Summer So Far

It's really bad that I go so long in between posts, that I will actually be posting about another trip to Mexico that Scott and I took.  Since I last posted, oh so long ago in March, we were able to go to Playa Del Carmen again.  This time some of our best friends got married.  Jim and Sonia live in DC, but got married in Playa so that we could all have a really good excuse to go down there again.

 I highly recommend the route we took: Cooler as luggage.  It's a great way to save money and  keep your diet cokes and corona's cold while you are on the road.

 First Night on Campus

 Secret Beach in Tulum

 Great Friends

 Great Food

Hot Husband. (literally and figuratively)

The rest of our summer so far has been pretty typical.  Bear Lake, Peoa, hanging out with the kids. We love summer , but it can also get a bit overwhelming at times, what with the sheer number of things we do throughout the weeks and into the weekends.  The kids have spent a lot of time so far this year in the bike trailer, Henry learned how to ride a bike, but flat rides around the block are about all he can handle at this point.  Plus he can't quite brake yet, so that really puts a damper on things.

Winslow is almost 2 now and he has gotten so much more verbal in the last few months.  He got his glasses in February and I am not exaggerating when I say that they have truly changed his life.  I don't throw the word "blessed" around very often,  but i truly feel blessed that we realized that there was something really, really wrong with his eyesight.  He is a different kid now and it breaks my heart to know that there was a time in his life when he truly did not know what was in front of him.  He has a pretty good idea of that now, and he is taking full advantage.  Now if I could just convince him that every color is not "lellow" and that he really needs to learn to say "binky" and not "kinky."

Henry is almost 4 (!) and he is the greatest big brother on the planet.  He loves Winslow so much and he never seems annoyed by him at all.  He has a lot of one sided conversations with Win, but it  works out, because Henry really likes to talk.  Henry has the most amazing imagination and he is always pretending to be something.  The last few days, he has chosen to be the "Tigress" from Kung Fu Panda.  Scott is worried because Henry keeps telling him that he is a girl now, but I am convinced he will come safely out of it.  And if he doesn't, we will love whatever tiger he ends up loving.  When he isn't the Tigress, he is Spider-Man with webs, Captain America with my largest  pan lid as his shield, or Curious George.  The monkey noises are my least favorite, but I can live with it.

For those of you who don't know, I was named the inaugural "Ute Crossfitter of the Month." You can see more about it here  I know it seems super braggy to talk about it, but it is something that I am really proud of.  I've had truly incredible results with CrossFit and Paleo and the old saying is true.  If I can do it, anyone can! Again super braggy, but here are the results from 12 weeks of training and eating almost exclusively Paleo:

Total inches lost in the 12 weeks were 33.

 So as for the rest of our summer so far, it goes something like this:

 Winslow loves his friends and he also loves baseball.

 Red Butte Concerts are the best part of the summer.

 In case you didn't know, my husband wins half marathons.  Not age groups, but the entire thing.  Again, my husband wins half marathons.  And beats lots and lots of other people.

 Beds are overrated, but floors and vacuum cords are not.

 My Sweet Boys.

 Crafty Father's Day

 Fierce Spider Man

 Heart Breakingly Sweet Spider Man

 Hanging with Rizzo the Polar Bear at Hogle Zoo.  Henry kept telling everyone that called the bear a "he" that it was a "she."  He was very adamant about it.

MS 150 living the dream.  They didn't have to ride, just got to hang at the pool.  Scott rode 100 miles on Saturday to celebrate my best friend's Mom, Leslie Kemp, and I rode 40 on Sunday to do the same.  What an amazing race and for such a great cause.  It was probably the most beautiful ride I have ever been on and to do it for such a great reason was even better.

Holy Cow

Really.  5 months, huh?  Can't even blog about Christmas, huh, Alder?  Aargh.  I am so bad about this.  I seriously need to just start doing it once a week and talk about all of the inconsequential things as they happen.  Because they aren't inconsequential, you know?  Every time I look at Henry, I can't believe he isn't a baby anymore.  My boys are growing up so fast and I am doing such a horrible job of documenting it.  Winslow turned 18 months old last month and I meant to post and I completely forgot to do it.  There's always so much going on, but if I did it more often, it wouldn't seem so overwhelming.  So, let's get started, shall we?

