Family Time-PART ONE (July 19th-21st)

Did two kids ever look so cute in
florescent Velcro bowling shoes?
Andrew loves his cousin Rylee and had been looking forward to her visit. I had planned on taking her for a few days since I am off for the summer, so why not take on another moody toddler, just for kicks and giggles?
So Rylee's mama, my sister Hillary, was there for the first couple of days and then it was just me and the kids Tues.-Thurs. until we headed to the annual Heileson family reunion/camping extravaganza in bear infested Island Park, Idaho.
Here are some of the highlights from our fun-filled times:

BOWLING: (Need I say more?)

-Rylee and Andrew rolling their 2 pound bowling balls down the lane at 1 mile per hour. It was thrilling to watch them and speculate whether they would actually make it to the pins or not.

-Hillary and I fighting over who was going to go tell the attentive man at the counter that yet another one of our balls was stuck in the middle of the lane

-Hillary very valiantly, I must say, "allowing" both the kids to beat her at bowling, just so they wouldn't feel bad
-Me, getting my BEST bowling score EVER, thanks to the miracle of buddy bumpers!

JOHN MAYER CONCERT:

(picture at right taken PRE-concert as neither my sister nor myself was bright enough to bring our cameras into the actual event)

-Hillary and I driving around scenic West Valley City before the concert, listening to loud hip-hop music, car dancing like only the most cool 34 year old moms can, and trying to discourage my sister from flashing gang signs out the window (she didn't realize what territory she was in)
-Colbie Caillat was awesome and I can't get enough of her music these days!

-Poor Hillary being embarrassed by me screaming loudly and often while John Mayer was performing
-Me trying desperately to see John Mayer's fuzzy image on stage through the fat head of the drunk man in front of me

-Dancing, dorkily and unabashedly, throughout the concert, while my sister stood mortified, still as a statue beside me

-Lots of long guitar solos (I guess that's his "thing"), but overall John Mayer was excellent!

What I imagine John Mayer looked like at the concert, had I been able to see him.

Toddler Fest

Well, my updates are coming later than sooner as I have spent the last two days at Core Academy. Good stuff, but yet another distraction from my blogging. Dag-nabbit! Oh well, here we go:

We spent the morning of Friday, July 18th at the social event of the season: Toddler Fest 2008! My over-achieving friend Mary Jane put on a great little party all for the love of kids ages 1-5. She spent hours planning and organizing lots of great activities and games for them in her very own backyard. She must be a saint because with at least 30 little angels and their loving mothers all in attendance I never saw her break a sweat or without a sweet smile on her face.

Andrew had fun as the pictures here attest (I swear my son has worn a shirt more often than not this summer but from looking at all my posts you certainly would assume he was usually half-naked). Anyway, his favorite events had to be the fish pond (he was one of only two kids who got a much coveted squirt gun for his prize), and of course the cupcakes. Actually, I'm not sure he would've made an appearance at all were there not going to be cupcakes. He RSVP's to invitations based on dessert choices served, but that's another story. There are more pictures of the festivities at the above link to Mary Jane's blog. It was a great kickoff to our "wild and crazy" weekend!

Two Crazy Weeks!

I love staying busy. "Flight of the bumblebees" is the soundtrack to my life. My worst nightmare is to be bored and have nothing to look forward to. So, the last two weeks have been great. I don't think I have sat down for more than 10 minutes the whole time. Unfortunately, this means I have not had the opportunity to blog our adventures. I have really missed reflecting on our daily lives-I think there is definitely something theraputic about this blogging business! Now that I am back to the hum-drum of my "regular" life, I will be posting about some of the things that kept me busy lately.

More Bubba-isms

The things this kid says-I tell you what! He cracks me up and is quite the entertainer. Here are some more of Andrew's common phrases.

