Thoughts of a 4 year old

I have some of the best conversations with Andy. These are a few of my faves. . .

"Mom I don't want you to ever ride a horse again. (Few second pause) but Sadie can."

(Andy) "Mom, I just really want a brother so bad."
(Me) "But what if you had another sister"
(Andy with lots of excitement) "Would it be a big sister?"

(Andy)"Mom we speak english"
(Me) "You are right"
(Andy) "And Michael speaks spanish, why"
(Me) "Because he was in Peru and that is what they speak there. In America we speak English"
(Andy) " Where do they speak whale? Will you teach me?"
(Me) "Probably whales speak whale. I am definitely no expert in that"
(Andy) "What about Mountain. Does anyone speak mountain?"

Yellowstone

We recently took a little trip with my fam to Yellowstone/Idaho. It brought back so many fun memories going there as a kid. My dad is still the best tour guide.

We got to have our car licked by bears (yes literally, if we had stuck around I am sure they would have gotten on top of it), go to a great performance of Beauty and Beast (it inspired Kent so much he declared he wished he had done a musical in high school - didn't expect that one), explain my sisters indian nickname wampatee (its the indian word for antelope, it means pale rump) and do some great bonding with the fam.

I had been to Yellowstone many times growing up but I had never done it via crutches/wheelchair. It was a new experience. Unfortunately not very conducive to hiking, rafting, canoeing, and fishing. Next time.
Andy was not super impressed with the hot pots. He coined them the stinky pots. And for once he was using the word appropriately and I didn't have scold him for potty talk.

Some places I could just not make to on crutches. I found a bench about half way down this trail and told Kent to go take a nice picture of the waterfall with the kids so I could see it.

Sadie has no fear. Doesn't she look so little sitting on this ride that ends up going way up into the air. Bear World is the best. When the kids have had their fill of bear, moose, buffalo and the petting zoo, they can hit up about 6 little rides that they rode like 500 times.

Ouch!

While at this cabin with Kent's family, we decided to go on a little horseback riding, trail ride. Kent was back at work so I left Sadie with Kent's mom and Andy came with us but went on a walk with Kent's dad while we went riding. About half way into the ride, the horse in front of me moved off to the side of the trail a little bit and gave a very powerful kick with his hind leg going straight into my leg. Luckily I was able to keep my horse calm and pull it over to the side but I new immediately my leg was very broken. It took about 3 hours to get to a hospital. My tibia was completely broken in half. I am now part robot thanks to a plate and 8 screws in my leg to stabilize the bone. I was told I couldn't walk for 12 weeks. That is a long time with a 4 and 1 year old. My family took the kids back to Cali for a month since I was unable to even get out of bed at first. They come back tomorrow. We are sooo excited. I still have 8 weeks til I can walk and hopefully everything mends properly. What a summer!

Summer Fun

Summer started out great this year. We went to California for 3 weeks. Those weeks were awesome and jam packed with fun.

Andy is obsessed with Killer Whales so a trip to Sea World was in the agenda. Andy could have starred at Shamu all day.

Sadie was not happy when Shamu got her wet. She acted insulted, so after that we tried to stay out of the soak zones.

Besides Sea World, we spent lots of days at the beach, swimming in the pool, playing with friends and family, and eating some of our favorite California foods.


Sadie is definitely going through an awkward phase with her hair. This girl LOVES the beach.

No trip is complete without cousins, cousins


California was quickly followed by a trip to a cabin with Kent's family.


Andy loved the fire pit, flying down the zip line, fishing, riding bikes, and of course, more cousins.

Sadie loved collecting rocks and going down the slide.

Unfortunately this trip was cut a little short. . .

Our pride and Joy

Since we moved into our house 3 years ago, we have had this eyesore behind and to the side of the garage. It was these huge mounds of dirt and debris that the previous owners had just left. We have always talked about doing a garden back there but this was NOT little project. This was a rent a huge dumpster and fill it with over 7 tons of dirt and junk project. We found bricks, a tree, remnants of a compost pile, 3 tires, foundation from the house from when large windows were put in the basement, pieces of a plastic swimming pool, metal rods, LOTS of dirt and many more random things that should not be in a pile in the backyard.

We borrowed our neighbors rototiller after the we cleaned up the piles. The thing had more power than a small car.

This past month we have spent every spare daylight moment (especially Kent) on this garden project. And now we have. . .

A GARDEN. We have lots of herbs, like 7 kinds of tomatoes, corn, peppers, pumpkins, peas, beans, carrots, and watermelon.

Of course we planted mid may and then a freak snow storm rolled in last week and killed a few plants. Andy is devastated that some of his watermelons were snow casualties. Hopefully most will pull through. With a library copy of Gardening for Dummies in our possession we are sure to have a great harvest. We are so excited to watch it grow and can't wait for fresh salsa!

Thomas

Andy has LOVED trains since he was two. We own most of the little wooden Thomas trains (rip off) and he can make some killer train tracks when Sadie isn't around to destroy them. So when Thomas comes to town its a must go.

