Happy Ron Smith Day

Friday morning when the boys woke up, I could tell right from the start that it was going to be imperative that we got out that day. We all just seemed cranky. Because we were off, it took us all morning to get everyone ready to go. We had to take something to Brian up at the campus and then I took the boys to the park. By the time we got there it was 11:30! It had been such an annoying morning. But what started out bad, turned good. Very good! We were up at Veron Worthin Park just playing on the playground. Then when the boys moved to the swings, I saw that at the other end of the park, there were all these people, some booths and a couple of bouncy looking things. The boys were involved in swinging, but a lady from my ward and her little boy pulled up because he wanted to check it out. When they came back, she told me that one of the DJ's for 101.6, Ron Smith, was having just a random special day. There were 2 bouncy houses, pizza, and drinks and it was all for free! The boys were tired of swinging, so we headed to the other side of the park.

They had a great time bouncing in the bouncy house and crawling through the bouncy obstabcle course. It occupied them for a long time.When they were both red faced and thirsty, we stopped bouncing and got to eat free pizza for lunch. The break in the shade and the food gave them new found energy.

They went back to the playground to play some more.

Then they discovered this retaining wall. They walked up and down it for a while and then realized that it was small enough that they could jump off. They'd jump off, climb back up, jump off, climb back up, again and again. They probably could have done this for an hour, but we had been having so much fun, that now it was Dexy's nap time. Plus, Dexy pulled this face! We all know what that means. It was really time to go. But we had had such a fun morning. We'd been outside, playing and happy and doing it all for free, for 2 hours. It was fabulous!

More and More and More Chalk

Ollie love playing chalk so much that sometimes he runs out and gets right to writing before he's properly attired! I love the crack hanging out for all to see! This is better than it could be though. I usually find him out there naked, for all the neighbors to see and judge me. He wants to play chalk all the time and he wants me to do it with him all the time. That's why our patio, and Ollie, tend to always look like this - covered in colors! Then we spray it all off a couple times a week and start all over. The other day I said that we needed to spary off the chalk and Ollie said, "Mommy will spray off the chalk and Ollie will eat ice cream," as he pulled the carton of ice cream out of the freezer, got himself a spoon, and went outside to enjoy himself while he watched me work! It was very funny.

The problem with spraying off the chalk, is that eventually Ollie wants to "help." He, of course, sprays off everything but the chalk, including me and Dexy. It really just turns into our weekly water fight.

Dexy and I run and hide behind the chairs, but it's futile! We both end up soaking wet!

Bathtime, Bathtime, Let's Take a Bath!!

My boys and I always have so much fun during our nightly bath time. When it's time, I start clapping my hands and singing, "bathtime, bathtime, let's take a bath" over and over. They get smiles on their faces and follow me like my little ducklings as we march upstairs to the bathtub.

Then we talk, play, and sing songs, including our own made up bath time songs for washing hair ("we rub a dub dub, rub and scrub, rub scrub scrub washing hair in the tub") and bodies ("we wash your bod-ah, we wash your bod-ah. dadadadada. we wash your bell-ay, and your back, we wash your arms and your hands. we wash your bod-ah so you won't be smell-ay, nananana. cha-cha-cha"). I know. I'm a dork. But I'm putting that in here mostly just for us, so that we can remember the songs we sang for bathtime for years to come.

It's goofy fun, but that's what we like. The boys are also really nice about washing bodies and hair and even rinsing hair. The only kind of struggle is teeth brushing, but that's to be expected with a couple of toddlers.

When bathtime is done, the boys get to climb out of the tub and into these super cute hooded towels that Grammy bought for them. Dexy is the ducky.

Ollie is the lion. They look so cute in them and they love them! It makes getting out of the warm bathtub into the cold air way more fun and exciting. Then they get to watch something on Netflix insta-view while we lotion up and put on jammies before reading stories and scriptures. It's a great way for us to end our day. The boys really enjoy the routine and everyone sleeps better when they're all clean and comfy. Plus, nothing is more precious than a baby covered in bubbles or clean and fresh wrapped in a cute towel!

