Camping June 2013

We packed up the kids, and what seemed like a lot of our house, for an overnighter up in Thompson Flats.  We made sure we brought a little tent for Thomas to to hang out in around the campfire.  It was nice to have a place to put him that wasn't in a pile of dirt!

We made sure we brought plenty of watermelon for everyone to snack on until dinner was ready!

There was much playing in the dirt with spoons.  

And a K.V. sized fire, courtesy of Andrew and Isaac who kept piling on the wood!

We even had a rock star sighting at s'more time!

Andrew just likes the act of roasting marshmallows, he hates the eating part.  

There was plenty of bacon for breakfast!

And plenty of pancakes!

After we broke camp, we went exploring.  We stopped at Lake Cleveland for some rock skipping.

We briefly stopped at Castlerocks State Park, but it was too hot for hiking.  So we moved on to City of Rocks, where Adam took these three to climb some rocks while I stayed in the car with Thomas, who was napping, and Benjamin, who was not napping.  

All in all, it was a great little overnighter.  Andrew said, "That was the best day of my life!"  

A Study: Five Children

Monet has a series of paintings of the same cathedral done in different lights throughout the day.  I present here a series of pictures of my children, taken at a recent campout in a time period of five minutes.  

The one where they are all smiling, and looking at the camera is the least cute of the bunch.

Andrew learns to swim!

I signed Andrew up for swimming lessons this year.  He's only three, but I figure the more time in the pool the better!  He was so excited, and loves going every day.  He's watched the big kids swim on the swim team for three years, so when it was finally his turn to spend time in the pool he wasn't at all nervous about getting in.  I was having memories of Benjamin's first swimming lessons, and how I had to drop him into the pool screaming, and I had to get in with him to keep him calm.  There was none of that with this kid!

He's the shortest one in his class, with his chin barely clearing the water.  His teacher adapted to this by putting a plastic chair with a brick on it in the pool for him to hang out on.  He occasionally wanders away in search of a floating toy, and his teacher will call out, "Back to the chair Andrew!  It's not worth it!" Once he wandered out a little too far and got into a little bit of trouble.  The teacher had a conversation with him which made me chuckle:

Her:  Are you allowed to walk out into the middle of the pool?

Him:  When I get big I can.

Her:  Right.  But right now, are you allowed to walk out into the middle of the pool?

Him:  When I get big I can.

Her:  Okay, but tomorrow, will you walk out into the middle of the pool?

Him:  When I get big I can.

It's hard to say how much he's actually learning, since he doesn't like putting his face in the water.  But he's having a great time!

Spring Break 2013

Ever since we got the 2013 calendar I've been looking forward to Spring Break.  We didn't have any big plans, or any plans at all really, but I was looking forward to that small break.  It was probably because January started with sub zero temperatures, and the thought of going to St. George was what kept me going.  So off we went!  

The kids love going down there because Grandma and Grandpa know all the fun places to go on hikes.  One day we went into Snow Canyon State Park, and started out on a paved path hiking toward some sand dunes.  The kids were all mad and pouty about it and we finally figured out that they didn't want a paved hike, they wanted a place they could climb and just have fun.  

 So we moved on, and found a place for lunch and a great climbing rock for them.  

One afternoon we went to the rec center and let the kids swim for a couple of hours.  They were so excited.  As we pulled in, Andrew tried to jump out of his seat he was so excited!  He remembered it from when the kids came down with Kim and Pat over Memorial Day last year.  

Of course we spent some time at the park swinging and playing.  

 We went into Zion National Park for some more hiking.  The park was packed, but we still had a great time.  

Sadly, we had to come home at the end of a week.  We love going to St. George!

Brothers

I don't know exactly how it started, or if it was just the continuation of yesterday's fight, but there came a point when I'd had enough.  Isaac and Andrew struggle to be kind to each other.  It's the age old story of sibling rivalry, and these two have it bad.  Andrew always wants what Isaac has, mainly because Isaac recently just pulled it from Andrew's hands, or vice versa.  Anyway, who knows what these two were battling about all afternoon, but the timeouts, threats and yelling weren't making an progress in their behavior.  Finally, I just sent them to bed at 6:00.  I knew they'd have to get up to eat dinner, and I also knew that since they share a room it was quite likely that the fighting would continue.  But at least they were not yelling at each other in my kitchen, which was progress.  Andrew sobbed as I changed him into his jammies and tucked him into his bed with Mickey Mouse.  Isaac slinked away and tried to hide from me.  He defiantly said he wasn't going to change, and he wasn't going to bed.  I walked away and left him in his room, not exactly sobbing, but raging.

