Smile, Pleeeeeease??

Sometimes the days seem to last forever, but the months somehow slip away from me. It has been quite a few months since I had taken the kids to get their pictures taken. So off we went!

Dax was alllll over it! He was in supermodel mode. How cute is this guy?

Arden is always willing to smile, (even if she is down another tooth):

Even Cora was willing to play along at first. Maybe not quite smiling, but sitting where she was told and looking at the camera:

But she quickly decided she didn't want to play anymore. Cora was done. The poor photographer and I were begging, pleading, bribing and threatning this sweet little thing to PLEASE stand here and please, please stop crying and please, please, PLEASE smile! There was about a thousand "NO!"s from my little Corbie. Somehow, they managed to get a few shots where she isn't screaming, and she actually looks pretty adorable in a few (but don't expect a smile):

Here is Cora, right between a couple of "No"s.

Oh well. I guess we all have days when we don't feel like smiling.

Here is another one of my favorites of Arden. She is growing up so fast:

And holy cow, who is this grown up boy? Wow, he is getting HANDSOME (look out girls!):

Dax is such a ham, he loved getting his picture taken.
I thought the photographers did a great job, even though we gave them a pretty hard time! After we were done with the actual picture-taking part, Cora loved looking through the pictures on the computer screen and pointing out which ones she liked best. After we were finally all done and headed out the door with our CD in hand, she ran back down the hall towards the studio yelling, "More pit-chers! I wan do more pit-chers!" Such a little stinker.

Thanks, FotoFly!

Bees Please!

Going to a real live baseball game is something that must be done at least a couple of times during a summer if you are going to call it a summer. Since July is quickly coming to a close, I decided we better get brave and take the kids to their first game of the season. We went on Monday night. I was a little apprehensive about whether we would be able to make it through an entire game, but there were fireworks afterwards, so we decided to try our best. Cora was so excited to be there:
The weather wasn't too hot, it was actually pretty cloudy. Daxton made goo-goo eyes at a lady behind us who had peanuts and she offered him some. Soon she was supplying peanuts to Corbie and Arden as well, so we decided we better hurry up and get our own bag. Peanuts are brilliant, because Dax kept himself pretty busy for about an hour shelling and eating peanuts:

After about 4 innings, it started to rain. I was worried that there might be a rain delay or even a rain out, but they kept playing on. We had our hoodies so we were fine. Cora had spilled her drink earlier, so she was trying to catch some rain in her cup to drink:

And after the rain (or between the rain), there was a rainbow - look carefully over the scoreboard:

The kids actually watched the game pretty good, although you don't realize how complicated the rules of baseball are until you try to explain them to a 5-year old. (What is a strike? What is a ball? What is a foul ball? What is an out? What is a fly ball? What is a pitcher?) After the peanuts ran out we got some cotton candy in about the 6th inning, which pretty much kept the kids happy for the rest of the game. Corbie LOVED the 7th inning stretch and was singing "ONE! TWO! THREE stikes you out!" along with the hand actions over and over long after we were finished singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

The kids were a little disappointed that we didn't catch a foul ball, but we made it to the fireworks!

It was a really fun night! We didn't get home until after 11 p.m. so the kids are off kilter again today, especially since we went camping again last weekend. I think I will concentrate on getting them to bed on time for the rest of the week, we need a break from our crazy summer nights!

Is it Worth It?

This summer, it seems like at least once or twice a week we have been doing some fun thing or other than involves involves us staying up past our kids' regular 8:30 bedtime. Since the sun doesn't even go down until 9 or later, it seems pretty much unavoidable. And all of these things seem like essential, summertime things...camping, fireworks, barbeque's, etc.

You would think that when the kids stay up late, they would zonk right out when their heads hit the pillow, sleep like cute little logs all night and then sleep an hour or two extra the next morning. You, my friend, would be WrOnG. For some reason, the two little ones don't sleep very well at all when they go to bed late, and no matter what time we put Dax to bed, he is up by 7 a.m. Every. Single. Day.

