Independence Day... and the Following Week...

Hello!  Well... last week I wanted to wait until the end of the day to write a blog post as I knew we'd have some good pictures from fireworks, etc. and I ended up waiting until the next Sunday... Oops.  Maybe it's a good thing though because not so much happened this past week.  Here we all are on the 4th of July over at the Cammack's house ready for some fireworks!  We had a great time, and as you can see, made new tie dye shirts!  America!

The girls have been getting into their old dance costumes and Winry has been loving it.  Let's just say we've had a LOT of dance recitals over the past two weeks!

Grayson has started sucking his thumb more.  It's not a ton during the day, and I guess I don't really know how often at night, but I do know he still doesn't put things in his mouth, so if he's doing anything it's his thumb.

I gave Grayson his bath and we had a great time together.  This is the first bath that I have given him I believe.  Post bath I had to make sure Grayson was very dry, which was a lot of work.

On Friday (July 2nd) my work had their 4th of July party.  We were all very excited to attend.  The girls brought a bike and scooter for the bike parade and were excited to roll into the party in style!

Speaking of style, look at Brooke's pose!  We had a lot of fun.  The girls got balloon animals, we had BBQ for dinner and we played around outside while waiting for it to get dark.  The festivities included riding bikes/scooters around SEAKR, a giant inflatable slide (Brooke loved it but was very wary to go down, Winry climbed up once and Monica had to go get her down), and playing in the grass.

Grayson had a blast with Monica's water bottle pulling the straw in and out.

When it got close to dark, I took the girls to the car to change into pajamas, and when we came back there was a firetruck (like, actual truck size) that was letting people look around at it and sit in the driver seat.  I took the girls over to see.

They both really liked it, but Winry didn't want to get all the way in.  She just stood on the little side thing.  We also got to see the helmets and suits and stuff packed in the back of the truck.

At 9:30 the firework show started!  Grayson woke up like a minute before, so I took him out of his car seat to see if he'd enjoy watching.  He seemed very mesmerized by everything, and enjoyed the fireworks very much.

Winry enjoyed the show, though it was too loud for her.  This was her first time seeing real fireworks since she was a baby, and when she was a baby she got the earmuffs.  We may have to invest in a second pair for next year.

Brooke had a wonderful time watching the fireworks, and also was somehow in much better lighting than the rest of us.

On Saturday (3rd) we wanted to make some tie dye shirts, so Monica headed to the store and Brooke really wanted to join her.  Winry wanted to do yoga, so I got to watch along with her.  I was pretty impressed with some of the poses she could do and how well she kept her balance.

I also made a trip to Walmart to get a new pool for the back yard.  I moved our play set over so the girls could slide in to the pool.  The hope with this little guy is that it's a lot easier to set up and clean up, so hopefully we won't leave it out for months and have it get all nasty inside.  Currently it's cleaned up in the garage, so we're already heading in the right direction.

On the 4th we got a picture together as a family after church.  I don't think I realized how matching and patriotic we looked until I saw this picture today.  Go us (and U.S.).

The plan for the day was to head to the Cammacks' for a BBQ, but we had to do some preparations before then.  When we got home Grayson was in a terrific mood, and couldn't stop laughing at Monica!

We wore our new tie dye shirts of course, and the whole family matched again!  Also... I like this picture... and I don't know what to say... the end.

There were lots of water balloons, which meant lots of water fun!  The girls had a blast with their friends.  Also, it rained off and on that afternoon, so things were a bit wet and cold when we started off.  Everyone had a lot of fun though.

Clara absolutely loves Grayson.  When we headed out for fireworks she came over to give him a big hug.  As you can see, Grayson went straight for her eye...  She didn't get hurt, so all's well that ends well.

All the kids got to do a sparkler.

And Monica helped Grayson!  I was able to get a pretty cool slow motion video of one of the fountains as well.

On Monday morning (5th, also, phew, finally made it to this week) we headed out for breakfast and went swimming at the outdoor pool.  We went to The Egg & U.  Swimming was fun after, though I did spend probably half the time rocking Grayson to sleep.  At least I got to be in the shade :).

One night I was laying on the floor in Grayson's room and Monica asked me to get him a diaper.  Standing up seemed way harder than blindly reaching into the drawer with my toes and trying to learn how to pick up a diaper, so naturally that was the path I chose.

Thursday was playgroup at the park, and Monica took the Cammacks' kids with her (it was her turn in a babysitting swap).  Here's everyone on a swing.  I think the most impressive part is that all the kids are swinging simultaneously despite there being only one pusher.

Grayson is a bit poundy lately, so we gave him a turn on the piano.  It took him a minute to get going, but then he was set!  Sweet, sweet baby music.

Grayson ate a strawberry this past week.  He's really trying to put his teeth to good use.  Oh, which reminds me, he has been sleeping TERRIB LY!  Worse than the last post.  I was up for like 3 hours one night walking around the basement with him before he calmed down and went back to sleep.  We've since started some sleep training, and it seems to be going pretty well.

Yesterday I was tossing a ball around for Jelly and she ended up on Winry's shoe.  The ball wasn't particularly close, so I'm not sure how this happened, but she just laid there hugging it, occasionally rubbing her face on it.

