Family Trip to the Red Rocks

A week ago Saturday we went up to the Dixie Rocks for some big family fun. We met my Dad and Derek's family up there and had a grand old time! While hiking around, Brian found this cave that you could slide down into. So he of course, did!
Once Ollie realized that Daddy had disappeared into a cool hole, he had to abandon his rock jumping to run over there and try it himself.

With a little help from Cristina at the top and his Daddy below, he made it no problem.

Dexy was the next one to disappear into the cavern.

Once the three of them had slithered down there, then everyone wanted to do it. So Brian went to find an exit on the other side, while...

....while my Dad and Derek joined the cave party.

Here come Brian and Ollie out the other side. Dexy decided that he didn't want to squeeze through the exit, so he got passed back up.

The rest of them made it out just fine. Jude wouldn't even have anything to do with the cave, so once the men made it out, Cristina and I passed Dexy and Jude down to them so that we could give the cave slide a try.

There she goes. Sliding was literally the only way to get down. It was fun!

After she went, then I decesended into the cave of waonders as well. We soon realized why the younger boys hadn't wanted to try it. It was pretty squishy down there. Especially where you had to pass under this huge overhang to get out on the other side. I found it quite enjoyable.

The exit dropped us right at the mouth of this narrow canyon passage. This time, Jude wasn't so scared and he and Ollie took off after Grandpa to give it a go.

Derek and Brian decided that they're big, manly chests would prohibit them from passing through, so they went around and watched from the top as we squeezed through. My Dad eventually had to turn around and go back, too, when it got to tight for him. Ollie and Jude plowed ahead all on their own with out a second glance back!

Then Cristina and I squeezed through with Dexy. Now this was less enjoyable, because over halfway through the passage, Dexy decided that he didn't want to do this anymore. It was too late to turn around and go back, so Cristina and I each grabbed him under a shoulder and literally dragged him the rest of the way. It was horrible! He was screaming at the top of his lungs the whole rest of the way and in his attempt to not have to go through (he did the toddler "dead fish" move that they do when they're resistant), he made is so much worse for himself. His head and knees were banging and scrabbing all along the canyon walls! Not so much fun.

We finally made it out of the canyon to freedom and he eventually calmed down. Then we took off across the rocks to find a place to enjoy our delicious, random lunch.

We found the perfect spot! Cristina had been the wise one who thought to bring some food with her. She kept apologizing for it's randomness, but it was actually rather enjoyable - ham slices, cheese sticks, bananas, pop-tarts and smores goldfish crackers. Yum!!

After getting some food and water in us, there was a moment of renewed zeal. The little boys had fun playing in the dirt, running around, and taking turns jumping off this rock.

While the big boys had fun showing off their strenth and manliness by doing pull-ups on the rock walls. Derek, whose buff and a lightweight, can do a few one-handed!

Sir, gave it a try and didn't do too bad for an "old man" as he put it.

And Brian, who is super strong but has a lot more gerth to his frame than my Dad and Derek, even busted out a few pull-ups! He's so studly!!

But alas, even good things must come to an end. As sacred nap time approached, we said good-by to the red rocks for the day and headed back to the cars. But we will for sure go again! We always do. How can we not? So much fun, the boys love it, and so free!! It was a fun day.

A Meandering Adventure

On the 19th, the boys and I ending up having a fabulous time just going out and wandering around. We took Brian to class, but were going to have to pick him up in a couple of hours, so I didn't want to go home and do nothing. First we decided to go to the library. Storytime was already over by the time we got there, so we picked out a stack of books until Ollie said he wanted to leave. We checked the books out and headed outside. We still had time to kill, so we went to sit on the big stairs behind the splashpad and read some of our newly borrowed stories. But when we got outside, there were a ton of kids running around playing all over the splashpad and kicking balls in the field. All chances to read were gone. I put the books in the car. The boys were mesmerized by the big kids. Soon, they wanted to get wet, too. I didn't think it was such a good day for that. It was very windy, cloudy, and even a little chilly. Ollie kept pulling his shirt up and saying, "I want to be naked." We had to wander away from that area before one of them got soaking wet and therefore freezing and whiny. So, we meandered off toward the gazeboo. We looked at flowers, sat on the gazeboo benches, moved rocks to see lots of little bugs, and then starting walking past the Woodward building. As we passed, Dexy noticed the perfectly slanted cement slabs running next to the stairs. It was his idea to climb one and then try sliding down it. It was a brilliant idea!! The boys made such a fun activity out of climbing up the slab and then sliding down it, climbing the stairs and sliding down the slab, hanging onto the banister and swinging and then sliding down. Up and down and up and down they went and loved every minute of it! Fun times were had by all, until Dexy decided to slide down one head first and bashed his face into the cement ground. I was way over on the other side talking to Ollie, so I didn't make it to Dex in time to save him from a little blood and a fat lip. It wasn't that bad of an injury, but then it was time for a new activity.
So we started drifting toward Judd's Store to get a treat. On our way there we passed by a telephone booth. It had the symbol for the British Crown on it and everything, so I knew it would take us where we wanted to go - The Ministry of Magic! I, of course, had to take the visitors entrance this time around, seeing as I had the boys with me. Alas, they must have been closed that day for some reason. We then had no choice, but to continue on to Judd's where the boys ate a whole, big pack of Sixlets while I waited in line for some breaksticks and cheese sauce to go seeing as it was unfortunately time to go retrieve Brian from the college. It turned out being such a fun activity, eventhough it was so unformal, unplanned, and inexpensive. Who knew an aimless, meandering adventure could be so great?! I sure do now!

