Summer's Over

Well, it's not really over. (It won't be until it's October here.) But our schedule is now full and we can't fit in anything else until school starts. We wanted to visit more family, play with more friends, camp one more time as a family...

Not that we don't have neat things lined up to do, Girl's Camp for me, Grandma visiting during that, visiting family in Idaho, a backpacking trip, Gordon's class reunion.

We just wanted to do even more. But kindergarten starts in early August, this is the first time we've had a deadline like this before. It's going to take some getting used to.

Mom and Me Swim Classes

We went to our first class yesterday and I thought it was silly. We play games and get wet, and I was thinking how I could have done it all on my own. Today I realized how special Eve thought the class was. This was a whole half hour that she had my undivided attention. When we go swimming as a family she doesn't get that. Now we have two weeks of one on one time scheduled for the second child who's probably never had so much parent time just to herself. So today I don't think the class is so silly after all.

Big Sister's crafts

This is Eve with a hand ful of glitter. She is getting quick and tall and was able to grab a bunch and spread it all over the floor. Now our floor sparkles and shines, even with out being mopped!

Camp picture with a blog of it's own

On one of our hikes we found a watering hole. An ugly little pond to water livestock. We had fun there skipping or throwing rocks into the water. Eve decided to get a closer look and tumbled into the mud before we could stop her. Gordon was closest, so we all blamed him, laughing because he had to carry her back, though we did remove her pants.

Memorial Day Weekend

Sorry I'm so slow.

For Memorial Day Weekend we and two other families decided to leave the heat for the mountains. Staying near the Mogollon Rim, the edge of the Colorado Plateau. It was alot cooler up there, a little more than we expected, but for the most part we had fun. We stayed for three days.
Notes for next time:

1. Bring sand toys, there will always be dirt to play in, and if you don't bring toys the kids will use the paper cups as shovels, nearly emptying us out.

2. Bring extra blankets, just in case. It was so cold, around 30 degrees at night, we were unprepared for that. No one became dangerously cold. But alot of us were uncomfortably cold.

3. Bring less food. We way over estimated our servings, thinking we were feeding an army, then the kids reminded us. They don't eat much, unless it's dessert.

We loved the area, it was beautiful. We plan on visiting there again. Only two hours from our home but 50 degrees cooler. A nice break from the 110 we had today.

Some more words

Eve is slowly building her vocabulary. She's funny as to when she'll choose to try and say a word we're repeating. But diaper changing time seems to be the best time for this type of schooling. We are using Pampers right now and the front of each has a various Sesame Street character on it. Because of that she's learned: Elmo and Yellow (after showing her Big Bird and saying that he's yellow)

Other words include: Go, No, Uh-oh, done, Mom, and Dad

And of course lots of gibber-gabber that will some day smooth out into language.

I'm old

Or at least older.

It was my birthday yesterday. The day started like any other day with Eve calling from her crib that she was awake at the oh-so-early hour of 6:30. At 6:32 the phone rang bringing my first birthday well wishes. All of my extended family lives in other states. So we try to remember to call one another to sing to the birthday person. This day was my day and I loved to be remembered and to hear that well known tune. It's silly and simple but I really do feel loved, so many calls and messages.

Gordon was sweet and got a babysitter to take me out on a real date for my birthday. I'm excited because we haven't been able to do too much with him studying so much for his exam. So we dropped off the kids and drove to a nice resturant up in Scottsdale. It was just so nice to have a meal with just the two of us. Adult conversation is sometimes lacking when there's a five-year-old and a one-year-old clammering for attention constantly.

After dinner we went back to our neighbor's home to celebrate with the kids and friends, we had more singing, cake and ice cream.

I don't know if 26 is that much different than 25, but I do feel that I had a great birthday, because of my family.