Bob's Law Blog

I hopped on here to talk about what a naughty, high maintenance three year old Andrew is lately but I got sidetracked by these pictures of the back yard. So first I'd like to mention the past week of sunshine, and the play going on back there. 

The kids get home and head out to the "fort" they have created by mashing down the foliage to make hallways and rooms.

Also, that's Avery climbing the tree. 

We are starting our landscaping plans, and step one is to clear out the blackberry nightmares.  They are awful  and dangerously pokey. They grab your clothes and skin and do not let go. We tackled it yesterday, and it is fun to see the area around the trees all cleared out and ready for grass and hammocks.  I don't think these pictures emphasize the before and after. 

There were blackberries all in and out of the trees. 

Ok here is the main purpose of this post. 

Everyone focus.

Suddenly Andrew is into making messes and doing naughty tornado things that he's never done before.

For example:

He put a handful of toilet paper in the toilet, then reached in and pulled it out, dripping toilet water everywhere.

One day he took some DVDs and walked down to the neighbor's house and left them at their doorstep.

He took an almost empty bag of frosted mini wheats and dumped it on the shag carpet. If you have ever eaten that cereal, you know the bottom of the bag is pure mini wheat dust and now it's nestled in the depths of the shag. 

He pulled Evan's superstars off the wall.

Every two minutes he pulls the DVDs out of the drawer and scatters the scratched discs all over the floor.

He takes paper and "eats it", and by that I mean he bites, chews, spits it out, leaving shreds of soggy paper all over.

Today he pulled up two of my sprouted tulip bulbs. I almost turned into an ax murderer when I found out about that.

These are pretty typical things for kids to do, I know, but I've had to readjust my attention level to him. He has only ever played quietly by himself like a good little mild mannered child. 

And then he turned three. 

Well, let's end this disjointed, random blog post with a few pictures of Jim all muddy after mountain biking. Me and Andrew drop him off at the mountain while we go grocery shopping. 

I need a different hobby besides grocery shopping. 

Although, I am really good at grocery shopping. 

Evan is 6!

What's your favorite thing to play with?
legos
Who's your best friend?
Logan
What do like about school?
getting super stars
What's your favorite dinner?
noodles and that white sauce cheese (he flaps his hand in the air to help me visualize)
What do you want to be when you grow up?
a pilot like daddy. spell daddy too. or you can spell Jim
Whats your favorite thing to do with your family?
watch Harry Potter and hook up the paper where it says Harry Potter party (one time he wrote a paper that said "Harry Potter party" and taped it to the door)
What do you like about Avery?
playing with her with light sabers
and Andrew?
help build legos with me
What was your favorite vacation?
going with grandma
Where?
at her home at Utah
Can you read?
no
Tell me about your teacher
my teacher is nice and she's funny. when she writes something wrong she says "uh oh" like a baby.
What's your favorite thing to watch?
Super Mario Brothers (?? this surprises me. we don't really ever watch it. weird)
Tell me about recess
I play with Logan and we play dinosaur game.
How do you play that?
Um Johnny might chase us
What else do you want say?
I like Logan because he's my best friend. I want to stop doing this ok?

ISO Sunshine, Desert

For about 20 minutes me and Jim got to sit next to each other on the plane. 

The kids were entertained by "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked"

Evan had his fourth celebration of his 6th birthday. He was so worried Lance was going to blow out his candles.

That chocolate cake would make a comeback in the middle of the night when Evan threw it up all over his lap. 

I knew it was in the mail. This bug is making the rounds, and one of his friends at his "friend" birthday party threw up two days earlier.

I don't feel like talking about this anymore. 

Because you won't believe me, but Grandma Larsen cleaned it all up. Evan sleeps on the floor in their room, so she just took care of it. I feel so grateful/guilty. That is not a fun chore. 

Me and Jim had plans to spend the night in Zion, but we wondered if that was such a good idea with puke in the equation. 

Evan seemed fine, so we crossed our fingers and went. 

There were no other pukers.

Winding up to throw snowballs at the West Rim.

Ok, so in February, Zion is ghost town. You can drive your own car right through the park.

For this reason, we decided to do the precarious hike to Angel's Landing. No problem without the crowds, right?

I am having a hard time reconciling this, but we barely got into the chain part when my body was overcome with fear. I have done this hike many times - once we even challenged ourselves not to touch the chains, but here I am suddenly so afraid. I couldn't move. We turned around and went on another route. 

What has happened to me? Why couldn't I do it? I need redemption and I will go back and do it. I can't stop thinking about it. Motherhood or not, I can do that hike. 

So here we are on the West Rim, a far distance from Angle's Landing looking over at its precipice. We wondered if we are higher, lower, or equal to the her height. Jim takes a water bottle and says, "just a pilot trick, Kel, don't worry about it", and uses the water level to deduce where we are in regards to altitude. (This water bottle trick is used to decide if the plane is higher/lower than a storm cloud/cell.) Cool trick.

We were higher than Angel's Landing. FYI

We stayed at the same place as last time. 

We ate at Oscars of course. 

We got dessert at a gas station and took it back to the Lodge. 

The next day we attempted the East Rim to Observation Point. It is a tough 4 miles straight up to the top of the canyon, but the dang ice and snow on the steep trails made us change plans. We probably could have made it, carefully crawling past the ice slanting toward steep drops, but it would have taken really long. 

Here at Weeping Rock is when we decided to bring the kids tomorrow.

See how we practically have the place to ourselves? Tomorrow it will be standing room only.

Bless the desert and its blue skies.

We came home to healthy kids and Andrew crashed on the floor. He didn't even bother removing his cokes.

Jim and Grandpa went to see Star Wars, and the rest of us went and visited my old friend Amber.

The next day we were back at it with the kids.

 Three day weekend, in February, with an inversion going on up north...equals lots of people ISO sunshine. We no longer had the place to ourselves.

We did a few easy hikes; that's all they can handle. 

What is with kids and hiking and the pendulum of energy? One second they are running and happy and excited, and then they swing over to whiny, dying, slugs. 

Andrew stopped every two steps to pick up a stick, weed, or rock TO EAT. 

I don't know why. It's so weird. There was chewing and swallowing involved. 

***

The stick eating continued in the wash behind Grandma's house,

Valentine's dinner on Sunday.

The Funks are the greatest. They are so nice to my kids. 

Riley burps like Jamie. 

I'm so glad we have the desert to return to every few months. It is soul edifying.

Evan brought home a book about the planets, each flap telling fun facts. 

"Earth is the only planet in the 'Goldilocks Zone' in our solar system". 

It is the only planet that can sustain life. Yet within the planet Earth, we humans are so sensitive to the over/under exposure of the precious sun. Our perfect relationship to the sun is always so poignant to me in the winter. Spiritually poignant. The Earth exists so purposefully.

Also, the signs of spring are everywhere, and that make me so happy. 

My tulips are sneaking a peak, the frogs are LOUD out the window, and lots of purple crocus's are bloomed in the neighbor's yard. 

Boys in the Wood

For Evan's birthday party, I almost planned games and a scavenger hunt,

but then I decided to give the boys a light saber and let them run wild in the forest instead.

They don't need me telling them how to have fun. 

It was a fun day. For about six hours it was an open house of friends coming and going like waves. My friends, Evan's friends, neighbor friends, Avery's friends. 

 There is an ebb and flow to the quality and quantity of friends, and right now we are in rich bounty.

I was thinking last night how nice it is to not be lonely.

 I love our friends.