Fourth of July

I think the Fourth of July just might be my favorite holiday. It's summer time so the weather is nice. You get to hang out with family (if I lived closer) and friends all day, eat great food, hopefully go swimming, and relax with hardly any preparation or expectations (like Christmas.) So great. We started the day by attending our Church's flag raising and pancake breakfast. You should have seen the thickness on these pancakes. They were incredibly huge. I must admit I was instantly weary and did not want to be caught off guard with some nasty uncooked pancake mix, but although thick, they were cooked all the way through. Kudos to the volunteer chefs.



After the activity, we rushed to our local community parade, which I absolutely loved last year. It failed to disappoint my high expectations and we had a great time watching all of the fire trucks and crazy stunt people walking around. I must admit my criteria for a good parade are relatively low: easy to park, not too many people, and free candy. Really everything else is a bonus. The great thing about local parades compared to big city parades such as Philadelphia, Detroit, Washington DC, and Provo, Utah (Not a big city, but huge parade) is that people are usually nicer and much more laid back about security. The policeman and local news camera man both asked if there was anything they could do to help (you can see them standing around in the background of the picture of Steve and the boys). They also don't care about little kids laying in the street or playing with the caution tape. All policeman should be like that. Bless them. I have also had great success in sitting next to people who are so kind and fun to be around. For example, we sat next to this small group of Grandpa and Grandmas who were thoroughly entertained by our kids. The Grandma sitting right next to me was hilarious. When passed a chip clip from a passing politician, she quickly put it in her hair making me and her small group laugh. Once the comedian, ever the comedian.







After the parade, we went to our friend's house to swim, eat some hamburgers, and watch fireworks. Donny managed to swipe a couple of cupcakes when no one was looking, which was often. Happy Fourth of July!

Older Brothers

Most of the time it is hard to have older brothers. (Thomas pushed him off a toy at the playground.)

But then every once in awhile, Donny is probably happy for the extra attention and love.

Columbus--The Best Family City Ever

For those of you who ever never been to Columbus. It has got to be one of the best family cities in America. First of all, their zoo is amazing. It has been rated number one in the country by many magazines, so people agree with me. But the habitats are designed so that you can view the animals in what would seem their natural environment. They have a lot of space and everything feels very real. I especially loved watching the manatees and cute baby elephant. They also have plenty of interactive and hands on exhibits. Amazing.

The other highlight of Columbus is the COSI science museum. You should see this thing. The most kid friendly place ever. Lots of water, creative toys, and places to run and explore. Every kid's dream.

And the last place I will mention, but certainly the list could go on and on, are the bunny fountains. Water shoots up out of the ground in different patterns and velocity. My kids obviously loved it.

Sadly, this is probably the last time I will visit Columbus for a long time. I used to have many family and friends here that I could visit, but now one of my best friends is finally moving after five years. She has been a life saver. I will miss my annual visits. Thanks Rachel for showing me around Columbus. It definitely has been a wonderful place to call a home away from home.

Camping in Canada

For our first real vacation as a family since Steve started residency, we decided to take Memorial Day weekend and go camping. I must admit that I was dreading the thought of sleeping three nights outdoors with my boys and/or one of them getting lost. Well, thank goodness all of my fears went unfounded, because we had a wonderful time. I like camping enough to go again. I think it will become a fun family tradition. That being said, I think it really helped to go camping with a family much more experienced then us. You should have seen her "miracle" bins. She was like Mary Poppins pulling out pans, utensils, seasonings, towels, tablecloths, tools, and any other random accessory. I began to think that we could live for a few weeks out of those things. Her preparedness definitely made our first camping experience a positive one.

It also helps that she has three older boys that Thomas followed around like a long lost puppy. They were good enough to pretend to involve him in all of their hikes, baseball games, and fire activities. They also made sure he didn't get hurt, which definitely was a real possibility. Hurray for the great outdoors and smores made with peanut butter. Bless you Julie for originating that new ingredient. I don't think I will ever go back. Thanks also for providing Bocci-ball and hours of fun. Speaking of smores, our friends like theirs burnt to a crisp. I tried it, but I still like mine perfectly brown and soft inside. I am not a huge charcoal flavor fan unless you include the stripes on a chicken when it comes off the bbq. Here our some of the pictures from the trip. We went to the Pinery on Lake Huron. It was my first time swimming in a great lake. Mind you, it was totally cold, but ten degrees warmer than the Puget Sound. Those lakes are absolutely huge. They looked like the Sound minus the salt water, rocky beaches, and jelly fish. Beautiful for swimming.



We went on a few hikes that were so much fun. We took pit stops at every cool natural monument we found. Thomas was really excited to climb this tree with the big boys.



