Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Cousins Camp 2014 (Phone Pics)


Idaho Falls Youth Arts Festival--painting, made monster feet, played toilet bowl basketball, begged for candy from all the vendors




 One of many trips to Geraldine's bakery for ice cream and peanut butter bars.  

Taking full advantage of Mer's fun new backyard.  Tess and Maur are playing dolls together. 

Sunset view from Mer's back window.  Seriously.


Raspberry crepes.  Need I say more?


Girls' trip to Ogden temple open house, Chuckarama, Aquarium, fun hotel and Mormon Women's History Initiative Conference.  Ambitious, aren't we?



Claudia Bushman at the conference.


Murdock cousins arrive--Dipsy & Papa entertain the kids for a whole afternoon.







At capacity Rexburg Rapids turns into a carousel, splash pad outing, with a little stomp rocket to round out the evening.




Owen went for a dip in his backyard water feature.


The kids and Uncle Ryan get all their energy out at Blast Off.







Cousins in matching jammies made by Aunt Reen.  And evidence of ongoing house projects we worked on at Mer's: sanding and staining her oven hood.


Cousins' camp was the day before.  All the cousins, but note that Liam and Reece are wearing the wrong shirts.  So we basically stood no chance of telling them apart.


  Kitty under the bridge.  Drew's not in this picture because he insisted on watching the "kitty" do his job.  He was very concerned with the kitty, how it sleeps, where it lives, etc.  I don't really understand this because I'm pretty sure he understands that the Kitty is Papa.  Huh?


Cute shirts, fun activities, wild stuffed animal hunt--all planned by our amazing Dipsy!


We tried a new water spot.  Coldest water on the face of the earth.  The adults were getting frostbite on their toes.  The kids didn't want to get out.


After all that, Dipsy and Papa were willing to take the older kids for a overnight trip at the land.  They are the Energizer Bunnies of grandparents.



Tess & Lauren reading in the trailer.


They even took them canoeing the next day (they keep going, and going, and going).


And motorcycles rides when they got back.  They were pretty beat by this point, but Drew would never forgive me if we left Idaho without a motorcycle ride.  Or three motorcycle rides.



Home again.  The kids did pretty great until we landed.  Then Tess broke loose, and the great wall of tears flowed down.  She misses Idaho, her grandparents and all her cousins.  Who can blame her?



Summer Days


We've been having a glorious summer!  We feel obligated to enjoy each beautiful 80-degree day to the fullest!  Lots of park time, train time at Burke Lake, and pool time!  And one stinky turtle named Roullen, which we turtle-sat for a friend.  The kids loved having him and I loved seeing him go!







Saturday, August 9, 2014

July 2014 Tidbits


Ryan: "Tess, the best basketball player when I was a kid was Michael Jordan."
Tess: "I would put that in the fiction section of the library."

Tonight Drew biffed it pretty hard on the asphalt while playing "red light, green light" with Ryan. Poor kid got all scraped up. As Ryan was putting him to bed, Drew said, "Dad, next time let's play 'red light, yellow light' instead. Then we won't get any owies."

At bedtime with Drew:
Drew: "Dad, let's get a book about people getting angry and starting to cry. Let's get a book about people eaten by sharks."
Ryan: "Is that a good idea?"
Drew (reconsidering): "Dad, let's get a book about the Eiffel Tower. People don't get angry about that and start to cry. Let's get a book about basketballs and choo-choo trains. People don't get angry about that either."

Moment of bedtime lucidness from Drew tonight: "Mom, sand come from rocks. And water come from air. And where waves come from at Virginia Beach? Uh huh! Da moon pulls it and pulls it and pulls da waves like a big string! Mom, my brain works! My brain inside my head! It inside my body! What else in my body? I have a heart in my body! And muscles, strong! And my skeleton in my foot. Uh huh! I got a good body! It works!"

I (Ryan) was surprised when Drew made this comment while we drove to the store: "Dad, there are two ways to get there." Which is true. I later mentioned it to Miriam. I was a bit disappointed when she noted that he makes that comment about going to all sorts of places.

At our last dinner together, the missionaries gave us a laminated paper thermometer to use in setting goals. I was totally stumped when Drew kept asking for the "Mom Theater." Of course, thermometer. I should have known.

Drew was trying to explain to me how we get to his doctor's office. He was doing some heavy thinking: "It very far, far away. But not to Nana's house." Which is exactly right. He was then quiet for a bit before he broke through with this moment of postmodern self-consciousness: "Mom, my brain is in my head!"

Tess helped Drew pick out a book on motorcycles at the library. She later told me, "I'm more interested in riding them than I am just looking at them or reading about them."

Tess is dying for a visit from the tooth fairy, but she hasn't lost any teeth yet. The dentist said that her bottom two teeth are wiggly. I tried wiggling them with some force, but they seem pretty strong to me. Tess commented: "You didn't wiggle my teeth, but you sure did wiggle my head. Maybe it's ready to pop off now and the head fairy can come visit."

Tess and Drew are "Disneyland" excited to visit the dentist. We're waiting for the bubble to pop. Tess said: "Mom, I don't know why people don't like to go to the dentist. Some people even dress up as a dentist for Halloween like it's scary or something."

Favorite Drew saying: "Dat's so cool!"

So Ry gashed his finger open with scissors while trying to make a "car wash" for Drew out of a Capri Sun box. It wouldn't stop bleeding and he was in pain, so he ended up having to get a couple stitches at the ER. Tess wasn't particularly sympathetic: "You know it's the smallest owies that hurt the most."

Drew was talking tonight about how he wanted to visit the beach again.
Ryan: "What was your favorite part?"
Drew: "My favorite part was I was being mean to the waves. They tried to get me and I ran away. And I threw sand at the waves. They like sand."

In the ocean with Drew, whenever he'd spot a big wave developing, he'd point and yell: "A water volcano!!! A water volcano's a-comin!"

Tess has been growing her hair out. She asked me if I thought she'd look like a different person with long hair. I told her I didn't think so. She responded: "Well, you know I think I was kinda meant to have short hair. I'm kind of a short-hair person."

Random Drew comment: "Dad, I a Higginbotham too!"

Tess' comment on watching me put detergent in the dishwasher: "Huh, so I see you use Cascade. Do you trust it, Mom?" She's been watching too many commercials.