Jumping Jacks

We went back to Jumping Jacks a few days ago. The boys love that place and actually, Brian and I do, too! We like to jump and slide just as much as they do (maybe even more).
This time, the boys actually wanted to go in to the little kids play area. It doesn't have a slide or anything, but it has all sorts of things to bounce into, sit on, knock over, or crawl through - like this dragon and the little tower that Dexy and I are sitting it. They discovered that they liked it.

Brian and Dexy also discovered a new fun game. Brian would toss Dexy into the air and bounce him off the side of one of the big slides. You can't tell from this (somewhat scary looking) picture, but Dexy would laugh and laugh. He loved it!

But, of course, the big slides are still just as fun as ever. They both like to go down the big slides. Ollie can climb up the "stairs" himself, which is so awesome, especially since we have to help (which usually means carry) Dexy up to the top of the slides.

It's just so much fun! Whoever came up with the idea for bouncy places like these was a genius!

"I playing chalk-a!"

The same day that we bought the nail polish, we also found sidewalk chalk on clearence. It was only $1.75 for a box of 20. I couldn't resist! It turned out to be a very wise investment. Oliver loves "writing." It's one of his favorite activites. We went out into our little paito area and had a great time playing, as Ollie called it that first day, "chalk-a!"

We wrote letter, numbers, words, drew pictures, and Oliver made lots of lines! Ollie didn't want to stop writing with chalk.

Dexy drew a few lines and tried to write, but had more fun finding other ways to enjoy the chalk, like eating it, hiding it up the drain pipe...

... and throwing it into the bush. Then he'd make his "where did it go" face and hand gesture and we'd have to dig it out! Sometimes he would even find it himself and pull it out so proudly from it's hiding spot.
It was a great way to spend a buck-seventy-five! Ollie has spent the last few days outside drawing on the paito. He gets messy, but it washes off clothes super easily and even just sprays right off the concrete with water. This evening we sprayed off all the chalk creations from the last few days. He seemed only slightly concerned about it for a second, because as soon as I had explained that now we can just write whole new things with our chalk tomorrow, he saw that it was a good thing. We'll have to see what new chalk creations appear in the upcoming week!

Painted Toenails

Ollie really likes painted toenails for some reason. When I have done my nails, he says, "Mommy has painted toenails," every time he sees my feet. When we pass other ladies and little girls who have it he says the same thing - "she has painted toenails!" The other day when we went to Wal-Mart, we ended up in the cosmetics aisle and he was fascinated with the bottles of nail polish. We even bought 3 of those little ones for 98 cents, so that he could pick out the colors. He picked purple, dark blue, and a kind of purple sparkly one. Then during Dexy's nap time (Ollie doesn't nap anymore, he and I just lay in my bed and have quiet time), he started talking about Ollie having painted toenails. I said, "sure, we can paint your toenails. What color do you want?" He picked blue. I started painting his nails and he said, "Ollie has blue nails. That a good idea!" He thought it was cool. At first! As we moved along it got less cool. Once I finished his first foot, he started to seem a little uneasy. As I started painting the nails on his other foot he was a getting nervous. I finished and said, "You have blue toenails! How fun." He looked and me and then started crying and saying, "wash it, wash Ollie's feet, no thanks blue toe nails, wash a feet!" and trying to rub the newly painted nail polish off on my bed!
I got the nail polish remover out and then, like the mom that I am, ran to get the camera eventhough he was in trauma mode. I didn't want to miss the photo op of his cute, blue toenails and the break down connected therewith. He was so upset! We cleaned off the nail polish and cuddled in my bed until he calmed down. Then he decided that Ollie could just have plain toenails. And we talked about how boys usually don't have painted toenails. That made him very happy! I guess he'll just have to continue to admire painted toenails from afar!

Labor Day

We have been having a fun time living in St. George (we love the warm weather,

blue sky, red rocks and being close to my parents and little brother's family), but we have really been missing Brian's family. We got use to seeing them at least a couple times a week, so we have been planning to go up and see them as soon as Brian got a break in school. That meant Labor Day weekend. We drove up to West Jordan as soon as Brian finished his last class on Fridady. We stopped in Scipio to meet my Dad as we crossed paths (he's going to school at Weber and was coming down for Labor Day) and they had this random, little petting farm across the street from a gas station. It was fabulous for us, though, as we had to wait a few minutes for my Dad to get there and it was a great way to let the boys have some out of the car time.