What happened next will remain as one of my very favorite memories of raising children.  Isaac was so very, very mad at me.  He said, "I HATE her."  He said it over and over again.  And I can only imagine what Andrew was thinking, but what he said was, "No you don't."  They went back and forth, with Andrew adding comments like, "But I love her!"  and "She's the sweetest mommy ever!" while Isaac stormed around the room insisting he hated me.  I could only smile as I heard my little three year old defending me against the wrath of his older brother.

Our week in pictures Jan 7-13

Monday:

So while I was packing up to leave Brittani's house on Friday Isaac started running a fever.  He lay on the couch sleeping while everyone else was playing.  It wasn't long before Andrew and Thomas caught the cold he had.  It was such a nasty cold, and they were all just miserable.  I was dosing Motrin, Tylenol, and infant Tylenol all at different times, with different doses.  It got pretty confusing and required pretty detailed note taking to ensure that everything was okay.  

Wednesday:

So on Tuesday I took the little boys in to the doctor to have them checked.  Mostly for Thomas' sake since he's just four months old and I wanted to be sure his lungs were okay.  They'd had fevers for 4 days, and that's enough.  I didn't take Isaac because he was bouncing off the walls when I left.  He'd skipped three days of school because his fever kept coming back, but I was confident that he was better.  Anyway, the doctor found ear infections in both Thomas and Andrew so we got the pink stuff for them.  When I got home from Walmart Isaac was passed out on the couch with a raging fever again.  So on Wednesday morning I took him to the doctor.  I figured since the other boys had ear infections he probably did too.  And as you can see, he sure looks sick!  The doctor was amazed that he wasn't just crying and crying from how red his ears were.  Isaac doesn't get the pink stuff, he goes right to the good antibiotics because he's had tubes in his ears and doesn't respond the the amoxicillin.  So he gets yucky augmentin.  And hates it.  As a side note, I think the amoxicillin upset Thomas' stomach.  I felt kind of bad that the first form of "solid" foods he had was Tylenol and amoxicillin.  

 Friday:

On Thursday we had a snow storm move in.  As i was driving the kids to school I was thinking that it was crazy that they were even going to school because you could hardly see the road.  Someone saw some sense and school got out early, meaning Isaac didn't even have to go in at all.  That was actually a blessing because he really needed one more day at home, but he'd missed three days already!  As a side note, I had always wondered how I would find out if school released early.  Since I pick up my kids I need to know these things!  It turns out that when school gets out early someone from the office calls, then each kid calls, then an automated call comes to both the house phone and the cell phone.  Then, the automated call comes to both phones in spanish.  The phone rang all day.  

But we stayed home, and inside on Friday.  The temperatures have been so bitter cold--not even in the teens.  It's been in single digits, and even in the negatives when I drop the big kids off in the morning.  So we had snow on the ground and no one was brave enough to go out in it!

Sunday:

These two are such good friends.  I love watching them interact.  

Our week in pictures December 31- January 6

Monday:

We decided last minute to run up to the cabin with Mike and Stacie to celebrate the New Year!  Isaac really wanted to stay up, but he just couldn't make it till midnight!  I think the rest of us made it, even Thomas.  He still has somewhat wonky sleeping habits.

Wednesday:

This crappy house we're renting is just crappy.  That's all there is to it.  This is the window in our bathroom, arguably the warmest room in the house, and the window is still frozen over.  All the windows are frozen.  

 Thursday:

This is the same bathroom--notice the sweet carpet on the floor (gag) and the awesome cabinets!  Anyway, Andrew's favorite chore is taking out the garbage.  Whenever he sees a can halfway full he grabs it out.  I'm still working on teaching him to remember to put a new bag in, but he does a great job of that, when he remembers.  

Friday:

On a whim I decided to run up to Rexburg to see my best friend who moved away over the summer.  Seven months ago--has it been that long that she's been gone?!  Sadness.  

Anyway, the girls wrote some songs, and performed them for us.  The boys also wrote some songs which had a catchy tune that we kept humming all day.  

On the way home my car was hit by a flying wheel.  It came flying off the semi truck in the right lane, and bounced down the highway.  I was able to speed up so it didn't hit the front of us, only glancing off the right rear of the car, busting out the tail lights.  It was pretty scary to see a huge wheel--rim and all--flying through the air at us.