4th of July

4th of July ended up being our most relaxing day of the weekend (because it was Sunday, of course!) We did, however manage to go see some fireworks that night. It was a pretty good show, although I have to say that I always think that fireworks are a little disappointing. Mainly because I want the shows that go along with the music, and of course I want the shows to last forever, oh yes, and they must also be free. I'm not sure those things all exist together. Maybe someday I'll change my list of demands.

Lincoln totally enjoyed the fireworks. Not that you can see that here. Poor kid would be smiling away at the lights and noises then I would try to take a picture, but because it was nighttime, my camera would do like a pre-flash thing and blind the kid, so I couldn't capture the moment quite right.

Ethan, on the other hand, hated the fireworks. He was crying for  the first few minutes and then hiding his eyes the entire night. He just kept telling us it was too loud.

Even now, when we look at our pictures of the fireworks, Ethan tell me, "My no like fireworks."

3rd of July

This year, a couple of friends of mine put together a little relay day at the park for the 3rd of July. I didn't know we celebrated it, but after this production, I am all in. Every year. We had so much fun!

The L man is flashing his patriotic stripes.

E is participating in the watermelon eating contest. Oh wait. There wasn't one of those. He must have been confused. I just can't imagine one person consuming that much watermelon on willpower alone. Alas, he did. Oh boy, he did.

Here comes the relay. You had to throw the hula hoop over the box of capri suns. A lot harder than you would think.

Especially hard if you can't figure out the rules or what the heck you're supposed to be doing.

Ah ha. Here is the eating contest. With Ho Ho's. Now what could be more American than that?

Ethan understood the rules on this one.

It was close.

There may have been some kleenex consumed in this game, but that only makes you stronger, right?

There were also parachute games. These ones are my favorite.

I think it's the kids' favorite too.

This was a new one to me. You twirl the child up in the parachute while everyone is walking around in a circle. Then, everyone pulls the parachute, and the child in the middle spins around like a top. It was awesome. I would have thrown up. But it was awesome to see Ethan do it.

The object of this one is to shake the empty box of tissue that is tied just above your butt and filled with ping pong balls. You would think this was an easy one. I would have loved to put all the videos of us playing this one. I still laugh out loud when I see them. Unfortunately, I have to figure out how to downsize the HD recording. Anyone know how?

UPDATE: Here is the video!

Of course, there was a water balloon toss. Ethan was my partner and just nailed me with the balloon. And yes, I think he knew the rules, but he had a different objective.

Jane came along with us too for the day and any time with Jane is always a good time. Ethan loves his "Ma."

Michayla is my resident babysitter. I think I take advantage of her far too often. I just keep saying that she's getting some good practice.

Then there were cupcakes to frost and decorate.

Oh yes. And eat.

Thank you ladies for such a fantastic event. I look forward to my invite next year. I might even make a contribution next year!

Lincoln moves upstairs.

Even on round number two, it took us 3 months to move him upstairs to the crib. The first two months, he spent in our room, in the bassinet, on the dresser. Then for his third month, he graduated to the dining table. Since he's been getting up only once a night since about 6 weeks, this is definitely a move he's ready for. But just in case he was feeling a little apprehensive, Ethan was more than happy to show him how it's done. 

 

I think Lincoln might have been more apprehensive with Ethan in the crib. He wasn't sure if he was about to get steamrolled (It wouldn't be his first).

Peggy's Puppies

Grammie Pammie got a puppy not too long ago and we've been web camming (umm, what is the proper verb here? It's too early for me to functionally use my brain here) with her and Ethan is constantly asking about Pammie's Puppy. So when I found out that a lady in our ward has a chocolate lab who just (relatively) had puppies, and offered to have us over (I might have invited myself, I wasn't even shy about it), I was so excited. I brought my camera, and I couldn't be happier that I did! Those little guys ate him up!

The even better part was that a couple weeks after our visit, Ethan spied Peggy a few rows up during church, and (loudly) began questioning where her puppies were. "Where's Peggy's puppies?" "My want to see Peggy's puppies, Mommy." Since then we have also seen brief sightings of "Peggy" around town (He is very good at finding people who look very much like Peggy), sadly, she doesn't bring those puppies to the store. Thank you for letting us visit, Peggy!

