Jedis on the Move, Mom Tries to Keep Up

This photo is just awesome, so it goes first. More later.

Andrew and Gary were eating lunch when Andrew said out of the blue, "Some people like hot tubs, but I want a warm tub."

He also told me this week, "When I'm big like Dad, I'm going to bake." I asked him what he would bake and he said, "Hot dogs, for you and dad. Also I'm going to drive."   The kid is just funny these days. His singing all the time is hilarious. Apparently yesterday he had the jingle for O'Reilley Autoparts in his head, because he went around all day singing, "O, O, O, O'Reilly . . ." 

Had an awesome trip to town on Monday - I had to get our fix-it ticket from Wendover cleared up, and needed to stop by Walmart on the way home. Lissy is a squirrel at the store, and waiting forever at the checkout line didn't help. Gave her a chance to toss a 2 pound yogurt at the floor. I had fun cleaning that up, and paying while trying to keep her from falling on her head, and just as I thought I was done, Josh and Noah gave the checker their money to buy some candy. I thought they had bills and quarters, but it turns out they gave her over 100 pennies as part of it. If the lady behind me had been armed, I would have been a goner.

Tuesday I had the fun of finding out  just how horrendously dry my eyes are at the ophthalmologist, and on Wednesday the ENT was amazed by how well my nose has healed. After the ENT we picked up some food and ate it with Gary on the lawn by the capitol. So perfect! I was remarking how awesome summer is - I could just sit and enjoy being there without being worried about getting back to something

The kids and I met Kristen and Cindy with their fams at Seven Peaks on Thursday. Dreams came true all around. We had a lot of fun, and Lissy and I got to bond with Dylan for the first time in a while. Cindy was a total pro at taking her 5 kids for a fun day, it's impressive. Uncle Shane wins the cool award for taking the kids on the slides.

Keaton is such an adorable little monkey!

Lissy and Dylan interacted for a while. Lissy wanted to feed him water and Dylan wanted to poke her eyes. It's going to be a great relationship.

Andrew got really tired after a few hours, and this was his relaxing spa-spot.

Relaxing is more fun with a cousin just your age.

I spent the entire time with a toddler who thinks she can swim.

We enjoyed ourselves at Apollo Burger afterwards. The kids were getting silly while waiting for the adults to finish, so I entertained them by taking funny photos of them. This one has all of the kids in it, from Lissy peeking at Tate on one end, to Keaton peaking out of his blankets on the other.

There was a whole series of pics, but this one struck me as especially amusing.

These guys requested this picture special - Beckett was way proud of himself.

On Friday we went to an activity at a really fun park about 15 min away, and the kids got to dig for dinosaur eggs in the sand, which they loved. Noah found around 15 before I told him there was a limit of 2. Other options were doing dinosaur crafts and listening to library ladies read books about dinosaurs. Josh thought the idea of doing something other than playing at the park was beyond ridiculous. You should have seen his face when I suggested we listen to a story, it was funny. That kid can go and go allll day. The others, too. When we got home from Seven Peaks they were all asleep or nearly asleep, and they wearily climbed out of the car and grabbed their scooters.

So, summer has now begun (surgeries and conferences don't count), and it's pretty great. Forget about the Noah-turned-psycho part, and we're good. Oh, yeah, I didn't tell you, so it's easy to forget. Hooray summer!

So, how self-centered is this update? Very. Gary stayed at work until 3 a.m. on Monday because he had a big presentation about federal funds. He rocked it, and hopefully by now has gotten some sleep. I think I forgot because it seems a while ago now.

Lissy is constantly asking me to put these on her.

Unrelated, but is our reality - our county cut mosquito abatement out of the budget this year and my kids look like they have chicken pox, no exaggeration. They itch like it, too. Also the flies are way worse than ever. Gary killed 45 on Father's Day, and today one flew into a newly opened jug of milk and drowned. Today I was thinking these are the plagues that are being sent to drive us out of the county. Frogs are next? If so, I'm not sticking around for the others.

Noah came downstairs with a blanket draped around himself in perfect Jedi-fashion on Saturday. He looked good, and the other boys were jealous, (Andrew's monkey blanket didn't have the same effect), so Gary got out the Halloween costumes from a few years ago. Instant hit. The boys wore them all day, while doing all activities. That explains the first photo on the post. I was laughing my head off when I saw him scooting down the street with his robe flowing behind. The kids were full-on Jedis for days after that. On Sunday the boys ran out of energy, and just laid on the couches for a half an hour talking about whether their next battle should be on the Death Star or the Millenium Falcon. Then, they had a friend over on Monday, and when I went to check on them, all of the boys were on the floor but Noah, who was choking them with the force.

I just wanted the scooting photos, but Josh preferred having an awesome one.

Andrew . . .

Kind of a more casual Jedi-scooter look.

The kids decided Andrew should also wear his outfit from Halloween long ago - he was only 12 months old when we made this for him! Ah well, he still rocks the shirt, and the light saber fit well on his pants.

Noah goes riding . . .

Why is this soooo amazing? I can't quit giggling. It's Noah, by the way.