Uniquely Isla

It's amazing as a parent to see all the unique personalities each child has.  Isla is not exception of course and also is without a doubt a girl and it's been fun to see those differences in her too.

She LOVES her dolly.  It's practically as big as she is and weighs as much as her but she carried that things around non-stop.  So cute.

She loves her brothers and eats up their attention whenever they're willing to play with her or even read with her.

She also follows them around all the time and has learned to play the same things they do.  So of course golf is a big part of that play.  She'll drag her own club and ball all the way upstairs just so she can keep playing.

And when she gets bored of trying to hit the ball, she pretends its a trumpet instead.

Isla is especially good at being annoying to her brothers and trying to take away what they have.  Miles has perfected the blocking leg technique.

Yep, back to the golf since Miles is ignoring her.

Walk in his shoes

What?  These?  These are mine.  Really.  I promise.

See, I can almost get them on.

Okay no, no I can't.  A little help here please?

Much better.  See they fit me perfectly!

Yep, they look great on me.

Losing Teeth

Ethan may not agree with me but I think it's been quite a blessing that his teeth have been so late in coming in (he didn't get his first tooth until 13 months) and therefore have also been very late in falling out.  He's almost in 3rd grade and is the very last kid in the entire grade to not have lost a tooth yet.  Our next door neighbor, also named Ethan, is a full year younger and already lost 4 teeth.  So when Ethan's tooth started wiggling and the first one finally fell out over Easter break in April, he was ecstatic!

And I guess once one goes, they all seem to go.  3 missing in this picture.  Ethan would like to lose them all.  And his mother would like to request more than his 2 front teeth back for Christmas.  Could he have them all back please?  We need to take a family picture!

Let them play baseball

Taylor and I occasionally disagree on the amount of time our kids should devote to sports and the amount of time I want to spend driving them and dragging along siblings.  So baseball has been the sport in the past that just got skipped.  No big deal I thought.  Taylor did not agree.  So when our local rec center offered summer baseball that wouldn't conflict with any other sports (since we weren't playing any in July :) and Isaac and Miles could be on the same 3-5 age team followed the next hour by Ethan on the 6-8 age team, I signed them right up.  Back to back games.  Everyone done in 2 hours.  3 of the 4 kids get to play.  Perfect.

And it was except that it was inside the U of U football team's practice facility with no AC in 95 degree evening heat.  ROASTING!  

But the boys didn't seem to mind.  Isaac picked up the game pretty quick- he was one of the oldest on his team.

And it helped that there were parents at each base and wandering all over to help guide the little 3 year olds.

For Miles, batting didn't come so easily but he was super excited to be on a team and get to participate.

And running was the easy part.

For fielding, the coach would bunch all the kids up in the middle of the field and assign 1 kid at a time to go get the ball.  He was more concerned with them all getting a turn than that we actually played the game right.  Oh well.

Sweaty but happy.

Isla didn't mind getting dragged along especially since daddy was always there to entertain her and since we were in a mostly enclosed facility I let her wander around and explore.  That's her kind of heaven.

Ethan's team was much more on top of the game.

And Ethan loved it.  He's all about doing what you're supposed to.

No tee for these guys- unless they missed 3 throws in a row which usually they didn't.

And lots of running since they can hit the ball farther.  It was a great way to spent Monday and Wednesday nights in July and all 3 boys were happy.

A few more days of fun

We felt like our trip was complete after the over the top amazing fireworks the night before, but we were glad to have 2 more days with Kelli and Dana.  Taylor and Dana went golfing a  few times and Kelli and I snuck away to shop.  The boys didn't mind playing around their house and yard and were especially impressed with the crop dusting plane that spent an hour flying over and back again every few minutes.  

We of course couldn't leave without going blueberry picking.  I should call it blueberry eating because that's what 5/6 of our family spent their time doing.

Isla wasn't sure about eating blueberries for about 3 seconds.

And then she was all over eating them.

Even feeding herself when daddy got too slow.

And finally full fisting them.  They're just too good all warm and juicy right off the bush.

Isaac agreed and spent his time double fisting the blueberries.

There's the gang who's actually picking some of the time.

Okay so you really did need just one more picture of this cutie chowing down.

And this cutie trying to catch them in his mouth.  He's a cheeseball.