3 months = bliss

This little one is a...

peach.

gem.

doll.

angel.

champ.

dream.

Here we go!

It is that time my friends. 

And we're not above bribing. That's pure, unadulterated sugar in his mouth, folks. And we've got a whole bag of cars ready for the picking. Keep your fingers crossed.

Camping at Richardson Grove

We (randomly) decided to take a quick break and go camping overnight in the Redwoods. By random I really mean last minute. I think John informed me of his decision at about 8am, then spent the next 5 hours convincing me that it was a good idea, then we got on the road at 1pm.

It was actually a pretty quick drive. Once we got there, we set up camp to make dinner. Lincoln made himself at home in the camping chair.

Then we ate this:

You might recognize it from my previous post about fishing. We also made some chicken with roasted peppers. Not too made for impromptu dinner. As dinner was cooking, we got the tent set up. Lincoln tested out the sleeping bags.

We just recently acquired an eight person North Face tent off of craigslist (love it!). It can fit two queen size air mattresses in either end, with room for our luggage in between. It was super plush.

Time to enjoy the dinner!

Ethan is our little vegetarian, picking out all the roasted bell peppers.

Then we spent some time enjoying the rest of the fire while we waited for desert.

I don't think Ethan stopped running the entire time we were there. Well, except that time he ran smack into that tree. (It was dark and he was learning how to use a flashlight and he was pointing it directly at his feet. So he didn't even see that tree coming.) No worries though, he still loves the outdoors.

Is it me or do I kind of look like a zombie in this picture? Blink already!

Of course he did spend some time hugging trees and measuring them with his arm width.

Ahh. The cherry cobbler. Got a little crispy in the bottom unfortunately, but we plan on practicing and mastering the technique of dutch oven cooking. Not too bad for a first try.

The following morning we woke up, having slept through the entire night! I'm so grateful that I have good sleepers (and of course that the campsite was relatively peaceful).

We found a banana slug just outside our tent. That's Ethan's shoe for comparison. P.S. Ethan has huge feet -- he wears size 9! I think this thing was at least 4 inches long.

After a quick breakfast we decided to take a little exploratory stroll. We didn't do the whole bacon, sausage, egg, & pancake breakfast that I love to eat while camping. It's just not worth it for three hungry mouths. So we had some fruit and cereal bars. Next time we have a group together that will be a priority though. Someone in that campsite had bacon and I seriously considered sniffing them out and offering some cash for a few slices.

Ethan led the way, and did pretty well with letting us take our time.

Lincoln decided he wanted to turn around in the baby bjorn today. This was a first for him!

Here are them big trees.

I want to frame this one and put it in my office.

Ethan climbed up this tree all by himself.

This tree was massive!

But just seeing all the trees and walking among them was spectacular. I kept thinking of that road trip in college when we drove for a weekend to Eureka (a 16-hour drive) with 7 girls and 1 guy. Best road trip ever! Love all those girls -- you too Jimmy.

Ethan loved climbing all over those trees.

There was a river that ran alongside the trees and the water was cold, but totally manageable. I think if we were planning on staying the whole weekend, we definitely would have planned on swimming in that river. But until we have a whole weekend, skipping rocks and wading will have to suffice.

After our hike, we went back to camp and closed up shop. We loved having such a fun trip.

On kind of a sidenote, we've been working on potty-training and Ethan has done super well. On the way home though, we decided it would be easier to just put him in a diaper for the 4 1/2 hour car ride. On the way home, about an hour into the trip, he kept telling us he had pee pees. So we explained that he was wearing a diaper so he could use the diaper for his pee pees so we didn't have to stop every 30 minutes for a bathroom break. He would then tell us every 30 minutes or so that he needed the bathroom. When we got him home though his diaper was dry! Poor kid held it the whole drive because he didn't want to pee in his unders! At least he got some good practice holding it, right?