We rented a canoe for an hour. Thomas peed off the side twice. Speaking of peeing, we didn't anticipate the long one hour wait to get back into the U.S. at the border. Apparently, Memorial Day is a busy crossing time. Thomas and Hewitt were forced to go pee in a bottle. Actually, they were quite thrilled and I'm surprised they haven't tried it again. Steve, on the other hand, got mad at me when Hewitt slipped out of his and barely missed hitting him in the face. He really was mad. Like I've ever held a water bottle to a peeing boy before. Who knows where those things will shoot. So regardless, cheers to camping.

March Madness

Ever since I was little, I have filled out a NCAA bracket with my family. It has become one of my favorite times of year and I look forward to watching constant basketball and circling my wins. This year the final four has come to Detroit and although we don't have tickets, there have been plenty of other opportunities to get involved. On Friday, our friends invited me to go and watch the teams practice and the Senior all-star game. I was a bit wary of going by myself with the three boys, but with the help of a friend and the determination to watch some of my favorite teams up close, we went downtown. It was so much fun! I have never been to downtown Detroit before so I loved seeing the Lions and Tigers Stadiums up close. Thomas and I quickly resolved to go to a Tigers game as soon as possible. But the highlight was watching North Carolina practice and have a little dunk contest. We walked down to the court and I couldn't believe how big those boys are. We were impressed. Thanks to the Kunz and their entertainment, the boys were pretty good. They watched for the first part and then played with trucks for the last part. I'm glad I went. Steve did promise that he would take me to a final four before I died. I'm holding him to it.

Poor Hewitt

Ever since potty training in January, Hewitt has been incredibly backed up. Going poo is a process especially since he only goes every two days. I've been pumping him full of juice and limiting his dairy, but still he continues to struggle. He will cry and complain that the "poo is stuck" and "I can't do it." I just hope we can resolve this problem before school starts in a few years. I've heard it can continue for awhile. The weird thing is that it doesn't hurt him to go anymore, he is just scared. So Hewitt will walk around like this for a few hours before I finally make him sit on the toilet for thirty minutes and go. So although I feel bad that he is backed up, I still think his posture is funny. I giggle at how ridiculous he looks. Just go!!!

Bird in House Brings Luck?

The other day, much to my shock, a bird flew through our kitchen and living room. I didn't know that I was scared of birds, but I soon discovered that apparently I am afraid of confined, black birds. I would say large, but as you can see in the picture, it was a medium size bird and I have no idea how it got in my house. The bird made its entrance in the late afternoon. Thomas was obviously thrilled. He kept running around trying to catch the bird while I had all kinds of horrible imaginations about crazy diseases. I went and got his yellow plastic bat to try and herd it out of the door. It probably was one of the funniest scenes. Thomas would run at the bird and then I would stand by the door swinging the plastic bat to try and convince it to leave out the door. Unfortunately, after trying for about 30 minutes, I simply gave up. I definitely was not going to stay in the house with the bird though so I took the kids and we went to the YMCA. Steve wasn't planning on coming home that night as he had a late lecture, but I convinced him that he needed to make a quick stop for the sanity of his wife. Steve only took five minutes to get rid of the bird. He was much smarter. He turned off all the lights in the house, turned on the porch light, opened the window and then herded it out. He said it was quite easy. Whatever. The bird scared me to death. I did learn by my friends at the YMCA that birds in your house bring luck. So here's hoping!!!!

One other quick story. I had a scare a few weeks ago when I thought Donny was choking. He was crying so I knew his airway wasn't completely blocked off, but I had no idea why he was gasping and struggling for breath. I was on the phone with a good friend of mine who immediately sent her husband over to help. In the meantime, I called 9-1-1. My friend's husband and our neighbor arrived about five minutes before the ambulance and by then, Donny had already dislodged whatever was choking him. We then waited for the ambulance together. After a few more minutes, we saw the fire engine and ambulance pull up to a house down the street so we had to wave them over. The whole time I was so grateful that Donny wasn't actually choking. Seriously, I learned an important lesson to call my friends along with 9-1-1. Their response time was much faster. Hewitt stood in front of our glass screen door to look out at the emergency vehicles and screamed everytime a firefighter made him move. It was a bit embarassing. Thankfully, they didn't stay too long and after doing a quick checkup of Donny's lungs, they promptly left. My friends and I were talking when we suddenly noticed Thomas and Hewitt playing with a big, black machine (defibrillator) on the floor. My friend explained to Thomas what a defibrillator did including that it will shock your heart. Thomas was pumped. I hurried and called 9-1-1 back to come and pick up their machine before Thomas started doing experiments. What a crazy morning. Donny fell asleep soon afterwards and we had a nice, quiet afternoon.

In less exciting news, Donny is getting into everything.