Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Funny photos

These photos kinda got lost in the shuffle....


Emmett fell asleep about Ft. Collins and this was pretty funny-kinda like a frog.




























In front of us (I think after we left Casper?) was this horse trailer. Couldn't resist! We really hoped to find donkeys inside.




Sara Bomar(teacher extraordinaire) sent Jolene this shirt- it reads: AB/CD For those about to read, we salute you- LOVE IT!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Next stop....Grammy's!





















After we left the springs, we stopped in Denver to see the Children's Museum. Mom met us there so we could swap out a car for Luke, as he had a class in Denver for the week. The museum was fun, maybe a bit much for Jolene to take in, but Emmett warmed up to the place towards the end. There was a bubble exhibit that was pretty fun, as well as a train set room, a forest room, a fire engine(make sure to notice Grammy looking in the window), and a place to build things out of recycled materials. In the bubble exhibit, you could blow bubbles with all kinds of fun tools, especially one big one that you could stand in! Afterwards, we made a quick stop for lunch before heading up to Grammy's. She had a new Thomas the Train set for Emmett to play with(such great neighbors to share the toys!).He had a blast, but I was the one who had to try and set it up. I was about finished when Emmett says "You sure did a great job mom, but when is Aunt Chrissy coming?". Oh well, you can't be good at everything. Jolene loved the stairs and is becoming a pro- it's the coming down part that still needs to be figured out. She loves the car out on the deck and would scream with joy when someone would push her around. She also got her first real taste of watermelon. New love of her life- I think she eats it daily! Uncle Ken smoked ribs on Friday for for dinner and Luke drove up after he finished his class. Most of time, Mom and I drug the kids around town trying to shop for the upcoming 4th of July party in Cody. Should be a great party!














Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Luke and Deb and I took the kids to the zoo on Monday morning, while Mark had a bit of work to finish. We got to see the giraffes(crazy how Deb and the giraffe have the exact same look in the picture ;) ), wallabies, monkeys, hippos, bears fighting in the water, leopards, crocs, mountain lions, turkeys, a moose, a porcupine, and so many others that I can't even remember! Poor Jolene was very tired toward the end of the zoo...so we packed up and went downtown to meet Mark for lunch. She went down for the count and we got to have a fun lunch downtown. Afterwards, we went to the fountain in the downtown area, called Uncle Wilbur, because the top of the fountain pops up and a man (statue) comes up and plays jazzy sort of music and sprays water all around. It was pretty hot and Emmett and Jolene had a blast. At first Emmett cried cause he didn't have his swim trunks, but once he and daddy got wet it didn't seem to matter anymore. Jolene walked with grandma and grandpa up towards the fountain and just laughed out loud. She loved the splash of the water and if she was walking on her own, would probably have been in the action. Definitely going to plan on seeing Uncle Wilbur again!































































Sunday, June 20, 2010

Father's Day Weekend


















We got to spend Father's Day in the Springs with Mark and Deb and Luke's brother's family. We got to have a huge blow up water slide in their back yard, which the cousins brought over and it was a hit for the weather was a bit warm. Even John and Wendy came over to join in the fun! It was a blast getting to see everyone. While we were in the Springs, we got to go see one of Max's t-ball games, visited the zoo and a water fountain in downtown Colorado Springs called Uncle Wilbur. Deb and I got to have a girl's afternoon while the kids and dads took naps. We went downtown to a place called Nosh and had a couple of glasses of wine and then we grocery shopping for dinner and dessert. Darn strawberry pies...never in season at VI ;) We always get to play cards when we visit. Deb and I sure need to drink water when we play cards! We'll get 'em someday, Debs! We even had help from Emmett...but all he did was make us laugh. "It's tricky!". And then came the hats....


Thursday, June 17, 2010

Our bags are being packed..


We are working on packing our bags for the upcoming trip and this time I have LOTS of help. Jolene loves to push thru the piles of clothes I have put together and laughs the whole time. Emmett picked out his underwear for the trip...a very important job! Here we come!!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Emmett-isms

Emmett has really been cracking me up lately. The other day, I caught him with his hand up his shorts on the living room couch. I simply stated that he should remove his hand from his shorts and that it is not something we do in public. His response was: "Mom. You will never guess what just happened. My hand was tickling my junk. Isn't that funny?!"

The next day while he was eating lunch he began whimpering and crying. He has decided that he no longer needs his booster chair to eat upon and so he sits on his knees. Because of this new dining position, his feet fall asleep. Emmett explains it as "my feet are sparkling." "Mommy, my feet are sparkly and they hurt real bad." Sometimes it is really hard to stay calm and not laugh at the way things are described from a three year old. Jolene is starting to cramp his style around the house: touching his things, playing with his toys, eating his food(when he leaves it at her height-game over-she's a hound!). The straw that broke the camel's back was his chair. She now loves to climb into "his"chair and eat his breakfast or snack, whatever he has left unattended. Time for a new chair. I have my eye on a cute red chair in the antique store in town. I will have to go and price it out to see if we can remedy this situation.

and it rained.....

Today we had an enormous rain/hail storm. Jolene, who wakes up to the toilet flushing, slept threw the entire thing. Emmett was scared of the thunder(clouds going boom) and hid under the blanket on the couch. He was asleep in five minutes. I watched as the lights flashed, the thunder boomed and the hail pounded the windows. Somewhat grateful that my garden is pretty much a bust this year as it would have been pounded to smithereens by the ten minutes of continuous hail. Oh well. At least I don't have to water the trees for a few days.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Potty Prize





















Jolene is starting to take after her brother. It seems that I find her in all the same stuff that got Emmett in trouble or got his picture on the blog. She likes to get in behind the pullout trash can in the kitchen, loves to play with our bathtub handles and loves to sing with Elmo. Two peas in a pod.
























Emmett has gotten to a phase where I am trying to have him nap every other day. At night he is sometimes up til 9 or 9:30 playing in his room(I am usually in bed by then and can hear him!). No nap seems to be helpful at bedtime as he falls right to sleep, but when he tries to fall asleep at 4:45 while I am making dinner, a freight train couldn't wake him up. He fell asleep basically sitting up the other day. He gets so tired from no nap that he'll pass out anywhere-usually in front of the TV. I let him take a catnap and then attempt to wake him up before Luke gets home from work. Emmett also completed his potty chart! We were having a setback of "accidents" every day, so we started a potty chart where he would earn different things up to the final goal of a goldfish. So after a week, he earned the bowl. The next week was the rocks and food all the way to the fish this past weekend. So Emmett and I went to Walmart to the fish "farm" to pick out his first pet. To our dismay, there was a sign up on the aquarium that read "Common goldfish are on backorder." What?! He didn't seem to mind. "We'll take the big one instead" he says pointing at the koi fish meant for a pond. I had to explain that we have a bowl that is not meant for a fish of his size and we moved on. I have to call Walmart to see if the fish has been restocked so we may go pick out Emmett's potty prize....only to take it to the neighbor's house while we are in Denver for the next week!