Grayson's Week

Well, I'm not sure exactly how this happened, but Grayson seems to be the star of this week.  Obviously the girls have still been here, but I guess things were just new and exciting with Grayson since he's the youngest.  Grayson still loves climbing all over anyone he can get on.  In fact, just this morning, Winry dropped a Lego on the floor, and I was helping her look for it.  While I was crawling around looking under things Grayson ran up behind, climbed on my legs and started pushing on me for me to go down so he could keep climbing up.  He's also really enjoyed running around with a blanket over his head.  There are times he definitely can't see anything, and it's pretty impressive to watch him maneuver around the room he just saw.  He doesn't slow down very much.

Excitingly, Monica and the kids got to go to the museum on Friday!  We haven't had a pass since COVID started, but the kids still remember it and miss it.  We've gone a few times since our pass expired, usually on a discounted day or something.  This time Monica had checked out a pass from the library, and it got 7 people in, so the Cammacks came along too!  Again, that was Friday, it was just the most group picture I had, so I stuck it first.

Grayson continues to have his nightly baths.  His skin has been looking basically normal recently.  One night things ran long and we figured we could skip his bath, and his skin immediately started getting worse, so we're back on the every ay schedule, and I've stepped up my lotion game as well.  Anyway, he's usually happy in the tub, but sometimes we have to look for a new game, like sticking on suction cups!

Grayson gets real excited during bed time.  After his bath he usually wants to be put in his crib, which is great because then he's contained when I need to put on lotion, get him dressed, and get his toothbrush for him, but he does his best to make it difficult while being in a small space.  He's always rolling and diving and burrowing.

We're back to Friday.  Everyone has a great time at the museum, and I guess there are some new things since the last time we went.  There was a play area in the space exhibit that everyone really loved, and Grayson spent the rest of the time asking to go back to.  There's also a place you can watch rocket launches and the ground shakes and there's a loud rumble as they take off.  It's pretty fun and you can watch a bunch of different rockets take off.  In the video, Clara (the girl in the back) has light up shoes, and the rumble is enough to trigger her shoes while she's standing watching it.

Grayson was a bit mischievous, and especially so in the dinosaurs where he kept climbing up on to exhibits!  It was bad enough Monica just had to take him out and they missed there rest of it.  Brooke and Winry stayed and finished seeing things with Eleanor Clara and Hanna.  Good thing we weren't there alone.

Friday night is family movie night, and we watched Bluey this week.  Grayson really likes Bluey, at least the opening credits song, and does sometimes watch little bits of it.  He's not old enough to just sit and watch TV yet, but I was fortunately there for him.  He wanted to climb up and over me, so I helped him out.

On Saturday while eating a snack Grayson was balancing on the end of his chair.  He just came up with this all on his own.  I tried to get a video, but sometimes when you take a video he gets curious about what's on your phone and walks around you to see what's on your phone, and this was one of those times.  That also ended trying to hang on his chair, so I'm glad I at least got a good picture.

When we got home from church today Grayson was quite tired.  He took his bottle into the blanket cave and laid down to enjoy it!

And that's what I've got for this week.  I'm pretty surprised it ended up all Grayson.  Winry's been playing with Lego's all day today, Brooke got a new school backpack yesterday, there's been a lot of playing in the back yard this past week.  In fact, I actually had a really great time with the girls playing with the hula-hoop.  I'd throw it with back spin, so it lands across the yard and comes rolling back, and then we all race to try to be the one to grab it.  While we were playing that I scooped a beachball (also, back story of note on the beachball... we didn't but it, it was just in our backyard one day, and we've never been able to figure out where it came from) up on the hula-hoop and would balance the ball on the hoop.  Brooke was VERY impressed.  After I did it a few times she said "Dad, you have been practicing magic!  You are sticking the ball to the hoop!"  Background on that comment is that she gave me a magic kit for Christmas.  I do really want to practice it, but I usually forget at night.  Anyway, cool magic back there.

One of our neighbors got a new dog, and it can jump their 5 foot fence, so we've seen a dog in our backyard a few times.  It doesn't come over if they're outside, and always comes back when they call.  They've called a fence company, but in the mean time the dog is very friendly, and hasn't caused a problem yet.

