The Love Bunch: July 2009

Thursday, July 30, 2009

He's a Big Boy Now

I can't believe he's three!

As usual, this boy doesn't mess around when it comes to cake, especially ice cream cake. I made the same ice-cream sandwich cake I made for his 2nd birthday. It's just too good, and too easy. Best of all, you don't have to turn on the oven on a 100 degree day!

He is his daddy's boy. Of all his gifts, the 4-pack of motorcycles was his favorite, and he immediately began playing with them. He also received a harmonica, which he's having a blast with, a water-soaker, a new bell for his tricycle (which we now need to transfer to his big-boy bike, since he's switching up to that. *sniff*), a basketball, and, of course, candy. Happy birthday sweet boy! Here's to 3 great years behind us and many, many great years to come. We love you!

Family Reunions: Episode 2

Okay, so here is the rundown of the 2nd family reunion of the summer. It all began with my beautiful little sister's wedding reception. She and her husband were married earlier this summer, but they live in Texas, so they planned their Idaho reception for right before the family reunion, so everyone would be around. Welcome to the family, Wes!

They held it in my Grandma's lovely backyard. Seriously, my Grandma has two green thumbs, and probably green toes, too (ummmm... that sounded a little gross. Sorry Grandma!) Her yard is beautiful, over an acre in size, and she does all the work on it herself. She's in her 80's now, and it's starting to be a bit too much for her. I'm 50 years younger than her, and it would be too much for me. Then again, I kill houseplants, so my odds of success on an entire ecosystem are slim.

Then, the next day, a few of us went whitewater rafting. Well, actually, Isaac and I drove the shuttle and picked everyone up at the end of the run. I didn't mind because I'm not much of a whitewater enthusiast. See the photo above? That kind of action makes me a little bit nervous. This photo isn't of anyone I know. It was the group that came down the chute just before our group. I was taking some practice shots to find the best place to shoot from. They caught much more water than our group.

While we were waiting for our group to appear, we watched these guys SURFING the rapids. It was incredibly cool and incredibly freaky at the same time. When they fell, they'd just hold on to their board, point their feet downstream, and ride out the rapid, then swim to the shore and go back up to try it again. I'd never seen that done before. Pretty ingenious. I guess if you like to surf, but live in the mountains of Idaho, you use what you have.

Eventually, we got tired of the surfers and decided to do a self-portrait while we waited. We were going for an abstract look. I think I'll call it 'Toddler with a cheesy camera smile'.

Finally, they arrived. Here's Rick and my new brother-in-law heading down the river with my sister-in-law's dad. Notice the lack of legs and paddles flying, and the total lack of soaking? Stinkers.

And here's the raft being guided by my baby brother. He missed the big hole on purpose. I don't blame him, since his eight year old daughter was in the raft on her first whitewater trip. I don't blame him, but I still am stuck using complete strangers for the "soak" photo. Grrrrrrr.....

The next day, we set off for the City of Rocks for the official get-together. It was an incredibly warm, incredibly dusty, but incredibly fun time. The kids couldn't get enough of climbing on all the rock formations, and that was the main reason we chose this spot. We knew they'd love it. We were not proved wrong.

We had a water fight for the kids on one of the afternoons with some plastic tubs filled with water. They'd just finished the wonderful treasure hunt that my brother-in-law put together for them, and they were soaking their little dinosaur capsules, waiting for them to hatch. This was serious business, and had to be completed before the fun of the water fight could get started.

Congratulations! It's a baby Foamosaur!

But then it was time to get to the main attraction. Grandpa was a major target for the grandkids, as you can see by the state of his clothing. The kids played and enjoyed themselves, while most of the adults tried to keep cool in the "off limits" area under one of the sunshades. I think they should have joined in. It would have cooled them down.

It really was a beautiful place, but I think next time we'll go in September. (Stay tuned, there's still one more reunion to cover for the Summer).

Family Reunions: Episode 1

Long, long ago, in what seems like a galaxy far, far away, a family set out to do what seemed both insane and impossible....... Back to Back Family Reunions!!!!! (cue the screams).
We began our quest on the 13th in Southeastern Idaho, with Rick's extended family reunion (descendents of his great-grandparents). We stayed at a hot-springs/campground owned by one of Rick's 2nd cousins and her husband, Riverdale Resort. It was a lot of fun playing in the swimming pools (especially the awesome tube slide). We got a lot of sun, and all of us burned despite repeated application of waterproof sunscreen- go figure. I don't have any pictures of the poolside fun. I feared for the safety of our camera, what with all of the splashing, diving and general mayhem that young and old were participating in.