Dexter's 2 Year-Old Stats

I'm very late on Dexy's 2 year-old stats, but we just had his doctor's appointment today. Here is my big Dexter in what Brian refers to as, "his senior photo." He looks so big and so grown-up! He is 37 inches and 32 lbs. He was off the chart for his length, but his weight to height ratio landed him in the low-mid section of the growth charts. He wears a size 9 toddler shoes, only a half size smaller than Oliver.

Dexter is all boy! He loves to play in mud and dirt, throw balls, kick things (including people sometimes), swing bats, and play with cars and trucks. He is also a TV baby, but still very much a boy in his show choices. He loves the show Team UmiZoomi, and the movies Cars and Toy Story (any of the 3).

He and his brothie actually get along well and do a good job of playing together. They are boys and get into push fights sometimes, but all things considered, they are best friends. Dexy is a fun, silly brother and I often find them laughing so hard about some silly thing that Dexy is doing. He likes teasing his brother.

Although Dexter turned 2 and the terrible two switch was instantly thrown, he is still our sweet, happy, pleasant Dexter. He still loves to cuddle with his Mommy, play with his Daddy, make his Brothie laugh, eats well, sleeps well, and has a general pleasant personality. He is 2 years-old now, that's for sure!! He has certainly found his independence and his voice! His communication is really starting to take off. He now tries to say everything. He has problems forming certain sounds, so they don't always come out correctly, but the fact that he is even trying to talk is huge for Dexter! His brother has always just been around to say it for him. It has helped a lot that Ollie started preschool 2 days a week (too bad it's summer vacation) and Dexy had some one on one time for us to focus on him. He now says SO many more words than he use to. He says: Mom, Dad, Doo (what he calls Ollie), ball, hand, please, bubble, kick, zero, one, two, four, five, six, eight, nine, ten, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, circle, square, triangle, rectangle, star, shoes, socks, juice, cheese, banana, bread, up, down, help, scissors, lizard, every animal sound you could think of, and maybe a few more words that I forgot. Now, granted this are not all said clearly and you might have to be me to know that's what he's trying to say, but he is working so hard and making such good progress. He and I also use sign language which helps a lot!

He has the most beautiful, full-head of hair ever! I wash it and it drys perfectly. In the morning, however, it doesn't always look so perfect. He can wake up with some rock awesome bed head!

Now, this picture probably doesn't seem all that weird, until I tell you that this was taken first thing in the morning right after he woke up. Dexy has attitude towards clothes in general and specifically toward jammies. The night before this we tried and tried to get him ready for bed in his jammies, but he would wear nothing other than his current favorites - a navy blue polo and blue plaid shorts. He slept happily in this outfit all night long and the good thing was, in the morning I just had to change his diaper and he was ready for the day. He has worn all sorts of interesting clothes concoctions to bed! He is very, very picky about his clothing. I already can't buy my boys any clothes without their approval.

Dexy is obsessed with the color blue! He will only eat off of a blue plate or bowl, has to have blue sippy cups, perfers the blue balls and cars to play with, will cry if I put a diaper on him that's not blue, and usually picks out clothes that have blue on them. His blue hockey blanket is by far his favorite, but if that one is dirty then the blue monkey blanket is the only other acceptable option. He use to prefer strawberry milk, but now that he's realized that the lid on the chocolate Nesquik is blue he'll only drink chocolate milk. He especially loves this blue shark towel of Jude's. We have to take a bath there if we go over for dinner, just so that Dexy can use the blue shark towel. It's a combo of 2 of his favorite things, the color blue and sharks. He loves sharks and fish, too. Clothing is also acceptable if it has a fish, a shark, or a dino on it, even if it's not blue, but those are the rare exceptions. It's all about the BLUE!

