West Virginia

As luck would have it, Jon's work trip to Dugway got him out of Scout Camp, which meant he had enough leave for a week-long trip to West Virginia to see his family.

We began with a momentous occasion--the turning-around of the car seat for Catherine.
At 18 months old and (not quite) 20 pounds, she's FINALLY out of her infant car seat:

We did this thinking she would travel better since she could see Seth and watch movies.

Reality? She could see Jon & I better and spent a good portion of the trip pointing at the dashboard and whining.  Still can't figure out what she wanted--the keys?  The CD player?

We managed to survive the drive and got to spend some time hanging out with the Bloods: 

Seth LOVES LOVES LOVES Uncle Stephen "because he tickles me."

Catherine, on the other hand, LOVES LOVES LOVES being upstairs unsupervised.

Ask James how many times she got his deodorant: 

"I am sweet and innocent of all charges."

"Finally, a chair worthy of my highness!" 

"Thrones are nice and all, but laundry baskets are pretty fantastic, too!" 

Per tradition, we spent one afternoon at the local wave pool (which had pretty crappy waves this year).

Catherine loved every minute, except the minutes when we tried to put her in an inner tube. 

Splashing with Daddy

Joanna was thrilled to be there: 

Actually, Joanna was thrilled with just about everything.

Did I mention that she's 14?

(although she's a much nicer 14 than I probably was)

Jon trying to drown Jacob: 

I think this may be the Blood's favorite sport--Joanna and James were doing it, too.

Seth wanted nothing to do with me or Jon--Uncle James was WAY cooler than Mom or Dad: 

No fear of the water here: 

Mommy & Princess: 

The kids spent most of their time destroying the playroom upstairs.

On this particular day, Catherine came down the stairs with a fabulous toy:

"What am I doing, you ask?

Oh, nothing.

Just playing with this severed doll's leg.": 

Sometimes I wonder what else is buried in that playroom...

Plumpton Park Zoo

We met up with some friends at a local (ish) zoo.  It's pretty small, but they let you feed most of the animals.

This was the first animal we saw, and Seth would have fed it his entire cup if I hadn't stopped him:

I wasn't sure how Catherine would do.  I was worried about her getting her fingers bitten or throwing a fit because she hates having dirty hands.  Boy was I wrong--she was in seventh heaven!

  If you look carefully, you can see her grin: 

Seth loved the peacocks and insisted on feeding them, even though they didn't touch the food: 

This ostrich was pacing the fence, biting each individual section to test it.

Thank heaven it held up, because I would NOT want that thing near my kids.

Here is a happy Princess feeding a goat.  He later repaid her by butting her over when her back was turned.

Then she was not so happy. 

This pen had goats and sheep together.  The girls were very offended that the pushy goats were taking more than their fair share of food.  This is them trying to lure the goat away so they can feed the sheep. 

Gabe & Seth discuss the girls' efforts: 

Just before we left to eat, we got to watch them bring in a brand new brown bear.

Glad we were on the other side of a fence--that bear was NOT happy: 

On the way out I told Seth he could have a popsicle.  When I asked him which one (they had a poster with pictures), he confidently responded, "Sponge the Bob."  4-year-olds are awesome.

Local Fun

Have I mentioned that (much to my parents' and grandparents' dismay) we love living here?

There's so much to do, and it's GORGEOUS during the summer.

Humid, but gorgeous.

On one of the not-so-humid days, we decided to hit the MA & PA trail for the first time:

Seth was whining in this picture.  And for a good chunk of the walk.

It's pretty standard fare around here right now.

Princess chasing her daddy down the trail.

Then a few days later we headed to Rocks State Park for a dip in the river/large creek: 

This girl loves the water

Two babies in a river

We met up with some of our friends there, and within 30 minutes they had reverted to the classic childhood activity: building things out of mud and rocks.  In this case it was a mudslide down the bank.

It's amazing what they were willing to do to run this thing.  One of the other moms commented that her kids were willing to run bucketfuls of water up the bank (over and over and over) but wouldn't put their clothes away.  If only chores were as interesting as mud building!  

(I have great memories of building dams in creeks with my sisters and cousins, so it was fun to watch Seth have a blast doing something similar).

Catherine was a bit too small and a bit too OCD about dirty hands to participate.  

Instead, she opted for her favorite activity: searching for gum in Mom's purse.

The first thing she emptied out was my wallet.  When I went to start putting my cards away, I couldn't find my wallet anywhere.  After an extensive search, I found it:

Nothing I own is sacred, apparently.

