Arches

Here are some photos from our day at Arches

TIME OUT!

Well, first of all, let me tell you that Cam is still alive (I'm afraid Michelle might have been worried).

I was told that boys were more of a "challenge" than girls. They would be into EVERYTHING. Orneriness would be the norm. I did not believe any of this. After all, I've got friends who have really well behaved boys, plus with my remarkable parenting skills, that would never happen. Uh huh.

Well, reality (and 2 years) have set in. I frequently post and tell people about Cam's hi jinx. Well today, my patience may have come to an end. It's my fault for wanting to have a conversation with Michelle, and deluding myself into thinking that because Serayah was taking a nap, I'd actually have time to talk (with only 1 up and running around). Well, Cam got rather angry (downright pissed, actually) that I was on the phone and not paying attention to him. I basically blew him off. This is what ensued.

Cam (thinking): "Mom's STILL on the phone. Humph. I'll show her."
Me (thinking): "Huh, Cam's getting the pringles I just bought for camping (and tried.. new flavor.. rather yucky, actually) down. Oh well, I guess he can have a couple."
Cam: "She's still not off the phone! Hmm.. I'll just fake her out and act like I'm going to eat these"
Me: "Huh... he's bringing them over here... maybe he needs me to open them"

Yeah. So what my little sweetheart did was walk onto the carpet, looked at me, opened said container, turned the container upside down, dumped the entire contents onto the floor, stepped through them, threw down the container, and looked at me... daring to see what I would do. For those of you who have forgotten, he just turned 2, not 13. Needless to say, he got his way, and I got off the phone.

I've been reading a great parenting book "Parenting with Love and Logic". Love and Logic dictates that you never yell, or spank, or let the kids know that they've gotten under your skin. Uh huh. I, in a calm soothing empathetic voice (right), told him that he was going to have a time out. He was in time-out for a long time. Note: around here, timeouts mean that the kids basically drop to the floor wherever they are and lay there 'till we tell them they can get up. Hence the pictures. I got tears after a bit, and after he got up he came running over and gave me a hug and helped me clean up. I don't know what I'm going to do with this kid.

Oh, and for those of you who are thinking I just should have spanked him for it, let me tell you, I've spanked him before. Doesn't do jack. He gets ticked off at whoever spanks him, and looks a bit broken-hearted, then will go right back to doing what he shouldn't be doing. Time outs seem to work much better with him.

I swear we raise Serayah and Cam the same. If Serayah even thinks you're mad at her, it pretty much devestates her, and you don't really have to do much. The other picture is one I snapped after Serayah had been in timeout for something the other day. Her little broken hearted expression cracked me up.

What Crate Fun! (Yes, I hear the groans)

Cam just HAD to sit in this crate the other night, so of course, his sister had to bring one down from her room to join him. (Nice head bonk too, huh? That would be from running a bit too fast and tripping last week) Sigh.

zoo

OK.. so we went to the zoo last Thursday (I think), and I didn't realize that my battery in my camera was on its last legs. I really wanted to get a picture of Serayah riding the Preying Mantis on their new carousel, but my camera died on the picture right before. Grrr.... I didn't really think I had any pictures to post, but I downloaded the pictures on my memory card tonight, and came up with these. They're not great, but hey, they're something (for those of you who've been complaining that I haven't been posting enough as of late). :)

Update

OK.. so it's been brought to my attention that I haven't written a blog in FOREVER. (Of course the person who pointed this out has been known to go enitre months without a new post). I haven't posted because we went to the zoo, with my handy-dandy camera in tow, only to have my battery go dead, so I don't have any new pictures to share. And, for those of you who are wondering, No... Cam is not still wearing the same tutu-boot ensemble.

Since there were complaints, I'm blogging (albeit without pictures) so this is what you get. This was actually an e-mail I sent to a couple of friends, but y'all can read it too.

