The haircut

We gave Bennett a summer haircut. A buzz. I've never dared give him a buzz before since he was born with a full head of LONG hair. But since we've found more than 1 tick in his head this year, it was time to shave off his mop.





Obviously, it didn't go over well.

The Power of Rob

So my baby brother took a long road trip from New Jersey to visit us this past weekend.


Rob holds a hallowed spot in our house, right next to the cans of tuna. He lived with us in Philly for about a year during which time he consumed vomitous quantities of Ramen noodles. When Bennett was learning to eat solid food Andrea started calling them Uncle Robbie Noodles and the name stuck. Several times a week right at lunch time uncle Robbie gets mentioned in our house. I don't know if it is the frequent mention of his name coupled with intense "oriental flavor (what is that anyway?)" or the fact that Rob lived just across the bridge in Jersey for Bennett's first three years and is the only uncle Bennett has really known. It could be the cool flying bird birthday present, the camping trips, the only relative at Thanksgiving for several years running, the fact that he can fly real airplanes, or any number of things that only Bennett knows. Anyway you cut it, he is magical with Bennett. Rob holds power to unlock something in Bennett that neither parent can.


Bennett is a touch on the timid side when it comes to physical activity. I have no problem with this as we live in a place where a little too much bravado would cost us at least a few evenings in the ED or worse. A good sense of fear will keep him alive. Bennett likes to swim in the lake, but that took a while and he only does it with a life jacket. He took swimming lessons in a pool and there was able to jump in from the edge without any flotation aids. He has never considered jumping in the lake without a life jacket despite my prodding. Jumping off the rock has never been an option even though a couple of his brave friends have done it. I never considered asking him to jump off the rock as his typical statement before getting into the lake is,"Dad, will you please lower me into the water GENTLY so I don't get my hair wet?"


Rob changed all that. The first day Rob was visiting Bennett asked if he could show uncle Robbie how he can swim without a life jacket. He dove right in for the first time from a low rock ledge and swam like a fish.... Where did that come from? The next day we were all hanging out at the lake swimming and barbecuing when suddenly Bennett announced that he was going to jump off the rock...The Diving Rock...12' of air to the cool waters below.





Stunned silence from both parents.





He walked over to the edge and stood there for several minutes before deciding that he wanted to jump WITH uncle Robbie. They held hands and he did not even hesitate. 1 - 2- 3 over they went.

WOW

The power of uncle Rob.

Love this girl

This little one owns my heart. She is growing up so fast, it's scary. Why hasn't someone invented a way to bottle kids up yet???


She loves putting on shoes. How girly is that???

She's still a great eater! She just passed the 30 pound mark when I took her for her 18-month checkup. At the same visit, Bennett jumped on the scale. With a 2.5 year spread between them, there's only a 10-pound weight difference. Bennett doesn't realize that he's going to get BEAT UP by his little sister in a few years. The doc said that if Leah stays on the same growth pattern, she's likely to be 6 feet tall as an adult. Yikes!

She does these "cheese" smiles every time the camera points at her. Silly girl...

I wanna eat those cheeks!


LOVE. HER.

Weekends

Since Keith hasn't had absolute control of his weekends for many years, weekends now are precious. Like a cool drink of water after wandering near death through a scorching hot desert. Like food after being trapped on a island with no other signs of life. Like coming up for a breath of air after being thrown unexpectedly into freezing cold water. Like a shower after rolling in warm, gooey animal poo. Like....

Ok, I'll stop there.

So weekends are pretty awesome. If we don't already have weekend plans by about Tuesday, something is wrong with us. We like our weekends. Here's a recap of our last two.....

So we recently joined our local running club. It's been pretty cool. They organize 2 or 3 group runs a week and we try to go whenever we can. They also try to organize trips to out of town races and are training for a marathon this fall. So weekend before last, we went on the road with the club.

We drove about 2 hours away to run an 8k. The course makes a figure 8 and it started at 9:58 pm. Crazy 8's. Since it's at night, the course is lined with candles and tiki torches and people came out of their houses to cheer. They also sprayed us with their garden hoses in between bites of whatever they had just cooked on the grill. Awesome. So we left our house at about 2, drove there, picked up our race packets, went out to dinner, saw a movie, ran the race and came home. Talk about a perfect date!!!!



Last weekend, we went on another camping/hiking trip. We drove to Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park and camped on Friday night. Then on Saturday morning, we hike Mt. Leconte. It was gorgeous! 10 miles round trip.






This time, after hiking up a grueling mountain with kids strapped to our backs, we did not find a parking lot and a bunch of cars. Instead, there's a Lodge. But this one is only accessible by helicopter.


You can actually stay in these cool cabins at the top of this rugged mountain.

You just hike the 5 miles up with a change of clothes and stay in a warm bed, eat yummy food, check out the sunset from the summit, and hike back out. We are totally going back there.

Doesn't this look quaint as crap?


Weekends rule. And we even made it home in time for church.


Anyone wanna come with us next time?

An epiphany

I'm double posting today. A record for me. But this is so totally blog-worthy.

Bennett had a epiphany yesterday.

He figured it all out.

He finally asked me to take off his training wheels last night.


And about 30 minutes later, he was all on his own.


Awesome.
That's one happy kid.

Big Boy Bennett turns FOUR!!!

Okay, so it was a couple weeks ago. June 30th, actually. But I already gave my excuses for being a lazy blogger so I don't need to go there again.

