August Quotes

Rylan
(August 12, 2012)
I had cleaned out a drawer in my bathroom and left a compact powder puff thingy on the counter. Ry asked me why there was a cracker in my bathroom. So I told him what it was and he asked why it looked like a cracker. I explained that it was round to fit inside the round compact and it was brownish because that's what color the powder is...the same color as my skin.
Ry: "You're a cracker...and I'm a cracker!"

(August 30, 2012)
We were reading a book that had kids making a giant birthday card for a classmate. I asked the boys if they would like a giant birthday card for their birthday?
Ry: "No! I don't want a card, I want a cake!"


Asher
(August 11, 2012)
Asher: "Mom, do you want to call me Ishmael?"
We've been watching the Olympics a lot and there is a commercial with a runner who turns on an audio book of Moby Dick and you hear "Call me Ishmael" as the runner continues on his long run. Asher has obviously been paying attention!

(August 21, 2012)
While talking to my dad on the phone...
My dad: "What are you doing?"
Asher: "I talking to you!"
Duh, grandpa!!

(August 22, 2012)
We came to a T on the trail and Asher asked which way we were going to go. I told him we were going to turn right. He pointed and asked which way was right. There was a guy running, going the way we were going to go, so I told Asher we would follow the guy. Then Asher said "But then we'll get to his house, not ours."
Ha Ha, funny and true!

(August 26, 2012)
Kevin took Asher to church while the rest of us stayed home (Tyce has a yucky nose, Ry was throwing up yesterday). When they got home Kevin said to Asher "Thanks for going to church with me" and Asher replied "Yeah, that was awesome"!

(August 30, 2012)
Asher: "What does 'dolphin' start with?"
Me: "D"
Asher: "What does 'dad' start with?"
Me: "D"
Asher: "Then dad must be a dolphin!"

First Day of First Grade!

First Grade!!!

 I will never get used to the idea of my boys growing up.
Rylan started First Grade--he's away from me all day! He's always been my little buddy, my big helper. Oh, what am I going to do without him near me all day long?
I kinda feel like we didn't have much time to think about it. I mean, I know we had a whole summer to enjoy (which we did to the fullest--maybe our best summer ever!!) But we were on vacation until Sunday night and mostly used Monday to recover from vacation...laundry and relaxing. So Tuesday morning came quickly and we just kinda had to jump right in.
We also went to the school on Monday to meet his teacher, Mrs. Olson. She's young and cute (a friend of my friend Sarah) and has a really cute jungle themed classroom. We walked around the classroom finding his desk and cubbies and a few other classroom perks--a reading jungle and pet frogs! I was excited for Rylan because he sits in the same pod as his friend Christian and he knows at least half of the class (which is made up of 15 boys and 9 girls!) Some kids from preschool 2 years ago, some from kindergarten, some from the neighborhood. Being in the classroom got me a little excited for school to start!

A few weeks ago Rylan picked out a dump truck lunch box. He's using his backpack from preschool and kindergarten--it's held up well! That's really all he needed. He woke up on time on his own and made his bed and got dressed right away. I had his breakfast waiting for him and made his lunch request: honey sandwich, cheese stick, apple (and I threw in some chocolate milk for fun). Before leaving we took a few pictures and he told me he was excited for school! With Tyce and Asher still in jammies we drove Ry to school and walked him in to his classroom.

There was no hesitation. He put his backpack in his cubby and sat down at his desk, excited to play with the play doh. I took a couple pictures, gave him a hug, and that was that. With a deep breath I walked out of the classroom with only one look back to make sure he was okay :) I left the school with my friend Mindy (whose son is also in Ry's class) and she kept me laughing. But as soon as I got in my car I lost it. I allowed myself to cry until we got home and then I made myself stop!

Luckily we had something fun to do. Mindy had invited everyone to the park for "A Morning of Mourning". Tyce really needed a nap but Asher and I really needed to go. Two against one, we won :) Asher played while I chatted with friends. We left about noon, put Tyce down for a nap and had some lunch. I've always wanted to have fresh, warm cookies waiting for my kids when they get home from school so that was definitely happening today! I don't remember the last time I made cookies so I was very excited :) I talked to Kacy for a long while and before I knew it, it was time to pick up Rylan!!!

Not thinking ahead, I realized while at the park that I didn't tell Ry where I'd meet him after school. Luckily Mindy had asked the teacher which doors they come out so at least I could be there waiting for him. He seemed happy and big!

Ry's not much of a talker so I didn't expect to hear many details about his day. He told me he had fun and his favorite part of the day was recess (of course). He played with Christian the first recess and nobody the second recess cause he wanted to play with the jump rope or balls and Christian didn't want to. He sat by Christian and Cullen at lunch and had plenty of time to eat all his food. He saw a few friends from his kindergarten class that are in other classes and maybe he'll play with them another day. And that's about all he told me.

