Preschool

This year, Hy and I are doing preschool. I'm so excited I'm about to wet my pants. Hy's pretty tolerant of his mom and I think we'll have a fun year together.

Raising a prima donna

...is sometimes challenging but I wouldn't trade her for the world. As I type this, she is banging her head on my arm saying, "I'm not ornery, Mom. I'm not ornery." Hmm. Some prima donna things of recent:

• "Oh my gosh" or "Oh gosh" are her latest sayings.


• She loves to sing in church. LOUD. And it isn't what everyone else is singing. Many eyes glance back our way.


• She sings "Copcorn on the treeeeeee" for us everyday.


• She gets mad when I make her take off her tutu for lunch.


• When she's really ticked at her mother, she sobs, "I want my grandma!" She loves her grandma.


• She likes to dance and sing...after all, that's what princesses do.


• She is drawn to mud puddles like a fly to cow...you know


• Instead of saying "I love you," she says "I miss you" but we know it means the same thing


• She loves being a "mommy" to her baby carebear, but doesn't mind asking her mom to hold her like a baby occasionally.


• She has a love/hate relationship with Hy, her cousin Elliott, and most people in general.


• She MUST wear her Sunday dress all day and prefers to wear dresses everyday...very UNLIKE her mom


• We love our little girl!

Bike Rodeo

You can imagine my son's confusion when I told him we were going to a bike rodeo.

We got over that, and he kicked bootie on the race course. He was seriously one of the faster kids, but he was the last one and the guy didn't announce his time. When Hy flew through the finish line, he skidded for quite a ways. I thought it was sweet. :)

And the obstacle course was measured by how often you put your feet down manuvering through turns and stuff. Hy didn't catch that and let's just say he was "smart" and kept his feet down the whole time :) What a kid!

The Wash

The problem with the beach is that, as a mother, you're constantly worrying about your children drowning or being eaten by a shark (or it's far away and you don't have that kind of money).
A new friend here in Enterprise, introduced me to a little secret we like to call "the wash".
It's like the beach without the water, a sandbox with no end (or cats), etc. You get the idea. Anyway, my children LOVE it! And it's so much more fun with friends. The Humphries and the Bowlers joined us earlier this week before school started:

Sand down your shirt to look like a fat man or pregnant lady was a huge hit.
Burying people ranked right up there.

And of course, just good ol' sandbox fun.

Bobbles, Jr.

Riley has caught on to Hy's love for "boggles"Ev thought our children looked more like this:

My little minions.

THE HIKE

For 3 years now, I have lived under Wheeler Peak's shadow and have always thought it would be fun to hike it. My goal was to do it this summer, but our plans changed and I didn't think it was going to happen. HOWEVER, thanks to Jessica & Steve (who still live out in Nevada), I got to hike it two weekends ago!
The crew (l to r): Steve, Neener, Decca, Mummsie, Dad. It is an 8-mile hike round trip. This is the "easy part" and the highest point is on the right side of the mountain. So, this is really on the bottom.

Here, Neener and I were in the rocks. From the pics I had seen, I had always just assumed it was shale rock...but NO it is full of huge rocks that you have to climb over and pick your way through.

From this point, the view goes on forever. I kept thinking that I was making progress, but the view would look exactly the same.

You're up so high that it's easy to et dizzy anyway, but I couldn't look around. I had to hold onto rocks and keep my eyes focused on the trail. The four green circles are the pivots where I used to live.

The snow patch we crossed coming back down.

Anyway, I was hiking and thinking of Evan and my kids and my family and I was soooo determined to make it to the top. I was probably about 50 yards from the top when the trail was covered by snow. Most people either went through the snow or just climbed the loose rock up to the top. Janeen and I were terrified and didn't want to roll down the mountain if we slipped. I did want to be safe, but I was SO disappointed when I didn't reach the top. I stood there for quite a while trying to decided.

I was a little discouraged coming back down, but as I looked up from where I had reached I decided to be proud of my accomplishment. It is so cool that I could see my old home and Jeb's grave (he's buried on the other side of Wheeler peak). I got to be in a place that I have seen for over 8 years now. It really was breath-taking. Maybe someday, I'll make it to the tippy-top!