Waterslide

Well, this is just a really quick one.. Here are some pictures of the kids having fun on the new waterslide this evening. You'll notice that there aren't any pictures of Cam... He wasn't having anything to do with the whole "spraying water" thing. Serayah and the rest of the kids next door had a blast! I think Serayah could live 24/7 in water if we let her.

Backyard Fun

Camden, Serayah, Garrett & Maddie

Paeden and Serayah


Finally!!! Yes... we officially have a backyard. There's still quite a bit of work to do (most notably yank the giant weeds from the perimeter, and get the playstructure up), but the kids don't give a whit about any of that, and LOVE being turned loose outside. I'm happy to oblige, especially knowing that they can't escape (hee hee). Yesterday, we had our fantastic neighbors come over to play. The Ricks children are wonderful, and Serayah loves all of them.... especially their oldest, Paeden. Paeden is 7, and Serayah officially has her first crush. Last week, he brought her a grasshopper to keep (yes... our girl loves bugs... I've got a picture on the way (hmm...Sheila?) showing her love of giant cockroaches), and then later that evening came over to give her a watch he'd found. What a guy! He really is a sweetheart, as is all their kids.

Crazy girl with a bug on her hand

Mischievous elf disguised as a boy


Tonight they're coming over again & we're going to break out the inflatable waterslide... I'm sure I'll be posting more pictures about that soon.

Flowers

Here are just a few pictures I took of some of the gorgeous flowers from the last time we went to the gardens... I just wish the pictures could do justice to the beauty that surrounds you when you're there.

Silver Lake Reservoir

Well, today we went up to Silver Lake Reservoir. It's up American Fork Canyon, and its really beautiful, and a terrific place to hike and throw rocks! Here are some of the pictures from our trip. (Sorry I'm not writing more, but I want to get to bed!)

Farm Country

Well, yesterday we went with our wonderful friends Maryanne, Ellie and Tanner to Thanksgiving Point (the home of the Dinosaur Museum and the Gardens) to go to Farm Country. It's a really cool little place where you can feed farm animals and just run around.

They also have these cute little buildings for the kiddos to run around in. You can't really tell, but in the picture of Serayah & Ellie looking out of the windows of the "jail", Serayah's got the biggest, saddest pout going on... I guess she was trying to play the part!

Obviously, Serayah had to ride the ponies (She's since informed me that they're "Horses, not Ponies, Momma"). She was SO excited, as was her friend, Ellie. Cam... not so much. He rode for about 20 seconds... that was enough for him. Actually, Serayah got to ride twice, and decided that the little horses weren't her style, so as you can see from the picture, she went on a big horse. About 1/2 way through the ride (Honestly, it was the longest pony ride ever), she looked at me as she was going by and said "I want to go my myself, Mama". Huh? I wasn't holding her.. I didn't get it. She finally got it through that what she wanted was to have her horse unhooked, so she could go off riding in the field by herself.

Cam had a great time too... He really likes little Miss Tanner, and they loved being in the little buildings... I guess they felt pretty big. As you can tell from the last photo though, Cam wasn't too sure of that suspicious looking calf! Actually, I walked over and started petting it and it tried to eat my shorts, so maybe he knew something I didn't!!!

Here comes trouble

Well, as many of you know from my ramblings, Camden can be a force to be reckoned with.

Never on earth has there been a child with more determination to get into any and everything he knows he shouldn't.

A new addition to his arsenal is his new found ability to drag chairs from the dining room into the kitchen to have full access to all counter tops. I knew this... Why, oh why, did I think setting nice, vine-ripened tomatoes on the aforementioned counter was in any way a good idea?

I was on the phone with my friend Michelle yesterday when Serayah started freaking out. I turned around, gazed into the kitchen and was greeted to splattered tomatoes and juice all over the kitchen floor, with a little boy sitting in the midst of the destruction laughing like the deranged maniac that he is.

So that leads us to today. Once again... I should have known better. I know that I should never, ever leave a bathroom door open (I have no idea what I'm going to do when he figures out how to turn doorknobs). Toilet paper, soap, water + Camden without direct supervision is not a good combination. Somehow I'd forgotten to shut the door. I was picking up the living room, and heard a little shuffling noise. I realize he's in the bathroom, so I drop everything and run in. We've got a shelf-thing above the toilet with baskets of different stuff in them... Cam's standing on the toilet, realizes I'm there, quickly throws something back in a basket, turns, puts his hands behind his back, smiles angelically and says "Mama!"... (no, I am not making this up, and yes, he's not yet 2...).

Actually I was rather impressed... some of the mascara managed to end up on his eyelashes.

Splashin' Around

Well, yesterday after we got back from the gardens (and after Cam took a much needed nap!), we broke out the little pool for the first time this year.

