Summer Survival

We have been busy the last few weeks doing nothing. And we are getting good at it. Not nothing, but just playing and being schedule free and enjoying the last few weeks of summer. Mostly we have been playing and swimming with Tarin and her kids. It's so fun to see the next generation of kids together like we were.

 

 
 

Peter has a birthday a few weeks ago. Mom of the year here didn't remember to organize anything till like the day before, so we just had family over for cake and ice cream. But really, when you are two, what more do you need? I'm not sure he fully understood the birthday significance, but he totally understood the cake and candles.

 

I'd like to post pictures of him posing with his grandparents, or showing off the toys he opened, but let's be real. Peter doesn't hold still for more than 1.3 seconds unless restrained, and then you know how those pictures turn out. But I did get him holding still on the new rocking horse he got from the grandparents Bulkeley. He likes it.

 

 

 

Peter has also been up to his usual antics, but I feel like it's getting worse, or at least more frequent.  Last week while I mopped he snuck upstairs and got into my makeup, which he's done before. But this time he opened all of my foundation containers and used them as finger paint, on himself.

If you were wondering, foundation is actually really hard to get out of hair. It took four scrubbings to get it all out.  Then we've had more "art sessions" on the walls and doors. It always happens while I'm cleaning. Maybe I should stop doing that. Or I could just put all the markers out of reach. Which I've done. But he still finds things I've missed, or most likely things he's squirreled away in one of his rat holes for use later.
Sunday was an especially fun day. I went to get him out of bed and found him jumping around squealing with delight pointing to his diaper and pants which he had removed and thrown on the floor. Luckily it was just a wet diaper and he hadn't peed in the bed, but I should have taken it as an omen for the rest of the day. Before we could leave for church he had busted his lip open on the patio outside, and it bled a lot. But one fall was not enough, so he face planted in the kitchen a little while later starting the bleeding all over again. So we missed the first hour of church. I thought that once he had a nap we could start over and have a good afternoon. But he removed his diaper again at some point during the nap, and this time peed all over the crib. I'm thinking a duct tape belt might be in order.
Sammy has been his own load of fun this week. I've mentioned before that bedtime is an ordeal with Sam. He comes downstairs at least 6 times a night, and since Thad has been gone and I've really been ready for bedtime it has not been going well. So Monday night he came running downstairs:
"Mom! There was fire coming out of my lamp!"
M: "What are you talking about?"
S: "My lamp. I took the light bulb out because I can't turn it on. And I stuck a metal thing in it and I didn't know it was still plugged in, and when I stuck the metal thing in it there were two big sparks and a pop and then fire came out on to my carpet."
At which point Andi came out to tell me her noise maker turned off and she couldn't get it back on. So I ran to Sams room to make sure the carpet wasn't smoldering and investigate his story. He had in fact, shoved a small play metal whisk into the lamp and blew the circuit to all the outlets in the house.  I took his lamp and nightlight and anything else I could find that might entice him to electrocute himself out. And then I flipped the circuit back on and all was well.
So the next night, having lost his light privileges, he was dinking around with the overhead light still on. I went to turn it off and get him back in bed and found that he was setting up a party for me. He took all the candles out of my room and brought them to his, and for some reason grabbed a box of tampons from my bathroom and scattered them around as decorations. I have no idea. I grabbed all the tampons, turned off his light, and locked him in for the night. It wasn't till the next day that I noticed he had drawn "decorations" on his bed.  So today I painted his bed with leftover chalk paint I had sitting around, and I'm thinking I should have done that a long time ago. It looks good grey.  And we've since had a long conversation about decorating rules.
S: "But Mom, I just wanted to do something nice for you."
M: "Sam, the best, nicest thing you can do for me is to LISTEN and OBEY!"
S: "Ugh! Mom, that's not fun!"
Andi hasn't been as much trouble as the boys, but she's changed this summer. All of a sudden she wants to be involved in the grown up conversations and has to know exactly what's going on. Now instead of just eavesdropping, she comes later to clarify and make sure she understood what she heard. And she would like to go see Wicked. She keeps listening to the music and asking questions trying to understand the story line and asking when she will be able to see it. I'm pretty sure 8 is too young, but maybe when she's 10 I'll consider it.