It was basically bedtime by the time we got up there, but we were all so happy to see each other, that I just threw the schedule to the wind and we had a great time. Grandma Bowles
had been collecting all sorts of fun things for our visit, like little squirt guns,
poppers she had saved from the 4th of July, and their favorite...

... a super fabulous bubble gun from Disneyland! We now are going to have to find one of those for us to keep. They loved it!

They ran through the bubbles and stomped on them and Dexy, of course, even tried to eat some.

Then we went to break more night time rules by jumping on the tramp, in the dark, while it was kind of windy, and Dexy was naked! He had slipped in the bubbles that Ollie spilled all over the walk, so we had to take his clothes off, but there was more fun to be had on the tramp...

... jumping, running, spinning, laying peacefully and star gazing...

... even "death drops" with Grandpa Bowles! He did to Ollie and Dexy what he use to do to Brian and his sisters when the were little kids, holding them tight and do a falling back drop.

Ollie found it to be great fun!
Dexy? Not so much. He would only do it once and then wanted promptly off the tramp.

Then the got to take a bath in Grandma and Grandpa's big tub like they use to

all the time. By the time I put them in bed it was 10:30 PM. A little while later, Grandpa heard Ollie saying, "Dexy threw up." And sure enough, he had! Poor kid! I cleaned

Dexy up and put him back in bed, but Ollie needed a while to get back

into the sleep mode. He went to bed at 11:00, but it was worth it.

The next morning, we got up to a packed day. We first went to visit Great Grandma Christensen in a rehabilitation center where she is doing therapy for a knee replacement.

She looked good and was happy to see us, as were we to see her again.

We wish her luck and hope she's on her feet again soon!

Next we were off to see Ben and Amanda's new place. It's nice and comfy and has a little playground in the middle of all the buildings. We ate lunch and then went out to play. The boys played on the playground for a while, but had just as much fun finding other things to do...

... sitting in the shade on the grass with the adults and playing with the

bubble gun that grandma brought out to with us...

... finding other kid's nearby toys to play on without asking ...

... drinking, or just dumping, some delicious bottled water that Ben's brother brought us (he lives in the same complex). We went home and let Dexy take a quick nap (very quick) and then went to Raging Waters with the everybody - Grandma, Grandpa, Ben, Amanda, and Angela (not Hollianne :( she's on a misson, but we thought about her). We don't have pictures from that.

We were whipping down waterslides at break neck speeds;

kind of hard to get pictures without a special camera. We had a blast!

The next day was Sunday. We had a good calm day. Church (look at my cute boys in their dashing church clothes), family time, and dinner (I made homemade meatballs, Angela made cheese breadsticks and it was all fabulously delicious).

On Labor Day we had more fun activities. We went to Great Grandpa and Grandma Bowles house for waffles with the whole extended Bowles clan. It was a good, fast way to get to see everyone. We had good food and a good time talking and catching up with everyone. Then a nap and more fun in our favorite backyard. The boys had fun talking up the water spout (a new favorite obviously), feeding the horses in the field behind the

Bowles' yard, throwing a ball for Hoji, and playing in this...
... a little pool that Grandma Bowles found on clearence and purchased on a whim just for the boys to play in on Labor Day.

They had a great time chillaxin' and playing in the pool!

Daddy, of course, found a more exciting way to play with the pool!

Dexy was cold and tired when we were done playing in the pool, so he cuddled up to Angela and started falling asleep. If he hadn't been wearing nothing but a towel, we would have let him sleep on her. But, we put a diaper and some clothes on him and let him take a long, long nap. We had had so many busy, fun-filled days that he needed a rest.

He didn't wake up untill we were all done eating our last fun meal together, hamburgers and yummy pasta salad.

Then, it was sadly time to go home. We gave our last big hugs...

... popped our final bag of poppers (with our bare feet!), and climbed into the car to make the drive back to St. George. We had such a super fun weekend! It was so good to see everyone and they had even planned so many fun activites!

It was a great Labor Day weekend! Thanks for letting us visit! We love you guys!