop at our forever favorite donut shop, then we were suddenly at our gate at the dreamy Fresno airport, wrapping up the trip. It was a whirlwind, but my heart was bursting. That was just a really great weekend for Westin, with lots of relationships and memories cemented in his mind, plus so much fun one-on-one time together. I love that boy.

Michael took Friday off instead of Wednesday to make the trip happen, and the four boys back at home had a good time! They drove down to Denver on Saturday to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Nature Preserve and met Katie and Ryan and the boys. They saw some buffalo and had cupcakes for Finn's birthday. I got the typical pictures of all the boys piled into Michael's bed that come whenever I leave town, but he said they didn't last too long before he had to send everyone back to their own beds. I don't know how he even attempts that, haha, but the boys do love it.

Earlier in the week I made it to the Shepardson Star Assembly to see Bennett get an award for integrity. That boy has integrity through and through! Always doing the right thing purely because he wants to. Would never want to intentionally wrong anyone. We're so lucky to have Bennett.

Camden loved going to school as a policeman for dress up day. He was really looking forward to that.

We went on a date Monday night with the Whitneys and Buxtons for trivia night and I always love those nights. I'm so grateful for good friends. They really make life so much sweeter.

I'm going to remember this week's trip forever -- I'm so grateful for that sweet time with Westin. 

Yay Bennett! A shining star award for Integrity!

Bennett's teacher said that he always does the right thing, no matter who is or isn't in the room.
He just wants to do what's right, and does it. We're so proud of you, Bennett!

We took Camden and Asher to the grand opening of a big King Soopers and they were pretty stoked about getting the last two vibrantly blue cupcakes.

Travel with just the two of us started with:
A license plate picture. I never know where or what my car is,
I just follow Michael in parking lots. Had to step it up.

Fro Yo for dinner that first night before getting to bed early before Disney!

We both loved the lighting on the palm trees.

House of pillows is a Miner hotel tradition.

This guy back home, sleeping with all his treasures.

We hit the park at opening and had the best morning at California Adventure!
I love this ferris wheel.

Lunar New year was a fun time to be there.

Westin was looking forward to this churro!

Autopia is a forever favorite :)

Caught the fireworks from Tomorrowland.

I have actually never seen Fantasmic and it was amazing! I really loved it.
I also really loved the cast member that led us from sitting on the ground over to these blocked off tables and chairs and gave us a prime spot for the show. We must have looked pretty depleted to him :) 
Eating popcorn and watching this show was the best end to the day.

We left our room at 7am and climbed back into bed at 12:15am. 
What a day!

Quick stop on our way out of town to say hi to Clayton!
We couldn't go to LA without stopping by Shelley and Tony's!

Back to a favorite spot...
Westin has been here many times but never when he was such a big kid :)

The little elephants!
I have so many memories of feeling too hot and pregnant to make it all the way to the elephants haha.
It was a joy to feel so physically able on this trip.

These sweet friends.
These boys + Mara were all a Sunbeams class together and did a little preschool rotation together at our houses, for quite a while! They were just the cutest crew, and it made me so happy to see them all together running around the zoo.

Westin and Colt were such good buddies.
They took care of our sweet Mr. T when we left town,
and let us know recently that he had passed away after a happy, happy life.

Dinner with Weston Y!
This was so happy.

These two have been best friends from the very first day of school (TK for Westin, Kindergarten for Weston, but in the same class). Something about having the same name -- just instant friendship.
They have played on Zoom during Covid, written letters here and there, and they picked right back up where they left off. We were at dinner with them for about 3 hours and these boys just talked and laughed and played Battleship that whole time.

Back at home, Dad and the boys met up with Katie at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Nature preserve, and saw some buffalo! They had fun celebrating Finn's birthday together.

Westin was sleeping completely sideways when I woke up.
Grateful for two beds haha.

Saying hi to our old house!

"The Wilderness" by our house, which the boys just loved haha.
Lots of walks and bike rides and orange picking and walking dogs and exploring.

Walking our old walk.

Our flight left too early for us to catch the Alluvial Ward sacrament meeting, but I had to come give Emma and Loraine a hug before church.

This woman. She was such a friend to me.
We have so much more bread in our life because of her lessons, too.

So fun to meet sweet Henley.

Sweet Emma.

We couldn't leave town without our very favorite Apple Fritters. 
No where beats these Apple Fritters.

That's a happy boy right there.

The Fresno airport sure is magical.
One second you're turning in your rental car, the next second you're chilling at your gate.