Sand Festival

We were debating how to spend this precious Saturday morning.  Park?  Backyard wading pool?  Movie?  Then we noticed that the Arvada Sand in the City Festival was this weekend.  Sounded fun, but when we discovered it was only a few blocks from our house, that sold us.  So we walked through the neighborhood to a pretty fun little fair.  We met out friends Mike, Trish, and Ellis (aka Wolfie) to play.

Enjoyed the sand art.  This one, a tribute to the Lego movie, was very popular.  We are indulging in an enormous Froot Loops marshmallow square.






They had one being built so you could watch. 

Jack and Ellis admiring a ladybug.  This is incredible for Jack, considering his bug phobia lately.  It crawled on his hat and he did not freak out.  Yay!



There are more pics on my flickr site.  Lots of good food: a plate of Hawaiian pulled pork and grilled chicken with rice and mac salad, freshly fried mini donuts, a wild boar sandwich, funnel cake, and a fried Oreo.  When the kids were cranky and the water bottles empty, we tucked them into the chariot stroller and simply walked home.  A nice way to spend the morning.

Sam Noises

I still haven't captured one of Sam's fantastic roars, but this one is decent.  


Earlier this week Ben commented that my blog makes Sam seem like the happiest, bestest baby.  For the sake of honesty, this is what some days are full of:

Withdrawal

Scene: ext. Target

Background: Jack received a pool towel and squirt guns.  He wanted an Optimus Prime.  He has two at home, along with a  plethora of Transformers, three new on the last week.

Jack 

(Rubbing eyes with tears)

You're not giving me what I want!

Mom

That's right.

Jack

But why?

Mom

Because we don't always get what we want.

Jack 

(sobs)

But I do!

Ben

Only with grandparents.

Mom

(Long sigh)

Age of Head Bonks

Three injuries before 8:30 AM.  Two head bumps and one pinched fingers.  Ahh, the early mobility phase.

Hang in there, kid.  And stop trying to touch the elliptical while I'm on it.  Or crawling under my bed.  Or scooching into the bath faucet.  

Exploring the new park

This place is just a couple minutes drive away and free! We will definitely be back this summer.

Our trip in numbers

Days on trip: 5

Miles driven: 1,158

Roadside potty stops: 1

Restroom potty stops: 4

Chicken Run viewings: 3

Hours of iPad gaming: too many to count

Sam naps skipped: 0

Jack naps skipped: 3

Fatboy sandwiches consumed by me: 3

Peanut M&Ms consumed by me: ~ 270

Mornings slept in by me: 1

Diaper blowouts: 3

Loads of laundry: 2

Cousins visited: 7

Photos uploaded to Flickr: 62

Toys received by Jack: 10

Toys received by Sam: 3

Falls out of bed: 1

Total head bonks to boys: ~8

Alpha-bots recovered from long ago lost: 1

Replacement Alpha-bots imported from Japan just in case: 26

Requests for McDonald's by Jack: 5

Requests for McDonald's granted: 3

Weird Utah billboards observed: 14

Items missing upon arrival in Arvada: 2

Ounces of Diet Coke consumed by me: 376

Swimming dips: 3

Swimsuits packed by me: 2 per boy

New swimsuits waiting at Mom's house: 2 per boy

Sunburns: 0

There and Back Again

We didn't rush the return journeys.  On Sunday morning the kids got out all their wiggles while I searched high and low to gather all our stuff back into the car. 

At the height of Jack's Frozen obsession, he bemoaned my lack of grandfather clock so he could recreate a moment.  Wish fulfilled:

We tried to get a nice picture of Grandma with her two great-grandsons.  We succeeded in taking the pictures, but I'm not sure if any of them are nice.  There's a lot of silly to wrangle.







We bid our good-byes to Layton and stopped in SLC to see Andy and Jenn.  The dogs were thrilled. 

Then it was time to origami Dad into the backseat for a long drive.  He kept the boys happy by plying them with french fries, blueberries, and cookies.



Ah, such a beautiful sight!

Before I brought in the first suitcase, Jack had stripped naked and was begging to jump in the pool.  These pictures are from Monday morning because I was too busy to take pictures, I was stretching my toes in the pool too!  Once again, we took it slow in GJ.  I felt bad putting the kids through all this driving, so I wanted to be sure they got all their wiggles out.  They had plenty of swimming and playing and eating done before we left for Arvada at 6:30pm. 

 
 
(He tattooed his name on his fist.  What a thug.)




This was taken as we pulled out on the road.  Both boys were asleep by Palisade.  It was the easiest of the four drives, for both traffic and kids' moods. 



Today?  Happy to be home, playing with new toys, taking extra naps, and exploring the crawling skills honed in Utah.  Boy, do I have some baby-proofing to do.

Layton/Ogden

Another fun day in Utah.  

We went to the dinosaur park in Ogden.  Jack was a bit timid about the roaring and the carnivorous feasting depictions, but overall had a fun time.  

These were the "small" snow cones.

While boys napped we ladies dipped into the Needlepoint Joint.  I got some beautiful alpaca/cotton blend for my next big project.

More family, dinner, and more swinging to finish the day.

Sam is happy to get all the toys to himself.  I used to play with these too.

So tired, he fell asleep sitting up.

A Grand Journey

I've been meaning to take the kids to Utah for ages.  I still hadn't met my new adopted cousins, who have been here for years.  Plus visiting the rest of my mom'a side of the family, and my brother and his wife, so we really needed to visit.

Thursday after Jack's summer school class, we took off for the first leg of our journey: Grand Junction!

Picking up:

A break in Silt:

Made it!  There was about as much screaming, crying, and junk food eating as you would expect.  But they were pretty good overall.  They even made each other laugh for a good chunk of the drive (Sam appreciates Jacks fart noises in a way that I can't).

New toys to explore and the pool:

The next afternoon we packed the car to its limits, trapped Dad in with luggage, and made the next section of our journey: Layton!

Passing Country Jam

Jack settled in at Green River:

The boys were far from thrilled to be back in the car.  Sam exercised his lungs through most of the metro area.  But we made it and were quickly surrounded by family and food.  I can't believe how much older my cousins are.  But I had to remind myself that I was presenting my second son, so I'm getting old too :-)

Gah!  I hardly took any photos of my cousins!  Crap.  I was so tired and trying to keep an eye on the kiddos.  Maybe my mom has some she can share.

The boys had to so some final carousing, and is had to dash to Target for some forgotten essentials (ha, did I think I could  go four days without a trip to Target? Oh naive one).

New toy positioned by jack after I tucked him in:

And that brings us to this quiet, peaceful morning.  The boys are well slept and fed.  Grandma Lois is being a good sport about the mess we bring.  Jack is on his fifth turn on the big swing.  It will be a nice day.