And I think the last bit of news I can think of (good thing we free formed away from pictures!) is that I have been abnormally tired lately.  I have no clue what's going on.  I think I've been getting enough sleep, but it's reeked havoc on my running plan over the last month or so, and today I just never felt like I could wake up all the way.  I decided to cut my running training plan a week short and so I finished up yesterday, and hopefully taking a few weeks off will help me feel better.  I'll probably focus on going to bed early as well.

Anyway, I think that's really everything, unless Monica want's to add a P.S.

Girls Camp and Frivolities

Back on schedule!  Well, if I finish this post today :).  Monica is off to ward choir, and the girls went with her to play with other kids there, so it's just me and napping Grayson.  Personally, I think Grayson has the right idea, but if the time presents itself I better take it, as I feel I've been struggling to get the blog posts written lately.  We had a pretty crazy week, and for the most part the whole family wasn't home together. I was out on my work trip, and got back Wednesday afternoon.  And Monica took off first thing Friday morning for girls camp.  While Monica was out I took the kids to the zoo, and while we were there we rode the train.

Grayson has become a master of peek-a-boo, though in his version he's hiding and then calls out "here he is!" to help you find him.  He apparently does this with stuffed animals over his face in his crib, or for me we usually play it behind the blanket basket downstairs.

Meanwhile, I was out in Texas.  To finish off my foreboding comments about Sunday night, we ended up being at the facility working on our test until after 4 in the morning.  Turns out we thought we fixed something, but the fix actually broke things, and then we spent a few hours trying to figure out what the "new errors" were that our fix brought to light... Eventually we reverted and things were fine again.  When we got back to the hotel, I hopped on the treadmill for a run so that I could make it up until breakfast started, grabbed some food and went to bed.  Why stay up so late?  Because our shift the next day went from 4 pm to 8 am!  Our time went well, and we were able to collect more data than we originally planned.  I'm not sure that's a good thing, as it might create unhealthy expectations for the future, but at least things look good for now.  After our time ended, we headed to the hotel to sleep, came back to the facility to pack, and out for food.  We were heading for the airport at 7 am the next day, so in less than 24 hours from our shift finishing we were on our way back home.  I think in total I had 3.5 hours of time away from work where I wasn't sleeping, and 1.5 of those was on a treadmill.  It was a very intense, tiring trip.

However, when we went out to grab dinner on our final night, we also went to Smoosh for an ice cream sandwich!  I got mine on a donut, and was very happy.

There were enough hours on the trip that by the time I got home I  was done with work for the week.  Generally the day after a trip is considered likely for a member of the trip to take off, and my work just started 9/80, and Friday just happened to be my first Friday off.  Thursday morning is play group, and this week it was at the pool.  Of course I came along.  We had a great time, and Winry is doing so much better in the pool!  She even went on some of the water slides and climbed up through the spraying water by herself!  The only thing I wish we would have done while we were there was for Brooke and I to go on the big water slides.  She went earlier in the week while I was out of town, and we talked about going, but ran out of time.

Grayson's crib is starting to get a bit crowded.  It started with that big kitty, and now keeps wanting to bring in more and more.  I think secretly he knows that if he gets enough stuff in there he'll be able to climb out the top.  He probably could already, except in his sleep sack he can't get his legs far enough apart.

Friday morning we actually beat Monica out of the house by a few minutes.  There was a big scramble in the morning as she packed everything up for girls camp, and we got everything ready for a day at the zoo.  We of course stopped to see the vultures.  Honestly, I love that Winry loves them so much and that we go see them every time.  When we went by this time there was no one else anywhere near their exhibit, and it is a little out of the way from everything else.  The pen next to them is currently empty, and the next one over was closed for maintenance.  I'm sure the animals don't care if people come see them, but I love showing up and listening to Winry sing Happy Birthday to them every time!