Our next adventure was the county Farm Fair.  

We weren't sure what to expect--just hoping for some entertainment for the kids.

You wouldn't know it from this picture, but Seth was very excited to ride a school bus to the Fair:

Catherine was also thrilled: 

As it turns out, it was a pretty miserable day.  And the Bloods don't do well in heat & humidity.

Seth and Catherine had a great time jumping in the little bounce houses and getting lost in a corn maze: 

Okay, the maze wasn't that fun.

But they got candy when they came out.

Seth spotted a carriage ride and was bouncing up and down while we waited for our turn.

But once we got on, he just couldn't contain his excitement anymore:

You'd swear we had to force him on this ride.

Catherine was pretty happy, mostly because she had a sucker: 

After lunch and a partial viewing of a frisbee-catching dog show, we decided we were plenty warm and headed home.  

Hot & humid at the Farm Fair

When Daddy's Away...

...the babies live on hot dogs, macaroni & cheese, and restaurant fare!

Jon had a four day trip to Dugway in the middle of July. Since we had just been to Arizona for Marah's wedding, we decided it wasn't worth it for all of us to go.  Which meant it was me and two babies alone for a few days!

I tried to get us out of the house as much as possible. 

Unfortunately, I underestimated how quickly Catherine could get down our stairs and into the kiddie pool:

I just stripped her down and took her to the store in her diaper.

Seriously.

Then I was stupid enough to try to eat at Red Robin by myself with both of them.

They did fairly well, but I'm not sure why I bothered to buy them any food (or ice cream) since I ate it all myself...

Catherine's latest pose for the camera.  "Cheese!"

Apparently the chocolate milk was SO GOOD he couldn't even open his eyes.

Then, of course, I got suckered in by the new carousel they put in.

A note to all local moms: DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY.  

It costs like a buck and runs for maybe 90 seconds.  Piece of junk.

But since the kids have no concept of wasted money, they thought it was pretty fantastic: 

And, stupidly, I left the water in the kiddie pool: 

This girl is super fast when she wants to get herself in trouble.

On the last day of Jon's trip we met some friends at Kilgore Falls.

We had a lovely morning just playing in the water.

We had a lot of fun, but there were two VERY happy babies when their daddy walked in the door that evening!

Party, Party

Growing up we always alternated--one year we'd have a 'friend' birthday party, the next just family.

It's a great idea in theory, but unfortunately we have no family out here to celebrate with!

So Seth got another 'friend' party, but I kept it super simple this year:

we partied at a local park and everyone brought their own lunch.

How cool am I?  Best birthday party idea ever.

Seth was very specific about his cake this year. 

It was to be a light purple fire truck and it was to taste like lemon.

And here it is--a lemon cake with raspberry filling and lemon/cream cheese icing:

(please don't judge harshly--once again, we were going for flavor over fondant)

(and I was also trying to make it as un-girly as is possible for a light purple fire truck)

We had a small party with Seth's good friends: 

(notice the Princess standing on the table?  Standard fare around here)

Jon lights the candles: 

My favorite Seth picture: 

Please note--he covered his ears BEFORE the singing even started.

That is my son.

It was the perfect party for him--lots of space, lots of friends, and simple gifts (fruit snacks and a sucker, for example).  Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us!

Seth at Four

At four years old there is nothing left of my baby boy anymore--he's 100% little man now.  Sometimes I still miss his chubby cheeks and chunky thighs, but watching him learn & grow is incredible.

Here's what Seth is up to at four years old:

-buckling himself in his car seat (finally)
-getting himself dressed all by himself (he still has a hard time with buttons on shirts)
-can take care of his own bathroom business, but still can't quite make it through the night
-does his "jobs", which include helping set the table and cleaning up all his toys
-not sure about height and weight (his appointment is in September), but he's still in 3T clothes and 7-8 shoes.
-loves macaroni & cheese, plain rice & noodles, hot dogs, peaches, pears, apples with no skin, and grapes.  Will not touch anything that could possibly be a vegetable.
-he would honestly sit and let me read books to him all day.  Right now he loves Little Critter books, Berenstain Bears, Shel Siverstein poems, and anything about cars/trucks.
-can read simple 3 letter words, but doesn't usually want to
-always wants to show us his "cool tricks" on his bike or with his cars
-favorite Sethism of the moment: "you got forgot"
-every night he asks for stories about "someone got hurt," at which point we rack our brains trying to think of ANOTHER story about ourselves/parents/siblings/friends getting hurt to tell him.  A little morbid, I know.
-loves building with Legos and blocks.  What does he build?  Cars and trucks.
-hates Primary, but still goes.  Especially hates Singing Time--it's too loud and crazy for him.
-alternates between begging Catherine to come play with him in the basement and screaming at her for touching his cars.  Loves to make her laugh.
-after baths, he puts on his monkey towel and runs around while Catherine chases him, saying, "Woof, woof!"
-asks frequently if we can "go places at night."
-almost never lets me snuggle/kiss/hug him anymore, which means I have to wrestle him to get a kiss.
-somehow associates flowers with getting married.  Yesterday he gave me a dandelion "because I got forgot to give you one when you got married."