We were nervous about the weather. It was supposed to rain and after last weeks freak May snowstorm I packed the car with coats, hats, etc. but it couldn't have been a more perfect.
We went with some friends who have a little boy whose loves for trains equals Andy. The boys were in heaven.
Sadie even sat still on the train.


Andy is stoked to be a Jr. Conductor.


This is what taking pictures of the kids usually look like. Once and a while I get lucky and actually capture one with them looking at the camera.


To finish of the day we stumbled on the awesome BBQ place with a cute old town for the kids to play in. Yeah for Thomas.

Beautiful Day

We went for a beautiful little walk today along a trail near our home. We were loving all the trees, the rock work, the perfect temperature. I was talking to Kent about how fun it would be to own one of the homes that backed up to this trail, how our kids would love to play down here as they got older, etc. when suddenly. . .

Andy got a little to close to the side of the pathway and went sliding down the hill towards the little river. Poor kid was screaming. I had Sadie but Kent went flying after him. It took them a few minutes to get back up the hill because it was very slick. Andy was very shaken when he got back to the trail and thanked both Kent and I for saving him. It was darling.

So for know I am glad our home doesn't back up to a ravine with a little river. Life might become a little more exciting than I want.

Happy Halloween!

Free Stuff

I am a sucker for good deals and free stuff. I thought I'd pass this good deal along. Quiznos is giving away froo subs to a million people. Get your free coupon here http://www.millionsubs.com/Reg.php
Just remember to opt out of getting emails from quiznos when you are done through this link
http://www.quiznos.com/offers/Optout.aspx

SMILES!

SPRING?!?!

Over the weekend we were so excited to not only hear birds chirping again but we found this in the front yard in spots where the snow was beginning to melt.

And today I found this!

All Dressed Up

Andys newest smile

He's not trying to kill her all the time

FINALLY!

Word on the street is that In N Out is coming to Draper in the fall! Finally one within driving distance. Wish it was in SLC but Draper is a good second. Utah is becoming a good second home to this transplanted Californian.

Best Time of the Day

One of Andy's redeeming qualities has been that he is a good napper. That has all changed over the last few weeks, maybe due to the baby, maybe cuz he's almost 3, who knows. They have gone from 2-3 hours to virtually non existence. He layed down for a nap today and 30 minutes later after he begun kicking the walls I went in and found him far from fast asleep. His decals on the wall are now no more. He found some helicopters that were entertaining him. The helicopters were saying, "Don't hit the baby" and "OK, timeout". I will be so sad if he stops napping!

Belated Announcement

Little Sadie joined our family on January 8. She is such a great baby (not hard to be when you have Andy as the benchmark) and is a perfect addition.

We have survived a month and am hopeful we can continue to keep Sadie out of Andy's reach.

Props to all you parents that have more than one kid and manage to leave the house. I took the kids out by myself twice this week and it will be awhile before that happens again.

And I'd Do It Again

I did it. It was passed his nap time and I didn't want him to fall asleep during the 20 minute car ride home so I . . .

gave him a chocolate chip cookie. He stayed awake and made quite the mess. But I would do it again in a heart beat to preserve my 2 hours of peace, the nap.

Do We Dare?

Andy has been drooling over power wheels since about the time he could walk. When we go to the toy store he splits his time between the Thomas the Tank display and sitting in all the power wheels. Well the other day, his wish came true and Kent let him ride one of the neighbors. He rode the thing for 2 hours. It scared me to death but he actually did a good job of turning and didn't run into anything. He figured out how to change gears and I about had a heart attack as he was flying down the street. Now Kent wants to get him one for Christmas and all I can imagine is going from chasing him most of the time as he runs down the street to chasing him all the time as he is flying down the street on one of these things.

A 5 minute phone call + a 2 year old =

I'm glad the call was only 5 minutes. When I came in he was just starting on the closet.

G&G

Its always such a treat when my parents come into town. Andy decided about a week before the came that Grandma was going to play trains with him and Grandma was going to play trucks. He held them to it.

Usually he wakes up in the morning yelling for milk. The last few days he woke up yelling "Grandma, Grandpa!" He just couldn't wait to play with them each day.
We are always sad when the go back to Cali but can't wait for the next trip! Maybe it is our turn to go there.

Fun at the Fair

We went to the fair last week and had a great time. We went on $2 day (I think $8 is a little steep for the fair), went on a few rides, saw lots of animals, played on lots of truck, ate a little food and went home. Andy loved riding the horse. I am glad there is another horse lover in the family. I still haven't given up my dream of having my own horse someday.

Kinda scary billy goat.

Andy loved the big slide. He would just run up the stairs on his own.
He even convinced his grampy to go for a ride with him. As soon as he got to the bottom he would take off running back up the stairs again.
Andy likes most little boys loves truck. The fair had lots of trucks and motorcycles for him to sit on and pretend to drive. This digger was one of his favorites.