1. "Vertull"= Convertible
2. "Yesternight"= Last night
3. "Gril"=Girl
4. "Pat tats"= Pancakes
5. "Bloodin"=Bleeding
6. "Fighter"=Spider
7. "Sahgot"=Forgot
8. "Siff's"= Smith's Grocery Store
9. "Like a?"= Would you like to? ie."Like a play with me?"
10. "Be Kieut!"=Be Quiet (doesn't say this one
anymore, but it's so cute I have to remember it)
11. "And that be all!"=And that's it-no more! ie."Let's read two stories and that be all!"
12. "Yesterday"=Last year, last week, this morning-anytime in the past is yesterday-so funny!
13. "Chapyick"=Chapstick

THE PLUNGE

I know so many of you, my devoted readers, have been holding on faithfully since my last post, which promised details of the fun day we had the day after the Fourth at the Chipp's. I am sorry to keep all 3 of you waiting for so long. So here are the long awaited details from our day of water fun. I should have blogged about it sooner, as my weak little brain has already started to forget the details. Here is what I can recall:

Andrew couldn't wait to go on the slide until he actually saw the thing. He was very hesitant, and climbed up and down the ladder several times until I finally told Uncle Justin to push him down. Cruel, I know, but just what little man needed to get him going. I know my son and knew he would love it once he tried it. Just like broccoli. So, of course, he was all about it after that, despite the freezing cold, just out of the hose water.

So, after sliding on the thing a few thousand times, with a short break to inhale a hot dog, out come the big guns-squirt guns-of course! Hillary had bought these really cool squirt guns at Target that carried a bottle of water on the end for ammunition. I always swore no child of mine would ever play with guns, but what the heck, it's only water, right? So off he goes squirting anyone and anything within range. We declared the patio a "safe zone," where exhausted and/or drenched grown-ups could find a moment of respite. I have rarely seen Andrew have so much fun, and where he got that frightening, diabolical laugh as he chased his victims around is beyond me. I am still having

nightmares about that laugh.

Well, all good things must come to the end and the beginning of the end of this day's fun occured when Uncle Brett, unintentionally of course, threw a ball at my head and ended up slamming it into Andrew's face instead. No I was not using Andrew as a human shield, I was helping him fill his water bottle. Anyway, some blood, many tears, and apologies later, we packed up and headed back to Utah. Needless to say, Andrew slept pretty much the whole way home, sweetly dreaming of giant slides and fun summer days.
Look closely at this pic to see poor Bubba's fat lip-his "war wound" from the afternoon of gunfighting.

Me-All Summed Up

I found this cool thing on someone's blog off of Desi's blog and decided to try it. You answer these questions and then find pictures associated with your answers rather than just writing the answers. It's very easy and I thought it turned out kinda cool. So here is Me: The Work of Art!

Here are the instructions:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

b. Using only the first page, pick an image.

c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Favorite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favorite dessert?

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One Word to describe you.

12. Your favorite animal?

Fourth of July

We headed home to Idaho for a quick visit with my family over the Fourth of July weekend. (Funny how I still think of Idaho Falls as home, even though I've lived in Utah for almost 15 years!) We had a relaxing, fun time and got to do a lot of the same things I used to do on Independence Day growing up. Catching the parade, and going to Freeman Park for the fireworks brought back a lot of memories from when I was a kid. Having Andrew and Rylee there with us felt like passing on traditions to the next generation.

I think it's nice how the city of Idaho Falls makes sure that the parade stays the same from year to year. That way, even if you don't make it back for a couple of years, you don't feel like you've missed out on much. I swear the floats, bands, horses and annoying men in noisy little cars were all the same ones I watched pass by twenty years ago. Even though it never changes, I wouldn't miss watching the little IF parade for the world. What other reason would I get out of bed at 6:30 on a Friday morning to sit for two hours in 90 degree heat and have tootsie rolls thrown at my head? All kidding aside, I think it is inspiring to watch thousands of people (most of them dressed in patriotic colors) show up to watch the parade and show their patriotism. Andrew was especially excited about the semi trucks, fire trucks, motorcycles, police cars, etc. He and Rylee risked life and limb (okay maybe slight exaggeration) on several occasions to collect broken jawbreakers and half-smashed tootsie rolls from the street. Even when the backpack she had brought was almost full, Hillary just kept sending them back for more! Never stand in the way of a woman with heat stroke and her candy!

