T-Days

I'm realizing that with almost every weekly post I am adding quite a few pictures. Blogging is the only form of scrapbooking that I would ever try to attempt so I add all of my favorite pictures every week.

Sadly, Clint is away from us this weekend. He is in New Mexico doing some work. It's harder for me to be alone with the kids on the weekends than during the week because Clint is usually

home all day and so I feel especially lonely. Thus, when our friends, Keven and Cary, invited me to attend Taylorsville Days with them this weekend I was excited to accept their offer. They were very gracious and offered to help me with my kids since they only have 1 between them. I say only 1 but their 1 was more rambunxious than my 2 put together. This is a big thing for me! I went for a long time knowing that Mitchell was the most busy and wild child in any group that we were in. I wondered, at times, if I would ever be able to sit down again while my children were awake. I think that may be how Keven and Cary were feeling yesterday. But my prayers were answered yesterday. Mitchell and Caleb were very calm and easy to watch during our very eventful day!

The morning started early with a trip to Harmons for some breakfast and then to the parade. Mitchell and Caleb were both fans. Especially when the candy started raining down. I included a picture of our favorite float that I think was a very clever idea.

After the parade we went home for naps and then went straight back for some swimming. Taylorsville has a great pool for little kids. The shallow end is really big and Caleb and Mitchell had a great time running through the water. Mitchell would really love to be able to go down the slides that are at a few of the pools that we've been too, but he just isn't quite big enough yet. He has about 2 inches (and some swimming knowledge) to go. He will start swimming lessons in a week or so and I'm really excited to see how he'll do.

After swimming we had some dinner and then went to save some spots for the fireworks. They had a bunch of little kid rides and Mitchell ventured on a few of them. He went on one that was similar to the "Big Shot" in Las Vegas that takes you up and then drops you down quickly. Mitchell was so excited to go on and did really well. He looked a little scared at first but then quickly decided that he was having a great time.

On the way back to our fireworks spot we grabbed a "Snowie" to share. It was an obvious hit and brought us closer together.

While waiting for fireworks they had a Niel Diamond impersonator doing a concert. He did a really great job. If you weren't thinking about it too much you would never know the difference. Here is a (about 1 1/2 minute) video of Mitchell and Caleb enjoying the music. Both of their grandma's will be proud! (The quality of the video isn't great because it was getting dark outside and it was taking too long to load with high quality.)

My parents nicknamed Caleb "Houdini" while he was staying at there house because of his ability to independently manuever himself wherever he desires to go.

Mitchell had a great time hanging out with his friends. I love this picture of him with Keven and Cary's niece, Madison, on the blanket.

The fireworks show was great! The kids and I really loved it and it was worth the day we had today. By the time nap time came all I could think of was "Lions, and Tigers, and Bears. OH MY!!"

We're excited to have some cousins spending the night with us tonight. They are really cute girls and having committed to helping me do some chores around the house tomorrow. They are great with Mitchell and Caleb and so it should be a fun day.

Georgia on Our Minds

We've been playing catch up this past week and thus didn't get a chance to update our blog until now. On June 10th Clint and I were able to fly out to Atlanta, Georgia (with no kids) for a week of business and vacation. After flying into Atlanta we drove to South Carolina where Clint did some work. As soon as he was done working we hit the road. Clint served his mission in South Georgia so we took our rental car and toured his old mission sites. After 1500 miles on the road I felt much more familiar with his mission and the stories that he has been telling me for the past 7 years.

The first place we stopped was actually in South Carolina where he had a chance to serve in Bluffton and Hilton Head. Hilton Head is a resort island but his accomodations there were quite the opposite. The place he stayed was nicknamed the "Roach Coach". The name tells it all. Unfortunately that particular trailer had been taken down but I took a few pictures of similar ones.

This was the local dumpster. I thought it was amusing.

Near where he was staying was an inlet from the ocean. Clint tells me it is called Bluffton Beach. I can gaurantee you that I would never see anyone with a beach ball and towel there to soak up some rays. In the picture all of the little things that look like rocks are really hermit crabs. They are EVERYWHERE.

In Bluffton we were fortunate enough to catch a family that Clint had gotten to know pretty well while serving there. The husband's nickname is "Barefoot Barry" because he never wears shoes. He had nicknamed Clint "Reverend Sorefoot" while he was there. Since then Clint has used rev_sorefoot for e-mail addresses and other computer-related user names.

Near Bluffton, South Carolina is Savannah, Georgia. I was very excited to visit that area. I had heard that it was very beautiful and full of history. We had a really good time there. We spent a few hours on the river walk and spent some more time walking and driving along the squares. It wasn't as beautiful as I was hoping but I had probably built it up too much in my mind. My favorite part, weirdly enough, were these huge, crooked staircases that led from the river walk to the road. As you can see Clint had to take a work call so we took a break on the stairs and I was lucky enough to be asked by an old, drunk bum in the alley to reset his "new" watch that he had just purchased for a dollar. After I did it he argued with me for a few seconds that I hadn't set it to the right time.

After Savannah we made our way to Southern Georgia. It is so green. I love the trees but driving through them for 1500 miles can get boring! The highlight of the trip was visiting with a family that Clint had spent a lot of time with in his first area. He was even fortunate to teach their niece who was baptized. They live in a really small town and live on a street bearing their name. The parents live at the end and almost all of there family live nearby. We were lucky enough to have almost all of them (even those who live out of town) there while visiting. They fed us dinner, let us pick blackberries, and had us stay to play games with them. It was a blast!! Here is a picture of Clint with this wonderful family.Overall it was a wonderful trip. Clint and I had a great time together and it was fun to visit the places where he served and grew to love. I really feel like I understand him better because I have visited these places and I am really grateful that we were able to do so. My mom had the kids while we were gone and they did great. But by the end of the trip I was VERY anxious to see and be with them again.

