End of the celebration..

Mixed in with the general hanging out with the cousins, we took a visit to the Natural History Museum. It’s very small, but I thought it was pretty cool. The kids were somewhat impressed, although Ashley did ask when we were talking about it later if I would be mad if she said she didn’t really like it.

I thought they would really like the large dinosaurs, but instead they were actually most impressed with the bug exhibit – sort of like a small bug zoo.

The museum is on the Univ or Utah campus, which actually was really interesting because I don’t think I’ve ever really driven around on the campus. Brooke wanted to go visit the “This is the Place” monument. I guess they have been talking about it in her pimrary class, so she really wanted to check it out. I don’t even remember the last time I was up there, so I was actually glad she suggested it. I thought she wouldn’t really care when we got there, but she actually seemed genuinely impressed.

For Thanksgiving, Ashley was excited to participate in her first race – a 1K. She had gone running with me a couple of times in the week, so she felt like she had really “trained” and was so excited. I think she was hoping to be one of the winners, but as one of the younger racers, she was a little disappointed to realize she was one of the slower ones – luckily I could relate to that so I could assure her that it’s the effort hat matters J

While we were there, my parents celebrated their 40th anniversary. And what says, Happy Anniversary like taking the whole family to play mini-golf and Laser Tag? It was actually quite pleasant outside considering there was still snow on the ground. I would prove it with a bunch of pictures, but I just realized that 100 of my pictures got deleted (yeah, that would be me).. AAHGHG..

to finish off the trip we stopped at a hotel on the way back and the kids thought it was the best hotel ever. Because it was clean? no.. Because it was comfy? no. Mostly just because they had free hot cocoa.. and Fox even slept the whole night - we might have to go back, just for that!

Blast from the past

It's been a long time since I've driven in the snow. Let's face it, I'm not running into it a lot anymore. I remember the first winter after I got my license and after the first big snowstorm, I pulled out of our neighborhood in our big green station wagon and promptly slid all the way over to the other side and into the curb - not a great basis for a loving relationship with icy roads! Anyway, back to the present - as I drove without Robie to my parent's house, I did not anticipate the amount of storminess we ran into, and honestly it totally freaked me out. The rest of the drive had gone surprisingly well. We were a slow-moving train with a nursing baby in tow, but with relatively little drama, I was feeling pretty good about it for the first 10 hours. Prior to leaving my house, my biggest concern was whether I would be sleepy at the wheel but with the fear bringing out all the adrenaline in my system, I couldnt' fall asleep until about 2 hours after we got to our destination!

The kids thought it was awesome for the few moments they even realized what was going on. This gas stop was their first real shot of snow.

funny sidenote: When I took this picture, there was a sports car parked on the other side of the gas pump and he totally thought I was taking a picture of his sweet car.. yeah, not!

Monday morning at my parents' house, the kids were so excited to have snow. One of the saddest/funniest moments was that afternoon when I layed down to try to take a little nap. Lauren comes looking for me, then looks out the front door and bursts into actual tears. Convinced that she was saddened by thoughts of my possibly leaving her, I jumped up to ease her mind, only to hear even more sobbing, "Mom, its all melting, the snow is melting." As I normally hear a lot of fake crying from Lauren - real crying, with actual tears and true sadness was quite sweet.

Crying because your sisters have hit you with a snowball and you can't open grandma's door with your gloves on - not so much.

Injuries - real and imagined

So we've had some injuries lately (does that happen in 3's or is that just death?). Anyway, first Lauren slammed her finger in our front door. I have the x-ray to prove it, but the scanners not working right now, so you'll just have to imagine the teeny tiniest hairline fracture on her ring finger. This happened the day before Halloween, so it was actually kind of cool since they gave us the x-ray skeleton of her hand to take with us.