Wednesday morning, while getting ready for school, he said "Mom, you know why I like first grade? Because I get to eat lunch there and have TWO recesses!!" He's been going to bed on time and waking up on time which is nice. It's always hard to wake up sleeping kids!

Asher is missing his play buddy. Rylan really was great all summer to keep Asher occupied. They sure made lots of messes, but Ry was always thinking up fun things to do. I think Asher forgot how to keep himself occupied. He's been my little shadow and practically refuses to be in a different room then me. Between playing and my daily tasks, our time goes quickly! Soon we will be setting up play dates!!

So as hard as it is to send off my little boy, I know he's going to have a great school year and I'm excited for him!

SD Day 4--Beach!!

Ry copied Tyce, thinking he looked so cute sitting in the floaty watching tv :)

BEST day in San Diego!! I wish we would have had two or three more of these!

Our initial plan was to go to the Mormon Battalion museum in the morning, have lunch there in Old Town, and then hit the beach for the rest of the day (including a beautiful sunset). Well the morning was so nice that Angie suggested we just go straight to the beach and do the museum and dinner. Sounds good to me!
But first the family gathered in our room where Kevin cooked up some pancakes and Aubrey cooked up some scrambled eggs (in her nearby room). I only had Asher's leftover pancakes but they were delicious--good job Kev! And the scrambled eggs were just what I needed (eggs are my typical breakfast food of choice).
(Oh, and I will add that this was my one morning while on vacation that I got up to workout. I thought I'd go on a 6 mile run but I didn't know where my garmin was (to track my mileage) so I hopped on the treadmill next to Steph who was already in the little fitness center. After 3 miles I was done. It was already hot, the sun was shining right in my eyes, and the treadmill is not fun! So I finished off with some weights before heading back to the room.)

We set up for a day at the beach. We had our canopy and several others had umbrellas. Kev immediately got out in the water with the boys for some frisbee/football tossing. I played in the sand with Tyce and Asher and Ry ran around with the other kids. Most of my day was sitting on the beach with the boys and part of that was holding a sleeping Tyce.

Don't you love the tan line? :)

Asher was well taken care of by all the girls! Here, Steph was feeding him his bagel with cream cheese and Lauren was feeding him a string cheese. That boy...!!!

At one point Rylan and Sam were playing right in front of me and I saw a bee fly right up to Ry. He subconsciously swatted it away and then got stung on the ear! OUCH! He was very upset and luckily there were some prepared people there. Mary had a First Aid kit with tweezers and was able to pull the stinger out. She also had some sting ointment to put on but Ry said it burned. So Mary Kaye and Dennis got some ice and held it on his ear while we all tried to talk to him and calm him down. It took two cubes of ice until he stopped crying. Then he just wanted to go home. He was done. Mark found a perfect sand dollar and after showing it off he offered it to Ry who gladly accepted. That helped him to feel better :) After some time Kev convinced Ry to get back out and play again. Once he did, there were no more complaints or even words about that bee sting!

Ry collected many shells and brought them home with him

I started getting restless and I was ready to get in the water. I decided it was time to try boogie boarding. I laid Tyce down in the canopy shade--I think Kev said he'd watch him but he came out in the water with me so he must have asked somebody else to keep their eyes on him...there were lots of us around! Andy took me out in the waves for some coaching and at his 'GO!' I was off. It was perfect timing and so much fun to ride that wave!!! Some of the kids asked for my board but I made them wait :) Kev came out and the two of us did some boogie boarding where I got swallowed up many a time by those waves. But I had a few good rides so I was pleased and loving the beach!

Tyce LOVED the water! He was splashing and have a ball and didn't mind at all if he got splashed in the face!

Eventually I could put the kids off no longer so I gave up my board and talked with Aubrey while wading in the water. Oh, it was so nice I didn't want to leave. The kids were having a blast in the sand and water, too. We had dinner reservations at 6:00 so before we were all ready to leave the beach we had to pack up. Mark brought the car so people could pack the majority of our stuff in the car. Kev was busy with that while Lauren and I walked back to the hotel with my 3 boys. Tyce was in the stroller but Ry and Asher were struggling. All that sand in their shorts and all over their body was making it very uncomfortable for them to walk. It was slow going and soon Kev caught up with us and carried the boys back. Whew!

I sure do love this handsome husband of mine!!

But wait--we were not ready to be done swimming! Back at our hotel we all hopped in the pool. I can't even tell you how perfect it was!! Again, I did not want to leave so I kept putting it off. I decided I didn't need to do my hair which gave me an extra ten minutes in the pool. At the very last minute we hopped out and raced up to our room to shower and quickly get ready. Then off to Old Town we went for our Mexican dinner!
We ate at 'Cafe Coyote' which was delicious! I intended to eat light but I just couldn't do it. Maybe all the sun and water made me extra hungry?

