2014 :: week 26

June 22

Melanie and Andrew are moving to Florida and passed through as they were heading east. Will really likes his Uncle Andrew and was excited to hang out with him for an extra long time Sunday evening while Anthony and I taught a temple prep class. They made up a few songs that the kids have been singing throughout the week. One was about an orangutan and the other is about Will John.

June 23

I had been debating when to sign Will up for swimming lessons for awhile but hadn't quite gotten around to committing to a time. At 9:20 Monday morning I signed him up for swimming lessons that started at 9:30. Good thing the pool is only half a block away.

June 24

We've been attending the library storytimes on Tuesday morning this summer. I'm so impressed with the activities these librarians come up with. Tuesday's theme was "Math" and there were lots of counting and measuring songs/books/activities. For example, they had measured out how far a kangaroo hops (20 ft.) and then each kid could see how many of their hops it took to cover the same distance. They also had drawn and cut out the wingspans of various birds and the kids could stand next to it and find out which bird's wingspan was closest to theirs. There was an entire worksheet of things to measure. Will loves this kind of stuff. While him and I moved from station to station Lauren stayed and hopped in the kangaroo area for about 15 minutes.

June 25

 Walking home from the pool. Somehow this week ended up having a lot of pictures of Will.

June 26

I was trying to take some cute pictures of the kids in front of our house but they weren't really feeling it. Anthony was in DC Wednesday and Thursday and the kids and I struggled a bit. Anthony is the "bad cop"/enforcer in our family and the kids really push me when he is gone. This little lady may look sweet, but she is a force to be reckoned with when she feels wronged. When I upset her she quickly tells me "I'm not your friend anymore Mommy." Even though we had some tough moments, we actually get along really well most of the time.

June 27

If you look closely you can see Will waiting in line to go off the diving board at the end of his first week of swimming lessons. I could hardly believe it when he agreed to try. He is a very cautious child and I could tell by his body language while he was waiting in line that he was nervous. I was proud of him for doing something that scared him and realizing that he is capable of doing hard things.

June 28

Will enjoys sorting the baseball cards that Papa John gave him when he visited a few weeks ago. Occasionally he will ask me to sort with him, but Anthony is his sorting partner of choice. They sort the cards into team piles, arranged by division or alphabetically by team name (Red Sox or Cubs as opposed to city which would be Boston or Chicago). Will has a blossoming interest in baseball. This afternoon he told me that Eric Hosmer was a dirt dog totally out of the blue (we're assuming he said this because TJ told him Dustin Pedroia is a dirt dog and he has recently decided Hosmer is his favorite player).

2014 :: week 25

June 15

Father's Day. We celebrated with my parents and after dinner took a few pictures in their front yard. Our kids are so blessed to have so many quality men in their lives.

June 16

We went to the splash park with some friends from church. I wasn't sure how the kids would react, being that they don't like showers. Will played on the fringes. Lauren embraced the experience and scream-cried when it was time to go.

June 17

Lauren likes doing noses--which is when you touch your nose to someone else. She will pretty much only do this with mom and dad and when she is in a good mood.

June 18

Will and Lauren love playing on the playground after lunch. There are three different clusters of equipment, and we mainly stick to the one geared for the youngest kids. The other playgrounds have older kids playing on them and often they are pelting each other with the rubber mulch. On Wednesday it was "safe" (no mulch fights going on) and Will ventured over and hung out for a bit.

June 19

I like it when the kids play together peacefully. It doesn't happen as often or for as long as I'd like, but when it does, it is awesome.

June 20

Friday Lauren woke up telling us she didn't feel well and that her tummy hurt. As the morning went on she continued to complain and when I picked her up I noticed she was quite hot. She was running a fever so I decided to take her in to the pediatrician before the weekend started. They checked to make sure she didn't have a UTI (she didn't) and after giving her some Tylenol she was back to normal within a few hours. She is constipated and we've added sprinkles (miralax) to her diet to get things going, but constipation doesn't cause fevers so that was something else.