Our cute Dexter is so silly! He loves to lay on the stairs for weird reasons; it's his favorite place to lay for diaper changes or for eating and drinking. He often walks or even scampers on his tippy-toes. He does squatty, ti-chi dancing. He loves Goldfish crackers. He likes letters and knows the whole alphabet. Dexy enjoys sitting and looking at books by himself. His favorite number is ten and if you ask him how old he is, he often says, "10!" His favorite songs are (and this might seem weird) Ba Ba Black sheep, Isty Bitsy Spider, Three Little Ducks, Stamp on the Ground by the Italo Brothers and Lovesick by Emily Osment (he likes the part where she kind of whispers "super sonic boom, super sonic boom" best). He has the most precious, dimpled smile ever! It makes disciplining him so hard sometimes.

Pictures for the last post

For some unknown reason, blogger would not let me fix my last posts pictures. No matter how many times I tried to upload them, they wouldn't go. I hope that loading them up seperately through Picasa will work. So, here they are (maybe).

Fun at a Fevered Pitch

The last post was SOOOOO long! Sorry! I will work to be less wordy this time. Basically, for the last couple of weeks we have just been having so much fun! Brian is going to school year round, so I think we were trying to make the most of his short summer break. Good thing because it's now over; he's back to classes tomorrow. On Friday night our partying continued with girls and kids night out. It was our ward's father and sons camp out and Brian was doing the fireside talk, so he had to be there. Derek and my dad wanted to go along for the campout. So, while the menfolk were out, we played too! It was already almost bedtime when we started, but we decided that every know and then it's ok to let the kids have a special activity. We took them to Krave for frozen yogurt and then to the movie in the park. Washington City was having it's cotton days and we were all about participating in their free, fun activity.

They showed Disney's Tangled (which I love). When we first got there the boys were more interested in climbing the rocks, running around, hanging on a canapy frame someone left out, flopping in the grass, crawling under the Washington City banner and trying to join other people's families. Finally, they rested for a moment to catch some of the flick. It got quite windy and tons of people abandoned ship so quickly, but we were some of the die-hards that stuck it out a while. We had to leave before the movie was over because it was nearly 10:30 and that is quite late enough for a group of such little ones, but we had a great time!!

Then yesterday we took Cristina's fabulous idea and went and fed the ducks at the Bloomington golf course on Ft. Pierce Dr. This activity was a huge hit with the kids! Even more than I thought it would be. They went through SO much bread and by the time it was all gone, we had gathered quite a passel of ducks. Jude was determined to get in the pond, even after tons of reminders by his dad that he not get in the disgusting water. The boys again had a great time just being outside, running around, and playing.

After the bread was gone, they moved onto throwing rocks into the pond. They'd run up to the wayside, gather a handful, pitch them in the water, and go back for more. Brian schooled us all at skipping stones! He got several to skip 4 or 5 times and a few to skip upwards of 10 times! Ollie tried to be like his Daddy and worked on his stone skipping, too. It was a beautiful day and such a nice time full of old fashion fun!

We then got Icees at a gas station with Grammy and Granpy before heading home for a much needed nap time. Dexy happily went right into his crib and ended up sleeping over 3 1/2 hours. Ollie, who doesn't usually nap anymore, litterally slipped into sleep while playing on the computer. He had gone potty while I was downstairs moving the laundry and by the time I got back, he was sleeping; pants-less, hanging off his chair, with the same annoying song repeating endless from the computer! I put his pants back on him and lifted him into his bed without so much as a stir from him. He then slept for over an hour. I had to wake him up at 5:45 so he'd go back to bed that night. We've really got them worn out, I guess!

The fun wasn't over yet after nap time. We took them to Wal-Mart so Dexy could pick out presents with his birthday money. Brian helped him choose the velcro catch set which they loved when we got it home and open. They found it fascinating that the ball stuck to the "mitts." After a little bit of playing with it, Ollie took his mitt and said, "let's put it on my back!" Where do they come up with these things. Dexy picked out his LeapFrog Leaptop all by himself. He loves it!! In fact, they both love it. Ollie was instantly trying to snake it from his brother. It is a pretty cool toy. You can connect it to your computer and load up your child's name, so that the "emails" are actually to them and it can sing a name spelling song to them. We've been having such a rock'roarin' time the last couple weeks. It was nice that today was Sunday, though. We finally took it easy for a day! That wasn't all that less wordy. Sorry! I've got issues.

Happy 2nd Birthday Dexter!

