Life Between Vacations

While we were shopping for little toys and treats for the airplane, James fell in love with this toy gun. He wanted to get it sooooo bad. Every time he wants something at the store I've been telling him that he should put it on his Christmas list. He insisted that I take a picture of it so that I wouldn't forget to put it on his list. Then he put it back on the shelf behind a few other things to hide it so that no one else would buy it.

We went to the park and played. James helped me push Rett in the swing so that he would go really high and Rett loved it! Look at those curls!! I can never cut them!

James wanted to take a picture of me while I was taking a picture of him.

Right before we left on vacation, we made a new chart for James to help him remember the rules/behaviors we have been focusing on. These are also the ones that are the hardest for him to follow at school, so we wanted to do as much as we can to help him improve. He is such a visual learner, having a chart to show his progress really has been helping him. Funny enough, when I made the chart I thought for sure that his main difficulties were with keeping his hands to himself and sharing toys. Now that we are keeping track we have realized that by far the thing that needs the most work is listening and obeying right away! I put that one on there just as an after thought! He really does like to discuss the why behind the rules before he decides to do what he is told, so it has been an adjustment for all of us to remember to have him obey first and then discuss afterwards.

James finally grew out of his car seat, so right before we left for North Carolina we got him a new harness booster seat and did some car seat switching. The one Rett had been using has a lower weight limit for rear facing than James' old one so we moved James' old one to Rett's seat. That meant that we now have an extra car seat for both boys! I was curious if they would both fit in Anthony's truck in case he needed to take them somewhere in a pinch and it turns out they do. We tried it out and they had to go for a ride around the block. It was Rett's very first time in the truck. (It looks like they were naked but they were wearing underwear/ a diaper)

James had his first soccer game of the season. He did really good at keeping up with his teammates and following the ball. The only problem is that he likes to run with everyone instead of ahead of them. He actually can be faster than a lot of the kids, but for some reason he doesn't want to run ahead. He likes to be in the middle of the pack.

On the way home I wanted to get a picture of him in his new big boy car seat. He gave me a grumpy face until I told him not to smile. Then I got this.

I found the board game Mousetrap while shopping at goodwill and after we got it home, James and I had fun putting it together. This kind of game was made for kids like him! All figuring things out and making things work together. We played it for at least an hour, making the chain reaction go over and over to trap the mice. As I was putting it together I was praying that it wasn't missing any pieces or there was going to be a big meltdown from this little boy. He does not do projects halfway!

Utah Vacation: Fun with Family

We had so much fun on our vacation spending time together and hanging out. One night Anthony's parents watched all the kids while we had a date night at a Mexican restaurant. On the way there we saw this cool real-life Mater so we had to take a picture of it. Something we never would have done before we had kids...

I stayed home with a grumpy James while everyone else got to go watch Dallin's soccer game. When they came home everyone was excited because Dallin helped score a goal!

The boys put together a puzzle. James never wants to do puzzles at home, but he had so much fun that now he wants to do them all the time. He tells me, "I'm really good at puzzles!"

One night we had cake for Anthony and Rett's birthday. Rett was making blowing motions with his mouth, but not blowing any air :)

One of James' favorite activities was going down the stairs on this mat. They would drag it to the top, sit on it and push themselves down over and over again. For hours! At one point they got paper and made "tickets" for riding the train. James was really sad that we don't have stairs so that we can do this at home.

Our first day Anthony helped Dallin catch a lizard and they took it home to put it in a cage. They caught another one during the week and Anthony would help the boys look for bugs to catch to feed them. Isn't he a fun Uncle/Dad?

One morning we went to an awesome park and everyone had so much fun taking turns on this cool see-saw. Look at Teya and Dallin's faces!

 Teya was so sweet with James and Rett the entire week. They both love her death, James still talks about how sad he is that he doesn't get to play with Teya anymore. :)

One morning we were getting ready to cook some eggs and all the boys wanted a turn cracking the eggs. James loves to help me with this at home and they all wanted a turn. They were staring at the eggs, just waiting, so I told them they could hold theirs until the pan was ready. They each immediately grabbed one! Such joy in little things.

