Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Kids say the funniest things

I wish I would remember to write down all the funny things that my kids say. I always think I should write it down, but usually forget by the time I'm near paper or my computer. It occured to me today that I should blog the funny things my kids say (if I remember, of course).

A couple days ago, we passed a couple people riding horses on the road. Andrew thought that was very interesting. He was apparently thinking about that this morning, because he referred to "the horses that were wearing people." It's so funny how kids think. I sure hope I remember to start writing down the things that mine say.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Spacer fun

Last month, Ashley got a spacer put in to correct her bite. She talks kinda funny and now she has a huge gap between her two front teeth. Ha ha hee hee (she's not happy I posted this picture!)

Soccer??

When soccer season started, I was expecting four games and two practices per week. That hasn't happened due to the wonderful Utah weather. Austin's first game was canceled due to snow, and Andrew's first game was canceled due to rain. The first game Austin made it to was the day after he hurt his elbow, so he only watched the game. Andrew spent his first game holding the coach's hand because he didn't like the other kids pushing him when he was going for the ball (he's the smallest/youngest kid on the team).

Here he is attached to his coach.


Andrew is doing better at soccer now. He's more aggressive and doesn't hang on the coach anymore. This is the third week of soccer, and he has played two and a half games. His game on Saturday made it through the first quarter before they called it due to snow.

Austin has yet to play his first soccer game. The two games that haven't been canceled he couldn't play in because of his elbow. We headed to his game tonight with high hopes that he would finally be able to play.

The wind was blowing like crazy and the rain was just barely coming down as we were setting up. Here's a picture of Ashley trying to get her blanket under control.


Austin was at least able to get warmed up and play a little with his teammates before the rain really started coming down and the game was canceled.

I love this action shot!



Austin has a game on Saturday, but he'll miss that because he's getting baptized. Hopefully he'll finally get to play next week!!

Good news...

We took Austin to the orthopedic doctor last week to get his elbow looked at. The good news is that there are no broken bones, just a really bad sprain. Guess the ER doc and the radiologist were wrong; there were no visible fractures in the xrays, but they were pretty confident that was a fracture in there. I'm so glad he's ok. Broken bones are no fun, especially in the spring when he can finally get outside again.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Boys will be boys

I grew up as the oldest of six children with one brother and four sisters. My brother is 13 months younger than me (I now have 2 brothers, but Jason is 22 years younger than me, so I didn't grow up with him). I know how sisters treat each other, but I didn't have a clue how brothers treated each other. It's been a whole new experience having two boys and seeing how they interact with each other. Of course when I say interact with, I really mean beat on and wrestle with.

One time Andrew threw a matchbox car at Austin and made his head bleed. Andrew thought the blood was the coolest thing ever. They seem to be constantly wrestling and playing rough until someone starts crying. Then the boy who is not crying teases the one who is. It's never ending, and I hear it only gets worse....sigh.

Thursday night, the boys were suppose to be getting ready for bed. Instead, they were wrestling...again. Pretty soon Austin came out of the bedroom crying, complaining that his arm hurt. It looked fine and he had full range of motion, so Aaron gave him some Tylenol and put him in bed. Friday morning, Austin couldn't get out of bed because his arm hurt too much (he's on the top bunk). So I got him down and noticed how swollen his elbow was. Uh oh. Off to the emergency room we went. The diagnosis: broken elbow.

This isn't the first time he's broken a bone. He broke his left arm in October 2005 at daycare. This time it's his right elbow. The funny/ironic thing is that he's getting baptized in two weeks. They do make waterproof casts, but that's not the funny part. Aaron broke his arm when he was 8, right before his baptism too. Can you say "Like father, like son?"

Here's my skinny, little Austin posing for some pictures. He has a splint on now, but should get a cast later this week.



Friday night I had my brother and brother-in-law come over and give Austin a blessing. I'm so thankful for them and their willingness to come do that. Austin's doing great and isn't in much pain. In fact, I caught Andrew and Austin wrestling today on the couch. I guess boys will be boys, no matter what's broken!

Monday, April 13, 2009

So it begins...

Soccer season has begun. Austin and Andrew are playing this year. They both had their first practice tonight and games start later this week. Four games a week ~ should be fun!




Easter

I woke up Easter morning with the WORST headache. Luckily, the Easter bunny hid eggs & candy late Saturday night. The kids had found everything before I even made it out of bed so I didn't get any pictures. We didn't make it to church, because my headache didn't dull till almost noon.

The kids dyed eggs Sunday afternoon.



Ashley working hard on decorating her egg.