OK… I know my TV show recommendations are somewhat hit or miss, but Art and I are absolutely hooked on “Destination Truth”. It’s on Sci-Fi (not sure when.. we DVR). It is just about the funniest show on TV. The premise is this guy, Josh, and his “team” travel all over the world in search of Monsters. I know…. You’re thinking “Huh? Has all that crazy Mormon living gotten to her?”. Here are a few points about the show…

This guy is flippin’ hysterical. His random commentary and bone-dry humor cracks us up. He always tries some disgusting local food, and has a terrific habit of laying down pop-culture references. He should get a talk show or something.

So, remember dearly departed Steve Irwin? We always thought he had a screw loose, and that no real person is going to randomly dive toward dangerous creatures? Well, this guy makes Irwin look like some sissy Poindexter. They’re always filming in the middle of the night looking for Bigfoot in Borneo or something, and they’ll start to hear really weird noises. Dude says “Great… lets go!” and starts tearing out after whatever they heard.

#1. I’m not traipsing about after spooky noises in the rainforest, day or night.

#2. There are LOTS of snakes, spiders, tigers, etc. out there. Brilliant thinking. *We were really loving the “giant anaconda” show. They’re floating around the Amazon in a really small boat (their boats always have something wrong with them), and they see something big in the water. What do they do? Dive right in, of course! (duh). They have local snake wranglers with them, so I guess that makes it all right…. Okey dokey.

Obviously, they’re not really going to catch anything. They only appear to hang out wherever they’re at for 1 day (it takes longer than that to get there in most cases), and tearing through the woods after bigfoot isn’t probably gonna encourage said monsters known camera phobia. They do act kinda like “Ghost Hunters” in that they’re into finding scientific evidence, so that lends a shred of credibility. Actually, they found a Yeti footprint once, and it made real, actual scientific headlines. I remember reading about it a while ago, but didn’t really know (care) who found it.

If you guys get a chance, give it a try. We really think it’s worth an hour of your time... especially if you've got DVR.

Cam's fashion sense strikes again.

Is commentary really necessary?

End of Summer BBQ Fun ~

Well, this afternoon we had a BBQ at our house (because of the proximity to the water slide~) with some of our neighbors. Our next door neighbors Liz and Shawn (Aiden and Allison's parents), made brought most everything... including homemade ice cream YUMMY!... so we didn't really do much other than sit back and watch the kids have fun. There were 10 kids here under 7, so Serayah and Cam had a lot of play time. Of course, Cam wouldn't have anything to do with the slide (all that bothersome water), but he ran around saying HI! to all the adults and played chase with some of the younger bunchkins. Serayah loved having all of her friends in her backyard, and couldn't do everything fast enough. We all had a great time, and are planning more large get-togethers soon. Here are a few pictures from the afternoon... Enjoy!

Its a good thing I like bugs.

Well, Serayah's at it again. Art was working out in the garage and found one of our giant Utah beetles, so he called Serayah out to take a look. She loved him (of course). "Bobby the Beetle is my friend, Mama". Well, she's not too original with the naming of them, but whatever. I think she played with him (poor thing) for a half an hour before I could finally persuade her to let him go.

First day of school

Well, today was Serayah's first day of her new year of preschool. She had a great time, and made several new friends. Here are a couple of pictures.

The State Fair

Well, today we took the kiddos to the State Fair up in Salt Lake. Be prepared for the longest blog (picture-wise) in history. I took a lot of pictures (surprise, huh?), and I really did try to condense them as best as I could, but you know me...

We got there around 11:45 (not the brightest plan... as you'll soon see). Cam hadn't had a nap yet, but we figured that we'd look around a little, then let them ride some rides, then be out of there before 2:30. Cam would sleep on the way home, and his nap would be a little later than normal, but no biggie...right? The parking gods were with us, we got a great spot up close to the gate (near the midway, no less)... life was good. Serayah and Cam were stoked.

Only after we got in, did we discover that the midway rides didn't open until 3:00. Seriously. There are more kids per capita in Utah than any other state in the country, and they're not going to start up the rides until 5 hours after the gates opened. Art and I looked at each other with the same combination of frustration (OK.. downright anger) and terror on our faces. What on earth are we supposed to do with 2 kids under 5 for 3 hours at the state fair with no rides. This was not boding well for us.

