Lessons

signing the boys up for swimming lessons is the best decision I've made in a long time. some teenager plays with them and gets all the energy out if them while I spend the first two hours of my morning soaking up the sun.

buffalo

generally when there's a traffic jam in yellowstone it's because people see a herd of elk or buffalo off in the distance so they're eagerly finding a place to pull over so they can take lots of pictures.

we got stuck in quite a traffic jam on saturday. we were just creeping along for at least an hour. traffic was backed up for miles and i got a real kick out of it when we found the reason. three buffalo were just casually making their way down the road.

i think they were headed to old faithful.

yellowstone

we took a day trip to yellowstone. that place is a-may-zing. one day just doesn't do it justice. next time i want to camp out for a week. i couldn't pick just a few of the random pictures that i took, so prepare for "operation yellowstone picture overload"

most of the pictures are small so feel free to click on them to get a better look if you so desire :)

UFO

Crazy things happen up in Blackfoot, Idaho. Get a load of the UFO I saw!

Wasatch

the boys stayed a few nights at my parents house so nate and I got a few well deserved nights to ourselves. nate didn't realize how much he missed the wasatch front until he was back in front of it. we took a relaxing drive up the canyon and enjoyed the beautiful scenery without being distracted by the boys.

thomas

a few weeks ago i took the boys up to heber to see thomas. payton was amazed that thomas came all the way from sodor just to let us go for a ride.

payton loved it.

jackson thought it was pretty cool.

for me it was anti-climactic.

'91

it finally happened........

jackson asked me a question about my childhood and said "in the olden days"

since nate is home i took the opportunity to spend a little alone time with jackson. we went out for an evening snow cone and talked while we enjoyed our treat. he was impressed with the many size choices that this snow shack had to offer. since it was a special occasion i let him get a bigger size than usual.

then it happened

"mom? in the olden days when you were a kid did they have that many sizes to choose from?"

i actually thought back to the olden days in the summer of '91 when my dad put a snow shack in front of the local grocery store and me and all my siblings worked there for the summer. i told jackson that back then there was only one size and they actually were served in paper cones.

it totally blew his mind.

yes...

....i am posting yet another picture of payton sleeping. i'm just trying to understand how this is comfortable??

for real

now that dad is home we're having fun again!!

superman

 mr. payton loves to wear a cape to take milo for walks. maybe he thinks he needs super powers to be able to walk that huge 4.5 lb. chihuahua.

the return

OH MY GOODNESS

there is no way i could possibly describe how happy we are to have nate home. 

it seemed like this day would never come. but come it did and it was glorious!

{finally}

first grade is over.

summer is finally here.

nate is almost home.

i can breathe again.....

:)

we went on a nice family walk today. it was so warm and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. days like these give me a nice break from my melancholy.

the heat left me with two rosy-cheeked little munchers and a tired little chihuahua. loads of fun.

grrrrrr

what was once a beautiful pot of orange gerber daisies is now this...

i found the little culprit and almost punched him in his tiny little face.

Clothing Optional

People may judge me when they see my son running all around town in his jammies. But what do you do? Getting him to wear clothes is a fight every day. The kid loves jammies. He likes to be comfortable.

His need for being comfortable is evolving in a way that I don't care too much for.

When I manage to get him to wear real clothes for an outing he takes them off within seconds of us walking through the door and puts on jammies. Recently though, he just takes off his pants and his underoos and tries walking around the house with his shirt being the one and only thing on his body.

Just when I put a stop to that he took it a step further.

Two nights ago I went in to check on the boys after they'd fallen asleep and he'd taken ALL his clothes off. He attempted to sleep that way again last night too! I got in there and put his jammies back on and he just slept right through it.

Let's hope this phase goes by quickly.