"The Forest"

The kids and I have a new favorite place. The kids call it "the forest" or "the duck pond". It has both...AND a playground. It's like heaven on earth, kid-size.

This was our trip there last week.

This was right before Hope accidentally stepped in the stream.

This is immediately after.

She was disturbed at first, but Noah and I kept laughing and she eventually got over it. Thank goodness cause she could have thrown one heck of a fit.

Further up the Provo River Trail we found another park. Eden decided she was too tired to go on so Noah carried her for a minute. What a studly little man.

This week we went again, and Eden was being especially funny. She wanted to bring her back pack so that she and Noah could play "ghosts" (Luigi's Mansion) a game they've been playing around the house all week. I knew she had some toys in there, but I didn't really bother to check exactly what she had. She surprised me when I turned to see her grab juice from her back pack, chug it and put it back in, just like a professional backpacker. She came prepared, which is more than I can say for the rest of us.

Eden was very happy to be on this adventure. She kept grabbing leaves while jabbering about making a cake. Then she would pick up sticks and wave them around while singing her made-up songs. She kept up with big brother and sister but took one wrong turn and fell in some really thick mud by the stream. As it was happening, scenes of the Swamp of Sadness in The Never-Ending Story flashed through my head. Remember when Atreyu makes really dramatic facial expressions while he is trudging through the swamp?

Unfortunately, my attempt to document the moment didn't do it justice. I had thought about snapping a picture before picking her up out of the muck, but then a 22 year old version of her little voice interrupted that thought with a "MOM, how could you?" She was not happy about the mud and whined about having to go home and take a bath. After scraping most of the mud off she was good to go and eventually found a little spot to clean off her shoes in the water. But then of course she didn't want to wear them because she said, "there water in nem."

So from then on she went barefoot. Like this.

She didn't get to follow Hope and Noah in the wooded areas, she had to stay on the grass, but she didn't seem to mind.

 Her hair is getting longer and she is growing up so fast.

I took what I thought were some really good shots. I was so excited thinking about how cute they were going to turn out and was even considering framing a few. Then I got home and realized that most of the ones I was so excited about turned out incredibly blurry.

 

I think they were playing the hobbit. See below where Noah is thoughtfully touching his chin.

Hope said several times that she was sure she could climb this tree. She didn't get very far, but seemed satisfied with the distance she did make.



 

After exploring we unloaded Eden and Hope's bikes from the van and rode up the Provo River Trail for a little bit. 

Noah thought Eden was quite funny on her little tricycle cause her little legs would pedal so fast and she would hunker down like she was really flying. 

 

She must've been working hard cause she got thirsty and had to pull over to get into her well-packed bag.

 

I got such a kick out of watching her with that bag. Getting out her drink and then, zipping up her bag, just as though she had been hiking and adventuring for years. Finally she decided to drink and drive. She almost caused several accidents on the trail....seriously. You can't tell by the photo, but she is moving while she is chugging that apple juice. Dangerous stuff.

She also had a mini magnifying glass in her backpack that she pulled out and kept stopping to check out bugs on the pavement. Then she held it up to her eye like a monocle and looked all around her while she was driving....another hazard. Several more accidents avoided. Her first lessons in distracted driving. 

 

We decided to make this place a weekly outing. Next time I think we'll follow Eden's lead and bring some water bottles for everyone - and some water shoes for the Swamp of Sadness.

More Park Buddies

Today the girls and I went to the park with Uncle Brian's family. Uncle Brian had the day off so he came too. Before we left though the kids enjoyed a Popsicle.

I love Caleb's face...it is too priceless.

The park we went to had a cool little mini forest off to the side of it that had a peaceful little stream running through it. You can imagine what enjoyment this provided. I think the kids would've been just fine if we would've stayed in the mini-woods and not even seen the playground.

I think I would've been fine with that too. This place reminded me of South Carolina and childhood. There was a bridge over the stream so the kids played "Pooh Sticks" from Winnie-the-Pooh. You drop a stick off one end of the bridge then rush to the other side to see who's stick comes out first.

Then each kid grabbed a big stick and just started poking around in the water. After a while they discovered that they could pull out big clumps of yuck that looked like shower drain hair.

Caleb was determined to catch a shoe that was abandoned in the stream. He dislodged it after a few pokes and then chased it down the stream a little ways.

Cameron likes for me to take his picture. Look at that face.

The kids played back at the playground for a bit before we left.

I feel like I am becoming a crazy camera lady, snapping pictures every few seconds. In a way it's annoying, but I also wonder why I haven't been doing it all along?