One of the best parts of the trip was taking a drive about 30 minutes away to the townsite of Chesterfield, where Rick's grandfather was born, and that his ancestors settled in the 1800's. It's now basically a ghost town, but has been in the preservation/restoration process for nearly the past 30 years. Many of the buildings have been preserved and it is like a living museum each year on Memorial day when they open all of them up to the public. It was probably Grandpa's last trip to his birthplace, and was bittersweet. It was great to hear all of his stories about the town, and memories that he had from childhood. The building above is the meeting hall/chapel.

The meeting hall was filled with pictures of the original founding members of the community, and their descendents through the early 1900's. While I was looking around, I saw a beautiful marriage certificate in a frame propped up on a pew. It was so pretty. When I looked closer, I saw that it was the marriage certificate of Rick's great-great grandfather. I called Rick's grandpa over to take a closer look. He'd never seen it before, and said "well, what do you know?"

The house above was where Rick's great-great grandparents lived. His grandpa lived in it for a little while when he was a boy. Because we were family members of the original owners, the caretakers opened the house up for us to go inside. It's been beautifully restored.

This house sat behind the brick house. This is the house Rick's Grandpa was born in. It's a lot bigger than it looks from this angle. This is the front, and a long addition had been added on to the back. It was a frame house, and hasn't survived as well as the brick homes did. It was pretty ramshackle, but I loved looking at the old remnants of wallpaper, and the paint colors. Very pretty.

The cousins had a lot of fun playing together. We took some of them to Glendale reservoir just to see what was there. Isaac and Masen had a lot of fun "fishing" with some sticks they found along the banks. Here they are showing me what they've caught. It was a lot of fun spending time with Rick's family, but we weren't through yet. We still had one more reunion to go to before heading home.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

On Tuesday night, we took Isaac to see a Hawks game. The evening was gorgeous. Perfect baseball weather. Our seats were in the Third base section. The very top row, and the very farthest corner. They were a pain to get in and out of, because we were seated up against a chain link fence, so had to disrupt our entire row when we needed to get to the aisle.

Isaac was pretty intent on the game, when he wasn't busy scarfing candy. In this picture, you get to see him doing both.

Isaac and I went to get a hot dog and some popcorn and snow-cones. It took us well over an hour. I would guess closer to an hour and a half. Note to self: The cheap concessions deals on Wednesday nights are not worth the long lines. But on the way back to our seats, who should we find in our section but Humphrey Hawk.

He was blocking the aisle leading up to our seats, so we HAD to stop and say "Hi", right? Isaac gave him five, and I managed to then spill a good chunk of one of our snowcones, as well as Rick's spoon onto the stadium steps. Okay, don't gross out on me but.... I picked it back up and stuck it back in the snowcone. I know, ewwww, right? In my defense, Hawks stadium hoses down their bleachers after each game, so they're pretty darn clean. And I wasn't about to try to go down and brave the lines to hunt down another spoon. And, I actually meant to trade it for mine when we got up to our seats, you know, just to be nice, but after practically slow dancing with all of our row-mates trying to squeeze down our row while guiding Isaac back to our seats and juggling a hot dog, two snowcones and a bag of popcorn, I unloaded the snowcones to Rick, and he immediately began eat his. Um, maybe what he doesn't know won't hurt him?

And, after all of the trouble, the hot dog (at this point probably cold, because it was the first thing that we got, in the first line we were in), was deemed "yummy". I guess it doesn't get much better than that.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Nostalgia

See this picture?:

When I took it, I immediately thought of this one from last year:

And this one from the year before:

See, the funny thing is, I'd swear that the bottom picture was taken just a few months ago, not two years ago. At least, that's what it feels like. And I start to think, as I line up these photos and literally see him growing up before my eyes, that time seems to be spinning faster every year. That I won't have any trace of my baby before long. That I need to embrace every sweet, innocent, joyful, funny moment while it's here, and not worry about whether his nap was long enough, or that he's spread his toys over every single square inch of the house, or wish that he'd go play outside in the backyard by himself so I can get something done inside. It's not my time in life to 'get things done'. I need to play basketball with him when he asks, and go for walks instead of dragging him around town running uneccesary errands. I need to rejoice in who he is, and give thanks that, with all of my faults and weaknesses, I have been given the precious opportunity to raise this fabulous little boy, and to do my joyful, level best at it. I hope I can always remember that. Amen.