I spent most of the morning doing chores around the house, and then in the afternoon I went golfing.  I went 18 holes, so it ended up taking the rest of the day.  I had a lot of fun, and it was really beautiful out on the course.  I also learned that right now I'm a 9-hole kind of golfer.  While I did have fun the whole time, 18 holes was a bit too long for me, so I'll have to revisit the full course some time after I've gotten back into golf a bit more.

Phew, caught up!  I'm glad I didn't forget again this week, I don't know if I could handle a 3 week post.  I hope everyone has a safe and happy week ahead!  Till next week!
 

Dinner on the BYU Football Field

Hello hello!  We're back from Utah and had a great time while we were out there.  We spent most of the week with my family, but headed down Saturday to see Monica's family and go to dinner with them on the BYU football field!!  It was awesome, but I'll drop more details later.

We actually drove out last Saturday (you'd know but that blog post hasn't made it out yet), but fast forwarding into this week we find Winry sleeping with her glasses on!  Guess her glasses are more comfortable than mine.

While we were at my parents house my dad had reached out to their neighbor who said we could come swim at their pool!  We had a lot of fun and went 3 times!  Brooke tried out their kickboard without her floaties.  I think she's done this at swim lessons, but the pool here was deeper than where she was for swim lessons, so good job to her!  Brooke actually took back to the water really well and got pretty brave, which was nice to see.

Grayson got this floatie for Christmas and it made the maiden voyage!  Grayson liked floating for a little bit, and really liked the toy duck and shark.  He eventually got sad (I think his shirt came up and maybe it was rubbing on him?) and enjoyed being held and swam around the pool.  He also does well with water on the face and didn't freak out when getting splashed, so we tried to help reinforce that.

Winry had a lot of fun, but wasn't quite as comfortable.  She doesn't trust her floaties yet, which is fair because she still had a hard time rolling around (like back to stomach) in them and can end up sideways and get her mouth in the water.  She spent a lot of time on the stairs (there was one really big stair where the water is about 1.5 feet deep) and loved to have someone swim her around.  She also liked being on these floating bed things.

At my parents house the girls were really great at helping out.  Winry fed Grayson lunch one day even.

Wednesday we headed back to the pool again!  We played a game where we'd jump in the pool and act out an animal.  Technically someone is supposed to yell it out as you're jumping and you try to figure it out and act it out quickly in the air before landing.  Anyway, Brooke did her favorite "mythical" animal!  I did inform her a narwhal is a real animal, and she was pretty excited about that.

Here's Winry over on that big step.  She was practicing doing bubbles!  She's still pretty nervous around water, so I was really excited to see her get her face wet on purpose!  On Wednesday some of Monica's friends also came to visit us at the pool and we all swam together.  I really enjoyed swimming at the pool and going down their water slide, and after swimming so much so often I'm realizing I really enjoy swimming and maybe even want a pool.  Monica was really excited about that revelation, but our back yard insists it's not ready.

The girls enjoyed getting to spend time with their cousins while we were out.  Here's a picture of Brooke and Cameron together.  Everyone really enjoyed playing with Grayson as well.  He was never short of a person to play with for long.

On Wednesday afternoon I went golfing with Niki and Alyson.  It turned out to be the perfect day because the high ended up only being around 90 (it was around 100 the rest of the week).  We had a great time, and I'm enjoying doing more golfing this year.  I missed it a lot!  Alyson took an early lead, but was kind enough to pull the door wide open on the last few holes, and I happily walked through into first!

On Thursday morning the girls were at Jerusha's house as they had a sleep over the night before.  Monica and I enjoyed our freedom by going on a morning walk together with Grayson who fell asleep!  We saw a crazy bee tree while we were out.  As you walked to the tree you heard a buzzing, and there were bees all over the flowers on it.  Probably at least 100, but I'm sure there were WAY more.  I did take a video, but you can't really see much, so I'll spare you.

Here's a cute picture of Grayson playing on the floor.

We went to Alyson's house again on Thursday night.  The girls got in to swim, but Monica and I got there a little later with dinner and everyone was ready to eat when we showed up.  It was still a lot of fun, and we even got to see Barkley,  Alyson's cat.  Oh, and Winry found Alyson's M&M bowl, so that's... problematic.

On the drive home Grayson started getting nervous about Monica's crazy driving, and had to hold on tight!

On Friday we made a final swimming trip to the neighbors house.  Great times again.  I tried on some swim goggles (it's been a long time) and I still don't love the tightness on my head/eyes, but it was pretty cool to see so well under the water.

On Saturday we headed to Monica's parents house.  This was great because Brooke really wanted to get to spend time with Audrey, who also came over.  The kids all had a great time playing together all day.  I brought my golf simulator down and hit a few balls with Ron.  We talked the possibility of future golf trips, and I'm hopeful those will happen.  When it was time to head to the stadium everyone who changed "just so happened" to match Grayson.  Please, I'm supposed to believe that just happened?!?

