Father/Son Camp Out

Zach and the boys went on their first ever father/son camp out this past weekend. They had a good time. Ben and Sam said that their favorite part was building the fire and smores.


(Sam and Ben are being Buzz Lightyears and saying "to infinity and beyond!" Sam did not wear the baby Mikey ears to the campout, but he had been wearing them around all day.)



Sam and Ben Smiles



In the morning (apparently they were all freezing)


I celebrated the event by working on a sewing project, watching a movie on Netflix that I knew Zach didn't want to see, and booby trapping the doors before going to sleep.

keep talking

While attempting to convince Sam that it was time to send the Netflix movie he loved so much back
Sam: No! Don't send it back. Then the mailman will say, "oh, yay, I don't have to take any mail today!" and then'll he'll jump up and down.

Ben: Daddy, why do dogs have names?

Playing with two toy frogs they got out of a pinata
Ben: This is a girl frog and this is a boy frog.
Sam: Are they gonna drop in love?
Ben: Of course!

Me: What do you want for your birthday?
Ben: Brown chocolate and white chocolate.
Me: Nothing else? No books or toys or things?
Ben: Nope. Just a bag full of chocolates.

While looking for the coat that Ben requested to wear outside
Me: Why do you boys have so many coats and jackets?!
Ben: For snow and rain, of course!

(By the way, "of course!" is one of Ben's favorite phrases. Loves it)

if I were a rich (wo)man

...Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum...

Or not even rich, but financially sound enough that I felt comfortable saving up for something fairly extravagant. Or buying something slightly luxurious on a regular basis. Like Irish butter.

There are lots of good, healthy, stout, English feeling things that are good about being... not rich. Like learning to budget things out, being creative with your meager funds, and some other third thing.

But there are times when I just float away thinking of luxury. The following is a result of such flotations. Enjoy.

A really glorious bicycle



I love biking so much. (Not cycling, mind you. I hear there is a difference between my slow meandering and what they do). And there are so many beautiful bikes out there. One of my dreams is to live in the pseudo-country and bike into town to do my errands. I love it.

Rieme Sparkling Limonade



Have you tried this? It's amazing. It's sweet and tart, but in a subtle, hinting, very French kind of way. It's too expensive for us to get on anything like a regular basis, but we've tried it on sale. I want a special mini-refrigerator designated to these some day.

Flowers




Having cut flowers around the house is one of my favorite things. I makes me want to elevate an ordinary day into something magical.

This Chair



Or more likely something like it. I want to have a library someday where I can send Zach and all his books. And this chair would be perfect there. In my imaginary library, that is. Zach would probably rather have a recliner though.

Frye Shoes



This one is a little strange. I've never even tried on a pair of these shoes. And I don't even like half of their designs. But the other half... I can't really explain it, but I have developed a slightly unhealthy obsession with these shoes. And boots. Let's not forget them. Someday... sigh...



I'll wrap this up before Zach's prediction about a super long post about "things I can't afford" comes to pass.

Photo Frenzy

Last week I borrowed a digital SLR camera from my friend Christina (Thanks again!) for a writing application I was filling out where I needed to take some pictures. I haven't heard anything back, and don't really plan to, but I did manage to take about two hundred photos in the course of the afternoon. A dozen were awesome. Here are a few of those, and some that I just like.


This was the banner I did the tutorial for. Extremely simple. Sam loves it. They been really interested in letters lately. I've since made one for Benjamin as well.


Ben, sticking his little tongue out at me. Where do kids learn this? I'm sure three-year-olds in the Amazon jungle stick their tongues out at people. Why?



I love this picture. He was just walking up to me and I kept holding down the button. Six blah pictures to get this one. Lovely. And why digital is the way to go for childhood photography, in my opinion.



Here are the sound effects to go along with this picture: "Brrrrrrrr! ZZZzzzrrrrrrrroooooooommmmmm! Screeeeeeech! Oh, no! Rrrrrrrooogggggggggmmmmmmm! Haha! I win! I won again!" Sam was racing around all afternoon on this trike and loving life.


Sam, quietly contemplating the magic of wheels and the power they bestow on him. Like so many men before him.



Sam, as he makes another attempt at standing on the seat of the tricycle. The last time he fell off, in a glorious failure. This is the time he succeeded. I applauded and then told him to get down and not get hurt. I am Mom, after all.



Ben, concentrating all his energy on drawing. He is quite the prolific sidewalk drawer. It's a very kinetic experience for him. He's all over the place.



Ben narrates the story as he draws, whether anyone is listening or not. If I ask him afterwards about the drawing the story is usually the same, but with some edits.


So, what do you think? Save up for a SLR camera? I think so. We'll be accepting donations. Thank you for your support.

Jonathan and Jenna: A Wedding

My little brother got married a couple of weeks ago. I know, it's crazy. He married an awesome girl from Maine. And they are so adorable, even Ben and Sam think so.


The Fam in Transit from Ceremony to Reception

We got to spend a few days in Utah at my sister's house before the wedding and spent some time with the family. Almost my entire family was in their house. It was crazy, awesome fun and very, very, very nice of them to put us all up. Oh, and Carina, somehow we ended up with two of Jackson's toy cars. I don't know how. We'll bring them back. I promise.

We also realized that we have become California drivers who have no patience for Utah drivers. I didn't expect that, but Zach and I were both grieved at the atrociousness of some of the drivers. I don't really know why this is, but it is.



Jenna and Jonathan

I also remembered that being a family member at the wedding is a lot different from getting married yourself, which I had forgotten, since ours was the last wedding we attended. I think it's more overall enjoyable, though not nearly as exciting.


We managed to grab to boys just long enough to take this picture and then they dashed off again.