This kind of stuff is much cuter when you've been away from your kids for awhile!

The day before we left for our trip Clint wanted to prove to me that he knew how to sew a pillowcase. I had bought some fabric a few days earlier but wasn't sure how to go about it and Clint was trying to tell me how because he claimed he knew and had done it before.. I was skeptical. Later that night I had been downstairs and when I came up this is how I found him. The pillowcase turned out great!

One Wedding and some Destruction

For a really long time Mitchell would have nothing to do with band-aids. His first few years he would barely flinch when getting hurt because he was just too busy to notice. But as he has slowed down (a little) he has started noticing when he gets hurt and is concerned at the sight of blood. Thus band-aids are now part of his working vocabulary and he requests them often. The problem is that he is scared of getting them wet and absolutely hates it when they won't stick appropriately. I made the mistake once of using scotch tape to re-fasten a band aid. It didn't work very well but is now Mitchell's cure for a loosening bandage. Here is a picture of his handiwork.

After almost 7 years of marriage and 2 children we have finally graduated from our starter small-apartment-sized table to a family edition. It is quite the luxury and we are very excited about it. The day after putting it together we had Megan over for dinner and Clint's brother, Shawn, and his wife, Emily, surprised us by a visit. We were excited to have them all over because we could finally fit them all at one table. Here is a picture of our table's maiden dinner voyage.

That same evening we underwent a long overdue haircut for Caleb. Mitchell was still excited about using the clippers but was disappointed when we told him we wouldn't be letting him cut Caleb's hair. Megan, our hero, stepped in and let Mitchell PRETEND to cut her hair. She is a saint and Caleb was glad for the company.

I'm sorry for those of you with weak stomachs. Caleb was having a hard time during the haircut so Clint pulled out the camera to cheer him up. This is Caleb in the war zone.

Congrats to my cousin, Tim, who was married this past Friday. They had their reception Thursday night so they wouldn't have to worry about it after their wedding today. I think that is a pretty smart idea. We loved being able to go to the Salt Lake Temple to see them married. Caleb slept during the wedding but Mitchell was able to spend time with some of my cousins during the ceremony. He loved it. They told me afterwards that they played the gummy bear guessing game for 10 minutes straight. That is where they would hold a gummy bear in their hands and he would guess what color it was. AND he got to eat if afterwards. 10 minutes of that game equals fully sugar-loaded. He was a wild man on the temple grounds.

Our weekend was topped off by the taking down of our wall downstairs that forms the unnecessary wall between our family room and bathroom. The kids really got into the destruction. We are loving the extra space it gives. The tricky part will be moving the support beam that is now in the middle of that area.

Memorial Day Week

Happy late Memorial Day! Ours was a good one. We always love any day that Clint stays home from work. We celebrated the day by having family and friends over for brunch. We recently purchased a new Wii game called Wii Fit. To play you stand on a rectangle platform than analyzes your weight, BMI and center of balance. After being, unmercifully, analyzed you can exercise, do yoga, strength training and play balance games. After eating we projected the Wii onto our wall and played Wii Fit with the family. The obvious favorite for the morning was hula hooping. I didn't take any pictures that day but I DID steal a picture from my mom's blog of my dad hula hooping. It was awesome. The game also analyzes your age and almost everyone there received a score higher than their actual age (that's bad), but my dad got an age about 20 years younger than he is. Way to go Dad!

Hair cutting used to be quite the dramatic event at our house. We finally figured out how to make it fun! Well............most of us are having fun.Some of Clint's co-worker friends invited us to go camping this weekend. They have invited us beforehand but this was the first time we were brave (delirious) enough to go. We got so excited we even bought a new tent so that we wouldn't have to sleep in the van or torture Jay (one of the friends) by sleeping in their trailer with them. We did a practice run to see what it would be like and I wondered at the end if we had just purchased a cheap addition to the house. It's huge! We love it. It worked perfectly for putting Caleb's portacrib inside and sectioning it off so that Caleb wouldn't be able to see us and keep himself awake. Mitchell was excited about it too. He was dying to sleep in it until Jay and his wife, Sarah, showed him the bunk beds in their trailer..........he hasn't slept in the tent yet.

Clint's other friend, Nhut, has a boat and they were nice enough to let us go boating with them this weekend as well. Caleb and Mitchell both loved it. Mitchell surprised us by excitedly getting into the raft and laughing and smiling while he was being pulled behind the boat. He did really really well until the driver decided to test his limits and went faster and started turning more. Then the smiles turned to tears. But we were so proud of how well he did! We received many a thumbs up during the ride.

Of course, because we were camping the fishing poles came out. Mitchell and Clint both love the time that they get to spend together behind their fishing poles. They didn't catch anything but we saw some pretty impressive casting by Mitchell.
Our camping trip ended Saturday afternoon when Caleb wouldn't sleep in our blazing hot tent and we had changed his (it seemed like) 1ooth runny diaper. We had two tired, grumpy campers so we took them home and washed the car. They loved that activity. Mitchell helped scrub and Caleb kept our bucket full of bubbles.

While getting things put away and dinner ready I passed by the kitchen window and saw Mitchell in this outfit. If only I could wolf whistle over the internet!