The dinner was a lot of fun.  We had our own reserved parking spot at the stadium.  Dinner was on the center of the field, and there were plenty of opportunities for pictures.  Cosmo came to dinner with us which was pretty neat, and Grayson loved him!  We got pictures of Cosmo holding Grayson, and Grayson really liked to grab and pet Cosmo's fur!

At dinner Cosmo sat across from me.  I got to watch him drink some water and eat some melon, and I WISH I had taken a video!  It was funny to watch.

On our way out Grayson did some jukes and jives in his stroller down the field to score his first touchdown!  All star play.  Also, the Blood family all got a picture together before we left the dinner.

We drove home on Sunday and stopped in Wanship for church.  We continued on our way and ended up stopping in Little America for lunch.  We had a picnic in the shade of the dinosaur, and after lunch we all climbed on the dino!  Winry really loves these dinosaurs and was very excited to see it. Whenever she sees one she says "there's my dino friend!".

While we were driving home there were two crazy rain storms.  Monica got to drive through one, and I got the other.  Monica wasn't feeling great, so we avoided windy roads and went through Cheyenne.  What exciting thing does that mean for you?  It means we drove past the tree growing out of the rock in the middle of the freeway between Laramie and Cheyenne!  Monica tried to get a picture as we drove by, and this is the most visible tree.

We're back at home now, and Grayson sleeps sometimes.  That will be more of a story for next weeks blog post though.  We had a great time in Utah and loved getting to see our family.  It was also great that Oriah and her kids were out there at the same time.  Have a great week ahead!

Happy Fathers' Day

Happy Father's Day!!  Sad news... we didn't take any pictures on Father's Day...  Sad times.  But we did get swim lesson pictures!!  Here are the girls together.  I don't know if this was on their last day, but they finished their two weeks on Thursday.  They both had a lot of fun, and I believe improved a bunch.  Brooke is definitely feeling much more comfortable in the water, especially with her floaties on.  She is basically self-sufficient.  She also loves to jump in!  Winry is doing much better, but still isn't comfortable.  She still needs one on one attention when she's in the water, and doesn't trust herself in her floaties.  She'll get there soon though, I just know it.

Winry enjoyed a bit of tanning while waiting through Brooke's swim lessons.  She spends a lot of time trying to keep herself entertained, and I believe does a good job entertaining Monica!

Brooke was busy absorbing everything.  Here she's practicing monkey, airplane, soldier, or whatever they call it now.  I don't remember which, but one of those words was different for her.  That's how I learned it though.

Our garden has been growing nicely.  At least our strawberries are really taking off.  Other things are growing, but I think we've gotten strawberries and green onions so far.  I'm excited to see what else we end up with, and hopefully our watermelon does great!!

Winry continues to patch, and does a great job.  She's always happy to put it on and takes them all the way off by herself now.  I'm glad she's been enjoying it.  She usually has it on in the afternoon during quiet time.  Here, she's nursing her baby.

Summer dance classes started, and the girls have been loving it.  Winry gets to move into a combo class and now does ballet AND tap.  She's really liking it.  Brooke has ballet, tap and jazz this summer, and I believe this is her first time doing jazz.  She's really liked it so far.

Jelly found a visitor in our backyard this past week.  She loves to watch the squirrels!  We also found a ping pong ball under the bathroom sink, and she chased that around the house for a day or two before it got lost under something again.  I think ping pong balls are her favorite toy... we should probably get her some more.

The girls love to play with Grayson, and are probably better at making him laugh than Monica or me.  Especially at bed time it's hard to keep them out!  That's probably because they just want to postpone going to bed.

Jelly continues to take a nap in the office basically every day.  It's nice to have a coworker who also lets me get stuff done.

On Saturday we left for Utah!  We stopped in Cheyenne to feed Grayson and also grabbed gas, and then stopped again in Rock Springs for lunch.  We tried to find a park near the Wendy's we went to, and this is where we ended up.  The pictures were definitely of the park highlights.  There was a small playground (not great for our age of kids) with a little grass around it, and we were expecting a bit more of that, and a bit less dirt... 

The kids were great for the car ride, so that was nice.  We stopped at my Aunt Alyson's house on the way in to go swimming.  My sisters and Oriah's kids met us there and we had a great time.  After swimming for a bit we grabbed some dinner and finished the last 30 minutes of our drive.

For Father's Day, Brooke was just too excited and brought up all my presents, so I opened them right after breakfast.  I got a nice bread knife and bread loaf pan, some books, a golfing gift certificate and cooling towel things.  Once we were all ready we actually headed down to Orem to see Monica's friend from childhood, Cristine, who happened to be passing through.  They got to catch up for a little bit, and then since it was 10 minutes away, we also surprised her parents and went to church with them for a Father's Day surprise.  After church we headed to my sister Niki's house to work on dinner.  I picked chicken and waffles, and they were terrific!  When we got back to my parents it was time to get ready for bed for the kids, and Monica and I who were quite tired followed suit.  Oh, I also got a piece of pie at church!

I'm a bit sad we didn't get a specific Father's Day picture, but we're having a lot of fun so no real complaints.  I'm really excited for the next week out here with my family.  Technically I've already gotten through 2 days, and it's been a lot of fun.  Got some good pictures today, so look forward to that!