Not Much

Now that we are done with Thad's hike, and Girls camp for my Mom, we've had this week to get ready for both the beach trip and Keslie's Baby shower. I made some stinkin cute pinwheel table decor for the shower and mom made some great favors as well.

In between projects we re-stocked the art supplies and I had a moment of insanity wherein I bought finger paints. We tried them out today, and while Andi loved it, Sammy wasn't that interested.

That's really about all he did before he got down. Don't worry, Andi filled up his page when she was done with hers.
It's been stupid hot here and I am really looking forward to a week of cool weather at the beach.
This is a picture I took right as Thad walked in the door from his hike. I had to take it immediately because seconds later I made him go shave. Gross, and that's only after a week!

  And this is a shot Andi got of Sammy. That's his "I'm not amused" face. I get it a lot from him. 

The Hike

Thad and the scouts made it home safe and sound on Saturday. After 6 days, and 56 miles of hiking, they made it from Mammoth to Yosemite with only minor trauma. They were swarmed by mosquitos, blistered feat, and Sunday all of their noses were pealing from sunburns, but other than that, all is well. Here are some pictures Thad took on the hike. He took several hundred. Here is a shot at the church building before they left. Apparently they dubbed themselves "the fellowship of the Half Dome" and gave each other names from the movie.

Surprisingly there is only one bear story from the trip, and of course it was Thads. He went fishing just before dinner to get a "treat" for the boys and a man and his little girl came up to the river and asked if they could watch him fish. I guess they'd never seen fly fishing. He'd already caught a few fish and had them in a bag in his vest, so when he caught the next one he backed over out of the river by his audience.
The guy said, "I can't believe you didn't run."
Thad: "Run? why?"
Guy: "From that bear"
Thad: "What bear?"
Guy: "It was right behind you, look I took a picture."
and sure enough there is a big bear just watching Thad and the fish in his vest flop around.
Thad: "Why didn't you run? or say something?"
Guy: "Well, I thought if you were okay being that close, we were okay."
Thad: "I didn't see it!"

So Andi's nightly prayers that Daddy and the boys would be protected from the bears were answered. She also started praying for us to be protected while Daddy was gone in a disturbing fashion. I said prayer the first night and she asked me,
"Mom, is Heavenly Father protecting us from bad guys?"
Me: "Yes, He is."
Andi: "What do the bad guys want to do to us?"
Me: "uh, I don't know Andi."
Andi: "Do they want to kill us?"
Me: "Maybe, don't worry about it. We're fine."
So every night she prayed to make sure the bad guys did not come and kill us. Creepy.

We are working on getting Sammy to talk more. He will now say a few more words, but only if you tell him to, or withhold what he wants till he says it. He has started saying Andi(nani), out, drink, nose, toes, moon, tv, sippy, up, and hello. He signs please, and more, but that's about it. He's just a stubborn little beast, and I'm pretty sure when he feels like it he'll start talking like crazy.

Perspective

For the last two days I've been meaning to get on and post some big time ranting and complaining, but my internet has been very finicky and every time I tried to get on to blogger it would die. Today however I have had a change of perspective and don't feel like complaining and voila, the internet and blogger are working just fine. I think it's a message. I will just say that being sick, and having sick children when your husband is out of cell reach on a week long scout hike is no fun.

This morning the kids and I were in the yard and I noticed my stargazers are finally opening. Okay, so only one is opening and it was just starting to open, but I couldn't resist taking a picture of it. Then I went around taking pictures of all my lovely flowers and I thought i'd share some of my favorites. These are in the back yard.

Like I said, it was just starting to open, and somehow while taking the picture I didn't notice that little green spider.

This seems to be the last of the magnolia blooms for the year.

Our hibiscus plants are so full of color!

These hydrangeas are all along the front of the house. I love the different colors each plant has.

Whatever these are, are in a pot by the front door. They are so dainty ;)

And this is the pumkpin patch, which is trying to climb out of it's little gate and take over everything.

We've got about a dozen of these so far.

Andi's two favorite things to do are "crafts," and making "homes." Today she lucked out and got to do both. She was very specific about her craft today and said she wanted to make hats out of paper. Riiiiight. . . . so pipe cleaners, scrapbooking paper, glue dots and stickers, and this is as good as it gets. That's her "home" behind them made out of a sheet and the dinning room chairs.

With Thad gone my evenings have been pretty productive. I made a baby blanket and matching burp cloth for my sister's shower in a couple weeks, and am halfway through formatting my 2009 blogbook. I'm also halfway through Wuthering Heights, gotta say, I don't love it and I'm not sure why it's a "classic" other than it's old. I mean well written, sure, but the story is depressing and I'm pretty sure the bad guy wins. Lame. Those Bronte girls and their "realistic" books. . . give me a happily ever after Jane Austen any day!

Happy Holiday Weekend!

What a weekend! I'm not sure I like long weekends anymore, they never feel restful. I think I/we forget that one extra day is really just that, and we try to cram a whole weeks worth of activities into the extra day. This weekend for example  we spent friday evening shopping for the upcoming scout 50 miler, I had a primary activity on Saturday morning, bought fireworks that afternoon, and had a BBQ with Thads family that night. Then Sunday, the usual primary responsibilities, but with half the ward being out of town it felt like a total fiasco, then dinner/my birthday cake/fireworks with my family. We got to bed way too late, but the kids loved it. . . or maybe just Andi did. Sam did not like the noise the fireworks made.  This is how Andi watched the show.

And this is how Sammy watched the show.

Thad took him further back from the fireworks and covered his ears during the noisy stuff and then after each one Sammy would raise his head and clap, then hide again as soon as the next one started.

There was no BC show this year, so we made our own, which was pretty sweet if I say so myself. At least we impressed Andi and her friends.Here are the kiddos all excited to start the show, note Andi's pose, that she does now for every picture. Ridiculous.

The totem pole of fire!

Then Monday when we all finally got out of bed we packed up the truck and headed up to the mountains to check out a couple of trail options for Thads big hike this coming weekend. I've never been car sick before, but I did this time and it was wicked! So we stopped at a general store somewhere up the mountain to get some Dramamine, which helped greatly. But then the "marked drowsiness" set in and I fell asleep while Thad played with the kids by the river and  It took till this morning to really kick the stupor, that stuff is strong! That night after the kids went down Thad and I divided up all the food for the weeks hike, which included measuring out dried fruit and trail mix into "daily rations."
So today I feel like relaxing. Maybe it's the Dramamine sill, but I need a nap!