Ben resting in a nook of the SLC temple



Sam resting in a cranny of the SLC temple






H.R.H. Riley (my niece), who is all things adorable.



The reception was at the Lion House and the boys were actually quite good, as long as they had ice in their glasses to fish out and eat.

Ben and Sam have been obsessed with temples and marriage and weddings since this. Sam has declared that he is going to love one girl when he grows up and that he currently loves the local heartthrob named Lucy. Ben says he is going to love five girls.

This is how the boys summed up the wedding for me the other day:

Ben: Jonathan and Jenna got married at the Salt Lake temple. And everyone clapped. But I didn't clap.
Sam: But I did. Then I stopped.
Ben: And Jenna had a white dress and she looked beautiful. And Jay had a black shirt and he looked beautiful.
Sam: Ya, and Jay had a black shirt and he looked goofy!




It was lovely.

Speech!

Before we proceed to the hilarity that is Ben and Sam, I just thought I would explain how I record these. The boys crack us up all the time and if I want to remember it I absolutely MUST write what they say down immediately. I'll write these things down on scraps of paper, napkins, receipts, or whatever flat surface I find first. If I don't, then I forget them, or they get mangled up in my head and Zach and I will debate what exactly it wast that they said. So many funny things have been lost because I just didn't write them down soon enough.

Because of this lack of organization on my part, I sometimes find a small stash of quotes that I've written down somewhere but haven't yet recorded here. This is what happened with several of the quotes from today. The first four are from back at Christmas time. But, I figure, better late than never.

Also, for some reason, I often have batches that are very heavy on one of the boys and less on the other. This group has a ton of Ben and hardly any Sam. Other times it has been the other way around. It's kind of odd.

Anyway, here we go.



Ben: "Sam, you're a Christmas love! Ma, I called Sam a Christmas love. That's a very nice thing to call boys."

Ben: "Hey. Look! Sam's so handsome!"

Sam: "Does too much frosting make people loose a teeth?"
Ben: "No, it's not."

Ben: "Ma, come, come! I'm a super hero with a large gun. I want you to see the large gun. I'm a super hero with a large gun and he's a super hero with a small gun."

Me: "Do you want butter on your bread?"
Ben: "Yes! Butter is my favorite!"
Me: "Okay. (proceed to put butter on bread)"
Ben: "And honey. (Hand buttered and honeyed bread to Ben)
Oh. I don't like butter."

(While I'm attempting to open a jar)
Ben: "Mom don't! I'm gonna open it for you. (Takes jar and attempts to open it with all his might. Stops and hands it back to me.) Or maybe you can."

(While holding Ben after he got hurt I started patting his back)
Ben: "Mom, it's hard to cry when you do that."

The Great Outdoors

Ben and Sam have been begging to go on a camping trip. Begging. It's adorable and a little pathetic. They were asking me all day when we were going camping, and then the second Zach would get home they would ask him. I'm all for camping. It's fun, cheap, chaotic, and good for the soul. Especially once you are home and showered. So, we went camping for a night down in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Partially to have a fun time with the boys and part as an experiment to see what kind of gear we needed to make camping a more enjoyable experience for all of us.

We had a lot of fun, despite the fact that it was absolutely freezing. It took me a whole day to warm up again.

Ben and Sam climbing on a fallen tree (Sam insisted on wearing flip-flops)


This was the start of a little hike we took after we had the tent all set up and whatnot. Very slow going.

The hike went something like this: Walk ten feet. See a leaf. Stop and examine leaf. Walk two feet. See a stick. Stop and pick up stick. Walk twenty feet swinging the stick and insisting on holding Mommy's hand. Mommy makes you put down the stick or walk farther away from everyone to avoid eyes getting poked out. See rock! Stop and pick up rock. Throw rock. Cry because you want another rock. Look! Another rock. Etc, etc.

Obviously, it was an awesome hike. Actually, it was right up my alley because I am a super slow hiker.


The waterfall we hiked to. (It wasn't quite as steep a drop as it looks in this picture, but we still kept a hold of the boys)

Ben and Waterfall (and my hand grabbing onto his jacket)

Right after we left the waterfall we were standing by a large sandstone rock formation and Ben found a newt/salamander (I'm really not sure which is which). Ben wanted to keep it for a pet and Sam kept saying, "what a cute little guy!"

the boys and wild newt

We continued our hike on to Slippery Rock, where we climbed up to the top. On the way down Sam got ahead of everyone and came within about twenty feet of three deer. He thought is was cool, but not as cool as a newt. Not even close.

Sitting at the top of Slippery Rock

What Ben and Sam really wanted to do while camping, the one thing that could not by any means be forgotten, was to build a fire and roast marshmallows. We could only find strawberry and vanilla flavored marshmallows at the store the day before. Weird, but the boys liked them.

Also, the wood we bought was quite wet, so we had a bit of trouble getting our fire started. Annoying, but we finally got it going. And since Ben and Sam really didn't want their marshmallows getting hot or browned at all, just wanted to put them in the general direction of a flame and then eat them off the stick, it was fine.


Fearless Adventurers and Marshmallows


Once the logs actually caught fire a little

The only eventful thing about the night, besides a raccoon encounter was that it was cold. And in the morning it seems even colder. I let the boys keep their pajama shirts on because they were shivering in a sad way.

After breakfast and packing up, we went on another little walk to see some of the biggest redwood trees in the park. They are pretty impressive. The boys spent the whole time pretending to be carrying tiny, baby dragons around. I'm not sure why. I guess they figure this would be the kind of environment a dragon would live in.

Jumping the Fence to see the brook.


Nature Boys

It was awesome, despite being freezing. And to further drive that point home, I made a little video of the event. It's not loading here for some reason, so here is a link to it. Enjoy!