The day after Jake’s race was a Sunday — and Conference. So in an attempt to have a family day while on vacation, we hung out at some random St. George park. We were all lounging when I started challenging my nieces and nephews to getting up the play structure at different points without using their hands. Some of them got pretty good pretty fast, so the tasks became more difficult and the big boys got in on the action. About two hours later we left out of starvation, but ended up having the best time with each other.
Sissy is a little dare devil. She always want to go higher and higher.
Scout is a little more cautious — I think he is a little more aware of the effects of things that might go wrong.
Here is Micah trying to get up an obstacle that gave everyone problems. He swears that he could do this one pretty easily if he were more flexible. Poor guy!
Trey proved to be a superstar. We were joking when we challenged him to get across the monkey bars without hands. Amazingly enough he did it! It was very impressive and a little worrisome at the time.
Icka was totally entertained by all of the bigger kids.
Scout was trying his hand at some dangerous move on the swing!
We then tried to see who could climb the pole the best.
Cade went to his inner Bear Grylls and dominated.
I already told you about Trey.
Again — Poor Micah!
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We finally moved onto the latest YouTube sensation of “Par Kour”.
The object that everyone was trying to use in their routine (I don’t know if it is actually called a routine) was the garbage can.
Jake struggled a bit — but we will blame it on some REALLY sore legs.
What???
Who is this awesome stunt man?
With the really awesome move of faking everyone out with his head half way into the trash can….
Micah FINALLY redeemed himself!
Thank goodness that humor won everyone back.
Skills babe — Skills!
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Hey..
Aren’t we missing somebody?
Where’s Pat?
We thought sleeping beauty was soaking up some rays.
But then we heard the mammoth snores from across the park and knew that this poor girl was just tuckered out.
Jake completed his second marathon at the ripe old age of 17 in St. George. Here he is at mile 23 when Bry jumped in to offer a bit of support. He had the goal of shaving 30 minutes off his time, and he did exactly what he set out to do. We were all so stoked on his run, and had a great time cheering him on.
We didn’t make T Shirts this year, so I did my artwork on my car. Pretty good depiction if I don’t say so myself.
We started really early. But when Scout fell asleep in the afternoon and made it through a drive, a transfer to a shopping cart at Tai Pan, back into the car, Cafe Rio in Megan’s arms, then to my mom’s arms, and finally into my arms without budging a muscle — we were all dying. That poor kid must have literally been wiped. Because we all know that he is the last to miss out on a party.
When the results were printed in the paper the next morning, we were so proud of Jake’s sixth place finish in his age group.
YAY JAKE!
I came back from a doctor’s appointment and saw these little creatures playing with their umbrellas out in the rain.
(Bella was watching them.)
Now does everyone understand why I can’t pass up a novelty?
What if this picture was with three plain jane umbrellas?
It wouldn’t be nearly as cute.
Now would it?
I probably wouldn’t have even taken the picture in the first place.
This big boy slept in his very own big boy bed (without rails) last night.
Before he went to bed, I told him that he was responsible for making his bed every morning.
He was completely on board, and went down perfectly.
(Sissy did not, and Scout ended up over in her bed to soothe her and ended up falling asleep next to her — but that’s beside the point.)
In the middle of the night, he must have had a nightmare because he ultimately ended up in Nonnie’s bed.
(If he has nightmares, he has permission to run in and sleep the rest of the night with Nonnie.)
First thing in the morning, he immediately found me and the first words out of his mouth were, “Mom, I have to go and make my bed.”
I made him wait until Sissy was up.
About an hour later, he came and found me and made me come and look at his completely made bed.
I was very impressed, and loved the “extra pillow to make it beautiful” that he added off of Sissy’s bed.
He is so good, so nice, and so responsible!
(My mom said that even before she opened her eyes, she heard Scout whispering to himself, “I need to go in and make my bed. I need to do the sheets and the pillows. I have to because I am a big boy.”)
Pretty cute — I’d say!
Especially because he is so proud of his accomplishment.
(I honor of our favorite CD in the car — the Annie Soundtrack.)
Sissy tries to climb into bed every single night with Scout. I have let her the past few weeks, but it always ends up with her kicking, hitting or pulling Scout’s hair — which sends her back into her crib. But finally….FINALLY…she put the torture by the wayside and ended up sleeping through the night next to Scout. When they both woke up the next morning, each one was excited to tell me about sleeping with the other. And based on the way they both sleep next to me, they probably bear hugged each other all night long. (Well at least all night — after this picture was taken.)
Every morning Scout comes into our room ready to fight or wrestle. His testosterone must build up overnight, and by morning, he is rearing to go. Micah is usually the opponent. But the morning when I showed Scout how I could push his Daddy out of bed, Scout had a new found respect for his Mama — and I became a regular opponent too. I guess Micah isn’t the only tough guy in town.