After our yummy food we walked to the Mormon Battalion museum nearby. I was happy to be going but I wasn't overly excited. But it was Awesome!!! It was interesting and the presentation of it all was very good. We were the last group of the night and we were a big group. There were a few others not of our party there and they were very kind to offer up their seats (I was holding a restless and eventually a sleeping Tyce so I very much appreciated the seat). They take your picture at the end which was fun and gave the kids small pieces of 'gold'. I would highly recommend this museum!

All the girls! Sad that Meeja and Chanelle are cut off :(

Back to the hotel we went for a peaceful sleep after a fun filled day!

SD Day 3--Sea World

We were up early (in vacation standards) to get ready for our day at Sea World! We had some cheerios and fruit in our room for breakfast and made sure we had our hats and sunscreen. When Mark and Chanelle were ready we drove the short distance to Sea World!

As should be expected with a large group, it was a bit chaotic at first to find everyone and get together. We quickly found something to do though with Dennis, Mary Kaye, and Steph. We ended up at the dolphin show and loved it! Rylan and Asher wanted to sit up in the 'Soak Zone' seats so I took them up closer. It was so hot I was willing to get splashed to cool down! The dolphins were fun and cute and the whole show was entertaining. The boys were excited and loved it. Rylan was pretty disappointed though because we did not get soaked! We certainly got splashed but not soaked. I thought it was perfect :)

After the dolphin show we raced over to the Shamu show to meet up with the rest of the fam. Steph held Tyce who quickly fell asleep. This show was okay, but not near as entertaining as the dolphins.Then we all visited the aquarium where the boys got to pet and hold sea stars--cool! Inside there were some sea turtles that Asher loved!

I'm not sure what this was a picture of but isn't he so cute! Hand in his pocket...

The other half of the family went to see the dolphin show so we took the boys over to the Sesame Street part to ride some rides. Mark, Chanelle, and Steph came along with us and rode rides with the boys. I think they forgot the rides were for kids :)

There were no lines for these kiddie rides so the boys got to ride all of them in the short amount of time we had. NICE!

Good thing we don't get embarrassed easily!! But really, Marks' bright pink shirt was helpful since it was so easy to find him. I quickly found the family in the Shamu show after walking in late...because of that shirt!

Tyce was a trooper! Just about the only thing he could do was sit in his stroller! I tried to keep him cool with any shade we could hunt down (it was hard to find) and lots of water. He really is such a good, good baby!

Our Sea World crew! Having those three with us sure made our day fun...and the boys loved having them with us too, of course!!

Sometime during the day we ate lunch (blah) and a good portion of the family went on a ride where they got super wet. Kev took Rylan while I waited with Asher, Tyce, and some other family. Kevin worried about wet shoes before we even left our hotel. He brought along some plastic grocery sacks and tied them around his shoes! Ha Ha! He got teased for that but he was grateful to have dry shoes at the end of the ride!! Mark and Angela bought us some yummy frozen lemonade, I let Tyce crawl around on the ground (he was super dirty but he was having fun!), we chatted, and refilled our water bottles.

Early in the day Asher asked me when he was going to get to see the polar bears. Not knowing Sea World very well I told him they didn't have polar bears. But there are lots of other animals for us to see! He asked several times and I gave him the same answer. He put me in my place after we went to the Arctic portion and sure enough, there were polar bears! Asher said to me "See mom, I was right and you were wrong"!! 

The polar bears weren't out when we first got there but our patience paid off. Asher was thrilled! Dare I say it was his favorite part of the day?! I thought it was very cute to see his excitement!

See the polar bear?

Part of the polar bear is covered by the brim on Ry's hat

We then went to the 'Pet's Rule' show which was also very cute! Dogs, cats, a pig, and even a kangaroo were a part of this show. Again, Asher loved it (he's an animal guy)! It really was a good show. Next it was time to ride 'Atlantis'. Angie and Steph offered to take Asher and Tyce to see the penguins while Kev, Ry, and I went on the ride. How nice! Angie told me that Asher requested to see the polar bears again but she suggested seeing something they hadn't seen. He agreed to that. She said Tyce got very excited watching the penguins, kicking his legs and clapping his hands. Cute! For a second I was sad I missed it :) While waiting in line for Atlantis I had a little talk with Ry. Occasionally he will ask why he has to be the oldest. "I want Asher to be the oldest." I've tried to find out what it is about being the oldest that he doesn't like, but I really try to point out reasons why he's lucky to be the oldest. So I had to take the opportunity to point out how lucky he was to be able to ride the rides at Sea World and how Asher wasn't able to ride the big rides. He smiled his shy smile and hugged my leg. He's such a sweet boy--and I glad he's the oldest!