That night, around 7:30, we headed to Freeman Park, which is just north of the river from where they shoot the fireworks off. If any of you know anything about Idaho Falls, you might know that they have a pretty amazing fireworks display. It is sponsored every year by the Melaleuca Company, and set to music on local radio station. It is said that IF has the "biggest fireworks display west of the Mississippi." True or not, it's one of our claims to fame. As a teenager, my friends and I used to be so fanatical abut being close to the action that we would head to the river right after the parade, stake out our spot and hang out all day playing games, walking around, and just being cool in general. That makes me laugh-Ah the vigor of youth! Now, I am all about low maintenance, get in-watch-get out. We staked out our spot, laid out blankets and began to wait for dark when the fireworks would start. Rylee and Andrew were hyped up on Bug Juice (on purpose-so they wouldn't fall asleep before the big show), and had a blast running around, jumping on and dog piling everyone. No near death choking on lifesaver incidents occured this year (I'll comeback to that story another time), so it was fun just chatting and making trips to the bathroom line with Rylee every 20 minutes or so. Sweet!

Finally, it was dark and the introductory music on the radio was starting. (Love the announcer guy's deep, patriotic-sounding voice). Andrew hung in there for about 5 minutes but Rylee was asleep before the first song was over. She woke up a few times throughout the show so it wasn't a complete bust, and Andrew spent the majority of the time running back and forth between my mom (his Meemaw) and me, and at the end just laid down and rubbed his head on the blanket through the finale. Funny, the fireworks didn't look so bad with my son's silhouetted head and/or squirming body in front of most of them.

One of my favorite moments in the show was when they played the song, God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood. I don't care how many times I hear it, but that song always brings tears to my eyes and that night was no exception. Even the obnoxious kids sitting next to us singing at the top of their lungs could not ruin the moment for me. The combination of the moving music and the beautiful display of lights does much to bring out the patriot in me-wouldn't it be great if we all demonstrated our patriotism as passionately all year long as we do on the Fourth? That is something I definitely need to remember. I love my country and am grateful for everything that I have here but like many others tend to get caught up in negativity and complaining about hardships we go through like high gas prices and the war in Iraq. I need to put things in perspective-yes I am paying $4 a gallon for gas, but I have my own car in which to put that gas. I have a good job, a home, and the freedom to do pretty much whatever I want, whenever I want. When you think about the things people are going through in other countries around the world, it doesn't seem like we have very much to complain about. Just saying.
Anyway, it was a fun trip. Can't wait to do the exact same things next year-really! I'll post later about the piece de resistance of the weekend-THE PLUNGE-on Saturday at the Chipp's. I know you'll be hanging on for that one!

Swim Little Fishy

Andrew just finished a week of swimming lessons last week. Having enrolled him in traditional swimming lessons before, where there are usually 6 kids and 1 teacher and the kids spent the majority of the lesson time on the side of the pool, waiting for their turn, I liked his latest class much better. Andrew was the only student for the entire lesson, and was taught by a darling little gal (who just happens to be a certified lifeguard/swimming instructor) in her family's home pool not even five minutes from my house. They were only slightly more expensive than the lessons he has had before-$35 vs. $28 and he learned a lot more having the one on one attention from the teacher. I lucked into learning about the lessons because the teacher is the older sister one of my students from last year, and his mom just happened to mention in casual conversation that her daughter taught several sessions of swimming lessons during the summer. She was very patient, Andrew had a great time, and his little fishy skills are coming along quite nicely.