Summer of Fun!!

We've had plenty of fun this summer … unfortunately it looks like we've turned into once-a-month bloggers so our updates are few and far between. Nonetheless, let me bring you up to speed on what's been going on this past month. As Kelli mentioned, we were getting ready for 4^th of July festivities with the family. My brother and his family (Jacob, Robyn, Anna, Mia, Rya) came up and spent the weekend. We had tons of fun with water fights and the like. We spent the 4^th of July morning down in Kaysville where we watched a parade with the Jones family. The kids thoroughly enjoyed … the candy and free handouts … and it wasn't just laffy taffy either! Don't know what the world is coming to, but they were getting stuffed animals, necklaces … and Hunter even came away with a full-size basketball (granted WNBA, but who is complaining?) Then it was home to our house where we did a BBQ, set off some fireworks of our own and then watched the local fireworks from the backyard. It was a grand time and good opportunity to reflect on our freedoms and how much we have to be grateful for in this country of ours. It doesn't get much better than hamburgers, hot dogs, family and fireworks.

Going back a bit, we also had a party for Collin's soccer team. The local soccer league doesn't give out trophies, so we had the parents pitch in to get them some. After all, you can't have little boys going without trophies. Their faces say just how important it for them.

The kids also went to the Christmas Carol train (waited in line for 3 hours, but apparently it was worth it.) Savannah ran into her little friend from back in Albuquerque (Emma – who now lives in Morgan, about ½ hour away.)

 

We did a camping trip with the Whetstone family up at Monte Christo campground. Awesome area and very nice. The only downer occurred after we got back – we found out a couple weeks later that they are having bear problems around that same campground. Kelli is now determined to not go tent camping --- only if we get some sort of hard-wall trailer!

We also did the 1^st annual Jones family reunion at a campground resort near East Canyon reservoir. Robyn's family hooked us up and we had a good time doing dutch oven dinners, playing miniature golf, shuffleboard, tennis, and swimming. We also sneaked a little fishing and had some fun boating on the reservoir.

I spent a week up at scout camp with the scouts. We hiked them in about 7 miles up into the Wind Rivers. We had 11 boys and 4 leaders and it was a blast. The fishing was awesome (ever seen River Runs Through It – it was just about that.) We caught fish in about every way possible – of course fly fishing was the best.

Savannah can't wait for school to start again – she's very excited for her birthday in less than a week and can't wait to get baptized (which won't happen until October because of scheduling conflicts.) She's also excited to get her ears pierced which Mom said she could do once she turned 8. We'll see how that goes.

Collin plays as much as he can with Carson, his little neighborhood friend. Sports and Wii … 'nuff said. We've spent a couple summer nights at the local minor league ballpark. Pretty nice setting with the temple and mountains sitting just behind the centerfield fence.

Hunter is having a lot of fun just being Hunter. He is my little helper out in the yard pulling weeds, picking up worms to feed the frog and loves to ride in the play jeep and ride his bike. He likes it when Mom is his nursery teacher, but as soon as someone else comes in to teach --- watch out because it's not going to be pretty.

Trey is into everything and starting to teeth. He has skipped the entire mushy baby food phase and moved straight to steak and potatoes. Oh, and did I mention he loves ice cream (can blame Mom on that one.)

Kelli is keeping busy with the kids and teaching her 2 nights at the local community college. She's getting ready for a 5K race the middle of this month. I am busy with work, scouts and the kids. Excited to start coaching Savannah's soccer team this fall (Collin is playing with Carson's team and Carson's dad is going to coach them while I get neighborhood 8-year old girls …) Nathan (my brother) and I did our own triathlon at Pineview reservoir and he beat me by 30 seconds or so … that darn 4-minute lead on the swim was too much! There's also the 100-mile bike ride the beginning of September to look forward to.

So that wraps us up for the month of July. Hope everyone out there is doing well!

 

Our Second Vacuum aka Trey

**No photos...yet. Our camera had a sleepover (actually 3 nights) on the basketball court. Guess it wanted to see what all the fuss was about over a new pad of cement. Luckily, I don't think it rained.

