Monday, May 31, 2010

May Birthdays

My princess and my little... well, my silly little guy. Talia just turned 5 and BJ turned 3! Can't believe how big they are getting. This year was non-party year, which was sooooo much easier for me, and I think the kids still had great birthdays.

My dear Talia-- still loves her arts and crafts, and is about as physically uncoordinated as a 5 year old can be. Surprisingly though she has taken to roller blading and does a decent job at that. She also loves to ride her bike, spend time outside collecting random things, and play with pretend with Ammon when he's up to putting up with little Sister. She is a real cuddle bug, too, with a completely irresistable giggle.
Here is her birthday cake. She requested a round chocolate cake. Easy easy!
Our "party" started outside, but it was getting chilly so we moved it inside for the cake and presents, and to watch "The Princess and the Frog."




As one of her presents I recycled my old pink caboodle and made it into a craft box for her:


BJ, or Jarom. 3 years old and one husky little kid (40 lbs!) His mostly happy 2's have unfortunately turned into the I-will-find-something-to-cry-about-every-five-minute and I-will-not-take-a-nap 3's. But we sure love him, and are still certainly entertained by him. His speech has improved remarkably, although once in a while I still have trouble understanding him. His favorite thing is to SWING. He is a little helper a lot of the time too, but mostly just troublemaker.

Firetruck!

BJ had his cake picked out from one of our recipe books for quite a while. I thought he might change his mind, but he stuck to it!



And then he learned to NOT grab the candle directly after blowing it out. He burnt his hand, unfortunately where he had a healing burn from camping the previous week! It took him a loooooong time to finish that cupcake and ice cream.

Anyway, after the cake and presents, we took the kids down to Jungleland Ballocity in Vancouver. A huge playplace, with slides and balls and all kinds of fun stuff. I forgot my camera though, darn it! The kids LOVED it. And it turned out to be a good day to go, since it was pouring rain outside. We finished off the day with dinner out at Red Robin.

One more thing-- when I took him to his yearly check-up at the doctor, he acted like.... well, he acted like Ammon as a toddler. Anyone who knew us when Ammon was a toddler will know the significance of that! It was NOT fun. And he had to get a shot. A couple days later he was cuddling me and I said "I love you, do you love me?" (It's a little game we play all the time.) And he most emphatically says, "NO, I did NOT want to get a shot!" I think he's finally forgiven me now that it's been a couple of weeks.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Grand grand canyon

Gina and I:


My siblings had their annual family camping trip over spring break, and for once I was able to go! It was the best trip ever to the grand canyon. Okay, it's the only time I've ever been to the grand canyon. And my first time ever backpacking. But it was truly fun, and kidless. (Much much thanks to my friend Kim and Gina's neice Chantel who filled in for my ill parents!!!) Not only was it fun, beautiful, and challenging, but I actually got to spend some time with my brothers and sil without a gaggle of children underfoot. I am not posting all of the pics here, as I already did that on FB. Here are some highlights though. Brodie Kelley, my nephew:



The cacti were in bloom. Beautiful!



The first day we hiked the Lava Falls trail. Actually it isn't really a trail, and even the sign says "route." It also says, "hazardous, unmaintained, and no water." You got that right!




Gina, Carol, and I didn't make it all the way down. Well, we could have made it all the way down, we just may have never made it back up. The boys did go all the way, and were seriously hurting when they got back. Oh, did I mention that it was 2500 feet in elevation in 1.5 miles?This is what the "route" looks like:





John and Brodie. Brodie was in charge of holding the stuff down while we drove to the backpacking trailhead. He didn't do a very good job, as we lost the purple bedroll you see in the picture.




Here is a picture as I'm leaning over the edge. It certainly looks further in real life than in the picture!


John and his girlfriend Carol:

Bill and the mountain goat skull we found:


Our backpacking campsite. The ledge is about 20 feet to my left out of the picture.


The group, Bill, Carol, John, Me, Gina, Steve. Brodie is taking the picture.


One of the most fun parts were our side-hikes down some canyon juts. Following Bill was quite a trip. I see the nickname "crazy Uncle Bill" in his future.










More catching up

One of our Spring activities is always to attend the Earth Day festivities at the Expo center. Unfortunately Russ had to work that day, but the kids and I had a lot of fun. Here are the kids at the petting zoo:
And Ammon dancing away by the band:


BJ loved the pinewood derby racetrack they had set up. They had a selection of cars the kids could race.

Here is BJ just being goofy in our backyard:


We have chickens! While I was off in Utah with the kids, Russ built a little coop, and when we got back we went and let the kids pick out some chicks.


We certainly had fun with them while they were inside. Thank goodness they are now big enough to be out, though! In a couple of months we should start getting some eggs. We went for a visit to the Hulda Klager lilac gardens in Woodland. Also to the tulip festival.
Not sure why Ammon loves this pose for pictures!











Ammon loves the bike park! This time when we went it was really muddy. That didn't stop him. The picture doesn't do justice to the amount of mud on him!