Most the family left at this point (or had already gone) but some of us stayed for one more ride. Ry was too short so I waited with all three boys while Kev went with Mark, Chanelle, and some of the Vostis. We finished off all our water and snacks and looked on every ride for Mark's pink shirt so we'd know where they were! Right there by the ride they have a seat for overweight people to sit in to make sure they will fit on the ride. If there's a green light, they are good to go. If it's red they are not allowed to ride. So sad. I saw two ladies test it out and they were clearly very embarrassed. The first lady got the red light but her husband and kids talked her into trying it again while they pushed down on the bar until they got the green light. The second lady got the red light and sadly waved to her family to go ahead and ride. Oh, it really was heartbreaking and I get teary eyed just thinking about it.

After our fun day at Sea World we went back to the hotel for a yummy spaghetti dinner prepared again by Angie. I always love spaghetti! I remember my mom saying one time how she felt like she spent all her time in the kitchen for our cabin vacations and she didn't want to do that. Well, I don't blame her! I didn't want Angie to feel that way so we worked it out that the pancake breakfast the next morning would be prepared by me and Aubrey--perfect!

That night we took a ferry ride across the bay. It was late and after a long day, it wasn't surprising that most of the little kids fell asleep! I was glad our boys were all ready for bed so we could just tuck them in when we got back. It was another fun day!!

I think the ferry was honking it's horn. Rylan is not a fan of loud noises!!

Gabe and Asher--two cuties!!

San Diego Vacation Days 1 and 2

We had planned on Dennis and Mary Kaye being here around noon to drop off Mark and Chanelle who would ride with us and we'd caravan to Whiskey Pete's. We were ready and had a few extra minutes to make sure our house was in order and everything was packed. Rylan and Asher were so excited they had been waiting in the van, assigning seats. The fact that they would be sitting in the car for 7 hours didn't matter to them! Once the Doyles got here Kevin packed the van and we were off!!
We had a couple stops along the way for potty breaks but made it to Whiskey Pete's around dinner time. We reluctantly stopped at Carl's Jr--options were limited. Dennis and Mary Kaye joined us after they checked in and the boys had fun playing in the play area. Mary Kaye commented on the state of the hotel: "It looks 30 years older than the last time we stayed here" which was 7 or 8 years ago on our way to California for Matt and Mary's wedding.
We checked in to the hotel--gross. The carpet in the hallway was coming up and duct taped down every few feet. Our bathroom sink leaked and dripped water on our feet. We were glad to only be there for a quick sleep and an early departure.
Wednesday morning we decided on a breakfast at the Original Pancake House. We had seen the signs/building the day before. We all walked in, confused. It was a mini mart that just had advertisements for the Pancake House which was actually inside Buffalo Bills. Our confusion was obvious. One guy said "I think they are in the wrong place"! We decided on McDonald's which was oddly decorated with unicorns and carousel horses. I vaguely remember carousel horses from McD's when I was younger.
We were off to San Diego. Our gps took us a slightly different way than D & MK but we all arrived about the same time. John and Aubrey and Vostis were already there...at the beach actually. It was about 1:00 and check in wasn't until 4:00. Vostis had just been given a room so we unloaded our luggage into their room and changed into our swimsuits to hit up the beach. It was a short walk away and we stopped at a yummy deli for sandwiches on our way.

We were in such a hurry to get to the beach that we didn't think to bring any floaties but Ry did carry along the sand toys. The boys were so excited to play in the sand and in the water. Kevin and some brothers played in the waves and tossed a football. The water was so cold I couldn't stand it! I sat on my beach towel and played with Tyce. A cold wind came in and the skies were a bit cloudy so it became quite chilly. Kevin and Rylan didn't notice but Asher's lips were turning blue.

After a couple hours we headed back to the hotel. We got our room and went to the pool. The hot tub was a good size and felt great. It was hard to get everyone out of the pool but it was dinner time. Angie had made us all chicken and rice with zucchini, corn, and green beans. Oh, it was so good! We all hung out in the Vosti's room until bed time. I put the boys to bed while Kevin, Mark and Chanelle went to the store to get us breakfast foods.

Tyce at 15 Months

Growls a lot

crawls

stands on his own several times throughout the day

loves to play outside--tramp, sandbox, woodchips

sleeps about 10 hours at night (usually up around 6:30), two good naps

still loves bananas, great eater, seems to eat all day!

can point to his nose and eyes, sometimes ears and mouth

loves to look at books

likes dogs and cats

my best cuddler :)