So....whenever one of these fun late-evening activities comes around, I pay for it because the kids are a little grumpy the next day. Or two. Or three. Sometimes I wonder if it is worth all of the pain that I know is coming when they stay up late. But every time I see how much fun they are having doing these essential summertime things, the answer somehow always ends up being YES! Here are some of our late-night activities from this last week:

Last Sunday we went to some fireworks with some of Preston's family. The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins while they waited (and waited) for the show to start. Here are the kids, (finally) sitting quietly and enjoying the fireworks...well, except for Daxton, who is still in tackle-mode, and Kaden, who was his tackle-victim of choice that night:

I was trying to get a picture or two of the fireworks, but they don't work out too great because I can't hold still enough:

But then Arden caught me and took the camera away. She took about a hundred pictures, and i decided maybe the fireworks pictures are more interesting if you DON'T hold still:

This one makes me dizzy:

Cora was playing with her uncle Thomas at the fireworks. At one point he had to run to the car for something. While he was gone, Cora turned to me and said, "Where is hippo-tot-mus?" What? I made her repeat it a couple of times, but I had no idea what hippopotamus she was talking about. Finally, she said it more like "Where is hippo-thomas?" Aha! Hippo-Thomas! He will be right back. I have no idea where she gets this stuff.

Last night we took the kids to the rodeo. They loved it. I forgot how mean those cowboys are to the cows (wrestling them to the ground by their heads, clotheslining them with lassos, etc.), but the kids didn't seem to be too bothered by it...although I did get them cheering for the cows instead of the cowboys. We were among the few in the audience that cheered when the little cow made it across the arena without getting roped. "YAY COW!" we would yell. Arden was fascinated by the cowGIRLs, especially, and now feels very persecuted by the lack of horses in our yard. She talked all day today about how there is plenty of room for a horse or two in our backyard. She helpfully pointed out that a horse would keep the grass short and promised that she would take it for a ride every day so it could get its exercise. I have to smile because I am pretty sure I used all of these arguments on my own mother when I was a little girl.

Dax and Cora had a great time at the rodeo too, and Cora made me laugh by yelling "I RIDE A COW! I RIDE A COW!" at the top of her lungs during a pause in the action. Dax said his favorite part of the rodeo was when "The cow was spinning." I am guessing that he meant when the bulls would spin around to try and buck off the bull riders.

Great fun was had by all, but I got out of bed no less than five times last night to comfort Dax or Cora. Dax got me out of bed at least two different times crying because his blanket had come off of his feet. Seriously?!? (It is kind of funny now, but last night at 4 a.m. I wasn't very amused.) We had a pretty grouchy morning this morning too, and the kids were more than ready for bed tonight by the time bedtime rolled around. I was glad to get them to bed on time tonight, and I gotta admit it has been a long day.

Hopefully they get all the sleep they can tonight, because tomorrow is gonna be another late night. But it will be worth it!

Midnight Run

Last Friday my sister, my dad and I did the Legacy Midnight Run.
The Midnight Run is a new race (1st year) where everyone gets to run around in the middle of the night on the Legacy Parkway trail wearing glowsticks and LED wands and other glowy stuff. There were glowing mile markers and everything. The half marathoners even got glowing medals. I am still not even close to wanting to run a half marathon, but the race sounded like so much fun I decided to go crazy and try the 10-k with my sister Val. The half marathon started at 10 p.m. and the 10-k started at 11 p.m. It was called the "Midnight Run" because you could try to run fast enough to be done with your race by midnight. So I made myself a goal to finish my 6.2 miles before the midnight hour.

Here is me and Val before the race. We had a bunch of glow bracelets, but I had a hard time finding places to put them on my body where they wouldn't a) drive me crazy while running or b) fall off while I ran. I couldn't come up with very many places that met this criteria, so I wasn't as glowy as some people. In this picture, I am pretending to run, and I am not quite sure what the heck Val is doing:

The race was pretty fun. Lots of people got really into the glow sticks and had them wrapped around their whole bodies. It was hilarious to see all the glow sticks falling off of everyone as the race started and people realized that having 20 glow sticks wrapped around your legs is not really conducive to running.

The moon was full and the night was perfect for running. The trail was pretty flat but the very slight hill at the end of the course was kicking my butt and I was worried that I might not make it by midnight, but I did it, with almost a whole minute to spare. Yay me!

My dad showed us all up and did the half-marathon. It was especially impressive since he is not much of a night owl. Here he is, finishing strong:
It was about as much fun as can be had while running 6.2 miles.

July Randomness

I can’t seem to think of anything to blog about this week. But I am worried that if I let too many days go by without writing SOMETHING, I will fall out of the blogging habit and then this blog will suffer the same fate as so many of the blogs I used to love to read (former blog buddies…you know who you are.) So this post is going to be a whole bunch of random junk and I am sorry in advance.

My Corbie is becoming quite the little artiste. She especially loves painting. Since I have seen what can be done to my table (and walls and floor and furniture and carpet and stucco and even the exterior of my car) with crayons, I am making her stick to the washable water colors for now:

So WOW, right? She spent quite a bit of time making this one. Look at that use of color! Those lines! That composition! I am pretty sure that this is at least as good as some of the stuff I saw in my art classes in college :-)

Dax and Arden are about halfway through their swimming lessons. I haven’t got very many pictures yet, but here is Arden swimming with her face in the water! Yay Arden!