Abbie didn't quite know what was going on, but that didn't stop her from trying to eat an egg before it got dyed.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Spring Break...Day 7

We left Henderson, Nevada just before 11 am. We hit Dunkin Donuts again (yum!) and headed north. We drove and drove and drove and drove until we hit Logan about 11:30 pm. We made pretty good time considering the numerous stops we made along the way...lunch in Mesquite, Walmart in St. George, rest stops, Cracker Barrell in Provo for dinner. Traffic was pretty good, road construction wasn't too bad, and my Durango got better gas mileage than I thought. It was so nice to sleep in my own bed Friday night. Vacation was fun, but it's great to be home!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Spring Break...Day 6

Today was a nice, lazy day. We packed a lot into the last 5 days, and I'm worn out. It was nice to have a day with no big plans. The highlight of my day was a trip to Dunkin Donuts...yeah!!!! I grew up with Dunkin Donuts and absolutely love them. Unfortunately, there aren't any in Logan or the surrounding areas. When I go back to Pennsylvania to visit, I pig out on them (and the real Italian pizza and hoagies and Tastycakes...no wonder I always gain so much weight when I visit!). Walking into Dunkin Donuts took me back to my childhood...the smell, the excitement, the decision making.

Yum, yum, yum. Yep, I ate three. My kids love them as much as I do, but there's no nostalgia associated with the donuts like there is with me. We made a big powdered sugar mess. Thank goodness for housekeeping!

After gorging ourselves on donuts, we went swimming. Thought maybe we could burn off some calories. It's an outside pool, so I think we burned off some calories between the swimming and the shivering. We showered and headed off the the movies.

This was a fun movies. Lots of laughs and a lesson too. We all enjoyed it.


After the laughs, we went to the arcade and let the kids play for a while. Then off to our room for some rest and relaxation. We ordered pizza and did nothing for a while...until the kids complained about being bored. So off to the bowling alley for a couple games. I was kinda tired, so I was the official Abbie chaser while the others played. Afterward, it was my favorite time of the day...bedtime!! I ran to the gas station to get some milk for Abbie's bottle, then we put the kids to bed. Wow. It's quiet now. Aaron and Ashley are watching tv while I blog.

I'm not quite sure what we're going to do tomorrow. I'm all for heading home. It's been a really fun vacation, but I'm getting tired of hotels and living out of suitcases. I miss my own home and my bed. I know we won't be able to make it home tomorrow, but we should be there on Saturday sometime. It will be nice to be home. I'm looking forward to Monday when the kids go back to school and daycare and I have the day off. I'll be able to enjoy a nice, quiet house...

Spring Break...Day 5

We packed the car up again, and headed west. Aaron has gotten really good at packing the car up. I bought a bag-type carrier for the top of the car, and it works really well. Gives us plenty of room inside the car for kids, snacks, and assorted stuff.

We visited the Hoover Dam three years ago on spring break, but we thought we'd hit it again since the kids are older. We didn't do the tour, we just walked around the dam and took some pictures.



They were doing construction on the dam when we were there three years ago, and they're still doing it now. I think there is some sort of bridge going up across from the dam. It's pretty cool how they're doing the curved concrete. You couldn't pay me enough to do a job like that!


Andrew staying hydrated.


Showing Abbie the dam.


We brought the stroller for Abbie, but she didn't like that either. She just wanted to run. I don't blame her since we spent most of the day in the car.


She was okay with Andrew riding in her stroller. She even tried to help buckle him in.

After our quick visit to Hoover Dam, we headed to Henderson, Nevada. It's just south of Vegas. We got a good deal on a room at Sunset Station Casino. They have a movie theater and a bowling alley. We took a walk around the huge hotel/casino and decided to head out to eat cuz it was way too expensive. Pancakes at IHOP was just what we needed...yum.

Spring Break....Day 4

The Grand Canyon...one of the seven natural wonders of the world. The weather was gorgeous, a perfect day for a hike. We got to the canyon around 10 am. It was packed! After finding a parking spot, we got ready to go. Ashley volunteered to carry Abbie in the carrier. Abbie was fascinated with it for a minute or two. Then she started screaming and throwing her body around, trying to get free.

It was almost half a mile from the parking spot to the rim of the canyon. The boys busied themselves playing with what they called acorns (and everyone else calls pine cones). Andrew thought he'd give a tree a hug after he saw his brother hugging a tree for fun.


Our first view of the Grand Canyon.

Photo op - Abbie was more interested in eating rocks than sitting on a rock.


