The Bigger and Better game

Remember 2 weeks ago when this was the dream of the boys at my house?
Well, last night when driving home from softball in West Valley of all places, we pass this...
It is amazing how quickly my husband can pull a u-turn; all in the name of Tyse getting to see a very cool "hotrunner". Needless to say, the charger has been replaced. I don't know if you will have to see another bigger and better hotrunner from us for a long time. It is amazing how quickly a child can learn to say "lamborghini."
Luckily, the driver was very nice about kent chasing him down and driving next to him for a mile or so while Tyse's eyes fell out of their sockets in awe. He even waved at him. Thanks, West Valley Lamborghini man.

Bad Dreams

The other morning Tyse woke up extremely grumpy. I usually end up asking him to quit whining or go to his room, to which he always answers "mom, I just had a really bad night," thinking that it's a good excuse for his snotty mouth and whiny voice. But today it was that he had a bad dream, but he couldn't remember what it was about. A couple days later, he remembered. "Mom, I remember what that bad dream was. Someone called me a Sassy Pants." Ahhh, if only MY bad dreams were like that!

Pit Stop

On our way home from Cedar, Ollie was having an absolute screaming fit that I couldn't figure out (how early is too early for graham crackers and benadryl? JK!) so Kent wisely pulled off for a little pit stop. It was at one of those off ramps where you drive by and think "why is there an off ramp there? There is no where for a road to go..."- in the middle of nowhere. But one thing I love about my husband? He can make fun out of anything! And one thing I love about boys? They follow right along, especially when bugs are involved! So while I was feeding Ollie, this is what the boys were doing...

1. Checking out a GIGANTIC ant pile, while Emitt was chasing this one around and picking him up over and over again, until he got smushed...
2. Chasing grasshoppers and then trying to figure out what to do with them when you finally caught them. They were everywhere in the tall grass and the boys had a BALL trying to catch them before they jumped.

3. The BEETLE. Emitt found it while looking through the fence and he is not afraid of picking kup ANYTHING, so he went over and grabbed it. The poor thing wiggled free and got a grip on Emitt's finger, which finally freaked Emitt out a bit and he tried to shake it off really hard and it didn't work so well- I wish I had a video of him jumping up and down shaking his little arm as hard as he could- and that beetle wouldn't let go! As for Tyse and the beetle, he finally let it crawl onto his hand from Kent, but it starting crawling up his arm, of which he wasn't a huge fan, saying "Dad, I don't want it on my shirt. It is my new basketball shirt and I don't want a beetle on it." Spoken just like a vain little boy. But that is a story for another post. Obviously, it did make it up the shirt and kent just held the opening closed so it wouldn't go INSIDE the shirt and he survived.

(you have to click on the one of Emitt and really see how big that beetle was!)

4. Feeding the giant spider those unfortunate grasshoppers. (WARNING FOR KATIE- THERE IS A PICTURE OF A LARGE SPIDER BELOW. FEEL FREE TO SKIP RIGHT TO COMMENTS)
Kent found this wierd spiderweb- it was shaped like a cone and was REALLY dense- and it just sat in the bottom of the hole until something unfortunate crawled into the outer realms and got stuck. So Kent HAD to put something into it to see the thing up close. Tyse was a little concerned for the poor little grasshopper, but he got over it quickly enough.

5. Potty training on a road trip.
Just before getting back into the car, Emitt had to go potty. SO- we let him have his first experience of dropping drawer and standing on the side of the road to pee. He was quite proud of himself. No pictures.

I am ending this one with one of my favorite pics from this stop- proving that the middle of nowhere on any given day can be so absolutely worthwhile...

More of Cedar City

We had some great pics come out of our family reunion in Cedar and so I wanted to share some more of them... Apparently we just like taking pictures of our family because we don't have too many of the other attendees... I guess when you spend the weekend chasing the little guys they end up being the only ones photoed.

Anyway, the boys had such a great time riding Ellie's little trike- this is how they ride the one at home, too. At the rate he is going, Emitt will never get to be the driver... his legs are just too short, especially with the All Terrain Tricycle that Grandpa got us!It was nice to see Grandma Ada again. I know her memories of us ( me and the boys, not Kent) are fading, but I really like letting the boys be around her. I am hoping maybe Tyse will remember her.

We had the opportunity to go to Greta and Shane's baby blessing while we were there (we missed it- they must really start that ward on time!) and then join in the festivities at the park afterward. The boys had a blast and here are some highlights...


Ollie and dad hung out together while I tried to contain the beast below. He finally got brave enough to go down the slide on his own! This is him sizing it up before committing either way...
Kent's nephew, Jesse, is apparently very similar to how Kent was as a child- full of energy and always scheming. He had this passion for putting ice down my shirt and kents ( I am sure we weren't the only ones), but Kent was the one that finally put an end to it...

Before we left town, we went to visit Grandma Linda's gravesite and planted a few flowers around her headstone. Not sure how long they will survive the mower, but they looked nice for a few hours, anyway. The boys pulled out their plastic spoons and knife and went to work.
It was a nice opportunity to share memories of her and a good project for the boys. I didn't take a finished product pic (Really? ), but it was a nice thought for as long as they last!