Daxton is doing AMAZINGLY well in his class. Not that he is swimming the butterfly or anything, but he IS actually paying attention and doing everything his teacher asks. I am thinking it maybe has a little something to do with the fact that his teacher is a pretty. Probably he is not so much “listening” to her as much as hanging on her every word and trying to impress her by fearlessly blowing bubbles in the water for her. Whatever the reason, he is doing great.

Moon Sand. Heard of it? Avoid it. It is like Play-Doh’s evil cousin. I. Hate. Moon Sand.

Did anyone else see that USA/Brazil soccer game today? I DVR’d it and watched it in fast motion while the kids screeched to watch cartoons. Wo-ow! You go girls!

I am right in the middle of a book I am really enjoying (“These Is My Words” by Nancy E. Turner). I run into problems when I am reading a good book in that I can’t decide whether to just read it all at once like I want to do, or whether I should try and just read a little bit at a time so it will last longer.

I don’t know why but I didn’t take any pictures this 4th of July. We did the usual stuff…Fireworks at the golf course, caught lots of candy at the parade, BBQ with family, and we even set off a few fireworks in our driveway. It was great! Then after the kids were asleep on the 4th, Preston and I sat on our deck and watched the fireworks go off around the neighborhood and across the valley. I must say that this year’s show was pretty dang impressive now that the aerials are legal in Utah. Thanks neighbors for spending all that money on fireworks so I don’t have to!

Camping

Preston and I used to go camping a few times every summer. But it has been about six years since the last time I slept in a tent because who wants to sleep in a tent with a baby? Not me. Last year I promised Preston that we would go camping this summer, and he called in that promise last weekend.

We went camping. With our 5-, 3- and 2-year olds. In a tent.

Are we brave? Or just crazy? Still not sure.

We decided to stay pretty close to home (just in case we needed to drive home at 2 a.m.) and booked a camp site at Tanner Flats campground in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The kids were beyond excited about the prospect of sleeping in a tent. We packed the SUV until we couldn't fit anything else it in, and headed out. We reached our campground and the kids jumped out of the car to survey our temporary home. It was the perfect camp site:
The campsite was nice and flat with a fire pit and a picnic table. It was far enough from the river (oops, I mean CREEK) that I wasn't worried about anybody falling in, but still close enough that we could hear it roaring (oops, I mean rushing) by. There were flush toilets nearby. It was nice and secluded, we felt like we were the only ones in the forest. We had to walk down this little path to get from our car to our campsite:

Preston started us a nice camp fire and put our tin foil dinners in to cook. Then we set up the tent. Well, actually, Preston set up the tent while the kids and I took a little hike around the campground to get them out of the way. Once the tent was up the kids all piled in and played in there for about half an hour while we finished up dinner. I was a little worried once or twice that the tent might get knocked over from the inside, but it held up pretty well:

We unwrapped and devoured our tin foil dinners, and then came the most important part of any camping experience.

Smores.

I. Love. Smores. Every once in a while I get an overwhelming need for some nice, sticky warm chocolate smoresy goodness. Sometimes it is January when this feeling comes over me. I have been known to roast a marshmallow (okay....several marshmallows) over a candle and have me some mid-winter smores (and despite what some of you think, making them in the microwave just isn't the same. The marshmallows MUST be roasted over some sort of flame). I am eternally grateful for whatever genius invented the smore. The smore has made my life infinitely more satisfying.

The kids quickly caught on to the brilliance of the smores concept and we pretty much demolished an entire box of graham crackers, nearly a whole bag of marshmallows and several Hersheys bars. It was AWESOME! After we gorged ourselves, we got ourselves ready for bed. The kids thought it was so much fun brushing their teeth outside. They unrolled their sleeping bags, got into their jammies, and they were absolutely in heaven:

Then, we told scary stories. I use the terms "scary" and "stories" both very loosely. Arden's tale had somewhat of a plot, but it was a little bit hard to follow. She had a lot of fun telling it though, with the absolutely mandatory flashlight shining under her face:

Then it was Daxton's turn. His scary story went something like this, "Once upon a time....dere was.....A TYRANN-SAURUS REX! AAAHHHHHH!" Then Dax, Arden and Cora would all SHRIEK and then giggle uncontrollably for a while. Then Dax would tell another classic tale: "Once upon a time....dere was......A BRACK-EE-SAURUS! AHHHHHHH!!!" More shrieks. More giggles. Soon it was Cora's turn. Her stories (and there were many) were similar to Daxton's, but a little different: "Once pon a time...dere was (and now she is whispering for added effect).....A SPIDA! AAAAAHHHH." This went on and on...there was a "DIN-SAUR!" a "MON-STA!" and even the return of "T-WEX! AAAAHHHHH!"