Park Buddies

Wednesday afternoon we went to the park with Autumn and the boys. I don't know why we haven't done this before...it was kind of a "duh" moment for me.  So we are going to try to make it a weekly outing, which will soon be even more fun with Noah's summer break coming up!

The park we went to had gorgeous trees all around it so the entire playground was shaded and perfect little rays of sunlight sprayed through the leaves here and there. I miss trees. I can't wait to live in that house in my vision of the old Ben and Lindsey cause it is surrounded by trees like the ones at this park.

 I think this park is suited for kids a little older than 2 years old cause it mostly had bars to climb up on the equipment like Cameron is doing in the first picture. Eden has not mastered those yet, in fact until this day at the park I hadn't even let her attempt them. Maybe we will put "climbing bars" under "swinging in the big kid swing" on our Learn To Do list for Eden this summer.

The kids had a great time but Caleb was disappointed that we would not be going to their house to play afterward. He said, "Aunt Lindsey," (I love hearing him say that) "It's been a long time since Hope and Eden came to my house." Maybe those weren't his exact words but pretty close I think. What a sweet boy. I assured him that we wouldn't let it be a long time again and we'd see him this weekend and go to the park again soon.

There is a story that goes with the top picture in this collage. On the highest tower of the playground was a really big twisty slide. Of course Eden wanted to try it, but once she finally climbed the mountain of stairs leading to it she had second thoughts. She sat up there for quite a while and I tried to get Hope to go up to help her down, but Caleb to the rescue!!! He went up and had Eden sit on his lap (Autumn climbed up to help with that part). When they came out the bottom of the slide Eden had a huge grin on her face. After that she didn't want to slide down unless Caleb was there and would call out to him, "Caleb! Come help me!" And he would reply, "Okay, I'm coming!"

He went to the restroom once and she was looking all around for him and called him for about five minutes. Finally she went down the slide by herself and soon after Caleb came running from the restroom toward the playground. Eden screamed and ran toward him and opened her arms to give him a big hug. Hope screamed about Caleb coming back from the potty too and ran to greet him. He had one of those smiles on his face that he was trying not to let show and it reminded me of Brian. It was the sweetest scene ever. I can't believe I didn't capture it.

Last Week

One day last week I decided to take the girls for a walk even though the "weather man" said it was supposed to storm. We were prepared with umbrellas though. Hope was fascinated with hers and wanted to keep it open but had a hard time keeping it still in the wind.

Eden's favorite song as of late is "Rain, Rain, Go Away!" She sings it quite well and loves to sing it even if the sun is shining.

We decided to go to the old park since it wasn't too cold.

On Saturday Hope went to a princess birthday party. She doesn't have any dress up princess clothes and she needed a new dress so I took Hope to JC Penney and we tried on dresses. This is the first time that she has actually had to try anything on because she is growing so fast! I had mini visions of her trying on her prom dress and her wedding dress and I almost got teary-eyed. :) She looked so beautiful in all the dresses, but this was her favorite.

We found the tiara at a party store and I made a dress up necklace cause every princess needs fancy jewelry. I tried to fix her hair fancy but she FREAKED OUT. I mean sobbing, hysterical freaking out. The girl does not like her "hair did." Here are some pics while she is still upset.

Still cute, but I prefer a happy princess and a little sister that doesn't look drunk. :)

Perfect.

First Trip to the Park of 2012

On Eden's birthday we met some friends for a pic-nic at the new park down the street. The weather was perfect park weather and Hope got to play with some friends for a while. Eden took right off to explore the playground. She didn't seem afraid of anything and even climbed up and went down the big spiral slide all by herself. I'm very excited that she is at the age where I don't have to hover around her constantly and I can give her a little freedom to explore on her own. Of course, I am not far away...I'm not brave enough to let her get to far from me yet. The swings still seem to be her favorite. I pushed her in the swing for quite a while and every now and then would ask if she wanted to get down. "No thanks." she'd reply. What good manners she has. :)

She also enjoys this xylophone, but can't quite reach it yet.



Hope has started making very vogue-esque poses for the camera now. Reminds me of when I was Hope's age and Donna would dress me up to take pictures.

We are going to enjoy many more trips to the park this year!



Fall Break

The new park is a big hit in our house. One day we went twice. Not really my idea, but I have to say I am glad that the kids are going outside to play without my having to bribe them. I suppose the cooler weather has something to do with it as well. During our first trip to the park Noah found that a couple of his friends were there playing and spent the rest of the afternoon playing with them at the park and at our house. This was the day we went twice. We went twice cause Noah and his friends decided they wanted to go back, but Eden was taking a nap so I told Hope that she would have to wait to go with me when Eden woke up.