Scott and I went to Mexico with Anne, Jenn Pond and Brad Johnson over the Thanksgiving holiday.  We had a really great time, as you can imagine.  We went back to Playa Del Carmen and once again loved the beautiful white sandy beaches and Caribbean blue waters.  Seven days is a long time to be away from the kids though, and I really started to miss them around day 5.  By day 6, Scott had to keep from other people's kids as I was getting a little too interested in them. We are going back again at the end of April for our friends wedding and I am pretty excited to sit on the beach and do nothing.  I will not be going "deep sea fishing" for any reason and I will eat all the cup-o-noodles I want!!

We also celebrated Christmas.  However, I can't find the battery charger for my nice camera and the battery is dead.  As soon as I am able to round that baby up, you will be subjected to plenty of cute photos of the kids in their matching pajamas.  On Christmas Eve, we went over to the Alders and the kids did a nativity for us. Winslow was also a participant, but wouldn't sit still for the photo.

We also had a Christmas party that may have to be an annual occurrence.  Friends from throughout our world came together and enjoyed some delicious cocktails and a fabulous evening.

And of course, we hooked up with Santa a couple of times.

We also got a new member of our family.  This is Rue.  She is a Bernese Mountain Dog and she is about the sweetest thing that ever happened to dogs.  It's hard to believe she used to be this small.  She's already bigger than Dart.  She's a really good dog and we love having a new family member that I didn't have to gestate.

Winslow got his first haircut and he was sooo good!  Chelsy does an awesome job.  I also couldn't believe I let his hair get as long as it did.  He doesn't have the curls that Henry has so he needs it done a little more often.  Not that I have had his haircut since this photo was taken......

Winslow also had to have a surgery to unblock a tear duct.  It was a pretty routine surgery and he got through it really well. At the time we went in for his appt for the tear duct, we also asked the doctor to do a check of his eyes.  Winslow has always had a funny habit of putting things really close to his face.  It's always been pretty cute, but I didn't know if it was an unusual habit or not.  When his teachers mentioned that they had never seen a baby do it either, we figured we might as well get his eyes checked while we had the chance.  As it turns out, Winslow is profoundly nearsighted. After 3 different physicians checked him out, they determined that he is -12.5 ans will need glasses until he is old enough to be responsible for hard contacts. They don't make soft contacts that are strong enough for how bad his vision is, so someday he will have hard.  Scott seems to think that technology will be advanced enough that he can just have new eyes in a few years.  We are honestly so happy and feel so blessed that we were able to determine that his vision is as bad as it is.  Now that he has glasses, it's like he is a new kid.  He is more verbal, more active, kind of more everything.  Including grumpy.  He loves books now and he loves his flash cards now, too.  I feel so bad that he had no idea what the pictures were for so long, but we are definitely making up for lost time, now!

In February, I got to go to Sweden for a week and see one of my best friends.  Melissa has been living in Sweden for a few months, working for Ikea, and I got to go see her!  It was such an awesome, relaxing vacation.  There is nothing like a vacation where no children (or even spouses!) are involved.

And last week, Scott, my friend Allison and I went down to Moab and ran the Canyonlands Half Marathon.  Scott KILLED it and was able to finish in 1:29.  Allison finished in just over 2 hours and I finished, we'll just say that.  It's a great race though, and I would be thrilled to do it again next year.  The kids came with us and we got to spend time with some other friends of ours who have a place in Moab.  It was a really great weekend away with the family.

And now,  some random photos from the last few months.  Yes, that is Winslow in an ocotpus outfit.  And yes, he is belted into his chair.

 True Love

 Disney on Ice.  Can you just feel the enthusiasm? It's palpable, right?

Octo-sausage.  I think this costume is about 3 sizes too small.

 This is what i saw when I pulled up at school one afternoon.

 All the boys in our family like to wear costumes.

Kids are cute. When they aren't screaming at you.

As a parent, it is my job to think that everything my kid says is funny, right?  I think parenthood is quite possibly one giant "I guess you had to be there" moment.  Knowing that, bear with me as I tell a couple of stories about my little guy. (Winslow is till letting his brother speak for him, so I don't have much to say except that he is really freaking cute and absolutely adores his brother.  I think the feeling is mutual.)
So, every morning when Henry wakes up, I have already left for work.  On the weekends, when he sees that I am home, he always asks me if it's really the weekend?  "No school today, Mom?  You don't gotta go to work?"  Every four hours, he asks me if it is still the weekend, like he can't believe it.  The other day, on the way home from daycare, he asked me what I did at work that day, the same way I always ask him what he did at school.  And, just to make sure you are totally bored by all of my posts, I will tell you that when I ask him if he needs something, he often says "No thanks, Mom.  I got it."

