More fun stuff, of course

David had a bunch of errands to run and things to do once he got back from training, but he was all ours on Tuesday, well at least for part of the day.  The day was beautiful, so we all enjoyed taco salad at a park up in Provo and then the kids had fun taking Neil down the slides.Rachel had to leave for work, but the rest of us went bowling.  David and I helped the kids learn how to bowl.  I can’t believe they don’t bowl at school.  I remember bowling in Elementary School during gym time.  Abbie was trying so hard, but sometimes her ball would fly off her hand backwards.Neil loved the air blowing at the end of the ball return for the first little while.  He would also dance to the music some, but what he really wanted to do was run down the lane or take off and go climb the stairs.When Spencer would bowl he would throw the ball and then casually turn around the slowly walk back to wait for his ball.  Half the time I’m not even sure he saw his pins fall over.  Near the end of the game he actually got a spare but since he wasn’t really paying attention his reaction was delayed about 30 seconds – it was just funny.  He and David were the only ones who got to throw three balls on their 10th frame.Whenever I go bowling we always use the bumpers because I go to have fun, not to throw gutter balls.  Jessie doesn’t really enjoy bowling and was being kind of a party pooper until I got it out of her that she doesn’t like it because she doesn’t know how to do it.  She still doesn’t love it, but she did get a strike in the 8th frame and that was cool.  When it was other’s turns David did some dancing in the empty lane next to us with Abbie and Spencer and they had a blast.

I have really been wanting to get a new picture of Neil to go on the wall in the living room, but haven’t loved anything I’ve gotten.  After dinner one evening Ken came out to help me.  Here are my favorites from the evening.After Ken was dismissed, he went to play basketball with the kids at the hoop the neighbors put up this summer.  The whole neighborhood gathers here.  It has been a really fun thing.  Jessie and her friend helped entertain Neil for me and we got a few more shots before it got too dark.I’ve been trying to walk with a friend most mornings and while I was getting a water bottle or something the kids were just watching the chickens – what great entertainment.  Mark and Abbie are my faithful walkers and Spencer always hopes that Jessie will choose to stay home so he can too.Our awesome friend has been giving us lessons on making “pretty paper.”  It’s the kind of paper Eric Carle uses in his books.  We have been having a blast.  One of my goals for the summer is to write and illustrate a book and try to get it published.  This was our first step.  And while I was in the shower the other day I decided on a story, so we’re making progress.  Watercolors were our first medium.  And we added crayons, salt and plastic wrap to our list of useful tools.When we were done with our first lesson, my friend read us the book she had helped make for college class.  It’s a tale of why grapes grow in bunches.Here’s a cute Neil picture.  After we put on his sandals to go outside, he loves to sign hat.  Usually he’s pretty good about keeping it on while we’re outside…usually.  His hair is really getting long.For our most recent BBQ with Ken’s family Ken made us homemade french fries in the dutch oven. And can I just say they were fabulous!  Especially alongside the best hamburgers on the planet.  We brought a Waldorf salad this time and it was tasty too.  I didn’t get to try the hotdogs, but they tried a new brand this time, Nathan’s, and really liked them.  It’s times like these I wish there were two of me so I could have seconds on everything.Jessie and Neil were dancing together in the living room and just loving it.These are my friends roses, and aren’t they just neat?Our next art lesson was food coloring and shaving cream and boy did my kids have a blast.

We got to go to the Owlz baseball game with Ken’s work.  The boys were SO excited and Jessie was excited too….

Neil got his first taste of popcorn and he LOVED it.  He kept his mouth crammed full.  He also loved the frozen lemonade popsicle and was trying to get some peanut M&M’s from someone, but mommy drew the line there.  Oh, mommy frowned at the soda pop too, but his pleading eyes got him some from daddy so that was another first for him too.After the game, all the kids were invited to come down and run the bases.  My kids were thrilled (except Jessie, she didn’t care).  Here the three of them are walking up to home plate to start their sprint around the bases.…oh and Jessie loved the game because she got two rows done on her afghan.

One of Jessie’s hidden talents is that she can fold herself in half and slide into a pillowcase…I’m not really sure what else to say about this….

An overview of June

Abbie and I decorated the sidewalks one afternoon.  Neil joined us but he was more interested in dropping pebbles and leaf steams and whatever else he could find into the gutter.  And he crawled all over our drawings so afterwards I had to rinse off his rainbow legs in the shower.I just love this picture of him unpacking the bag of chalk!  The mountains in the background look like a backdrop in a photo studio.We’ve been working on taming the birds.  I got some millet for a treat and they only get it if you’re holding them or they come and get some out of your hand.  Neil loves to pick off the little clusters of seeds.  He’s even tried eating them himself a couple of times and we have to remind him that it’s for the birds.Rachel’s favorite thing to do when I’m not around is spike up Neil’s hair.Abbie and I made some pajama shorts for her.  Before I put the elastic in them they were big enough for her and Neil to fit into them at the same time.  We got material to make two more pairs, but I think I’m going to take about 3 inches out of each side seam on our next ones to see if I can get them to fit a little better.This picture isn’t quite in focus, but Neil has some pretty good grumpy faces.Rachel and Jessie made and hung this sign up for David to welcome him home.  My kids were SO excited to see him again.  While he was here he showed them how to roll up their t-shirts to fold them and half of my kids have rolled up shirts in their drawers.  Uncle David is just the coolest.Jessie has gone hog-wild with her face painting book.  And all the kids in the neighborhood are the beneficiaries.  Once Spencer and his friend don their capes and have matching masks we can hardly tell who is who.

