Our weekend

Over the Memorial Day weekend, we went to Omaha to visit with Adam and Oma and Poppa. It was a great time, the kids really enjoyed spending time with their grandparents and I think the grandparents had tons of fun too. We played in the back yard, at the park and helped Adam do a little bit of landscaping. It was pretty relaxed, but a great time for all. I’m glad that the kids were able to see their grandparents and uncle.

Both Isabelle and Barrett did really well with the drive. Thirteen hours in the car is a long time for little ones to hang out. But they did great. Isabelle did a wonderful job going to the potty and telling up when she needed to go. I was so proud of her. I was not quite sure what to expect. Bear just went along for the ride. He did get a little cranky towards the end but over all he was awesome.

The Swing

Ok so I go to down load the pictures off the camera and there were some on there that I had not taken; which is fine, because Ben loves to take pictures of the kids playing together outside. Isabelle is pushing Bear in the swing and this is what I end up with. It is a good thing that kid was strapped in, otherwise I don’t know what kind of picture that would have made. You would think that Ben would have thought to maybe erase the evidence but I guess not. Ben swears that Bear thought it was funny, ". . . he was laughing his ass off."

Finally a Ren Faire

Today we went to the Utah Renaissance Festival, we were hard up for our Ren Faire fix. We must have been in order to attend this one. It is a small fledgling ren faire, just starting out, so it has a long way to go. But Isabelle really enjoyed it and was almost picked by “our” knight to be the maiden who he was jousting for. The joust was by far the best part of the faire, although they did have good food.

Missy and Jory joined us at the faire, which was really nice. We had a great time and hopefully we’ll be able to come back next year to help support the growing faire, because it can only get better. I think they might need to hook up with some of the national faire groups that travel around to help make it larger. Plus they need to work on their acting a little bit better. The “Queen” did not even talk with an accent. So we definitely had to bless the Pope.

Oh yea, as a side note, I have finally scored my first goal of our indoor soccer season. It was a cheap shot over the goalies head and right into the net but hey I will take what I can get. Plus when a female player scores, we get two points. What a great deal, so I was pretty excited and the ref thought it was pretty funny.

Back to the faire, there were singers, comics, and a magic show. Bear really liked the bottle of water and the turkey leg. The bottle of water he mostly spilled on himself, which was probably nice, because I’m sure he was a little warm, and the turkey leg just because that kid can eat.

I even tried to see if I was any good still at shooting and arrow. Out of four shots I had one hit the target. I’m a little rusty. I’m sure if I could have had more shots, I would have been able to hit the target many more times. It was pretty fun though!

Happy Mother's Day

Our Mother’s Day weekend has been full of fun, sadness and cute kids. I guess you can say that it started out with my MOM’s club finishing up their service project. We helped to redecorate and stock a playroom at the local domestic violence shelter. It was such a wonderful experience and the women and children at the shelter really seemed to appreciate everything that we did. We completely painted and put in new carpet into the playroom that is located off of the kitchen. We had a women come in and paint an under the sea mural on the walls that brightens up the entire place. So on Thursday night we “unveiled” the playroom and had dinner with the residence. Overall it was a great success. There was a little bit of drama but we seemed to make it through just fine.

On to the weekend, our Saturday started out well with the entire family walking in the Race for a Cure, located downtown. I read in the paper today that they estimated that over 16,000 people walked/ran/pushed/strolled along the 5K route. Once again it was an amazing experience for both Ben and I, we really enjoyed seeing all of the people out supporting those they know and love. Even a few pets got in on the action! The kids on the other hand just went along for the ride, not much to do on a 3.1 mile walk, but sit and watch the people go by. A long standing tradition that is some what lost on a two-year old and a ten month old. But they made it in the end.

After the walk though we went to a funeral for one of Ben’s dock workers son, it was very sad, since it was just a baby, only a few weeks old. I would have to say that the good thing about it was that mass was in Spanish and so we could not understand all that was said. Then we went to the viewing which was a little harder since some stories were told in English and Spanish. Over all it was just sad because so young a life should not have to be lost. The families outlook was one of, they were lucky of had the time that they did with the baby and know now that he is in a better place.

Sunday has been a little sporadic, Ben did not have any really activity planned so we just kind of winged it. We went to church in the morning and after wards came home so that Bear could take a nap and then we were off to lunch and the park. At the park we fed the Canadian Geese and then I took some pictures of Bear for his ten month mark. I think that kid gets cuter everyday. All in all the weekend was pretty good, we all had fun and our moments of sadness, but in the end our time together is just ours. I hope that everyone else enjoyed their weekend as well. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there who will read this, we all deserve a job well done!

And never to be out done, but Isabelle is getting to be quite the little batter. Ben set up a "tee" for her in the yard that she plays with and is getting pretty good. She can for sure hit the ball off the tee in a whirlwind of motion. Once she hits the ball she even replaces the ball onto the tee to go at it again. Which is rather nice because then she can play by herself instead of having Mom or Dad out there to replace the ball.

Program and Tea

Since it is one week before Mother’s Day Isabelle’s little class had a special program and tea for the Mom’s today. It was so cute! The kids sang two songs by themselves and then had us join them for one song and grace. Isabelle was too funny, she would do all of the motions to the songs but I’m not sure any words actually came out of her mouth. I wish I had remembered the video camera, but at least I was able to take pictures. The best part was that she had a lot of fun doing the program and learning something new. They even had the kids give us a little gift, of a note pad with a little picture of our kids on all the pages. Overall I really enjoyed Isabelle and her program, and so did she.

Funny stuff???

We took a tour of the local municipal airport yesterday, in the rain, hail and wind. It was great! Isabelle still really enjoyed getting to see the plane and sitting inside the cockpit. The airport is right by our house so they fly over all the time. We can even hear the bigger jets on their way to SLC airport, so she just loves to check out the airplanes. Bear did pretty much ok considering he was in the stroller and he went straight into the wind. But he was mostly happy because he had a snack, man that kid can eat!

On a lighter note, I was feeding the kids dinner last night and after I had fed Barrett on jar of food I thought I would let him have his first attempt at feeding himself. He loves to hold the spoon after I feed him so I thought why not, lets give it a try. Well the first thing he did was drop the spoon and lift the bowl to his mouth to “drink” out the applesauce. It was so cute, he even made little slurping sounds. He made just a little bit of a mess. Good thing I had his tray on, other wise applesauce would have been all over the place. Bear was so happy with himself he was just grinning from ear to ear. He is a pretty clever kid. He even ate the applesauce that fell on the tray, sort of.