Pretty much every time Abbie got put down, she tried picking up rocks and eating them. The path is paved, so she could see the rocks, but not pick them up...until she found them alongside the path.



Austin kept climbing trees.


These signs were all over the place...guess it's for the people with no common sense or really accident prone!



The only way I would go near the edge was if it had a fence like this. Of course, that didn't stop Austin from tripping over a rock and falling into it. That scared me pretty good.

Of course, I'd freak out a little if any of the kids got too close to the edge...kinda like this.


This is Andrew pouting because he wanted to go back to the hotel and go swimming.


Abbie grabbing the camera as I'm trying to take a picture.

Good thing I brought Aaron along to do the heavy lifting.

Oh, look. A picture of me. How exciting.

It took us about 4 hours to walk almost 4 miles. ALL the kids were whining and complaining by the end. Andrew rode on my shoulders for quite a while at the end because his "feet were tired." Aaron and I were both kinda grouchy by the time we got back to the car. The sunburn didn't help my mood either. I remembered to put it on the kids, but it didn't even occur to me to put in on myself. Why is that?

Once we made it back to the hotel in Flagstaff, we had laundry to do. I can't even remember the last time I went to a laundromat. We had dinner while the clothes washed, but then hung around waiting for them to dry. We finally had the kids watch a movie in the car while the clothes dried. Then it was back to the hotel. Aaron took the kids swimming while I put Abbie to bed and put all the clothes away. How fun.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Spring Break...Day 3

Today started out as a lazy day. We weren't in a hurry to get anywhere. We got the car all packed up, and left the hotel at 11 am. We moseyed over to Walmart and did a little shopping (had to get those Little Swimmers for Abbie!). We grabbed some new movies for the kids...they're better entertained by movies they haven't seen before. Even Abbie was watching LABYRINTH.

It wasn't a very long drive to the four corners. It's in the middle of nowhere. If you're in the area, it's worth stopping in. Now when the kids talk about it and school, they can say they've been there.

It's 2 pm. Do you know where you're kids are? Hmm, Ashley's in Utah, Abbie's in Arizona, Andrew's in Colorado, and Austin's in New Mexico. All accounted for!

I told Austin to lay down so I could get a picture of him in all four states at once. For some reason, he thought he needed to pretend he was dead. So the other kids thought they needed to do the same thing.



Except for Abbie. She just wanted to run and be free. Every time we get her out of the car and put her down, she takes off. I'm getting the feeling she's getting tired of being in the car...

After Four Corners, we headed to Flagstaff, Arizona. Yep, it was a long drive, but we made it without too much fighting and arguing from the kids. We hit a time zone, so we're an hour behind Utah time. So after dinner, Aaron took the kids swimming and I put Abbie to bed and got some peace and quiet. What a nice treat for me!!

Tomorrow we're headed to the Grand Canyon. We've been having a ton of fun. We don't have our trip completely planned out, so we're just kinda going where the wind blows us. After that, we might head over to Hoover Dam. Should be fun!!

Spring Break...Day 2

We got off to an early start Sunday morning to head to Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. This really is a beautiful state. I've lived here almost 15 years, and haven't really seen much of it. Arches was amazing. I can't believe some of the rock formations we saw. I wish I knew how some of these were created.

The kids were really excited to get out and look around. I didn't realize how huge the park is. There are lots of scenic overlooks to stop at.

Austin pretending he's going to jump over the edge.

These are the three gossips.

This was my favorite site...Balanced Rock. I just think it's absolutely amazing. How the heck does that stay up there?!! I was awed by this.



The Fiery Furnace.


There were a bunch of these old, curly trees laying around. I think they're pretty cool. Andrew was the only one who would pose by one for me.


Delicate Arch. This is the arch on the Utah license plates. We originally wanted to hike up to it and walk around like the people in the photo, but the parking lot was packed. So we went further up the road, and hiked to an overlook of it. That hike wore the boys out, so they certainly didn't want to walk the mile and a half to the arch.


I don't remember what arch this is. I just remember that Ashley and Austin didn't want to get out of the car to come look at it. It was the last one we looked at before we headed out.

Abbie spent most of the day on her daddy's shoulders.

Austin and Abbie were intrigued by the metal statues at the Visitor's Center. I don't think Abbie really knew what to make of them, but she had fun inspecting them with Austin.


We spent about 3 hours at Arches National Park. I would definitely recommend seeing it if you're in the area. If the kids were older, we could have easily spent all day hiking around to see everything.

After leaving the park, we headed south. We ended up staying the night in Cortez, Colorado. Not much to see there (or worth seeing), but it's close to Four Corners.