Independence Day

I LOVE the 4th of july. I have learned over time that i think I enjoy it more than christmas and I haven't figured out if I love it more than Thanksgiving or not. Tough to say... BBQ or Turkey and Mashed Potatoes?
Just kidding- Maybe it is the soldier's wife in me that gets me all emotional over the 4th, but I do cry every time I see fireworks or hear patriotic music, especially the more recent country support-your-soldiers-type songs. It definitely is true that you care more deeply and appreciate things more fully when you have sacrificed for it. I am so grateful for those that are willing to sacrifice time from their lives to serve our country and defend the land and life that we love. I am so proud to have a husband that felt the importance of serving our country and sacrificing a big chunk of his life to do so. I am so proud of you, Kent.
On a lighter note, we headed down to Cedar City for kent's family reunion and had a great weekend! We rolled into Cedar at about midnight and we were all exhausted- the kids had slept most of the way, but we did have to concede to Elmo for the last half hour or so. I was so ready to get out of the car and we were driving down Main street when Kent says, "did you see that?" The only thing I had seen was the back of my eyelids, so he quickly flipped a uie (is that the technical spelling for it?) and returned the way we came to show me this...a 2009 Dodge Charger that they had in the showroom of the dealership. WOW. that is all I have to say about that- and tyse is quoted as saying "now THAT is a Hot Runner!" So true, my son.

Cedar has this great parade down main street that has plenty of fire engines, really nice cars (including the charger above with the mayor in it), lots of candy, and lots of people.
The kids were so excited to see their cousins again (all of kents siblings were there with their families) and get the candy. The only downfall was that Ollie hates loud noises (could he have come to a worse family for noise?), so the 4 consecutive fire trucks with sirens blaring weren't well welcomed. After binging on plenty of bubble gum and tootise rolls, we headed back to Ihler Flats (AKA Marlo and Wyett's backyard) to set up the tent for our summer "camp out." Even as I type this I know Kent is dying, thinking we might actually call this camping, but we did sleep in the tent, so it counts. They have this swing in the backyard that was the biggest hit- and now I am wishing we had a tree in our entire neighborhood with big enough branches to hang a swing from...
We spent the weekend with his extended family (it was a family reunion for his grandma) and got to see a lot of people we don't see often, so that was really neat. The kids LOVED the swimming pool, and the owner of the hotel let us light fireworks off in the parking lot, so it was quite a show (some of kent's extended family have a bit of a pyromaniac type streak in them- well manifested when the unidentified cousin was seen teaching his 3 year old son how to correctly light a firework the same size as the son's entire leg)! One thing I was really surprised by? I didn't really think Tyse was afraid of ANYTHING in the entire world (except his closet at night). Apparently he is a bit fearful of being too near fireworks. I had to struggle to get him to even hold a sparkler, which he finally did just so (in my opinion) Emitt could never claim to have done something he wouldn't do. Who knew?

This is how Ollie enjoyed his first 4th of july...


So after a late night with the fireworks and swimming pool, we returned to aforementioned camp ground (sorry, Kent. Backyard.) and retired for what should have been a great night's sleep. The kids were out for the count and didn't wake up at all, but it's a funny thing about camping in an unfamiliar backyard... when you hear sprinklers turning on in the middle of the night, it tends to wake you up QUICKLY! all the windows were open and we hadn't bothered with the rain fly, so we were launching ourselves around the tent trying to close them all up. Luckily, it ended up being the sprinkler on the neighbor's side of the fence (we were still only maybe 10 feet from it), but the catastrophe was a false alarm. Phew! The next problem we faced while our sweet little ones were sawing logs? We took an air mattress that didn't have a cap over the hole meant to let the air out when one is finished sleeping on it. Kent's plan- stuff it with a plastic bag or sock and it will hold wonderfully. I wonder how he felt about his plan both at 2 am and at 5 am when he was huffing and puffing air back into the mattress using his lungs... It really was fun, though, to sleep outside amidst all the trials!
Another highlight of the weekend was a gigantic bbq that M&W hosted saturday afternoon in their backyard. We all know I love a good bbq- and the food was FANTASTIC! It's a funny story- there is this guy that kent's family knows- I don't know if he is a relative or just a family friend- that really likes kent's grandma. Anyway, he showed up at M&W's house one day and said that he has always appreciated grandma and thought maybe M&W would like the meat from one of his cattle he had just slaughtered. An entire cow. Obviously the common person would not have room in their freezer for an entire cow, so he just happened to bring them an extra full size freezer as well! That is so cool... I am so glad that a funny story like that could happen to these guys! Anyway, so they donated about 10 lbs. of hamburger and had everyone else bring the rest. Those that hve bbq'd with me know that we don't often bbq hamburgers- partly because there are so many other great meats out there, and partly because I really just stink at forming burgers and they always fall apart on me. Until this...
Yup- a patty press. OK, it wasn't quite as commercial as this one is (it was plastic and the piece you press with looked like a hamburger bun with sesame seeds on it), but it may have been the best $3.99 that Marlo ever spent- in my opinion! It was so cool... and I flew through those 10 lbs. of meat in about 30 minutes- and they were all the same size- and a little skinnier in the middle so they don't stay raw in the middle and crispy on the outside... don't get me started! It was so cool! So if anyone ever needs to get me a gift, the plastic one at Smiths would be great!
What a way to end a holiday celebration- a new love for a kitchen tool! Happy Birthday America!