If you remember….with my $34 gift, there was an exception for groceries. So for Micah’s big day, I asked him what his little heart desired. The answer was quick and direct. He wanted a “burger bar with every topping imaginable”. If that’s what you want big boy…that’s what you get.
My new favorite things — these water carafes, that will be at every shindig from now until they are broken.
This is the start of the toppings. There were more (like bacon/grilled mushrooms and onions), but I did forget a few that we thought of later. We could have done pastrami, I mindlessly forgot the pickles, and my intentions of making fried eggs went by the wayside because of all the commotion.
We had some friends who wanted to go out to dinner in honor of the big boy, but I told them to come over for his burger bar instead. Scout and Navy was psyched on that idea with all of the offspringers coming too.
The ladies — who helped the night come off without a hitch. Well, let me retract. AZ was awesome and brought not only one but TWO desserts. (I try to make it a policy of not having people bring stuff to my house when they come over because I just want them to come and have fun. But in AZ’s unfortunate case….when you are the baker of the year….I ALWAYS accept her offerings.) On the other hand, Scummy was asked to do one measly job. She was to cut the avocado. No biggie…right? Well, I had to get on her back about six times to have her throw the skins away, clean her cutting board, rinse out the sink, clean her knife, etc.etc.etc. She was a little pathetic, but she sure looks good in the above picture — so we’ll keep her around for her looks.
Speaking of the cake. Look at this AZ masterpiece!
Wow — look at all that smoke! I guess a LOT of candles makes for a LOT of smoke. (Too bad I got there exactly one month ago too.)
Wearing Micah’s UCLA Football sweats (to honor him and not just to be comfy — of course), I made every kid stop by to get their hands wiped before going up to the play room.
And finally — Broccoli and Stinky.
That was his outfit of choice on his dad’s big day.
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Happy Birthday Shmickity Dickity Dock……..tick tock!
Micah has been spending a decent amount of his recent time in what he calls “the armpit of the world” AKA Vegas.
Glad he’s home!
And so are they!
In honor of Grey Bears big day, we all went to Pretend City.
Here was where Icka was “pretending” to be a prize fighter as she knocked this other little girl around. Good thing Belly was there to intercept, because I just felt like documenting the whole ordeal.
Here is Belly “pretending” to be coordinated. I don’t remember, but she probably Icka out on her next leg lift.
There is no “pretending” here. They really are a boyfriend and girlfriend who like to garden together.
Icka is sharing her snacks with the birthday boy.
Scout was dispatched to a grocery store fire — and he decided to take along his birthday boy buddy.
I always tell Scout that he is my “best boy”. (And when I am lucky, he returns it with me being his “best girl”.) But this might have been the day that sealed the deal on him being my best boy. I noticed a swollen gland / lymph node / who knows what on his throat a few months back. He had been sick with something that the doctor determined to be mono about four months ago, and this particular swollen thing hadn’t gone away since then. I noticed it a few times over the summer, and finally decided to take him in to have it rechecked.
When we went in, Carruthy said that we were going to take blood to determine if anything was off, but that more than likely they were shoddy nodes (lymph nodes that take quite a while to get back to normal after being sick). Out came the needle, and poor little Scout realized what was going to happen. Carruthy took about 30 seconds to finally determine a vein, and after I had Scout situated on my lap to hold really still, he tried to draw his blood. Scout said, “Oww Mommy, that hurts”, and I just told him to be tough and that it would be over in just a minute. About 45 seconds later, and after Carruthy tried and tried to find his little vein (he has rolling veins like me), Carruthy finally said, “I’m not going to get this one…we’ll have to try another.” When it came out, we were all telling Scout how brave he was and we couldn’t believe how still he sat. But the congrats came to a quick stop when they tied his other arm with the rubber strip. He said, “Mommy, I don’t want to do that again!” I told him that if he would hold still so that we could get his blood, that Carruthy would give him TWO suckers this time! It took about four attempts, and then Carruthy finally hit the jackpot. Scout watched as his blood went through the tube and thought it was really cool. After it was done, and there wasn’t a single tear from Scout, we were all relieved. Especially doctor Carruth, because he said, “Scout, you were one brave little guy. You were perfect.” And he really was!
A band aid on the right, and a cotton swab with tape on the left. (They were unprepared with a band aid for the second go around.)
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So this called for a celebration! I took Scout on a special date (a date with just me and him) to 31 flavors for an ice cream cone. We had an absolute blast. I took out my camera and kept snapping pictures of him and us, and he was in the best mood. He made funny faces, he tried to be serious, he thought I was the funniest person in the world. It was a teeny tiny slice of heaven for me.
What a ham!
Mind you that this was the first money I have spent ever since I gave Micah his gift of only spending $34 since September 17th. I took in a five dollar bill, and the Ice cream was $1.99. So I currently have $32.01 to my name.
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I am watching my money so carefully, and won’t spend on anything…….but this $1.99 was worth every last red cent!
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Oh yeah — the tests all came back perfectly.
Hallelujah!
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