We have had lots going on lately--busy summers are the best because they go by so quickly!!
We took the kids on their first Lagoon trip--SO MUCH FUN!! We got there before the rides had opened, so the kids staked out what they wanted to do first (the boys were eyeing Kiddieland and Savannah wanted the Terroride). The boys warmed up after their first ride on Speedway Jr. and from then on were running from ride to ride and so excited. At the end of the Terroride, for those who haven't been, there is a flash of bright lights and a loud honk to scare you. Savannah got off and said, "I passed away!" I think she meant she almost passed out with the honk. Then we took the kids on the Tidal Wave (amazingly, they were all tall enough. Trey was at Grandma's house). We had to sit in the middle, so it wasn't like we were totally scaring them, but Collin hated that flip your stomach does when you get to the highest point. He told me it was "hurting his feelings." It was an overcast day, but that kept the crowds away for the morning and early afternoon and let us go twice on favorites like the Log Ride, Rattlesnake Rapids, and Colossus. It stopped raining just as it opened and didn't rain again until 7:30 or so. We saw the clouds roll in and Hunter began declaring, "Oh. My. Gosh. We're in trouble guys." He kept saying it over and over. And he was right. We packed up our stuff, threw away our dinner garbage, and headed to get the kids their promised treats. Just as we got them, we ducked under some eaves for protection and it began to POUR!! Then came the hail, lightning, and thunder. The temperature dropped as the rain continued. We were about done anyway, but that convinced the kids that they were, in fact, done for the day. They immediately began asking when we were going to Lagoon again.

On the homefront, Trey is growing in leaps and bounds. Not only is he getting bigger, but he has gained lots of skills. I knew it was time to move him to his crib (he'd been sleeping in the bassinet part of the playpen) when he wouldn't settle down for his nap and I went in to find he was standing up, holding onto the bars of his crib OVER the bassinet side. Hard to describe, but enough to scare me, knowing he could just climb over the side. At the beginning of June, he all at once started sitting up well (a little slow for that one), crawling (a little early on that one), and trying to pull himself up to standing on the couch, tables, etc. He's getting fast at crawling and is faster than we think most of the time. So fast, that he's had a fall off a bed already. :( He also sticks EVERYTHING in his mouth. Savannah was like that as well, but it was so much easier to control what was on the floor when there were no other kids around. Trey likes to hang out around the bar stools, where he knows Hunter will drop things like strawberries, chocolate toast, and half-eaten cherries with the pits and stems. I'm hoping he makes it out of this stage with no major choking catastrophes.

Hunter continues to be Mischief Man. I have cleaned (or tried to clean) pink nail polish (a whole bottle), smelly lotion, and ointment off the carpets. He flushes things down the toilet and learned that Barbie dolls are too big to flush, they just spin around naked in the toilet (which is apparently hilarious and worth pulling her out of the garbage can for a repeat performance). And he is the incessant tease--he takes away whatever anyone else is playing with at the moment, including Trey.

Collin started piano lessons right before he broke his arm, and has continued to play in his cast. He's actually getting pretty good, awkward as it is for him to hold up his cast to hit the keys. He is also beginning to read--which he's catching onto pretty quickly. I think it definitely helps to have older siblings with these things. He has gone to see two Ogden Raptors baseball games this past week and came home from the last one with a ball cap he loves. His best buddy has been on vacation for two days and I think will be gone for another week--I hope I survive.

Savannah is continuing with her tumbling this summer. She is getting awfully close to doing a back handspring unassisted. She can do about 10 in a row on the trampoline. She is reading--hoping to get the 1000 page superintendant's challenge award for the summer. She's also learning her times tables and division, which she is pretty good at. She likes having sales and runs quite the stands, selling everything from lettuce and strawberries to otter pops and sno cones.

We have lots coming up with the Fourth of July activities, camps (for mom and dad, ironically), family get-togethers, swimming lessons, and dentist appointments.

Drill Sargeant Collin

The words are:
I don't know but I've been told
Kindergarten is the place to go.
I've learned my numbers and ABC's
Now I'm smart as I can be.
Sound off (one, two)
Sound off (three, four)
Bring it on down!
(one, two, three, four, one, two...three, four!)

Playing catch-up

Well, Jessy wrote about Collin's arm, but here are a few other events we've neglected to post in the last 2+ months:

Collin graduated from preschool,
Savannah finished second grade,
Hunter registered for preschool,

Trey started crawling (yesterday!),

we got a giant cement pad in our backyard,
we got a cool firepit next to the giant cement pad,
the basketball pole is now installed,
we had a fun, candy-filled Easter,
our garden is mostly weeded (thanks to the extended Jones fam),
Trey loudly eats his feet,
Jessy did a 100 mile bike race (finished 70 or so miles of it--it should NOT be freezing cold and rainy in St. George in the spring),
I finished a triathlon and a 5k,
Trey has started kissing (he's very passionate),
we put mulch/bark in all our flower beds (not exciting for most, but I think our neighbors appreciate it),
Jessy and I had birthdays,
and, as of today, we have been married for 9 years.
That is our April/May/beginning of June in a nutshell.

