4th of July

4th of July

Albuquerque, NM

Bike parades, flags, fire trucks, sack races, foot races, watermelon eating contests, neighborhood gatherings, sunshine, sense of community, sparklers, BBQ's, red, white and blue, fireworks, friends and family.  I love America.  I love the 4th of July, I love celebrating the birth of our nation, and the freedoms and opportunities we have in this land.  God bless the USA!

May/June Quotes

Sean:  I'm having my 30 minutes of creativity.
(one of the requirements to earn screen time)

Dallin:  I've pretty much mastered the art of getting up and getting dressed every morning.  I didn't go to school in my pajamas once last year.

Sean (at an archery range with a dinosaur target):  Let's kill this dinosaur til he's dead!

Hayden:  What's the air force?

Carter:  It's these guys who fly around shooting people.

Kyrie:  Aunt Jen, I need a bandaid.

Jen:  Oh no, where are you bleeding?

Kyrie:  Um, on my foot.

Jen:  Can I see it?

Kyrie: Well, it's kind of small

Jen:  That's okay, where is it?

Kyrie:  Well it might be kind-of fake (pointing to a red circle on her toe.)

Jen:  Oh yeah, that's a marker.

Sydney:  Red means stop, and yellow means slow down.  What does blue mean?

Me:  I don't know--we don't use blue for driving.

Sydney:  Does it mean drive backwards?!

Carter:  I'm Cinderella and I'm cleaning up so I can go to the ball.

Dallin:  You're going to a ball?

Carter:  YEAH, I'm going to a ball!

Sydney:  What if we put hanzitizer on our arms?  Would it be armzitizer?

Bennettisms:

We love Bennet's cute little voice and expanding vocabulary.  He doesn't say his K's or G's and replaces them instead with T and D sounds.

 I tum, I tum! (I come, I come!)

  I lite totonut.  (I like coconut)

 Day-doo so much!  (Thank you so much)

 I play tomputer.  (computer)

 Read to me!  Read it adain! (again)

Otay! (okay)

Bennett is the family nomad when it comes to bedtime.  In any given night he will request several different beds: 
I want to sleep Dada's bed.  I want to sleep Hayden's bed.  I want to sleep Da-nee's bed.

Disney Quotes:

Sydney after Space Mountain:  Mom, some people like rides that other people DON'T like. 

Arthur:  Bennett, do you want to go to Disneyland?
Bennett:  Yeah!!!  Mater und Lightning McQueen, und FIREWORKS!

Hayden: (first time on Indiana Jones, he was a little nervous) Be QUIET! I can't hear the instructions!

Bennett:  Mom, get in stroller?  Go to Buzz Lightyear ride und Ariel Ride und Tractor ride?

Me:  Hey Bennett, want to come to the store with me?

Bennett:  (thinking for a minute) Well... how 'bout....DISNEYLAND?!?

Bennett:  Tom on Mom, det in stroller!  Buzz Lightyear ride!!
(Can you tell that Disneyland was a HUGE hit with Bennett?)

Hike to Alpine Lakes

Hiking is good for you.  We believe in teaching our kids to hike.  It teaches hard work, endurance, and all kinds of life lessons, in addition to just being good for your health.   (An extra bonus for us if we're hanging out with Nona and Papa, is that if you want "prime-time"with Papa, you go hiking.  My Dad loves to hike, and we love hiking with him!  He's always prepared for everything.)

So our last day at the cabin, we took our kids on a hike with Nona & Papa and all the other nieces and nephews who were there.  (Except the twins.) We made Bennett walk as far as we could convince him to go before putting him in the backpack.  It took a lot of distraction, (walking "like a giant" or a "a horse," and singing "You're a Grand Old Flag,"which has become his hiking song this summer) to get him to go as far as he did, and he whined for most of that.  Including while he was singing.  But once he finally got to ride, hiking was suddenly the bestest, funnest, greatest thing there ever was.  Ha!  Baby steps.  Start 'em out young, and get them to go a little further each time.  Don't you worry; we'll make a hiker of him yet.

I'm happy to report that Sydney (who was our whiney hiker last year) has graduated to the happy hiker group and now loves to be up near the front of the line.  She said that last year she didn't like to hike, but her legs are much stronger this year and that's why she's a good hiker now.

It was a gorgeous hike to Alpine Lakes with views that caught my breath and wildflowers everywhere.  When we got to one of the bigger lakes, the kids were all hot and hopped in that cold mountain lake to play.  Unfortunately, I forgot a swim diaper or a change of clothes for Bennett, so we ended up stripping him down to play in the lake.  The kids were all properly scandalized and couldn't stop giggling about Bennett's skinny dipping.  I didn't bring my swim stuff either, but instead of skinny dipping, I just put Sean in charge of him.  I loved watching Sean playing with him in the water and doing funny things to make Bennett laugh.  I loved watching the kids play in the water, and help each other over a fallen log bridge.  I loved watching my kids holding their Nona or Papa's hands hiking along the trail, and seeing my Dad whip out his first aid kit to help with a couple of scraped knees.  Yep.  It was a good hike.

Playin' at a Park

One of the days, we packed a picnic and headed over to a nice park a short drive away.  It was pretty hot while we were up there, so it felt nice to be in the shade and out of the cabin which can get quite stuffy in the summer afternoons.

Sydney's 5th Birthday!

We celebrated Sydney's 5th birthday up at Stonehaven with lots of cousins and Aunts and Uncles!  It's not everyday we get to celebrate birthdays with so much family!  We had a pink pony piñata and pink cake and presents.  Bennett LOVED hitting that piñata, and asked the next day to play "pink pony game."  When we were saying things that we love about Sydney, two things stand out in my memory.  One said they loved her laugh (me too--it's completely contagious) and I think it was her cousin, Gavin, who said he loved that she was magical.  Sydney laughed, "Magical? I'm not magical!"  But I think he's right--Miss Sydney is a rather magical little girl.