Of course, Serayah's a little fish and couldn't wait to jump right in. I don't think there's anything she likes more (well, except "Curtables"... but that's another story). Cam...well... not so much. As you can see from the first photo, the prospect of splashing around in the pool wasn't such a great one for him. Finally, he sat down and was content to play with his ball. If the ball went out of his reach, well, then we had a problem. There was no way he was going to budge from his spot ('cause if he did, he might get an otherwise dry area of skin wet), so he'd yell at us until either Serayah or I would give it back. Oh well... I guess competitive swimming probably won't be his thing.

Cam was more than happy to get out, but Serayah stayed until the last drop was drained (and she's already been bombarding me with requests to pull it back out today!).

The Gardens

Yesterday, we decided to venture out to see the Thanksgiving Point Gardens. It was a beautiful day, and I figured this would be a great place to go with kids... they could run around to their hearts content.

What I didn't know was that the gardens (which are only around 12 miles from our house) would be so beautiful! It is the home to the largest man-made waterfall in North America (the photo doesn't do it justice), and a bunch of themed gardens. The Italian Garden (the photo of Art and Serayah going up the steps) was breathtaking. The Monet Garden (hence the waterlilies), and The Secret Garden (right out of the book... if you've ever read it), were especially fantastic too.

The best part: the brochure says "Oh, by the way... feel free to walk on the grass".

What's even better, they have a separate set of gardens just for kids... there's a Noah's Ark replica (a great water feature designed for children to play in), Caves, different rock formations... and that's just what we read about. I'm sure I'll be posting that adventure when we go there. We ran out of time yesterday, but I'm sure we'll be heading there soon!

Rapunzel

OK... Rapunzel might be pushing it a bit.

I feel pretty weird posting a solo picture of myself, but my hair hasn't been anywhere near this long in 13 years, so this is for all of you who keep wondering how long my hair has gotten. For those of you who don't know, I'm waiting for it to be long enough cut off the necessary 10 inches for a Locks of Love donation (The hair goes to make wigs for pediatric cancer patients).

I'm still the world's biggest wuss, and I tear up every time I have to fight through tangles. Art's not looking forward to me having short hair again, but he doesn't have to deal with washing and brushing a bunch of hair.... (Love you honey!)

Salon

Well, on Friday (after the Carnival), Serayah had her 1st appointment at a Salon to get a haircut. Serayah's stylist was the wonderful MaryAnne. Serayah wasn't too sure about the shampoo sink, or the hair-dryer (as you can see from the pictures), but she loved the experience. She's already informed me that she will need Miss MaryAnne to cut her hair in the future... I'm not good enough anymore!

Carnival

Well, our little town is celebrating "Pioneer Days" (We're on the actual Pony Express trail), and so we had a carnival in one of our parks in another part of town. Serayah and Cam were really excited to go. Art had flown out to his brother Kelly's wedding in California, so he wasn't able to make it with us, so that was a bummer, but Grandpa's here, so the kids had a whole lot of fun anyway.

First we went to "Old McDonald's" (Serayah's name for it) and had pancakes for breakfast. We ended up at the carnival right when it first opened for the day. This ROCKED. There were no lines, and we were always able to walk right up to any ride we wanted. Serayah and I did the Ferris Wheel (very fun) "We're really high in the sky, Momma!", the Scrambler (I remember it being a whole lot more fun when I was 16... but Serayah had a ball), then Cam and Serayah hit all the rides that were for Camden's height. They had SO much fun. We went down the giant slide time after time (the carny had just hit it with Orange Pledge, so not only was it fast, we came off of it with a light, citrus scent... BONUS!).

They really liked the Boat ride, but Cam wasn't pleased with the way someone was looking behind him (We're hoping that road-rage won't be a problem for him in later life)

What a terrific morning!

Graduation

Well... I know that children grow up, and this was inevitable, but the day came. Sniff... Yes, Serayah graduated from her 1st year of preschool!

Serayah insisted on wearing a "princess dress", so as you can see from the picture, she was a bit overdressed for the occasion, but she didn't care. It was a really cute little program, the kids from all classes (they were aged 3-6... Serayah was the youngest of all of them) all sang some songs, and were handed diplomas. During one of the songs, the kids were supposed to play air-guitar during the instrumental parts. Some of the boys were all over this. The girls... not so much. They basically stood and sang and didn't want any part of the theatrics. Well, there was one exception. There was this really cute little girl wearing glasses who was decked out in a blue pouffy dress who felt the need to lay down on her back for the air-guitar portion. Yep... you guessed it.

Later they broke out the huge water-slide. Once again our demure, shy little Serayah felt the need to compete with the boys. You'll notice her sliding down upside-down/head-first, then bouncing after jumping down from the top. "You think I can't do it 'cause I'm a girl??? Just watch this"... I think this may be Serayah's future motto. Lord help us if she ever gets an ATV.