Location Numero Dos

March 6, 2011

Location Numero Dos on our camping trip was fantabulous.  We were all pretty worn out from our previous hike so we just took it easy for a day.

The kids searched for wildflowers for me and a special rock for Grandma Livvy.  Every time we do something outdoorsy we go rock hunting.  When it's time to go home everyone brings forth the best rock they found and we have a family vote.  The rock that wins we save for Granny and give it to her the next time we see her.

When I say we took it easy, I mean the smart ones did.  The crazy one decided to ride his mountain bike to the peak of the cone you see in the picture.  See how far away our camp was from it?

This is my camera zoomed as far as it could possibly go and papa looks like an ant on an ant hill.

This is the road he took.  He's a speck of dust on it.  See him?  I spy with my little eye... Something that is red and crazy.

That night we had s'mores around the campfire again and Papa treated us all to a special showing at the Outdoor Cinema.  He had brought his laptop and a movie as a surprise, but we got about a quarter of the way into the movie before the battery died.  Bummer!  Don't worry, we saved it and watched it for Family Night once we got home.

On day two we hiked a slot canyon that was amazing.

Oh my.  It was AH-MAZ-ING!!

Along the way we came across an old mine and these cool tunnels:

We couldn't resist hiking up and exploring them although the way was a bit treacherous.

"Flex your muscles."... "Clara, I said flex your muscles."...???

Three things to take note of:
1)  I hardly lifted a finger to cook all weekend and I was okay with that.  At our second campsite Papa even made himself a makeshift kitchen.  I completely forgot to take a picture of it, but it can be partially seen in the right hand corner of this picture where Jonas is stuffing his face:

2) My manly man honey bunches started our fire cave man style.  That's right, no matches.  He was very methodical in his process and I wish I had the whole thing on video.  It was swoon worthy.

3)  Atticus would NOT stop throwing dirt and rocks at people.  One time he threw sand in Nora's face right into her eyes and Clara, being a kind sister, took her hand and brought her to us because Nora was crying and couldn't see.   While leading her, Clara ran Nora into the corner of the open car door and Nora got a HUGE purple goose egg on her forehead.  Oops.                                                                      

    Another time Atticus threw a huge rock and it hit Jonas in the shoulder.  That was the last straw.  In the next few seconds the following happened, but it seemed like forever...  Trey said, "Quick, throw a rock at him."  Huh?  Jonas and I looked at each other.  Who was he talking to?  I started scanning the ground, looking for a rock that wasn't too big to hurt him yet big enough to get the point across.  Out of the corner of my eye I see a rock zoom past and hit my baby.  My baby!  Yes he's two, but he's still my baby.  He cried for awhile and we'll never know if he got the point that rocks hurt people so we shouldn't throw them because we then packed the car and left.  

Love you.  Mama

P.S.  We do not advocate hitting your child while telling them not to hit.  This was a rare incident, but a little funny, yeah?  

Officially Crazy

Dear Children,

     Last weekend was Trey's Spring Break.  He wanted to take a road trip to Oregon and pass through the Red Wood Forest and Yosemite.  It would have been 40+ hours in the car.  Would it have been fun?  Yes.  Crazy?  Yes.  Memorable?  Yes.  Then we checked the weather and realized it would be snowing all along our way.  Yuck!  We decided to settle for something more local (I was secretly happy) and go camping.  I was being a tad bit difficult (or a lot, depending on who you ask) and told Trey he should just make it a boys trip.  He finally convinced me otherwise and I'm very happy he did.

    For some unknown reason we were possessed to camp in two different locations the two nights we were there and even though it was a big ol' hassle to break camp and then set up again I'm glad we did it that way.

Location numero uno:

We hiked through the wash which was eventually supposed to lead to Lake Mead.  

When the lake was in sight we picked up our pace.

After hiking about 2.5 miles it turned out we were so close, yet so far away.

We came to a part in the wash where there was a 15 foot (according to Trey) drop-off.  We were looking everywhere for a way to get around or down said drop-off.  While Trey was out scouting the area I decided to be brave (dumb?) and scale my way down as low as I could and then... jump!  My plan was to then find an easier way for the rest of the family to follow.  Brilliant, right?

I looked everywhere, but there simply wasn't another way down, or back up.  I tried climbing, but the drop-off was too high and there weren't proper grips.  What we needed was some rope.

Not having any my genius husband told me to take off my pants.  Um, what?  Yes, you heard that right.  He told me to take off my pants and then he took off his.  NOW we were in business baby!  He devised a rope of sorts and pulled me up to safety.  

It's funny now, but at the time I was totally sweating bullets.  What if the knot came apart that was holding the two pants together?  What if he couldn't pull me up?  What if I slipped... and broke my back?  What if...what if...Aaah!

The kids all thought it was hilarious, except for Clara, who said she didn't think Jesus was going to be happy about us taking our pants off.  

We turned around and hiked back the 2.5 miles we had come and you all were troopers, especially Nora with her little legs.

After getting back to camp we enjoyed scriptures and s'mores  around the fire compliments of Trey.

Love you bunches, Mama

Oh Brother

Dear Jonas and Atticus,

     I love that the two of you are good buds (most of the time), despite being 6 years apart in age.  You each have your own bed, but you often request to sleep together.  