Hope was actually starting to get sick this day (when she is wearing the pink) which is why she is lying on a bench eating a PB sandwich. She wouldn't eat lunch, which is not unusual for her by any means, but we had already spent all morning at the park and were going back for seconds so I told her that if she wanted to play she would need to eat something. It took her the entire walk there and about 10 minutes after we got there for her to finish.

Every time we go she makes a new friend. I am so proud of her! In the middle picture where she is wearing blue she is playing hide n' seek with Noah and his friends and she is hiding in the toddler play area under the bridge. I think she was the last one to be found during that round.

Noah was more difficult to catch with the camera unless I asked him to pose. He likes the new park a lot and I am really happy that he has good friends to enjoy it with. He didn't want to ride his bike to the park because he thought he would end up "ditching us cause he goes so fast". But on the way back he asked Hope if he could ride her bike. Little stinker. I love the first picture of Hope chasing him. Noah is old enough that I feel okay about letting him and his friends go down to the park alone. I will have to get him a watch though so that I can start giving him time limits instead of meeting him there when his sister wakes up. Even though he is ten years old (and I was roaming the neighborhood when I was a lot younger), I still seem to hold my breath when he walks out the door until I see him again. Oddly, I don't think that feeling will ever go away, even when he's an adult.

Eden really loves the park. Eden actually loves pretty much everything right now. She is a very happy little girl who proves to be worthy of her new "Destruct-OR" nickname everyday. She is really starting to grow up and I am finding it a little bittersweet. I am relieved that she outgrew her miserable infancy. She was NOT happy. I am proud and amazed at how fast she learns and is able to do things. She has an Evil Knievel streak which is a little scary because either she isn't learning from her mishaps (such as falling off the couch, etc.) or she just doesn't give a darn cause it's fun and exciting till it hurts. I am inclined to believe it is the latter. She will even do her own countdown, sometimes standing at the edge of the couch she will say "one two three!". Luckily she hasn't actually jumped off without someone there to catch her, but it is really only a matter of time. She is able to go down the slide all by herself now and will sit at the top anticipating what is about to happen (see the first pic). You can see her anticipation grow if you watch her closely. She sits there for a few seconds and a smile begins to spread across those precious little cheeks as her eyes dart from side to side. She slowly scoots her little body forward and puts her hands on either side and her smile gets bigger, it even looks like she is mumbling to herself under her breath. One more scoot and a little scream....then PLOP! She lands in the wood chips and usually scatters/covers herself with them. A few times she was able to land on her feet after sliding, but I think its going to take some more practice.

This time she seemed to be playing peek-a-boo with the wood chips. All around me mothers were telling their children not to play in the wood chips cause it would make them dirty. That was my first instinct, but I decided to ignore it and get out the camera instead. Which I'm glad I did. She enjoys washing her hands and gets a bath every night, so why not? ***This is something new I have been trying to teach myself; to just let the little things go. I've been cleaning up a lot more messes after the fact, but my children and I are happier for it and I am sure they learn something from making those messes. And if not I am getting some really cute pictures anyway.***

Speaking of Destruct-OR...I got a picture this time. I told Ben that I think this is the way she protests when I go in the bathroom and don't let her follow me. A shower is worth re-folding the t-shirts I suppose. :)

In this last one she is proudly looking at her accomplishments.
And a few more moments of her proving her worthiness.

There were moments that the camera didn't witness of shredded toilet paper and juice and milk that she would drink from her cup only to spit on the floor. When I say EDEN! this is her cue to move more quickly and efficiently at making her mess. Practice makes perfect and she's getting a lot of practice. Soon she will be a perfect little Destruct-OR.

I had big plans for Friday which fell through (more on that to come) and was pretty down about it. So first thing after the kids and I woke up we headed out. We stopped at Krispy Kreme for some yummyness and stopped by Ben's work to surprise him with his favorite donut: raspberry-filled. Then we headed up the Provo canyon. I intended to get out and walk around Bridal Veil Falls all morning and let the kids play and use up some energy, but as plans go (see the first sentence of this paragraph) that didn't happen. We had been out of the car for about two minutes before I decided we needed to get back in. The sun was not out enough to warm up the area we were in and it was really windy. Hope was more sick by this day, Eden just had a little windbreaker instead of a good jacket and I had my Raynaud's to consider. The kids were pretty disappointed that we were getting back in the car so early, but having donuts when we got in helped. I decided we would drive around the Alpine Loop and take some pretty pictures. Noah sat up in front with me and took lots of pictures. I was hoping we would see some animals but all we saw was a cute little squirrel.  Fall is my favorite season and this is one of the reasons why.

This too.