Welcome to July

We did a lot of sleeping when we got home from Colorado.  We usually need a vacation from our vacation when we get back.  Tommy just wanted to watch Shaun and Ferb.  He didn't even want to go outside when I asked.  We had a real mellow couple of days before getting back to normalcy.  We went to Prairie Dog State Park so Tom and Katie could play in the sand and water at the lake.  They had fun and mustered some courage to dip their toes and fingertips in the water.  As we were leaving, a 14-year-old girl came in a bikini and Tom kept telling me, "Mom! Belly? Boobs? Bra?"

Our fireworks were cancelled due to all the dry heat.  So we had an uneventful, practically nonexistent 4th of July.  Shad worked so that he could have Thursday off and make it a 4 day weekend, and we stayed inside for the evening with the kids needing naps, and it being unbearably hot.

Friday morning we had a phone conference meeting at Economic Development for Shad's couch design.  I didn't think about getting a babysitter for it, until Shad asked 15 minutes before we needed to leave.  We dropped the kids off across the street for our neighbor, Darla, to watch.  Tom had so much fun, he was mad at me for taking him home.  We had plans that night to work at the theater so we could see The Amazing Spiderman, but I found out that our first choice babysitter couldn't babysit.  I spent 3 hours on the phone calling Ruth's friends, and their friends, and their friends, while Shad was at his meeting with the missionaries, and I was still trying to finish a talk for sacrament meeting (I was asked Wednesday night and still had my Sunday School lesson to finish).  I was quite frazzled.  We ended up asking Darla again.  She traded babysitting for Sloppy Joes.  She rocks.

Our friends, the Jacquiers, came over after church for games and Corned Beef and Cabbage.  I got everything started in the crockpot before we left for church, but sadly, the power flashed while we were gone.  When I walked in the door, the crockpot was off and the food was warm, but not cooked.  A few hours later, we ended up with all the right flavors, but not the right textures.  The beef was moist and juicy, but tough and chewy.  Done right, it melts and your mouth and falls apart at the touch of a fork.  It was a sad, sad thing.

Tommy had a fun birthday yesterday, though we didn't do much to celebrate.  We're celebrating tomorrow when Pris, Ruth and Levi will be here on their way to Utah, and we're having a party next Thursday.  We figured 3 days of birthday partying was a bit much.  But we still let him know it was his birthday, sang to him, played with balloons, called favorite relatives, and did other fun things he wanted to do.  He had a fun day and walked around pointing to himself, saying, "Ha-bir-day!"

My visiting teacher lent me her kiddie bike trailer that she doesn't use any more, so I was able to go out for a bike ride today.  Biking 4 miles pulling an extra 50 lbs and having a lot of inclines was tough.  Kicked my butt.  We stopped at the park to rest before taking the big hill back home.  There was a BOBCAT digging HOLES there.  Tom was fascinated watching it, and kept saying, "Hi ho! Good job ho! Bye ho!"  So when we went to surprise Shad and have lunch with him at work, we told him that we saw a ho at the park.  He and his coworker thought it was funny.

Pictures:

 I love seeing how good of friends my kids are.  I often find Tommy asleep in front of Katie's crib.

Eating raisins for breakfast Sunday.  Tom shared with Katie, even though she can't digest them yet.  They just pass through. 

Tom fell asleep Monday afternoon watching Cars.

I left their bedroom door open during naptime, and got to see what they do when they wake up.  Tom grabs his blanket and sits in front of Katie's crib, says, "Hi Ka-ie."  There's shrieking and laughing and Tom throws toys in with her.

They're such good friends!