Life

Every night, I go into the boys' separate rooms to make sure all is well before I go to bed myself.  Sometimes, when I go into Henry's room, he turns over and looks at me, with his thumb in his mouth.  He never says anything, just looks at me.  Meanwhile, I am halfway into whirling around, hoping he didn't see me.  When he was a baby, I would drop to my knees, and crawl out of the room.  The idea that my child would wake up was terrifying!
I always go into Henry's room first and then Winslow's.  Win's room is the room next to ours, so he's generally 2 out of 2.  There's something about watching a baby sleep.  Their arms out above their head, like there's no other way to sleep.  He usually still has his binky in his mouth and his "softy" right next to his head.  He looks exactly like the reason you thought you should have children in the first place.  That serenity that you didn't know about until you saw it laying there.

I won't lie.  There are plenty of nights (like two nights ago) when I wonder why I ever had children.  Win woke up at 1:30, 2:15 and 3:30.  He finally fell asleep at about 3:45.  The alarm went off at 4:45 to go to the gym.  I wanted my child dead. But then that curley haired little monster comes home from day care and I just want to squeeze him.  A lot.  How do they grab your whole soul like that?  Especially when all you want is to sleep.

14 Months

Winslow turned 14 months old today, so I thought I would take a minute and say a little bit about what he has done over the last couple of months.  First of all, he finally started walking as a primary mode of transportation.  He was taking steps here and there, but only when highly encouraged.  It kind of felt like he woke up last Tuesday and decided it was time to walk.  He's moved past the totally drunk stage to the slightly inebriated stage and he's walking like a champ!  He still doesn't talk a whole lot, but he does like to say Mama and Dada and every once in a while I hear a thank you.  He loves to shake his head no at me and then just laugh.  He started his new day care last week and I was a nervous wreck, but he seems to be doing really well there.  He's starting to take better and better naps and he seems to really like his teachers.  It's nice to have both of the boys at the same place, especially since Scott is the one who has to take them in the morning.  I love going to pick them up, though.  I think he is really going to like being around so many kids all the time, but he misses his Afghan friends, for sure.  He is still madly in love with his father.  Now, he cries when I try to take him away from his Dad.  He'll leave my arms for anyone, but when he has to leave Scott, he just cries.  Jerk.  He's still just growing and growing and getting funnier every day.

Birthday-Palooza

Let me just start by saying that we are not "those parents."  This did not start out as birthday-palooza.  It started out as a normal party for a three year old.  We were going to have a bounce house and a dragon cake and call it good.  Then someone told Scott you can get a pony for cheap these days.  For 70 bucks, they'll drop it off at your house and for three hours the birthday boy (who of course refused to take a nap) will cry every time someone else gets on HIS pony.  Good times, people, good times.  Really though, the Pony was pretty awesome and if you wanted to get one for your next birthday party, Pony Haven is where it's at.  We used Leap'n Lemur for the bounce house and they were really great as well.

Carrots for the pony and hats for the kids

10 minutes in.  He never wanted to get off.

Bounce House Castle.  We started out with a Dragon theme (hence the castle) but it quickly morphed into Dinosaur and then the pony came along and totally screwed everything up, theme-wise.

Winslow gets a turn

Daddy gets a turn.  Poor pony.

I love Flynn's enthusiasm!

By the end, Henry was insisting on riding with anyone who wanted to get on.  I now understand when parents say "no nap today."  It's ok, nothing more needs to be said after that one simple statement.

The Utah game was on the same day as the party but the kids wanted to watch a movie.  I thought they were all pretty cute there together.

Next year, we go back to the little party that is only family.  We loved Henry's party and really it was totally worth it, but I completely understand the advice of only inviting as many kids as years your child is turning.  Henry was pretty overwhelmed by the whole thing and at the end of the day, he won't even remember it when he's older.  But his Dad can brag about the pony and that's really what's important here!