I started the summer (2 weeks ago tomorrow) with a lot of energy. I was going to RULE the summer and accomplish so much. We started by moving Jamison out of my closet (He was in my closet from New born until 2 weeks ago don't worry its really big) We moved him into his new room the old guest room (it hasn't been used much) Here is a photo right after we moved him in. I have since put little things up and arranged.
we put up black out curtains and he didn't sleep for 3 nights! (thats not true, he slept like a newborn for 3 nights) It was all very exciting. The kids love his room and having him right next door to them. I love not being able to hear him at night(yeah its a horrible thing to say but after you don't get a full nights sleep for 8 months straight get back to me and let me know how you feel) We love that his room now has a function and feels like part of our home now.
I got my closet back and it is currently a fully functional closet and mini creative office for myself. Taking it from mini nursery to functional mom area took a few days but I got it there. Then we decided we were going to install the patio outside. So last Saturday Daniel leveled the ground and did all the extensive prepwork while I drove to Home Depot (one of my least favorite places on the planet) asked for 420 patio pavers and one of comments I left with was "never send a woman to do a mans job" which if you know me at all really made me angry but I let it blow away in the wind because I wanted my patio finished in a timely manner. He made the comment because I had done the math for the bricks with Daniel at home and knew how many bricks I needed. Then I wanted to double check at the store and THEY sat there and couldn't figure out how many bricks I needed for the 10by12 patio. So I guess a mans job is to pick up bricks from the store? or is it to stand there like a moron while your mouth spews sexist moronic words. Then they took 45 minutes trying to figure out how to load the bricks on the truck (I suggested using the fork lift like last time) they wanted to put them in by HAND 420 bricks!! Anyway they got loaded, I drove home happy the bricks were on the truck and I was far away from home depot.
Then I the woman unloaded them all. I wanted to be useful and I wanted Daniel to finish all the prepwork and I don't know how to do (I don't know how to do anything but be a laborer in the yard) It was a lot of work but a great work out.
Then Daniel laid them all out in this cool pattern and did all that stuff that he did with sand and pipes and stuff (I seriously don't know how to do it) Then he rented a plate tamper and the whole house shook while Jamison screamed and cried. (he was inside) I took a look outside and all I could see was a large white cloud. Then Daniel and Alexander swept all the extra sand off
Alexander was being really helpful through this whole process. He handed Daniel the pavers and just wanted to do everything. Then the patio was finished and we were so happy. It was now memorial day and we had a little barbeque and fanta and coke in glass bottles. It was fantastic.
Then real life started again and Daniel went back to work and I was home with three adventurous children. Daniel wanted the children to have some fun so he pulled out the little pool and filled it with water. This started a strange chain of events. Everyday at least 3 times a day they are in the pool without my knowledge. I empty the pool and they turn on the hose and fill it back up. They have been getting in a lot of mischief. The kind of mischief where it feels like a week has passed when its only been one day. Here is a picture before the patio was put it that shows a little peek into our daily happenings:
Eva in her unders and shirt. She decided to climb into the wheel burrow but then realized she couldn't get down so she was yelling at the window for me to come out and free her. This is also a common occurrence of late:
and then all up the stairs too. Fun times here. Oh and here is the new patio covered in mud from the kids with the sand and hose:
and then they picked the sweet peas for me, even the ones that were not ready
Just trying to be helpful, hopefully all these teaching opportunities I am getting will help them learn good behavior (somehow I don't think this will happen until they are 30) Luckily I have a great husband. He planted these on mothers day and these are the second blooms!!
and he is much more handy than I realized. On Thursday I went to park group, then I went to my dentists appointment to get a crown set, then the crown broke in my mouth while they cemented it in (thats another story). It was looking like a bad day but I was trying to keep positive. So we went home and it was getting really hot so we needed to turn on the swamp coolers. I was feeling off. Daniel got on the roof and it wouldn't turn on. I would usually be really stressed out about the news but lucky for me I started to loose my lunch so I didn't care. I proceeded to be ill for 2 days and then when I started to feel better Daniel fixed it all! He showed me this:
and said words but he really fixed something that was really bad and now the house is cool and all is well. So that is why we haven't blogged in two weeks. We were busy conquering the summer and adjusting to this whole 3 kids in the house all day long thing. Its only been two weeks but it feels like 3 months. Anyway I rambled a lot. I need to go back to blogging more often so my thoughts are not rambled.
Then End.
Just kidding its just the beginning It just feels like it should be the end, of the summer that is. The person who invented summer vacation was obviously not a stay at home mother. ha ha I am kidding but not really.
Here are Alexander and Ethan checking out the far view. It was great that we could see Cliff Palace from the trail head. So if you don't want to hike all the way down you can just walk to this point to see it all.
More waiting
An interesting point about the hike is that the stone stairs you walk down are all pre osha so you get a good idea of why stairs have to be a uniform height. They were very steep and you got a surprise everytime you stepped down. Here was the first ladder to climb. The kids all did really well.
The kids were all listening and being good tourists. Notice Eva all the way up the top looking for the next place to go.
Here is the view of the way out from across the canyon. Pretty steep. I didn't realize how steep it was because I wanted to get the kids out of their as soon as possible.
We were going to do the Balcony tour but there was no way the kids could do it after the previous tour. It was actually my sanity I was worried about so Geoff and Kristen and Jerry and George went on while we did the scenic drive. We stopped and looked at the balcony from the side of the road:
And many other things. It was pretty amazing to see all these houses all over the cliffs. There were so many stops and you could see their windows and doors carved out. Its amazing to think how much energy would need to be used just getting from place to place. It was such a fun mini vacation. It was great to see Geoff and Kristen and we were even lucky to see Kristen's sister's family and Her parents!
I took hardly any photos which was disappointing but I would love to do another trip like this! You just can't beat a 3 and a half hour drive to visit family and see a national treasure!
