18 weeks

Family addition, coming early March 2009...


Aaron: "Mom, your tummy is getting kind of big."

Aaron the Kindergartener

Aaron waiting for the public bus (which we ride on together) on his first day of kindergarten.


This morning after we took the trip to school and I was dropping him off at his class, Aaron asked me, "Mom, could you be with me on the way to school everyday until I'm even in high school?"

Elliot's Contrariness

Ben, upon greeting a smiling Elliot returning from the playground: "Did you have a good time at the playground?"

Elliot: "No."

"Oh. Did you play with your friends?"
"No."
"Did you play in the sand?"
"No."
"Did you play anything at all?"
"No."
"Did you play at the playground at all?"
"No."
"Did you run?"
"No."
"Jump?"
"No."
"Hide?"
"No."
"Slide?"
"No?"
"Squat?"
"No."
"Dig?"
"No."
"Sit?"
"No."
"Um... did you have fun saying 'No' a lot?"
Elliot, with a sly smile: "Yeah..."
Ben: "Can you say 'No' right now?"
Elliot, as his smile broadens: "Yeah..."

Some pictures from our trip to Utah

Last month (right after our Tahoe trip) we stayed in St. George for a week and Midway, UT for a few days. All of my parents grandkids except one were there, so we had a blast needless to say. Here are assorted pictures from the trip.

Three sisters and their kids in St. George.
Kori with Tony, Krista with Gabe and Eve, and Kourtney with Elliot and Aaron

We drove from St. George to Midway in my parents' car and had to pack it to the brim, as you can see. The kids did a great job hanging out in the backseat, except that Elliot kept stealing Tony's binky when we weren't looking. Aaron is, of course, trying to avoid being photographed.

S'more on a stick. Aaron insisted that we go camping while in Midway. At first he wanted to do the whole sleepover shabang but we convinced him that it was cold and a lot of work and so we settled on an evening of tinfoil dinners and s'mores in the mountains. We ate a lot of marshmallows and various s'more combinations. Ben decided to roast the whole s'more on the stick, to get the chocolate satisfactorily melted. It worked beautifully, as you can see.

The plane ride home. Four boys in stripes.

A whole family of stripes!
Note: This isn't how we actually flew-- Tony (in blue) had his own seat across the aisle with his mom. It was a good plane ride overall though, despite the 4+ hour delay where we had to wait in the plane to take off due to a series of comical bureaucratic mishaps, mostly to do with paperwork. They actually fixed a small insignificant part on the inside of the plane then had to unfix it and tape it up in order to get it passed off. It was pretty frustratingly hilarious.

In the backyard of the house where we stayed in St. George there is a smallish mountain. Aaron and I climbed it one day, looking for animals to hunt of course. This was one of the highlights of our summer for me.

He was a really good hiker

The triumphant hikers

The view from the top-- the very first building you can see at the bottom of the hill is our building.