And when we just weren't fast enough at picking and feeding her, she wiggled out of my arms and found her own spot to eat as fast as she wanted too.  So cute!

We had so much fun picking and eating and shopping and golfing and playing that we wore our kids out.  That's Isaac passed out in the doorway.  Apparently their new carpets are just that soft.  We had a great time and cant wait for the next time we get to visit!  And as a bonus to the trip I realized Taylor could fly with Isla for free so I decided to not stop on the way home and just drive the 10 hours straight with 3 little boys fully addicted to their ipods.  It was still 10 hours but it was so fast and easy.  We just stopped on the side to let them pee out the minivan door and stopped once for gas and dinner and then we were home- and Isla and Taylor were peacefully asleep.  Yay!  Successful trip!

A July 4th to Remember

We didn't have any grand expectations for our vacation when we headed up to Washington, we just wanted to hang out with Kelli and Dana.  And see their new house.

We went with them the morning of the 4th to their ward pancake breakfast.  Isla hung out in tree.  Okay, not.  But I wanted a picture.

We brought along the essential boy toys- legos.  Which was fantastic and provided hours of quiet entertainment.

We used to just have a communal lego box but then I found that someone was always mad at someone else who was playing with THEIR lego this or that or had broken something they created.  So I wised up about a year ago and bought them all their own plastic bins.  Now we have a communal lego box for random pieces no one is using, and then everyone gets to have their own pieces to themselves.  It has been marvelous.

But since they're boys, they can only be still and quiet for so long so we brought along a few golf clubs and balls.  Uncle Dana didn't mind practicing his shots.

Miles thought the soccer ball would be easier to hit than a regular golf ball.

This is Isla in her very frequent spot- at my feet- begging to be picked up.  If she weren't so darn cute and her little bitty voice so squeaky high I might be able to refuse her more often and get more things done.  Oh well, I'll just enjoy her instead.

We hung around the house most of the day (after the pancake breakfast) and then walked over to 2 neighbor BBQs.  On our way we passed this house just 5 doors down that had a full on live band playing and 2- yes 2- port-o-potties parked outside.  We all had a good laugh but I'm sure these people are just wise.  Invite 20+ friends over to drink and listen to live rock music, maybe you don't want them going in and out of your house to use the bathroom.

The kids loved our first BBQ.  They'd set up a pool underneath the slide and had a hose at the top.

Miles loved it too.

Isla was fascinated by the pinwheels in the strong wind.

And of course by the car.

She has good brothers.  Ethan would rather be riding inside I'm sure but he was happy to push her around without even being asked.

We went to another BBQ after that but I didn't take any pictures because it was more about eating than playing which we adults appreciated.  Then we started to hear fireworks going off and decided to head home.  Luckily we had walked because their neighborhood was PACKED. I mean solid.  Not a single place to park and every driveway and patch of grass was covered with people and cars.  Kelli and Dana had heard that it wasn't worth driving into the bigger city nearby to see a fireworks show.  We should just stay at the their house and watch.  We weren't sure if that was a good idea or not but we went with it.  And even before dusk, even with the sun up, people started shooting up fireworks.  Seriously!  This is their side yard.

And from the front yard.

And her house in the background... with my cute boys running around.  Isn't her house cute?  I love it!

Apparently if you want to set off any and all fireworks you can get your hands on somehow, the place to do it is in Moxee, Washington.  Nothing is illegal.  Everything is fair game.  Anytime on the 4th as long as it's over by 11pm.

We spent hours- literally hours just watching the skies around us- ALL around us- 360 degrees.

It was amazing.  And it just kept going.  The only way I can describe it is that it looked like a fireworks finale show for 4 hours every way we turned.

Over and over again.

And again.

And again.  It was truly amazing.  We were mesmerized (and deafened) by fireworks for 4 straight hours.  Somehow Isla slept through the whole thing and the boys spent 4 hours running from the front to the back yard and all the way around.  Debri rained down on us constantly- nothing hot or burning, just pieces of cardboards, but constantly.  It was just amazing.  And then promptly at 11pm- it was silent.  What amazingly law abiding citizens.
We'll definitely be going back.  And Taylor wants to stop at the Indian Reservation on the way there so we can light off our own fireworks.  Apparently watching just isn't fun enough for him.