  

 Even though it takes awhile for things to quite down and for the two of you to fall asleep, how could I possibly say no to such brotherly bonding?

Before I go to bed I usually check on Atticus because he rarely has a blanket on from thrashing around.  I was surprised when I checked on him the other night and he was tucked in with the blanket pulled up to his chin.

I asked Jonas if he had fixed the blanket and he said yes because he was worried Atticus would get cold.  He also said that he gave Atticus a goodnight kiss.

Thanks for looking after your little brother and I hope the two of you continue to adore one another.

Love, Mama

Ballerina with a bra

March 23, 2011

Dear Clara,
     The cutest thing is a ballerina with a bra?

  Oh my.  Should I be worried?  Love, Mama

Petroglyph Canyon

March 22, 2011

Dear Children,
     You usually get out of school at 3:15.  Last Friday your Papa called me at 2:30 and informed me that if I  wanted to go on a hike I needed to get you kids right away because we were loosing daylight.  This is his idea of planning.  Very last minute, grab some food, throw the gear in the car... and we're off!

Since Atticus no longer fits in our baby carrier, but he's too little to keep up with us, we've recently started stuffing him in a backpack.  He loves it!

We went to Petroglyph Canyon...

and saw lots of petroglyphs.

We're slowly trying to get you all ready for overnight backpacking trips.  Jonas got a backpack for Christmas and he now wears it with a light amount of gear when we go out hiking.

What we're really trying to do is raise some mountain goats.  We're well on our way.

The view on the drive out of the canyon:

After the hike we went to get the best frozen yogurt ever, Red Mango, which was followed by dinner.  A great day indeed.  Love, Mama

Luck o' the Irish

March 19, 2011

Dear Children,

     Last year for St. Patricks Day the Leprechauns came to visit us because we left out sparkly and gold items on the kitchen table.  They took the items and left you gold wrapped chocolates and green silly string.  

This year we decided to try and trap them by decorating little boxes and putting glue in them with sparkly items.  You all decided (after Clara first did it) that the best way to catch them was just to put an excessive amount of gold glitter in the box with glue so it would be like quick sand.   If you look closely at the picture you can see little gold footprints where those silly Leprechauns escaped and wiped the glue off their shoes!

They left you green silly string (bubbles for Atticus) and gold covered candy again.  They even left a trail of little green shamrocks all over the house where they had been!  Clara told me I was, "so, so smart to think of the trap, but next year we'll just have to be smarter".

Nora's St. Patrick's Day outfit.  She was
dressed 'Wild & Wacky' for preschool. 

Nora thought it would be great fun to take some pictures of me in my Wacky
St. Patrick's Day outfit and she told me to make a silly face.

On St. Patrick's Day I let you guys eat Lucky Charms for breakfast and I packed you a school lunch that was full of green food.  For dinner I bought the fixings for Corned Beef and Cabbage, but Papa asked me to make green chile chicken enchiladas for a Potluck at his school so we had that instead. We did have our yummy lime sherbet floats for dessert though. 

Jonas informed us that if you catch a Leprechaun on St. Patrick's Day he has to give you 3 Wishes.

Nora's 3 Wishes

Clara's 3 Wishes

Jonas' 3 Wishes

Good luck with those wishes!  Love, Mama

W is for Wild & Wacky!

Hello Preschool Parents!

This week your children learned about the letter 'Ww'.

The first half of the week was Wild Animal Week.  We talked about 'wild' versus 'domestic' animals.  Some of the kids came dressed to school as wild animals or brought a toy animal with them.

For Music and Movement we played 'Wild Animal Tag' where they had to try and grab each others tails.

For our sensory project we talked about Water and how different wild animals use water.  They bathe in it, drink it and some live in it.

I let the children play in water and they did an experiment with growing wild animals in water.

We also talked about how humans use water and how it's similar to wild animals.  I then showed them our new sign in the restroom and the 'w' words on it with some uses for water.

For arts and crafts we made a wild elephant.

Brandon & Thayne playing with the wild animals for Free Time

We had Wheat Thins and Watermelon for our snack.
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The second half of the week was Wacky Week.  Some people came to school dressed in wacky clothes (including me).  We talked about the word 'wacky' and that it means 'silly or crazy'.  We all thought St. Patrick's Day was a wacky holiday.

For Arts and Crafts we talked about wishes and that if you catch a Leprechaun on St. Patrick's Day he has to give you 3 Wishes.  The younger class made Leprechaun Traps to try and catch one and the older class made a book called, 'My 3 Wishes'.  I drew pictures of what each child wished for and then they colored them.

We had our St. Patrick's Day Party and we ate green jello, green grapes, green apples, green rice crispy treats, green broccoli, green celery and green lime sherbet floats.  Wacky and Yummy!

For Circle Time these are the books we read throughout the week:

• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
• Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
• The Wizard by Jack Prelutsky
• Wake up, Sun! by David L. Harrison
• Ww by Kelly Doudna
• What and Where by Robert B. Noyed
•  Willy the Dreamer by Anthony Browne

The Star Student of the week was Simone.  

Good Job Simone!