OK. So I know that this post for Dexy's birthday is super late, but I want you to know that it's because he had a super super 3 day birthday celebration attack special!! It's not because he's the second child whose getting less because his mother is crapping out. He in fact had a very slammin' birthday! Warning: this is an extremely long post! Procede with ample time and caution! So his extended celebration started on his actually birthday, May 6th, after nap time. Ollie and I made the cupcakes while he was napping and since it was his birthday, I let him have one before dinner and before the "party" started.

What a cute, silly goof! He still loves his rags that I used as burp clothes and has to have one to go to sleep. It's like his lovey. He carries one around and even keeps it right next to him while he's eating. They sometimes get quite messy (you'll see a real doozy later in this post actually)! Good thing they wash pretty well.

He was excited about his cupcake, eventhough I hadn't made the frosting. Ollie reaped the benefits of the birthday boy and got an advance cupcake, too! Then the partying began. Derek's family came over and we had grilled hamburgers for dinner. Brian and I are in a babysitting group with 3 other families and Dexy's birthday fell on a Friday (the day we do the babysitting trade), so I said that I would watch all the kids that week so that Dexy's birthday could even be like a real party. It was right before Mother's day, so we only had one family show. It was still fun, though, to have other kids come enjoy the fun.

After they played a bit, we let Dexy open his cards. He had an almost stictly card birthday, but he seemed to be totally fine with that. We've collected all the "dollars" he got from his cards and will go get him something fun.

There was a 2 on one of the cards and it inspired him to show me all of his own accord that he was 2 now!

Then we played pin the piggytails on Milli (thanks Cristina for the great idea) since Dexy loves Team UmiZoomi. It was quite fun and even the little kids enjoyed it more than I thought they would. One of the friends from our babysitting group won. She's the oldest and was wise enough to feel for the piggytails that we had put on there to show them how it works. Good job, Jodilee!

Next we colored the frosting blue, pink, and green (to kind of represent Geo, Milli, and Bot from UmiZoomi) and let the kids decorate their own cupcakes. Dexy much preferred just eating the frosting straight from the bowl over actually decorating his cupcake.

Jodilee got right to business. It took Stran and Jude a little while to get into it, but once they did, they were diggin' it. Stran PILED on the frosting and Jude PILED on the sprinkles!

Ollie made a neat, clean looking circle of frosting, sprinkled on a few sprinkles and decided that that was enough decorating. It was time for eating.

Janie sat and carefully and beautifully decorated a cupcake for her mom before she'd do one for herself. She also asked me to make one for her dad and wouldn't eat her cupcake, but said that she wanted to take them all home. Side note: I love how every kid has their very own personality! It's fun when stuff like this brings it out and we get to observe it. Moving on.

I had made a mini loaf pan sized cupcake to be Dexy's own personal birthday cake. It was actually so cute! We sang happy birthday and he blew out his candles by himself! He's getting so big and independent. I love the way he holds his lips when he blows - so cute and funny!

Then our friends went home and we stuck our super messy kids in the bath. Dexy got to open his last present - a new outfit from Mom and Dad. His only other present (rather than a card) was a great Toy Story 3 book from Derek and Cristina, which he loves! Way more than the outfit that I picked out and he has so far refused to wear. We'll work on it. He's just 2 now and doesn't want to do anything that I want him to do.

The very next day we got in the car and headed up North to be there for Hollianne's Mother's Day call from the mission field. Brian pulled off to the side of the road once to let Ollie pee, but then would not stop for the rest of the trip. I had to help Ollie pee in an empty soda can twice. Dexy had been strapped in his seat the whole time. By the time we were driving through Provo, I looked back and saw this. He looked like he was so bored and annoyed of being in his seat, but he was just so precious about it! He wasn't whining or crying, just quietly fed-up, cuddling Stitch. Even more sad? Just a few minutes after I took this picture he seriously threw up all over himself and his seat. I'm so sure that he has pretty bad motion sickness because he throws up in the car or after we finish a long drive so often. And guess what? Brian still wouldn't stop! He said that we were so close, rolled the windows down to blow out the smell, and made us all press on.

When Ollie saw me snapping a picture of Dexy, then he had to be cute, too. And he is! The boys did so good on the drive up there! Especially considering our sad state when we arrived. By the time we got there, Ollie had peed in a can twice (which I had to help him with) and was complaining that he needed to poop in the potty, I was seconds away from wetting my pants, and Dexy was covered in barf!! But hey - we made good time, right?!