When we arrived, the kids told me they wanted to see the sea lion show, and the elephant show.  We were able to make it to both!  I got a slow motion video of the sea lion hitting the ball, I wish I had started it just a little sooner, but it's not like I really had a lot of warning, and the super-slow mo videos on my phone can only be 0.4 seconds long, so you just gotta guess it right.  All things considered I like what I got.  We missed the very end of the show where the bigger (the one in the video weights 200 lbs, the big one weighed 700 lbs) sea lion jumped up and touched it as we were off to find a bathroom.  I did see the large splash though.

At the elephant show they had the elephants go down in the water around the platform.  I don't know that I've ever seen them down in the water before, so that was pretty cool.  I think Winry would be disappointed if I didn't mention that one of the elephants pooped in the water as it was climbing back out.  She talks about it like it was her favorite part of the show.

Right next to the elephants is the fishing cat.  Throughout our zoo day, there were definitely times when you could tell when Grayson saw an animal.  His eyes would light up and he'd usually get a little excited and point.  Well, when he saw the fishing cat he got REALLY excited!  When we first got there, the fishing cat was laying down, but it got up and started walking around it's habitat.  The water was drained because it has a hurt paw, and whenever it walked away Grayson would call for it to come back.  We were here for quite a while watching.  Like, at least 4 other groups came and went through the whole building before we went on.  But I know that everyone had a wonderful time, and got to see something that was special to them.

Meanwhile, girls camp!  I'll let Monica say anything she might want to say about Friday's hike, or activities here: Camp was really fun! We had 10 girls come. We did a service project and then went on a hike on Friday and it was SO hot outside! Then we went to camp, set up and had dinner. We started a craft and right after, a thunderstorm rolled in! It only lasted for about an hour and then we were still able to make s'mores and sing camp songs and have our evening devotional/testimony meeting.

Friday night is movie night, and while the girls were watching their movie I was getting Grayson ready for bed.  When I got back downstairs Jelly was laying on Brooke's lap and Brooke was petting her.  This still doesn't happen too often, but hopefully Brooke's getting old enough that Jelly isn't as worried about her.

I shared a picture of our kitchen chair flipped last week, that trend continues.  Grayson is getting more comfortable with the arrangement, however.  He brought over some stuffed animals to pad his own chair to sit on.

On Saturday, we went to the Highlands Ranch library so the girls could play in their market.  They had an absolute blast the whole time.  Brooke and Winry really liked filling baskets and then checking each other out at the checkout counters.

Grayson just walked around with some toy food, probably looking for trouble.  He was pretty attached to the two yellow peppers for a while.

We had to use the bathroom while we were there, and it sure is nice that places have family bathrooms now.  It was a life saver at the zoo too.  There was a kids seat on the wall, so I put Grayson in and he seemed to really like it.

Eventually Brooke wanted to read some books, so while Winry and Grayson continued to play, Brooke browsed some of the children's books on display and read a few.

Around the time we finished at the library, girls camp was wrapping up.  They did a ropes course on Saturday, and again, I'll let Monica fill in any details she'd like to add here:  The ropes course was pretty fun and now my muscles are sore! We got up early and made breakfast and packed everything up so we could go do the course before thunderstorms rolled in. I'm really glad we got to do it and it helped us better visualize our camp theme of Trust in the Lord. 

When Monica got home there was all sorts of camp items to unpack, and Grayson was quick to find things to play with.  I don't know what it is with him and mustard, but he'll snatch it out of the door when the fridge is open too.  Also in the video, Bye Bye Bye by N'Sync is really popular in our house right now.

Saturday night Brooke offered to put Winry to bed.  For the most part this was great, as they put on pajamas, brushed teeth, sang songs and read stories together.  However, when it came to actual time to go to bed... well I had to go in anyway.  Took about 45 minutes to get everyone calmed down, but once they were they drifted quickly off to sleep.

Monica got a catnip plant for Jelly a little ago, and for the most part it seems like Jelly ignores it.  I think she actually just gives it attention in the middle of the night, because around 10:30 last night she came in for a snack!  She ate several leaves off of it, and I was a little worried she was going to chew up the base of the stem and bring the whole thing down.

This morning Grayson was running around in a backpack.  I ended up putting some toys in there for him at church and he carried his own activities to church.