We got a frozen lemonade and started walking (very slowly) around. One cool thing they had was a really impressive Bengal Tiger show. Serayah and Cam got bored at about the 7 minute mark (Darn!), so we had to leave. Naturally, I took pictures, but I didn't post them. OK.. now what?

Well, there was a very cool clown making balloons.... What a great idea! Serayah took one look at her and proclaimed "No clowns, mama". I tempted her with the prospect of a balloon. "I don't want a balloon, and I don't want to see the clown. Let's go. Can we ride on the Ferris Wheel?" I check the time. 12:21. Not good. I tell her that I just want to go get Cam a balloon, and that she can stay with Daddy. Of course, this worked like a charm, and there was no way Cam was getting a balloon and she wasn't. After getting a magic wand balloon, Cam got a sword (and was not thrilled with the clown either), Serayah decided that being around a clown was very cool, and as you can see from the picture, was very happy with her sparkly magic wand.

Well, we started walking again. Cam dragged his sword along the asphalt. No more balloon. Major drama. It's now 12:32. Not good.

We started walking toward the animal exhibits, and Serayah spots ponies. Serayah LOVES pony rides. Yes! Success! Cam takes one look, and decides that the ponies are not for him and sits it out. Serayah rides, and is bummed to have to get off, but that's OK, because she "Can ride the Ferris Wheel now, right Mama?" It's 12:55. Not good.
We then keep cruising through the animal exhibits. Here's a random picture of Serayah. Also a picture of the freakiest goat I've ever seen.
The picture doesn't do it justice... t looked like something out of a Stephen King novel. Seriously.

So we keep crusin' along and happen by the agricultural building (We were REALLY trying to kill time). Some really nice old farmer guy saw me trying to get a picture of the kids, and takes this one of us.

So then we find some luck. The fair has this really cool "Little hands on the Farm" exhibit. Kids get to do all kinds of "farming", and then get money to buy something once they've collected their milk/hay/veggies/etc. Serayah loved this! Cam and Daddy took a walk while we were in there, but Serayah had a blast, and really enjoyed trying to "milk" (actually water) the cow.




OK.. then some more luck. They had this GIANT yellow slide that was independent of the Carnival that was open. You'd get going so fast on it that people were catching air over the bumps. Serayah got going a wee bit too fast on her second run and bonked her head coming down over a bump, so she was done, but Cam and Art went on the thing I think 5 times. Honestly, I'm not sure who had more fun... Cam or Daddy. Seriously.


Well, to make a long story shorter, we ate some food and walked around every single exhibit (at least once) and FINALLY, the 3:00 hour came. Cam was pretty darn cranky at this point (and those of you who really know him, knows just how fun that can be), but we got him on the first ride... A train... his FAVORITE thing right now... and all was well.

OK... one side note. We bought discount ride bracelets before we got to the fair. We only bought 3 of them. I told Art that he could ride on all the rides with the kids because he never really has to, plus I wanted to take pictures. He wasn't thrilled with this idea, in part (and only part) because he's so tall and didn't think he'd fit. I blew this off as an excuse, and made him get the bracelet. His leg position in the train picture should tell you how happy he was with me over that decision. He took it pretty well, but I got some glares of death at the beginning.



He and Cam rode a smaller slide while Serayah was riding on some other things that we didn't think Art could fit on and Cam couldn't go w/o an adult. Then the kids rode LOTS more rides.

Then came the Tilt-o-Whirl. Everything was going really well at the beginning.

The middle... not so much.

This would be after Cam told Art "Daddy... I dizzy". Well, he made it without up-chucking lunch, so that was a good thing... but needless to say, the Tilt-o-Whirl was only attempted once.

The kids rode some more rides, and then Mommy and Daddy were done (and we had a little boy who was beyond tired). As you can see from the last picture, Serayah doesn't really have any problems making friends. The ride only had 1 other little boy on it, and this little girl just sat with Serayah after they'd been in line together.





Cam crashed in the car not 3 minutes after we left, then slept the whole way home. Overtired doesn't even come close to how he was feeling tonight, but we had a great day!