All I'm saying is HAPPY BIRTHDAY BENNETT!!!! He is stoked out of his mind to be four. It's so funny how a birthday is a totally life changing experience for a kid. So fun.

They day started out with Bennett's choice of breakfast on the traditional red plate. (Oh no! Waffles! I did NOT leave the room this time. Lesson learned.)




The rest of the morning was spent playing on his new slip and slide. SO FUN!!!


Keith took off work early and we went to the water park later. Bennett had a blast going on the big water slides and swimming around in the lazy river. Have I mentioned that Bennett has learned to swim??? Totally. Those lessons have paid off. :)

Then, a birthday party with a few of Bennett's friends. Complete with a pinata, even. Listen, I'm no Martha Stewart party planner. Don't judge, okay?



Then, the cake. Oh the cake. When I showed it to Bennett, he said "Wow, it's an H!"

Admittedly, I need to get some Martha Stewart party skills.



We LOVE this 4 year old kid!

Don't

Don't try to hurry through dinner in order to be somewhere on time.

Don't fix the quickest possible thing and pat yourself on the back for not letting them have cold cereal.

DON'T make waffles to save yourself a few minutes.

DO NOT get ready to go while the kids are eating.

Please, DO NOT leave anyone unattended where syrup is involved.

DON'T. Just don't.

Please trust me.

Hikin'

Another fun thing about Tahoe...hikes.

We went on a couple of really fun, beautiful hikes while we were there. We didn't summit any peaks due to snow conditions but we still had a blast. The kids are really good sports. They love being outside and they do well hanging out in the backpacks--mostly. There is usually at least one meltdown but we can wear them down pretty quick and offer yummy bribes to get back in the pack. It's a pretty good system. At least until Leah gets much heavier or I get waaaaay stronger. :)







And one more thing. Sunset....
I really miss a good Utah sunset. Sunsets around here are usually obscured by the trees. Nothing like a good sunset across the barren wasteland of the salt flats. That view helped ease the pain of the ride back to SLC to catch our flight home.

So, Tahoe anyone? We are already trying to figure out a way to go back soon!

I {heart} Lake Tahoe

I'll just say this...WOW.

Lake Tahoe was such a blast!!! After we left Keith's family party at Flaming Gorge, we drove to Lake Tahoe. We rented a house in Incline Village and were joined by all my family and our gaggle of kids. We totaled 14 adults and 16 kids. Sheesh!!! But we all had bedrooms (except Shannon and Dave, sorry guys--thanks for taking one for the team) so we had plenty of space to be together, and apart. Oh gosh, it was a dreamy 6 days.

Once again, I hardly pulled out the camera. Why, oh why????

The great thing about Lake Tahoe and my family is that there was something for EVERYONE. Bikes, hikes, rocks, beaches, shops, mountains, water....what else could you possibly want???

First off, biking. Mountain biking, road biking, and even an impossibly large amount of paved bike trails for my super hard core mom. Biking was pretty much a daily requirement for everyone. The crazy brothers got pummeled on some nutty trail ride every day. And the sisters got to go out for a few girls rides at night. Pretty much, the sisters rule. It was so much fun to hang out with them and enjoy breaking a sweat without the kids! Those girls are hard. :)

And then there was rock climbing. Oh man, was there ever rock climbing. People, this is the kind of rock climbing that you will dream about for weeks afterwards. WOW. Just wow. I only got to get out for one day with Keith (kids really are an anchor sometimes for things like that--but you know I love their little guts). We climbed in Lover's Leap and did the Corrugated Corner and Surrealistic Pillar. Super SUPER classic climbs. In fact, I rank them in the top three climbs I have ever done. But, funny thing, I can't really remember what other two I would put in the top three. It was just that good.

Nothing like a 4:30 am start to get things rolling. That's Keith Card style for ya. :)


A beautiful crack line. And some crazy exposure. Pulling out onto the arete on the 3rd pitch of the Surrealistic Pillar was crazy. Absolutely nothing but air underneath you. Kinda scary! But fun fun fun.

Amazing. So fun and so gorgeous. My fingers are dying to go back and climb that granite again!

Next up: hikes.

I'm back

Okay, I'm back. I took a long break from blogging. Sometimes typing is such a chore!! It's so much easier to sit at the computer and move my one finger and cruise the internet instead. How lazy. But I have soooo much to blog about. I may even try to do a post a day for a while. Who knows? Sounds like a lot of work. But maybe....just maybe....

I'm going to start my catching up by blogging about our FIRST family vacation last month. We flew to Utah and drove to Flaming Gorge for a couple days with Keith's family. It's the first time his brothers have been together since 2004. His brothers (he's one of 5 boys) are pretty spread out (New Jersey, Alaska, Utah, Kentucky, and parents in Wyoming) so it's tough finding time to get together. It only took about a year of planning but it finally came together.

And stupid me never pulled out the camera.

We have a couple really lame shots of us playing around at Flaming Gorge.




But we really had so much fun! We camped for 3 nights right by the Gorge and we spent a day out on the boats. On another day, we took rafts down the Green River. The weather guessers had been forecasting rain for the whole trip but it ended up being fantastic. Keith and I snuck in a 6 mile trail run--where I got sick in the middle and wanted to puke and die. I gotta remember about that whole altitude thing next time I go out West. Don't do that 24 hours after flying to the mountains.

I wish I had better pics of this fun trip! (Hint to family members that have better pictures....send me some.)

Next up on the blog...Lake Tahoe!!!