Timber!

As part of our home renovations, we have been tearing out all the sad looking 60-ish brush that until recently has been passed off as trees and bushes. This rather large, unsightly object met its demise this month and our view of the mountains to the east has never been better. Our lack of a very obvious landmark to distinguish our driveway from the neighbors, though, has caused a few embarrassing moments.

And here is Daddy's little helper. Thomas was enamored of the tree cutting, but watched from a very far, very safe distance. (He has a rather funny and peculiar dislike of loud noises.) Mary Alice on the other hand, is drawn to loud motorized objects... and the tasting of other outdoor manly utensils.

Conference trip - part 2

On the way back from St. George, we took a bit of a scenic route. It was nothing compared to what John had originally planned, but we still left the beaten path of I-15 and took highway 89 up through Richfield and Manti areas. In Manti, we stopped to let the kids have a breather.


And boy did they enjoy it!

Tom got a little hill-rolling in, just to celebrate.


John and I enjoyed the break out of the car (and the break from the "are we there yet?" questions).

We stopped and relaxed on the Manti Temple grounds for a while...




And enjoyed a scenic tour of the old houses in town...





We really enjoyed these old houses!

And then it was home, home, home!
(And it only took us 12 hours to get there.)

Conference trip - Part 1

This past week was the Utah Library Association conference, held in St. George. We decided to pack up the kids and haul them down south with us so that they could have some good cousin-time in Cedar City while Mom was presenting at the conference. So away we went.

This comprised most of our trip.



Thomas was excited by the prospect of seeing his cousin Michael, eating lots of junk food in the car and picking out bushes to "water" along the way. He is a darn good traveler! Mary Alice is not quite so adept at the traveling just yet. She slept a good deal of the way, but when not asleep, she either sang to herself or asked repeatedly "Out?" She was awfully jealous of her brother's "watering" breaks...


Anyway, after the conference was over and the cousins had been visited (a most fun visit, I was told... but unfortunately pictures weren't taken...) we went for a brief tour of northern Arizona. The goal was to go to the Grand Canyon, but with our incredibly bad luck, we made it all the way to Jacob's Lake just to be told we couldn't get to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon until the next day - because that is when the season officially opened.

Now, Thomas had been asking the entire way, if we were there yet. And we couldn't bring ourselves to tell him that after 2.5 hours of driving, we were not going to see the Grand Canyon. So we cheated a bit. We followed the road east till we hit the Navajo Bridge over the Grand Canyon. So, technically it was the Grand Canyon, even if the view was a bit less spectacular.

So, instead of this:


We saw this:

While standing on this bridge:


But to Thomas, it still fit the description of "big hole" that his parents had so eloquently used to explain what the Grand Canyon was, so it didn't make much of a difference. Especially when his guilt-ridden father succumbed to his pleas for a set of dinosaurs toys from the over priced tourist shop at the bridge entrance. Luckily for us, though, those dinosaurs entertained him well for the next couple of hours it took us to get home.

Anyway, it was a bit chilly and rainy - as you can tell by our weird poses. A rather abundant rain cloud followed us from Jacob's Lake on. Every time we left the car, it opened its spout and doused us. Like I said, a rather unlucky trip.


Here are some of the views along our route back.




We made one final stop at the Glen Canyon Dam, thinking that would be a fun thing to show Thomas, as well.







He liked it well enough, but wasn't as impressed as we thought he would be. Mostly because he wasn't allowed to drop things over the side of the bridge, like he desperately wanted to.



Next installment... the journey back, or Our only photo stop - Manti.

Bed Head

This is our Mary Alice when she first wakes up in the morning...

Happy and a bit on the frizzy side.

Another Tom-ism

The Scene : Thomas, Mary Alice, and Mom sitting down to dinner.

Mom: So, Tom, what did you and Kylie [the neighbor girl] play today?

Tom: Well, Kylie wanted to play 'Mom and Dad' and I wanted to play Robin Hood. So, we played Robin Hood-Mom and Dad.

Mom: Well, that sounds fun. How do you play Robin Hood-Mom and Dad.

Tom: [semi-exasperated] You just play it. You make food and kill the bad guys....

[pause]

Tom: ... We kissed.

Mom chokes on her food.

Mom: You what? Now, Tom, playing Mom and Dad is just pretend. It isn't real. You shouldn't really kiss anyone - not until you are grown up and are a real Dad.

Tom: Yeah, that was what Kylie said, too.

.

More of the house

Here are some more views of the updates we have made on the house.

The kid's bathroom.

Before:
After:
Before:

After: The changes in the bathroom are harder to see, but it was previously pink (ick!) and had a really cheap linoleum floor that looked like someone had run over it with lawn aerator. John's mom was our saving grace - she repainted it an antique white, picked out new hardware, a new floor, and some new matching towels. (I am not that good at coordinating colors!) Thanks Mom!

The Hallway

Before:
After:

And once again - that is not white you see in the "before" picture, but PINK (with a blue accent wall and orange stained doors... go figure!) And several of those old doors had cat doors installed in the bottom. Mary Alice got stuck in one of them - since she inevitably saw an opening that was at her level and just had to try it out. That was end of those doors, lemme tell you!
We peeled the wallpaper trim off the walls and repainted them. John took the popcorn off the ceiling, re-textured it and repainted it, installed new light fixtures, refinished the floors, added a neat new baseboard trim, and installed new doors. Did I mention yet that I absolutely LOVE that man?

She's growin' up!

We moved Mary Alice into a toddler bed recently. We thought we would get the battle of the "stay in bed" training over before the baby came. And we thought it would help to break her attachment to her crib before this usurper claims it for his own.


The new bed seems to be working out pretty well, though.... mostly because her older brother is fascinated with it, too.



Guess we will see what happens when the younger brother comes.

Robin Hood

Thomas is no longer Thomas. Or at least, that is what he tells you. Recently on a trip to the park, he started introducing himself to other children as "Robin Hood". And some days, he won't answer to anything else.


His constant companions are the hanger he has claimed as a bow, the sticks (or pencils) that act as arrows and whatever sword and dagger combination is most readily at hand.





Because, you see, Robin Hood is a fierce warrior.

That roams his land...


... to defend the innocent from the evil sheriffs of the world...

Sleepy

Talk about a tired girl...

And a rather entertaining dinner.