Spencer was feeling left out of the art circle and brought out his watercolors and offered to paint people too.  Not to many took him up on his offer, but he get did to paint this little blue fishy on his friends leg.We finally celebrated Neil’s birthday, only one week late.  My sister had sent me a blog with some way cute birthday ideas.  The one I snagged this time was the banner with pictures for each month for the first year.  Jessie and Abbie helped me glue the banners onto the string and hang it in the kitchen.  I was so happy with how it turned out that I really don’t want to take it down!  Rachel said I should rehang in my room.I was trying to decide what to do for Neil’s cake.  Ken suggested a big wheel because he LOVES to spin them, but I was afraid it might just look like a big record.  So instead I decided to do the lion from the only book he will really look at.  Neil loves to feel the scratchy paws on this page.  Side note:  the first cake I made that morning didn’t get turned out of the pans soon enough and so we ended up scraping chunks of it out of the pans and putting it in the freezer.  The second cake I made didn’t quite get centered on the cooling rack and so one side fell off.  I told the kids not to touch it and I was planning on reattaching it with frosting.  I guess someone didn’t hear or forgot, but it was eaten.  I really didn’t want to make a third cake and I didn’t want to fill that whole side in with frosting when I remembered the cake pieces in the freezer.  By a small miracle, I found a side piece about the right size still intact and just trimmed it down and glued it on with frosting.  What a blessing!!After we sang Ken held Neil up to blow out his candle and he just smiled at it.  It was stinkin’ cute.A few helpers fixed the candle problem…but Neil was kind of sad when the cool light was suddenly gone.Ken fed him the first few bites because I have trained him not to touch his food.When he did finally touch it all he wanted was for me to get the frosting off his thumb.Since Ken was helping serve cake to everyone else, Neil finally picked up the fork to get some cake on his own.  Do you love Abbie in the background?Neil was successful enough……or so we thought.  Then he just picked up the whole plate and tried eating his cake directly from the source.

We did presents afterwards.  I got him one of my favorite books from my childhood, “What was that, a story about night noises.”  He also got some clothes, a bike helmet, some cars and a little hammer.  Spencer especially loved bonking the hammer on his own head to hear all the different sounds it made.After the party David gave some piggyback rides.

Balcony House

I woke up in the the middle of the night with a nightmare that Spencer fell off the 32-foot ladder on our tour of Balcony House.  It was AWFUL!  I hate those nights – needless to say I didn’t get much sleep.

On our drive in we saw a herd of wild horses and so Jessie and I got out to take a picture of them.  The brush was a little rough to pick your way through and we didn’t want to scare them so we didn’t get too close, but it was still fun to do.After some discussion we decided to go on the hike.  We had a little time before the hike started and so the kids were able to finish up most of their junior ranger books and tickle each other with long blades of grass.  This is was our flag shirt day.There were only two other kids on our hike and so the guide asked my kids to lead the way.  Spencer was especially excited to have the assignment.  The right side of the picture shows the balcony this house was named for.  The other interesting thing about this housing complex was that on part of it there was actually a waist high wall instead of just the drop off on the edge.  As a mom, I was sure thankful for that feature.The most amazing part on this house was where the guide pointed out where you could see that different people with their own personalities worked on the houses.  Some of the stones had been laid so carefully and some were just packed in to get the job done. It just made these people more real.  In one area you could also see smoke stains really well where the people had kept their fires.  We also saw where a window had been bricked over.  Spencer got a little bored of all the talking and entertained himself in the dirt.There were two tunnels to go through on this tour.  One you could just duck, but the other you had to go on your hands and knees.  Neil was quite excited to be out of his pack and once he realized that he was supposed to walk though the hole he came right to Abbie’s arms.The last ladder on the hike out.  At the top of this ladder the original hand and foot holds had been enlarged and a fence with a hand rail had been added.  Needless to say, I was still quite relived when we had all made it back to the top safely – especially Spencer.

We didn’t have time to do the 2-mile hike we had planned for the previous evening so we went on a short 3/4 mile loop.  The hike wasn’t anything special and the lookout points weren’t really worth the effort, but we did see a few pretty flowers, a snake and some lizards.

After the hike we went to get the kids junior rangers badges.  Ken will add a few details for this because I was walking around looking a artifacts with Neil.  While we were at the park Neil waved hello to EVERYONE.   He made so many friends and people we had seen on different days even remembered him when we passed them later.  I love it when my kids help others feel happy.

Junior Ranger stuff: On the first day of our visit, the kids found out about the Junior Ranger program.  Each was given a book with activities to complete, including finding plants, identifying sites they visited in the Park, and knowing the features of different structures.  We diligently worked on the books, especially while waiting for our tours to start and while eating lunch.  Our last event in the Park was to have the kids sworn in as Junior Rangers.  They were so proud!  And the official swearing them in won my everlasting gratitude when, as part of the swearing in, they promised to obey Dad and Mom.  Yes!!  (Mark was relieved that he didn’t have to take the oath of the kid behind us – he had to promise to go to bed on time!)