June 21

Saturday morning Anthony and Will mowed the lawn. Will loves doing anything with Dad these days.

em/matt/tyler

Last time we saw the Wilsons it was the week before Christmas and Emily was 7 month pregnant. Since then they've had their baby, Tyler, and they came back into town at the beginning of the month to introduce him to their Kansas family. We had such a fun time getting to know him and catching up with Em and Matt. We went over to my parents house so we could be there when they arrived. Will kept telling me to leave. He said it was more fun to be at Memaw's house when I was not there. Ouch.

Will and Lauren were very excited to meet Baby Tyler and showered him with attention the moment he arrived.

They swarmed him and did their best to make sure all his needs were met. Will is straightening his blanket and Lauren is helping him do a puzzle.

I got to hold him for a few minutes too.

The second day they were here they joined us at the pool. It was Tyler's first time "swimming."

 cousins are fun

Will was pleased to share his hat with Tyler when we realized we had gotten to the pool without a hat for him.

 Hanging out post pool, meeting Uncle Tony.

 such a cute little guy

Saturday was Uncle Matt's birthday, so while he was our with his brothers we helped Emily set up for a birthday party.

 There were lots of balloons.

Will is always willing to help blow out candles.

Grandma and her grandkids.

Lauren has become even more fascinated with all things baby. Will even got in on the baby excitement too. I don't know if I have enough childbearing years left to supply all the babies they think they want. At the very least Will has ordered twin boys. I think his newborn boy twin cousins (Derek and Nolan Maxfield) may have contributed to this wish.

 Look! Lauren can lay on a blanket too!

And Will can fit in a bumbo!

The week went by way too fast. Will and Lauren still talk about the "little man," (Pepaw's nickname for Tyler) and going to the pool with Em and Matt. Thanks for taking the time to come and visit!

2014 :: week 24

June 8

We act out a part of the scripture story we read most nights. Here Anthony and Will and plowing the fields, working like King Benjamin and the people of Zarahemla to support themselves.

June 9

When we left the gym Monday night it was pouring. Anthony ran and got the car and the kids and I waited under an awning to stay dry.

June 10

Tuesday was a very rainy day. Luckily the library had a "storytime you can eat" activity planned so we could still get out of the house. They read a few books about fruits and vegetables and then each got to taste small slices of a variety (radish, grape tomato, carrot, pear, apple, and cucumber). I was proud of Will for taking a bite of each, even the radish which he said was "too spicy."

June 11

I've started taking to the kids to the free lunches that are offered at a few of the elementary schools in the area. They love being able to pick their own drinks and have their own tray of food to eat. I love not having to prepare them a lunch or clean up the kitchen after them. It is extra fun when our friends eat there too, because then I have someone to talk to.

June 12

Will got himself dressed Thursday morning. He does a really good job of picking out clothes and putting things on correctly, but he struggles with buttons. He typically wants his buttons buttoned right away, but this day he wouldn't let me help him until we left the house. He said he liked the wind.

June 13

Dad and Will snacking on Spicy Chips before Dad headed off to help with a move. There were two moves (out) of our ward this weekend.

June 14

Saturday evening TJ and I went to Theatre in the Park to see Pirates of Penzance. Anthony's friend from graduate school and his wife (Reuben & Lindsey) were in the play and we wanted to see them in action.

st. louis fun

School is out and summer has started. With summer comes additional freedom and travel (for Anthony). We decided that the kids and I would tag along on his trip to St. Louis a few weeks ago.

We were mildly apprehensive going into things. The longest road trip we have ever taken with our kids was the day trip we took in March to Lincoln, NE. The drive to St. Louis went well, all things considered. The things to consider are we didn't bring them any portable electronics and they were both tired and ended up waking each other up. The biggest problem that arose was we had already driven about 10 miles past our exit when I looked at our directions to see where we needed to get off. This added about half an hour to the trip because it was rush hour and there were some construction congestion.  Because of this mistake we decided to get dinner first and then stop at the hotel.