Then last week Brooke was goofing around on the trampoline and slammed her foot into the neighbor girl's ankle playing trampoline soccer (I'm pretty sure Trampoline Soccer is being considered for the Olympics right now, ha). Anyway, the other girl's ankle won, breaking Brooke's pinky toe. Since the Dr (the real dr, not me posing as an internet dr, although I was already aware of most of the info at the dr's office, since I am in fact, an internet dr) anyway, you can't really do anything for a broken toe, so I did the only thing any loving mom would do, I told her that we should probably get crutches in case Brooke wanted to give her foot a break. Did I really think Brooke couldn't get around without crutches? no. Did I already pay my $20 copay and know that both Brooke and Ashley have wanted a pair of crutches and that it MIGHT help her foot to not be using it? Yes. Positive of the crutches - Brooke's toe was already feeling a little better for her soccer game a couple of days later (see, they worked) - she was actually still in a lot of pain, but she was insistent on playing anyway. Negatives of the crutches - Ashley has come up with every possible injury since we brought them home in an attempt to be able to use them at school. First it was her heel. Then this afternoon it was her ankle. I actually told her this afternoon that she could use the crutches for as long as she wanted, but I was going to LOSE IT if she made up one more fake foot injury. After getting over the insult of my accusing her of falsifying an injury (how dare I?) she happily wobbled around the house [Ashley, can you pick up your backpack? "Sure Mom," wobble, wobble, wobble, almost fall down going out the door, wobble wobble]

Since everyone was "injured" but wanted to go to the zoo this afternoon, we did something we haven't done in forever. We rode the bus tour at the zoo. It was actually quite entertaining. I thought Lauren was really enjoying herself because she sat so quietly the whole time staring out the side. On the way home we were talking about how fun it was and she says, "It was scary". Apparently, she was actually just terrified the whole time because you are up off the ground and there is just a thin little railing. I would have switched her spots if I would have known she was scared - I'm not THAT heartless!

Can't quite keep up

We had a very fun day at the beach yesterday - the only grumpy faces I saw were when I was trying to get them to pose for pictures and when it was time to go!

The water was cold but the kids didn't seem to care. When Brooke first went out boogie boarding she came back in and said she couldn't feel her legs because they were so numb from the cold. An hour later, they were back out there - die hards! Brooke was even mixing it up tossing the football around with the guys. And, of course, the absolute favorite is always digging and playing in the sand. Lauren seriously just dragged water, dug sand, and ate cookies and chips - thanks Lauras..

I think Fox had a good time - he actually took a nap since I was willing to sit and hold him for the majority of the time so he would stay asleep. More to come on his recent sleep issues but suffice to say, it was such a great day. I'm pretty sure I took a picture of him at the beach, but it must have been with Laura's camera or I might just be going crazy!

Is it seriously November already, though? I'm still barely getting warmed up to the month - and it's already almost half way over! Can you believe this guy turned 4 months on Monday?

She was right on that one

So at one point today I actually told Ashley that tomorrow was NOT Friday. Unfortunately, it is in fact already Friday. Honestly, I thought it was going to be Wednesday. The tides have shifted with the drama at school . Now Ashley is happy because she isn't sitting by the annoying boy in her class, and so of course, Brooke has gotten moved for this month to sit next to the most annoying boy in her class. Sadly for her, even I know how annoying this kid is (he's really quite infamous), but what can you do? I did actually call her teacher and ask if he could at least make sure that the child is not putting his grimy hands and notebook all over Brooke's desk (she said every day he gets there and just dumps his stuff all over even though she asked him not to). I didn't exactly use the word grimy, but this is the first time I've ever called one of Brooke's teachers and asked them to intervene on her behalf, which in 5 years I think is not too shabby. It actually backfired on me, though, because they did have a sitdown where her teacher helped walk the other kid through appropriate and inappropriate behavior and informed him that it was actually making Brooke not want to go to school. So then later in the day in the middle of a test, the kid leans over and says, "so, were you crying this morning? what about?" Brooke hates it when people see her cry, which she should probably just get used to if she has my genes, but anyway she took that as a direct affront to her ability to function as a normal human being so she gave me the big sarcastic, "thanks for calling my teacher" as she came in the door. Good thing this will all be over after elementary school (insert hilarious awkward laughing right here as I realize it is only going to get worse!)