After we had had enough of scary stories, we read a normal bedtime story, said our prayers and declared it "sleepytime." The kids were still a little wound up from all the scariness and all the sugar, but Dax and Arden settled down after 20 or 30 minutes.

Not Cora.

She was having a great time. She would get out of her sleeping bag and climb all over everyone, and then laugh hysterically when Preston or I would shove her back into her bag and tell her to go to sleep. After a while of this, we tried ignoring her. We then got to listen to her say, "Dad. Dad! DAD! DAD!! DAAAAAAD!!!!" for about 15 minutes straight until Preston couldn't keep up the ignoring and told her to BE. QUIET. She was quiet for about 7 seconds before she started just talking to herself and singing random songs (which Dax would join into occasionally). After a while we decided the ignoring thing wasn't working either and went back to shoving her in her sleeping bag and asking (okay, demanding) that she go to sleep. Again, she thought it was hilarious. After who knows how long (I had taken off my watch), I grabbed her and put her in my sleeping bag with me. I knew that if she would just hold still for 30 seconds she would fall right to sleep, and soon she stopped squirming and dropped off. The rest of us were right behind her. Unfortunately, my sleeping bag was NOT made for two and I spend much of the night sandwiched between Cora on one side and my snuggly Dax on the other with no room to roll over, but we made it through until morning.

Morning in the canyon is COLD. We were glad we brought our jeans and our jackets, but our hands got pretty cold. Dax wanted a mid-morning cookie but couldn't figure out how to get it into his mouth without removing his hands from his pockets:We wanted to go on a hike, and had heard of a nice-easy 1.5 mile round-trip hike to a lake a little higher up the canyon. The only problem was...the road to the trail head was closed due to snow (on June 25th!). We went back down the canyon a little and found another trail head. Here is where we got our first look at the creek since I wouldn't let the kids anywhere near it at the campground, because I was scared to death of one of the kids falling in.

It wasn't as impressive here since we were farther up the canyon, but at our campground it was officially at flood levels, and it was RAGING. And we soon found out why. The trail was pretty much a small creek itself, and after a little bit of climbing we had to scramble over big snowdrifts:

The kids all had fun walking through the mud, but we turned around after the snow got too bad. It was still a pretty hike:

Since we were in the area, we decided to take the tram up to Snowbird. It was funny to see people putting on their ski boots in the parking lot while we walked by in our flip flops. The resort was pretty crowded, and we rode the tram up to the top with a lot of people excited to go skiing/boarding the last weekend in June. There was PLENTY of snow at the top, and the kids liked to watch the people skiing. The views were, of course, spectacular:

It was also pretty dang COLD up there. After a couple of minutes Dax was done and ready to get back into the tram.

We had to wait for the next tram to come up for 10 or 15 minutes, and then we headed back down. We were off back to camp to have some more essential camping experiences, which included roasting hot dogs over the fire and making dutch over cobbler. So yummy!

After our late lunch, we tried to get the two little kids would take a nap in the tent. No luck. We decided that we better get the kids back into their own beds that night, so we spent a little more time exploring and hiking around the campground. Then we packed everything up in the late afternoon and headed home. Here is what happened before we even got to the bottom of the canyon:

Little stinkers.

There hasn't been a day go by this week that the kids haven't begged to go camping. We were driving Arden to gymnastics on Monday, and Daxton said, "Mom, are we going camping?" I said, "No, we are going to gymnastics." Dax said, "After gymnastics, THEN we go camping." Cora squealed "WE GO CAMPING! WE ROSE MARS-MAWWOWS!" I pointed out that Dad wasn't with us, and who would make the fire for our mars-mawwows? Arden said that she had watched Preston make the campfire and she was pretty sure she could do it. I pointed out that we had taken the sleeping pads we had borrowed from grandma and grandpa back already, so we couldn't go. Arden rolled her eyes and pointed out that we could easily go get them again. I finally said that I refused to go camping without Preston and that since he had to work all week we couldn't go camping again for a while.

I am not sure how long I can hold them off. I am sure it won't be long until we are all in the tent again, listening to Cora singing random songs in the darkness.

At least our bellies will be full of smores.