Friends and Grand Views

One perk of being in Cortez for the summer is that we were only an hour away from one of my old college roomies who I haven't seen in ten years. It's funny, aside from Facebook and instagram we haven't talked much since then, but there is something about being college roommates that bond you for life.  It was kind of a crazy year that we lived together, but it helped make us the people we are today. And let me tell you, this woman is amazing. After catching up on the last ten years I don't think I know a stronger more courageous person and I am blessed to be able to call her my friend.
This is an awful picture of a picture of Sarah and I, circa 2002.

And last week, 12 years and 6 children later.

And I'm so glad we got to visit when we did, because our summer plans changed last week and we decided that the kids and I were going home. Thad had meetings in Bakersfield, and I just felt like we needed to get back for lot's of reasons. So we are home now. But on the way home we had one last adventure and took a small detour on the drive to the grand canyon. It was beautiful, and I'm glad we took the kids, but I'm also glad that I've seen it before so I could chase peter and keep him from falling into it while Thad took pictures and enjoyed the view. Peter is insane and I was mildly panicked the entire time we were there because he just kept darting off and trying to get away from me.
This picture is as good as it gets with Peter. I don't know if he hates the camera, or just being restrained, but most of our pictures of him from this trip look like this.

We also had Flat Stanley along for the ride thanks to cousin Walter, and Thad and the kids had fun getting some adventure shots of Stanley. It's going to be a good story.

It's been a crazy week of packing, cleaning, driving, unpacking, more cleaning, and restocking. But I'm glad we came back, I can't imagine doing this two days before school starts and being remotely ready.  Plus I've already been able to hang out with friends I've missed and the kids are happy to have their own rooms back.
Oh, but Peter decided to begin a new rite of passage as I unpacked.

Ya, that happened. He was so proud of himself and was bouncing around with the marker, until momma went crazy, then he wasn't so proud as you can see. And this piece of art happened after he had found Andi's markers and colored all over his legs earlier in the morning.
We plan to spend the next few weeks hanging out by the pool with friends and maybe decorating the office. I've been staring at blank walls since Thad built the desk 5 months ago. I need to fix that.

Happy 4th of July!

Another fun filled weekend had passed so it is time for an update. Thad brought home sparklers early in the week, the good kind that you can't get in CA, and the kids asked every five minutes if it was time to do fireworks yet. We then got to thinking about our usual 4th of July's, and how we bounce from one ward activity to family party to the next, and how the kids would drive us crazy all day waiting for fireworks if we didn't find something to do to keep them busy. So we headed in to Durango to the children's discovery museum and cool downtown shops. It was beautiful.

 This is the bike path along the river that ran right behind the museum, which is an old converted power building.

This bridge was a little ways up the path and on the other side of the river were some pretty sweet homes.

I've always wanted to rent one of these. We didn't. I still want to.

 Fun stuff inside the Museum. 

 There are a lot more museum pictures, but the kids were running around so crazy that most of them ended up blurry. Proof that it was a good time. After the museum we grabbed some lunch and went to a park to play. Colorado is big on parks, and they are all really nice.We even ventured over to the mall so I could find some board shorts. Mine just died. And even though it was a real mall, it was still pretty sad in comparison to Ca shopping.
After naps at home they were ready for fireworks. We broke out the sparklers, and though they were definitely better than the crappy ones you buy in CA, they were not as great as we remembered. Maybe our batch was a bit of a dud, or maybe our childhood memories over exaggerated the coolness of them. Either way the kids enjoyed them.

The city does a free show at the park right across from our townhouse. So we climbed out on to the roof for a great view. It was a great show, and I'm pretty sure the entire town was there to see it.

Saturday we went to Mesa Verde National Park to see the cliff dwellings. Thad would like to go back without the kids, because we were limited on what we could see with them in tow. But what we did see was really cool.

Inside the spruce tree house. Peter hates being restrained for pictures.