We ate our first St. Louis meal at Fitz's. The food was good, but maybe I was just relieved to be out of the car. We were all tired and hurried over to the hotel to get the kids settled for the night. Because Anthony traveled so much last year they upgraded us to a suite (as opposed to a queen bed and pull out couch that we were planning on). That proved to be serendipitous.

Each kid got their own queen bed. We were so pleased when the going-to-bed process went so smoothly. Unfortunately, Lauren struggled to fall asleep without the walls of her crib and she kept Will up. Eventually Anthony put a bunch of pillows on the ground between the two beds to mimic the feel of a crib and moved Will to our bed. After the kids fell asleep we moved Will back to his original bed.

The next morning we enjoyed a great breakfast at the hotel. Then we drove though a blighted part of the city to take Anthony to his work meetings. While he was working the kids and I drove over to visit the arch. Will was fascinated with the arch, but made me promise him I wouldn't make him go up in it until he was at least 9. Whatever you say, Will.

After we spent a few minutes walking around outside, it started to get hot so we went to the underground visitor's center and museum.

We had a good time walking though, but Will asked me some tough questions about Native Americans. The older he gets the tougher the questions and the more clearly I need to answer him.

I think it was the last week of school while we were in town. When we emerged from underground the line to enter had quadrupled and I counted 26 school buses on the roads adjacent to the arch.

After the arch we picked up Anthony, ate lunch, and rested.

Lauren's bed

The Zoo was on the agenda for the afternoon. The kids took long naps so we only had about 2 hours to see as many animals as we could.

Will was a taskmaster with his map. He still needs to work on actually understanding how to use it though. Also, he brought the map home and I have to tape it about once a day. If I could go back in time I would have picked up ten of those maps.

gorilla gazing

"Whooping it up!" with the African Crowned Cranes

totally surprised to see this guy

watching the leopard dry heave

"Look at the big worm, momma!" Lauren called all the snakes worms and it made me laugh. Snakes totally creep me out.

pretending to roar like lions when we stopped for a drink

copying Dad's ingenious method for cooling off

After the zoo we found a spot to picnic in the surrounding park. 

Then we explored Forest Park for a bit. Anthony and I would have loved to have more time to spend there. We really wanted to check out the Missouri History Museum.

Cooling off our feet

Right after I took this picture we saw a sign telling us not to wade or swim in the fountain. Oops. In our defense there were a bunch of kids actually swimming in the water below. 

We decided to do something a little more honest to cool us down--Ted Drewes Frozen Custard. 

It was really good. You know when something comes highly recommended you almost expect it to be a letdown? Not the case here. It was delicious. Lots of good people watching too.

Friday we hit up the science center. Again, there were loads of buses filled with lots of kids who weren't supervised quite as well as I would have liked. We still had a good time.

Math nerds learning about probability.

Luckily we planned on going to the Discovery Room which was much less crowded.

Will fell in love with these drums and the acoustics in the teepee. 

Will and Dad built an arch

making music

We stopped by the St. Louis Temple on our way out of town.

I struggled to get a picture where you could see the kids and the temple very well.

The ride home was fine until Anthony got a ticket. It's hard not to feel a little bit like we were being targeted as out-of-staters being that there were cars driving faster all around us. The ticket incident put a damper on things, but overall we had a great trip. There is a lot of stuff we were interested in doing in St. Louis. Our kids were just too young to pack things in as tightly as Anthony and I would have if we were there by ourselves. I guess we'll just have to go back again. Thanks to my friend Holly for giving us some great suggestions of things to do and see in St. Louis!

This year marks St. Louis' 250th birthday, and one of the ways the city is celebrating is with Cakeway to the West. The city has placed birthday cakes at sites of significance around town. We saw a few during our visit and the kids quickly caught on to looking for them (and then climbing all over them).

Right outside Fitz's and near the St. Louis Walk of Fame

 

St. Louis Arch

Ted Drewes

St. Louis Zoo

Science Center