Phew, I made it in time!  The girls haven't gotten home quite yet, so as I wrap this up I look forward to the nap I'll try to take.  Inevitably the garage door will open right as I lay down.  Maybe next week I'll write a little quicker!  Hope you're doing great!

Preppin for a Test Trip

What a week!  Things were pretty nuts here (which is in part why I'm writing this almost a week late).  I left for a beam trip on Sunday at the end of this week, and I had a rather crazy week at work leading up to it.  The test was definitely not in an operational state, so I stepped in and helped pull all the blocks together and debug everything over the last week.  It wasn't quite where we wanted to be, but I was able to get everything we needed functional.  This involved several long days AT work!  Can you believe it, I had to go in! ;)  I also got on my computer several nights after the kids went to bed to address things.  Anyway, from my point of view this week was quite a blur, but there was definitely some great stuff that happened around here!  Such as Winry and Grayson reading stories together!  

Monica took the kids to one of the local libraries where they have a vet setup.  The kids really like playing with the stuffed animals and giving them check ups.  Grayson also tested out the drinking fountain!

Monica and the kids headed to a local place called Monkey Business one day with the Cammacks.  It's an indoor jungle gym type place for kids, and the kids had a lot of fun.  I could tell from how excitedly they told me all about it!  Grayson had a good time riding this turtle, though it was no horse...

There was a big inflatable climbing wall (that's what I've pieced together from the pictures and videos) that the kids all enjoyed.  Just look at Grayson stomping around!  Winry, on the other hand, was bouncing all over the place in there!  Brooke climbed the wall and would jump off.  She said there was a line on it up higher where you weren't supposed to climb, I'm guessing because you were getting too close to the ceiling.

There was also a foam pit to jump in and do cool tricks, such as jumping in with a friend.

Here are all the kids together, I assume at the end of their day there.

Grayson is quite the climber right now.  It's not that uncommon to see our chairs in this configuration.  It does stop him from getting onto the table, but he does still climb on the chairs and sit on them too.

On Saturday we went to a really cool park that is relatively close by.  When we first got there we spent some time on the various play grounds and the nature observatory walk way.  In part of the park there's one of those raised paths over an otherwise undeveloped area.  It even has a two story part with a spiral stair case.  We didn't really see anything that interesting in the trees, but it was a nice addition to the park.  After we played some we headed over to another part of the park where they had a splashpad and a little stream leading to it.  Grayson promptly got in and sat at the head of the stream.

When it was time for a water break, Grayson got a drink the obvious way.

Grayson really loved the water.  He played in all of it.  The stream, the little pool at the end of the stream, and even with the fountains in the splash pad, though he was a little cautious and kept his distance after one of these turned on while he was standing on it!

Eventually we were playing on the hill, rolling and running down.  When the kids ran down the hill I would catch them and we'd spin around so I didn't just fall down the hill while holding them.  You can kind of tell, but this was a pretty steep hill.

Grayson also ran up the hill, but I didn't catch him on the way down and spin like I did for the girls.  Instead I just picked him up and we darted down together!

Later in the afternoon we were enjoying the back yard, and all of the kids got on the swing together!

Sunday morning I went to sacrament meeting at the other ward in our building, came home and headed to the airport to go to Texas.  I've done a decent job converting the rest of the team into Buc-ee's fans, though they more go for things like the candied pecans (which are SOOO good!), but as long as it gets me in the door, I don't care why (though I get the nuts too).  Well, low and behold, we walked in there door, and there was the man, the myth, the legend, Buc-ee himself!  What a day, and what a trip!  Obviously this was a good omen of things to come!  (the things that actual came resulted in probably the most exhausting test trip I've ever been on, despite being one of the shortest... but we did a dang good job in the beam and collected more data than expected.)

That's all for this week.  In my mind I can still remember when I planned to write this post around 2 am on Monday morning as I stayed up late to prep for staying up all night the next night.  HA!  How naive I was back then.  Anyway, things are going good now, and I think I'm back on a normal sleep schedule too!  Have a great day until I (hopefully) get the next post out.

