Sunday, May 31, 2009

Crazy Camping


A few weeks ago, we threw the kids and a bajillion other things into the car to go down to St. George for my first real race of the season. I would have preferred to go down by myself but that was not an option. One-night camping trips (with kids) that include a 4 hour car ride are not on my list of Favorite Things To Do. But Karl's uncle's basement was flooded and therefore unavailable and hotels are never an option.


I know. These pictures don't look like things were too crazy. But that's because I took all of them in the first few minutes of what turned out to be a long, long night. When we first got to Sand Hollow Reservoir, it was beautiful. Except for the bugs. Oh, and the fact that we thought the campground was right by the start of the race but it turned out to be 2 miles away!


We got out of the car and into the red sand. We did not make it to Moab this spring, so Noah was especially excited.


We threw rocks.


We got dirty.


We splashed in the water.


But only Noah went swimming.

So much more fun than a boring hotel, right?

But then I had to drive another 30 minutes into town to pick up my race packet. I left Karl with two dirty, hungry, tired boys. That's a big job, especially when camping in sand. But Karl is a trooper and never complained. I was the one complaining. Because this was not what I consider ideal pre-race conditions.

When I finally made it back, everyone else was in bed. The only problem: the wind. We were once again reminded why they named the nearest town Hurricane. Very fitting. And it never stopped blowing. All night. At 11:30 I was still wide awake and now covered by an inch of red sand. Including my eyes. Max kept stirring and so I finally decided to move the two of us into the back of the car. That seemed like the best solution. Karl had to move into our tent to keep it from blowing over. Unfortunately, Noah was not heavy enough to keep his tent on the ground, so it blew over with him in it. That was around 3:30 am. And that was also the end of our night. Max, Noah, and I had a little earl morning "party" in the car while Karl was trying hard to pack everything up in the dark and storm.

Well, as for the race: they cancelled the swim. Too much wind. Not a surprise to us. So they had us do an additional 5km run at the beginning. I usually don't like duathlons but this one turned out to be fun. I was able to run away from the ladies at the beginning and never got caught. Lucky!

Now (three weeks later) that we have (almost) cleaned up the mess we came home with (except for the red sand I still find in the dryer and other random places), we all agree that it was an
unforgettable epic adventure.

And you can never have enough of those, right?

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Kids in Action

I love these 'action shots' of Noah and Max.
Neither one of them can sit still for very long. Actually, Max cannot sit still AT ALL. That is why we love to go to Grandma Becky's house. There is plenty of entertainment for both of them.

Check out that hair!
















Sprinklers + trampoline = tons of fun


While Max is waiting for his turn on the tramp, he is busy playing tether ball. He loves playing any kind of ball.




















Did I already mention that I love spring? I love spring!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Max adventures

Max's biggest adventure in the last little while has been learning to crawl.



He is very good at it by now and can get anywhere he wants, including up our many stairs, in record time. I love hearing his little hands and knees tap the wooden floor and knowing he is coming to see us. He can get to the toys he wants and is much happier. Who wouldn't be? But he for sure is a lot more trouble, as well.



He loves pulling himself up and checking out things.



To his dismay, he still needs to sit in the boring stroller sometimes. But he is determined to solve that problem by learning to walk in the next few months.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

What Noah's been up to

After our long (blogging) absence, I thought I would fill you in on what has been going on around here in the past few weeks.

Much to Noah's delight, we have been having a lot of rain, especially earlier this month. He could care less about going outside when it is sunny and nice. But as soon as Noah sees rain, he is in his rain outfit and out the door. I stopped washing his muddy clothes a while ago. I just hang them up to dry and eventually the dirt falls off. Now everyone is happy.


Spinning in a puddle is still his preferred form of exercise. Especially on Sundays before church. Go figure...

Then we even got some snow at the end of April. Craziness!


Noah loved it although it did not last long. He told me he wants it to be winter all the time. I definitely disagree. I love spring!


Mandy, Fay, and Kimball brought warm, sunny weather with them from California. Yeah for spring! We all went to Thanksgiving Point and loved the beautiful flowers there.


Ad you can tell, we were having a hard time getting Fay, Eric, and Noah to be tulips.


It is so fun to be outside for most of the day and not wearing many layers of clothing. Well, at least that is what Max and I think. Noah was refusing to wear shorts for a few weeks in really warm weather. When asked what's wrong with shorts, his answer was: "An enemy could poke me in the leg." Mmmh, that makes sense.













As you can tell, we are making progress in weaning him from winter clothes. Unfortunately, sandals are still an issue. They don't have enough traction and don't cover enough of his feet. Noah wants sandals that go up to his knees. So I will be returning the awesome, expensive Keen sandals I bough a few weeks ago. Too bad.

Other than that, Noah does the usual 3-year-old stuff: he learns letters and shapes, sings songs, plays with friends, tests his parents' patience, ride his bike and scooter, entertains his brother, throws an occasional fit, etc.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Blog or Sleep?

I know, I really need to update this blog.

I can't wait to do it. I think about it all the time. But there is always something higher on my list than blogging. And right now that something is sleeping. Sorry.

But just in case you have been wondering:
Yes, Max is crawling. He has been doing so for more than a month. He is too busy getting around and into everything to tell you about it though.


I promise to be back soon.