I followed him around with the video camera and asked him some questions about himself, then transcribed his answers for your enjoyment:

What's your favorite color? "Pink and purple and yellow and black and GREEN!" (Seriously--he loves pink.  We had issues at Joy School because I only had two pink bowls to split between two girls and Seth).

What's your favorite food? "Pears."

Who's your best friend?  "Tristan. And Gabe.  He's kinda my best friend. Brie is probably my best friend, but I don't know if she is. Angelina...uh, no.  Cause I don't like her house, cause she screams a lot." (Breaks my heart, but it's true!)

What's your favorite movie? "Race cars.  Crashing." (He watches Youtube videos of car crashes while we eat lunch.  The things we'll do for some peace & quiet...)

What's your favorite toy? "Cars." (Surprise, surprise)

What's your favorite game? "Boring games." (translation=board games)

What's your favorite snack? "A snack with marshmallows and candy!"

What's your favorite animal? "No animals.  Because I don't like animals."

What do you want to be when you grow up?  "Animal doctor.  A boy animal doctor." (Irony duly noted)

Favorite Song? "Frosty the Snowman and Wheels on the Bus."

Favorite Book? "Berenstain Bears. All of them."

Seth man, you amaze me.  I think you are the smartest, cutest, sweetest little boy in the world.  And I adore your freckles.  I see so much of your daddy in you--you are focused and brilliant when you really care about something.  And if you're not interested (like learning to write)?  Forget it.

Sometimes I catch glimpses of who you're growing up to be.  It scares me to know that it's coming so quickly, but I can't wait to see who you become.  I am so blessed to be your mommy.  I love every piece of you, my Seth Man.  Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Seth!

Our little man turned 4 on July 12th.  

We started the celebration off right:

Balloons, the truck balloon he picked out, and Lucky Charms.

(Lucky Charms are not usually purchased in this house, and with good reason.  I think only 20% of the actual cereal got eaten as opposed to 100% of the marshmallows.  

Which leads to one of my favorite Seth quotes, as spoken to his bowl of cereal: 

"THERE ARE NO MARSHMALLOWS IN HERE.  THESE ARE NOT DELICIOUS.")

Since the marshmallows are gone, clearly the only thing this bowl is good for is for dunking cars.

We'd warned him for months that four-year-olds are big boys, and big boys don't have pacifiers.

In retrospect, this was not the best idea--we pretty much made him dread his birthday.

"I don't want to be four.  Because then I will be big and there will be no more pacifiers."

Oops.

But it was too late to back out, so after his birthday dinner we headed out to look for a bike.

Things got a bit complicated when we realized he was too tall for the 12'' tires we planned on getting, 

but just barely tall enough for the 16'' tires.  The only 14'' tires we found were on a lovely, sparkly pink bike.

Seth was all for it, but we figured he would regret that decision someday soon.

In the end he choose a nice red & black bike with 16'' tires and training wheels.  

At least it will last a bit longer!

[insert the picture I forgot to take of Seth 'buying' his new bike with his bag of pacifiers]

Then it was home for the inaugural ride: 

Prepping the bike for takeoff

So happy on his big bike

I was a little worried when he rode it once around the loop and then demanded his trike.  

Luckily he wasn't afraid to get back on and is now riding (and braking) like a pro!

Day two of riding--those pedals can be tricky!

We spent so much time finding a bike that we didn't have time to open presents.

Thankfully he didn't remember, so we just opened them the next night.

This was supposed to be the "before" picture, with all his wrapped gifts. 

Unfortunately, in the time it took me to walk to the kitchen to get the camera, he'd already done this: 

He was very spoiled with books, a Nerf gun, Matchbox cars (of course) and wooden blocks

Telling Grandma Cathy 'thank you' for the blocks and books

What could be better than old school wooden blocks?

Wooden blocks with CARS in them!

Catherine is quite pleased with her gifts.

I mean, Seth's gifts. 

Happy Birthday, Little Man!