Independence Day and a Carnival

Well hello!  I missed last week because I was in the middle of an amazing vacation and just didn't get to my computer for a long time.  Also, things are CRAZY with work right now, so it might take a few days to get this all written...  Anyway, cutting back a week or two takes us to....

The library!  All the libraries around here seem to have different cool things for the kids to do.  Ours has a mechanic place right now, but there are others with a vet place, and a mail place!  The kids had a lot of fun delivering letters and driving the car.

Grayson has been so silly lately!  He loves to go hide behind the blankets!  He's so much fun right now, and as you'll see in a little, he loves to tease and be silly and make everyone laugh.

Monica took the kids to a playground and it had this really cool splash pad thing.  Everyone had a really great time playing in the water, and rightfully so as it's been pretty hot out here.

Well, except for the day when it was all rainy, and it got pretty cold.  I wasn't wearing a jacket because it was cold outside, I wear a jacket every day because I get cold in the house.  Anyway, the rain inspired me to drape a blanket over myself, which Grayson just LOVED, so he had to come join me, and brought some stories along too!

Here's Grayson chomping on an orange.  I don't know if he's had an orange slice before...

All the kids love to play in the back yard, and the girls really love to play with Grayson.  Brooke was pushing Grayson on the swing in the back yard, and even pretending the swing was hitting her to get him to laugh!  Glad I taught her that game.

On Saturday the 2nd we drove out to Utah.  We picked up a few of Tyson and Tina's kids on the way to take out with us, and got there to enjoy the North Salt Lake fireworks!  We went over to the festivities to see what all was going on, and grabbed some pictures of everyone together in their matching shirts.  We didn't really do any of the things that were out, but we did spend some time rolling down the hill!

We headed back to my parents house and just watched the fireworks from their front yard.  There were a few trees across the street that block the lower ones, but all in all it was still a great view and we didn't have to fight any crowds.  The girls really loved the fireworks, though at the end Winry was shaking her glow stick at them to "fight them off."  The girls ended up not going to bed until around 11... and Winry just doesn't know how to sleep in.  I think we're still recovering...

Speaking of being tired and trying to recover, Monica had one of those nights where everything was just too funny.  Apparently those things include her hand of cards.

On the 4th of July we went swimming at Alyson's house.  She had a little kids floaty that Grayson really loved being in.  He was having a great time and singing songs and in general being a super cutey!

We had fun jumping in, swimming around, and throwing toys back  and forth.  We took a swim break to have some lunch.  We had a big hot dog roast.

After lunch Alyson had a pinata!  All the kids were excited and pounced on the candy when it dropped, but Grayson went for the real prize, the pinata!  We even brought it back with us.

My dad got a canoe from somewhere, and while we were out he asked for help patching some holes.  While it was in the house the girls took it for a spin around the living room.  Good news, it floats on carpet.

My oh my Grayson the teaser!  He loved to "tease papa!"  He'd run up to my dad and not quite get within reach, and then go running back, but usually in some crazy sideways manner.  I think he just got so excited and thought it was so funny he just didn't even know what he was doing!  Great times!  On Sunday when we saw my dad on a video call he even started saying "tease papa, tease papa!"

My dad talked to the neighbors and we got to go swimming in their pool on the 5th and 6th.  I didn't make it the first day, but while they were swimming Winry even tried swimming on her own, and she LOVES it!  Sometimes she wants help to get started, but then she tells everyone to back up!

I did come on Wednesday, and I'm really glad I did.  We had a lot of fun.  There is a large step in the pool, and Grayson loved to walk around it.  We put on his floaties and he loved stepping off the edge and getting caught (he doesn't know how to float in floaties, and is good at getting his face in the water still).  Later I even helped him jump in the side of the pool.  He loves the water and playing in it, but definitely needs monitoring. 

Now technically I wasn't fully available on Wednesday, so I was on the side of the pool on a work call.  The call didn't take the whole time, so I got to spend the first bit seeing Winry swim and everyone have a great time before I got to join everyone.

Brooke was rocking it on the slide.  She loved it once she gave it a try.inr

She even tried the diving board.  In the picture she was doing a flamingo.  It looks like she's a little crazy in there, but that was a purposeful pose.  She also shot for a 360!