After I dashed in the house to pee, let Ollie go potty, gave Dexy a bath to get the puke off him, got him dressed, dumbed the pee can, and sprayed off Dexy's disgusting carseat, it was time to resume the celebrating. Dex got more great cards from Grandma and Grandpa Bowles and Great Grandma Christensen. This Tigger card from Grma and Grpa Bowles played a part of the Tigger song and he loved it!!! Every time the song would finish, he'd close the card and open it again and make the same super excited surprised face that it was playing music. So cute!

After dinner is was time to bust out the super duper Bowles family birthday song medley! It's fun but pretty long, but Dexy waited paitently and then excitedly blew out his candles again.

Amanda's birthday is the day before Dexy's, so we were having a combo celebration for both of them. The smoke rising off of the cake after she blew out her candles was awesome! I guess that's what happens once you get fire from 20 or more candles. Then we dug into delicious cake and ice cream.

After that the partying continued with the beating of the ugliest pinata I think I've seen to date. Amanda's birthday is on May 5th, Cinco De Mayo, so it's been a tradition for her family to get her a pinata for her b-day every year. Dexy was not so much excited about the pinata and after one attempt was done.

Ollie was more than happy to take several whacks at it! And yes, those are jammies and he did wear them all day. He didn't want to get dressed and since we were just going to be in the car, I didn't make him. Plus he's 3 years old. Got to get away with that stuff while you're still young and cute enough to do so. Anyway. Back to pinata-ing.


Then it was time to get serious. Amanda stepped up to the plate.



Next up was Angela. And she ended up taking her down! It didn't take as long as the Spongebob pinata last year. She gave up the goods much sooner. After a few trys, Angela gave her a good whack and ended up decapitating her. The body went flying and her head was left swinging.

The loot was plentiful and delightful!

One of my favorite pictures! I love how Dexy is up close showing me the one pack of Sixlets tha the picked up and Ollie is the background with both hands full of candy and running to get more! Classic!

Finally off to the big bathtub to clean up, calm down, and get ready for bed. Grma brought in her brilliant bubble gun to shoot at them. So fascinating and beautiful! They had a great time and were so happy to go to sleep when I finally put them in bed.

And first thing the next morning, Dexy had found his musical Tigger card and was at it again! He seriously loves this and carried it around for days playing it again and again. We went to Church then waited for Hollianne's call. We all got to talk to her. It was great! And Grpa Bowles made 4 pies for Mother's Day. Yummy!

Then on Monday it was extended Bowles' family birthdays celebration. They had it at Brian's parents' house because his Grandparents have bed bugs and were having their house fumigated (yuck)! Dexy is the youngest birthday in May so he got sung to first and got to blow out candles for the third time (I told you it was super super 3 day extraveganza)!

Grma Bowles then convinced everyone to sing to Ollie next because we weren't up there for his birthday. Brian and I both thought he didn't need special privilages, but that's what grandma's are for, huh? He was pretty excited about it, espcially getting to blow out candles since Dexy had been doing it all weekend and he didn't get to.

It fuelled his fire and he really got into singing happy birthday to all the rest of the May birthdays. I like how he only has one sock on. That happens often. He was so enjoying himself!

After days of fun celebrating, the crash was pretty spectacular! Boys zonked out everywhere! Dexy refused to sleep in the crib the whole time that we were there. I was super worried about him doing the same thing when we got back home, but he only wouldn't sleep in his crib the first night we got back and he was already upset from the drive . He is now happily sleeping in his crib again. Whooh! Dodged a bullet there. At least for now.

It was super cold, gray and rainy the whole time that we were up there until the very last day. This always makes me sad because they have a nice, big backyard and a tramp, both things that we don't have but my boys love. They didn't get to play outside too much, so when the sun came out the last few hours that we were there, they took off into the front yard when I went out to load the car. And they of course found the mud instantly! Dexy was covered in it and his lovey rag that he had with him was a complete mess!

Ollie wasn't quite as muddy, but they were both wet and filthy just in time to get in the car for hours. I stripped them down and put them in Grma Bowles big kitchen sink, one in each side, and sprayed the mud off. They got dressed and got to go to the park with Grma and Angela. Then we had pizza and loaded them in the car. We stopped in Eagle Mountain to see Johnny, Hailey, Landon and new baby Grace for about an hour. The boys were excited to get out of the car and play with a friend. But, too soon it was back into the car for a straight no-stop shot back home. Ollie fell asleep fast. Dexy was quite upset, but eventually fell asleep until about 15 miles from home. So the trip back was better. At least there was no can peeing or barfing this time! So that's the end of Dexy's super super 3 day birthday celebration attack special!!! I'll do another post about his stats and what he's up too lately at another time. This one really was an attack and I need a rest now! But we love our sweet Dexy and are glad he had such a great birthday!