There it is from the top of the trail. Peter is in the "do everything myself" phase,  which means he wanted to walk down the steep hazardous trail all by himself. It was a very stressful walk for Thad and I who were taking turns guarding the cliff side of the trail.

It was a great adventure filled weekend. These pictures are from earlier in the week when Thad took the kids to the climbing wall at the rec center. They did pretty well!

Weekend Update

This has been one of the longest weeks ever. At least it's felt that way. Not in a bad way or anything, but it feels like we've been here a lot longer than a week. We've established a daily routine,  park/errands in the morning, lunch/naps, then off to the rec center for swimming and water slides in the afternoon. It's a tough life we lead. We've also been introducing the kids to movies from our childhood in the evenings. So far Jumanji and Hook have been big hits.

 This weekend we drove up to Telluride for the day and it was lovely.  I rolled the window down to snap some pictures of the scenery and the kids did not know what to do with the cold air that came in. "Why is it cold!?!?!"  Being from Bako, if the sun is shinning it's hot. They could not understand why the mountain air was so chilly. It was cool enough for us Californians to wear sweat jackets all day, which was worth the drive in itself.

 So we parked at Mountain Village and rode the gondola in to Telluride. It covered several miles and the kids thought that was the reason for the drive. Peter doesn't care for posing for pictures.

 Once we got in to town we walked to the museum where the kids got to pan for "gemstones" and "fossils". They loved finding treasures. There was a cool mining exhibit that we played in for a while.

Then we hit the park for some lunch and playground time.

It was such a pretty little town. We rode the gondola back and stopped midway at the nature center, which was a total bust, but the kids were wiped out anyway so we headed home.
Sunday we went to church in a ward that was 90% old people. They had a tiny little primary, and I think it was the outlier ward. Like full of people who live 20-30 minutes out of town. So next week we'll try a different building and hopefully find some kids to play with and teenagers to babysit for us.
Week one down, weekend adventure accomplished!

Let the Adventure Begin

Life got crazy around our house about two weeks ago when Thad came home saying that he would be working on Cortez Colorado for the summer, and we could go with him if we wanted. Um, of course we wanted to. Not that I had any burning desire to see Cortez, but more that I didn't want to spend the entire summer as a single parent. His company offered to rent us a place to stay(including furniture) so we didn't have to move an entire house for the summer. So Thad left for Cortez while I packed up the things we would be bringing and a couple weeks later we are here. As we were deciding if/when the family should go I was torn between a new summer adventure, and leaving our callings and friends and summer traditions at home. It was a harder decision than I thought. So far it's been great. The kids did amazing on the 12.5 hour drive, no meltdowns or fighting or anything. That might be in part to the bigger car the company rented for us, and a little to do with the tablet we bought so they could watch a few shows on the drive. But they really only watched for 2 hours of the 12, and I'm still amazed at how smoothly it went.

Peter chewed on his toes a good portion of the trip, which was weird.

Andi and the Utah (where she was born) sign at four corners.

Cortez is tiny, like 8,500 people tiny, and our little townhouse has no yard. But, there is a huge park and rec center across the street with an indoor water park. We've been everyday. The air here is clear, like you can see through it all the way to the mountains 50 miles away, and the kids haven't coughed or sniffled since we got here. If you live in Bakersfield, you know both of those things are completely novel. The weather is lovely, and we are looking forward to touristy weekend adventures instead of house projects.Adventures and pictures to follow.

The night before we left I was able to dance in one last recital. I know that sounds crazy. Andi didn't dance this year, but the studio put on a tribute for Cathy Correa, and I have been going to dance class for the last couple months learning a couple "secret" dances for the show. It was so much fun to be backstage with the dance girls again, and to actually be on stage with Cathy. Cathy even planned her own surprise dance that we were learning backstage during the show. It was perfect! I have missed that more than I thought, and dancing and Cathy will always hold a special place in my heart. I was having so much fun I didn't think to take pictures, so I stole  these from facebook.

Rap-Tap - originally done in 2002

One singular sensation- Cathy's signature song.