Payson Lakes

July 22, 2011

With the help of my parents, I took my kids for one night of camping. Dan elected to stay home, so we drove up to the campground midl-morning on Friday. It was our first time sleeping outdoors. We had lots of fun exploring the lake up at Payson Lakes and hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa and my sisters, but not so much fun sleeping.

The kids loved being outside, but Evie had a hard time settling down to take her afternoon nap. I wasn't too worried about Evie getting her nap--I figured she'd fall asleep if she felt tired enough--but then Evie started to have an emotional meltdown.

Christa brought some giant marshmallows and at some point it seemed like a good idea to calm Evie down by giving her a marshmallow to eat. Instead of eating it though, she decided to pull it apart and spread it all over her legs. I was totally paranoid about bears, so I wasn't so happy about Evie spreading marshmallow all over her legs. We got it washed off and Grandpa put Evie in his hiking backpack and took Evie for a walk. That finally put Evie to sleep. She got in a good nap and I got her settled for bed at what seemed like a good hour. For some reason, Evie didn't like sleeping outside and kept waking up screaming. I would get her settled and put her in her pack and play and then minutes later she'd be screaming again. She only stayed asleep when I sat up with her, so around one or two in the morning, I went and sat with her in my car. Grandma was nice enough to take a turn too, so I did get to do some sleeping lying down.

The next morning, we had some pancakes for breakfast and then headed home to try and recover from our long night.

Maybe next summer we'll try camping again and I'm hoping it will go better.

Bright Future

The other morning, Dan got up early to try and get some work done. I guess Anna also woke up and saw the light, so she wandered out to the kitchen to see what Dad was doing. Dan said when she came out, she was squinting and complaining about how bright it was. He talked her into going back to lie down in our bedroom, but fifteen minutes later she was excitedly telling me that she needed some glasses. I wasn't really coherent, but I tried to talk Anna into staying with me. Instead she ran to her room and went back out to the kitchen where Dan was working, but this time she was wearing her sunglasses.

Happy Cake

Evie loves all her grandparents, but right now, she calls them all grandpa. She has also started calling birthday cake, "happy cake."

People are constantly amazed whenever they see me taking Evie to the bathroom, and they ask me if she's potty trained. The honest answer feels like "no, I'm the one who is trained." Last week Evie decided she was bored with going to the potty and started wetting her pants with wild abandon. So then I decided to just leave her panties off and that worked once. She came to me and told me she needed panties, so I put her on the potty and she took care of business, but then she decided that it's just as easy to pee without panties as it is with panties. So I'm back to bribing her with candy. To Evie, snack means something soft, chewy, and fruity, like fruit snacks. I have to be careful about offering Evie a snack, unless I mean fruit snacks or some other gummy candy. But these days, about every hour or so, I try to lure Evie to the potty with a snack (gummy bears or Mike and Ikes). I'm not sure what we'll do when the candy runs out, probably buy more candy, but so far, we've stayed pretty dry with regular bribes.

The candy also works as a way to teach Evie her colors. She usually gets to choose between two different pieces of candy. In fact, choices is a favorite word in this house. Anna always says, "tell me my choices" and Evie likes to say, "choices, choices." Evie also likes to ponder her choices and then choose with a dramatic flourish. I'll ask Evie if she wants the green or the orange piece of candy and she always says, "ummmm . . . that one!" Evie has also figured out that in the world of girls, some colors have higher value. If Evie really wants it, she says that it is "purple-pink."

Nov. 29, 2011

This is a photo of Evie wearing my hot pads like flippers. She cracks me up!

Picnic and Hikes

July 15

The same week that we drove up to Bear Lake, Katie and Jack came to visit, so on Friday night we all got together in Provo Canyon for a picnic and then the next morning, some of us hiked Stewart Falls.

Evie loves to chew on carrots. She will often take a bite out of one and then reach for another one, but it you look closely, you'll also notice that she has a piece of pizza tucked next to her tummy.

I'm not sure if she ever actually ate this slice of pizza, but she did take several bites out of different carrots.

July 16

Now that Evie is too big, in my mind, for the Baby Bjorn, we borrowed a neighbor's hiking backpack so that we could carry Anna and Evie if necessary.

Anna walked about half way up and about half way down.

The spray from the falls was amazing. With all the snow melt this year, once we got down by the falls, it was hard to find a place where we couldn't feel some mist from the falls.

Katie and my Mom walked over to the base of the falls and came back soaked.

My kids hated the spray and couldn't wait to get out of there, but Lauren walked over to the base of the falls with me.

Anna hated the spray, but loved putting her feet in that ice cold water. I was terrified that she was going to slip and float away from me, so I stayed pretty close to her.

During the last part of the hike up to the falls, Evie fell asleep in the backpack, but the spray from the water fall woke her up and she wasn't happy about it.

Hanging out with Uncle Jack

About half way back to the car, Anna melted down. She didn't want to ride in the back pack, but she didn't want to walk either. She wanted me to carry her. I was feeling pretty tough, having carried her in the backpack up to the falls, but I wasn't that strong. So we had a bit of a stand off. Luckily for all of us, there was a nice grandmother who was resting near where Anna threw her fit. She spoke very soothingly to Anna and calmed her down and, if I remember right, I think I eventually got her into the backpack and that's how we made it back down to our car.

Bear Lake

July 13, 2011

In July, Heather and her family spent a few days at Bear Lake and they invited us to come up and join them for the day. So right after swim lessons, I put the girls in the car with lots of snacks and we drove up to Bear Lake. If I remember right, we made it there around two or three and then stayed until about six or seven before heading home. It was a long day, but what kid doesn't love playing in the water and the sand/mud? I've been up to Bear Lake pretty regularly over the past several years and I was stunned by how high the water was. All the "beaches" I'm familiar with were well under water, but Heather's family had set up camp on North Beach up in Idaho and it was the best beach I've ever seen along Bear Lake because it was more sand than mud.

Evie is clutching some sort of candy, like jelly beans or something. I can't remember now what it was, but I do remember that she kept dropping them in the sand, and rather than let her eat sand covered candy, I kept taking them away from her.

Swim Lessons

Some day I will be all caught up with my photos, but until then . . .

It took me about half of the summer to decide, but I finally put Anna in swim lessons. We had just enough of the summer left for her to do two sessions. The first was at a city rec center and the second was at a private pool. Anna loved being in the water and by the end of the first session, she was great about putting her face in the water and jumping in.

Poor Evie got stuck on the side with me. I should have thought to sign her up for a Mom and Me class at the city rec center, but by the time I thought about it, the classes were all full. Evie was a pretty good sport about watching Anna, but some days were harder than others.

I the second session, Anna was the only girl in her class and the youngest one, so her teachers probably didn't push her as hard as they could have, but she had a good experience. By the time the session ended, she was still trying to figure out how to coordinate her arms with her legs so that she could swim across the pool. I'm sure the pieces will all fall into place this next summer.