Collin's Broken Arm :(

We experienced a slight misfortune over the weekend when Collin broke his arm playing baseball in the backyard. He was rounding third heading for home when one of the neighborhood boys got in the way and Collin ended up face planting on the patio concrete pad. One could tell it wasn't your normal 'owie' from the get-go. Soon he was in the instacare getting x-rays taken. He saw this first one and turned to Mom and said, "I saw those pictures and my arm is broken in two!"

Of course it was a picture of the two normal arms in your forearm. Yet, the side profile was a little more revealing and indeed showed a fracture of one of those forearm bones.

He was then taken to Zippes where he received his good boy ice cream and came home doped up on pain killer which made him a little happier. He slept with Dad on the couch last night and was back at it again today trying to play basketball left handed and even stepped up to the plate with his single good left arm -- batting from the left side of the plate. After smacking a few of Dad's heaters into the 'outfield' he humbly exclaimed, 'even with one arm I'm still good!' I guess it didn't take any of his confidence away :) Tomorrow he gets his cast and I'm sure all the neighborhood teenage girls will be the first to sign in. His best friend across the street even showed some sympathy by digging into their storage and putting on a sling of his own to show his support ... the next 6 weeks are going to pretty tough on the poor kid ...

Birthdays all Around!!!

Hunter has just turned 3 ... and Collin 5. It's been a whirlwind of non-stop birthday parties culminating in this weekend's extravaganza of a monster birthday get together for all spring birthdays on the Jones side. Aunt Angie made some very fancy cakes for the Whetstone party (Hunter had a Wall*E cake and Collin had a three-tiered BYU basketball cake!) We forgot our camera so we'll have to get some pix from Chris -- suffice it to say they were awesome and the boys were in birthday cake shock!

In like a lion ...

Wow, I’m not sure what to do with myself right now. Savannah is at tumbling, Collin took Hunter to his friend Carson’s house, Trey is taking a snoozer and Kelli is teaching her math class – one of those moments when there is so much I could do I don’t know where to start! So, why not write a blog entry since those have become few and far between since our move from overseas.

Life is really good these days. I think we’re finally coming out of our winter snow dumping. I guess it wasn’t as bad as last year, but just 2 weeks ago we had a snow storm that dumped 18 – 24 inch by the time I got home from work. It was really the first time that I felt an 800 snowblower would be well worth the money. Lucky for us we have some great neighbors we helped get the really slushy stuff from the road plows so we could get into and out of our driveway --- after 2 hours of shoveling that wet stuff

myself it was just a little tiring. Excited for some spring weather and chance to work out in the yard and an excuse to kick to kids off the Wii!

Speaking of the Wii, Hunter is hilarious. He navigates through the menus like he’s 18 years old. He knows every little character, how many weapons they have, if they are good or bad, and all the various levels. We wish he had some little friends to play with in the area, but now that he’s potty trained he figures he’s earned the right to tag along with Collin.

Collin is doing really well. He enjoys preschool and loves to come home and color his ‘homework’. Last week we went to the

BYU-Utah basketball game. He first of all has a count down chain to his birthday … and somewhere on there was the a chain for this game he’s been counting to for about 10 days … uh, oh – Trey’s awake … free time over! ……. And here it is nearly a week later and I’ve found some more time to finish this e-mail. Collin was a rabid BYU fan at the game whipping the white-out towel right in my face as the cougars moved ahead towards the end of the game (and a good sport at that). We had to make BYU and Utah pancakes the day of the game. He loves to play b-ball on his little hoop in the basement and is always making ‘squishes’ as he calls them.

Trey is growing in leaps and bounds. He hates Dad babysitting him twice a week because that means 4 hours without Mom and his food source. It’s actually kind of funny. I’ll hold him so his back is against my chest and he’s facing outwards. When he’s hungry he wants nothing to do with me. If he ever sees me or hears my voice, he automatically starts to cry. And he’ll only take formula once in a while. One thing I’ve found that works without fail is to play basketball with Collin and hold Trey in one arm. That pacifies him every time …

Savannah is doing really well in school, tumbling and loves to play with friends. We just attended her parent teacher conference and her teacher, Mrs. Shaw, says that Savannah is a joy to have in class and is very respectful. Savannah says that she only likes school a ‘little’ and that’s because she likes her friends and recess, but doesn’t like doing all the work. Mrs. Shaw says that they’ve really been driving the kids hard this year … almost too hard. So, Savannah is feeling a little burnt out. We’re really wishing we had the Australian school year so the kids could get more of a break (2 weeks between terms) and spread things out a little more. She did have crazy dress up day at school which she found very entertaining.

Kelli and I are doing well. Kelli continues to train for her triathlon in May and is teaching twice a week at the community college. I am enjoying work at ATK, training for a 100-mile bike race and ‘playing’ with the scouts and kids. All quite crazy and yet entertaining. And thank goodness we can finally see the grass again ...