I spend that afternoon in the back yard helping out to set up for Henry's birthday party.  Niki planned a whole carnival.  There were all kinds of games, like balloon pop, ring toss, football throw, sack racing, fishing, and of course a prize tent!

Meanwhile, inside Grayson was doing his best to keep himself entertained until the party started, walking on Monica.

We had a great hot dog roast with plenty of J Dawg's sauce, and you did ring toss to win your drink.  The girls both got an orange cream soda, and they were great!

Why wouldn't we have enormous turkey legs?

Oh yeah, and Niki got Bumble, the Salt Lake Bee's mascot!  There was even a baseball game that day, but he sent his backup to the game so he could make it to the party!  Grayson just LOVED him, and chased him around the carnival!

There was of course arm wrestling.  Winry was nervous at first, but we asked him to be very gentle and Winry loved it!  If you ever get a chance to meet bumble, tell him he's great!

Later in the party we had the big reveal, a dunk tank!  When I heard about it I figured I'd have to be gracious and offer to go in, but the kids were all so excited by it that there was actually a line to be dunked!

Here's all (or most at least) of the kids with Bumble before he had to take off.  Grayson was getting ready to go to bed and actually was coming out to say good night to him.

Grayson got to pick his big grand prize from the prize tent before he went to bed, and he picked this giant kitty squishmallow and never let it go for the rest of the night.  It's been in his crib every since and he loves to snuggle with it.

There was a balloon artist at the party as well!  My dad knows her, and she's really good.  Winry asked for a sea lion.  Not a typical request I'd guess, but it turned out amazing.

There was also a... hang on game.  I challenged Spencer to 1 v 1 me, and we didn't bring the hoop down, so it was a success!

Once the girls got to the fishing game they couldn't be stopped.  If only real fish were so easy to catch, we'd be eating like kings!

We headed home the next day, and stopped at Little America for a break and lunch.  After lunch we got ice cream for everyone, which was of course a big hit.  Monica shared her ice cream with Grayson, but he wouldn't eat it until she let him hold it.

While we were getting close to home there was a super amazing rainbow in the sky.  It wasn't as brilliant when we got home, or viewed from our house, but you could still see the whole thing, and the whole double rainbow too.

Since we've been home Grayson loves to sit on Monica's foot when it sticks past the footrest on the couch.  The first time he just sat there, but now he bounces on her foot and says "ride the horsey, ride the horsey."

On Saturday I took Brooke to Boondocks for a birthday party for one of her class mates from last year.  His name is Oliver.  There was one other kid from Brooke's class there, and some of his other friends.  Brooke had a really fun time, and ate the most pizza!  I enjoyed myself too, and I even got a few of the kids to try pepperoni on their cake!  It's not great...

It would appear that Oliver and Brooke were pretty close at school, like, REALLY close.  Oliver is actually trying to steal Brooke's activity card and drop it on the other side of the fence, but I mean, is that the only goal?

The kids all road go karts, but Brooke didn't want to go drive one.  After that they road the bumper boats, and Brooke did join in here.  She had a lot of fun driving around and spraying.  At one point they were all in a corner and sprayed the parents through the fence!  It was actually wonderful, as it was 100 degrees outside, and waiting in the sun was not the most fun place to be.

After some rides things got a little less formal as we headed in to the arcade.  Oliver really wanted to play Mario Kart, and I knew Brooke really wanted to play too, so we stuck around for a game before we had to take off.  Brooke had a wonderful time, as I think all the kids there did!

The next morning Monica was trying to do some foam rolling and Grayson just knew she was actually trying to cuddle.  You can tell from Monica's position that this isn't inconvenient at all!

And here's Grayson laying down one night with his giant kitty squishy!

Phew!  What a busy two weeks.  It was a lot of fun, and it was pretty tiring.  The day we drove home we didn't try to get out early and didn't end up getting home till like bed time, but still had to have dinner, etc.  There were definitely some long and tiring days over the last two weeks, but there was also a lot of fun, and I'm glad we pushed through the rougher moments so we could have all the fun we had!