I hadn't seen James in awhile, so I decided to track him down to make sure he was behaving. I found him playing happily and peacefully with Dallin and his legos. Can I just watch say how amazing it was to watch James play so well with his cousins? It was one of the best parts of our vacation.

One morning we visited the children's museum and it was the coolest kid place I've ever seen! It was huge! There were so many sections I can't imagine kids ever getting bored there. There was a cute place for toddlers that Rett enjoyed for awhile.

When we first come in there is a large jungle gym with multiple levels and tall rope bridges. James and Nolan had a blast running around in there!

While we were sitting waiting for the kids while they played, we heard a little boy run to his dad and say, "A boy just hit me in the face!" and he was pulling his dad towards the play area to show him which boy it was. We all just looked at each other because our instant thought was that it could have been James or Nolan. I walked back behind the boy and his dad and after a few steps the boy said, "He isn't here anymore!". James and Nolan were at the other end of the room, so I thought maybe it wasn't one of them after all. About an hour later when I was tracking the boys down to get them to come with us to another area, the little boy spotted James and said, "Hey! I've been looking for you! You need to say sorry!" Turns out it was James after all, of course. I keep telling myself that one day all of his fire and determination will be used for good. Right now it is used for being stubborn and trying to get his way :) Little stinker!

I tried going with Rett on one of the rope bridges, but he wasn't a fan. He just wanted out.

There were multiple rooms with different pretend play areas, like this bank, complete with a vault, a cash box, and a pneumatic tube system. James loved making the tube go back and forth.

Dallin came and got James to show him this room for programming different drum beats. He was really excited to show James and told us we would "freak out".

On the drive back to the airport, the boys passed out in their car seats. We all played hard! It was exhausting, but so much fun. We can't wait to go back and do it again!

Utah Vacation: This is the Place Heritage Park

For one of our Utah adventures, we visited This is the Place Heritage Park. It is living history place where you can learn and experience how the pioneers lived. When we first got there, we got on a train that took us around the village. Rett looooves trains, so he was a happy camper.

James and Nolan were so happy to be out of the car and exploring, they didn't really know where they were headed, they just started running!

The first activity we did was to pan for gold in a small man-made stream. It was pretty easy to see the "gold" in the sand, so James decided panning was too much work and he started picking the gold out of the sand. We collected the gold to weigh it at the bank in the village.

James and Nolan loved these pioneer handcarts and took turns showing us how strong they are by lifting the handles. Nolan told us he can do it because of his "muscles". :)

We made it to the bank, but the banker was out so we didn't get to weigh our gold. James didn't mind because he wanted to keep his gold anyway.

Next door to the bank is the barber where you can get a pretend shave. James of course said no, but I thought I could try with Rett. He sat for a few seconds and then was done. Do you notice his hair? With no humidity his curls were much flatter while we were there and it made his hair look extra shaggy.

Nolan was willing to give it a try, so he sat with Happy while he let the man go through all the steps of an old fashioned shave. Such a cutie!

We got to visit an old fashioned school house where we got a lesson on discipline in the pioneer education system. James demonstrated a punishment for lesser offenses. First you have to stand on the stool of shame and put your nose against the wall.

Then you have to hold you hands out behind you. The teacher asked James if he was uncomfortable and he said, "no".

Then you have to hold books up behind you while you stand against the wall. She asked James if he was uncomfortable now and he still said no!

Next she demonstrated getting a paddling on Anthony. He made a great face!

Jared demonstrated the last punishment of wearing the dunce hat and having to sit in front of the class like that the entire day. His face says it all!

After the school house the boys got to ride some ponies.

Then we took a little break while they played in this awesome miniature town. Some of the houses even had stairs so you could climb to another level. They all loved it!

On our way back to the entrance, we stopped at a house where you could play with pioneer toys, wash clothes on a washboard, and plow a field. James and Nolan actually went all the way down and back pushing the plows by themselves. I think they were cut out for pioneer life!

Everyone except for me tried out the stilts. I wasn't brave enough, but they had some skills!

James had to check out this wagon and pretend to drive it. It was hard to tear him away from this to do the horse ride and afterwards I think he liked doing this better. It still amazes me what simple things will catch his imagination and what other things that look like so much fun to me he will find boring!