Bonding

When my mom and Barry came to visit earlier this month, Ruthie took to Grandpa Barry right away. They were bonding within the first 10 minutes their arrival. It was quite cute. Ruthie doesn't take to everyone like that. Apparently she was very interested in his beard as well. It is a nice feeling to make little friends. 

A Place to Honor Yourself

(These pictures may or may not already be 2 months old and I'm just now getting around to blogging about them.) They are from our trip to Fort Collins, CO for a house hunting trip. It was an interesting experience to see for the first time the place you are going to move. There were more dogs than children, more bikes than cars, and more tattoos than modest clothing. Purple hair was definitely not just for the rebellious youth either, just an expression of self. You very much get the vibe that people are trying to find themselves and get in touch with something... nature, their true identity, their creativity, their favorite locally brewed beer etc. Restaurants come standard with dogie bowls outside so as not to offend dog owners and the people at Colorado State made SURE to point out that there was a Whole Foods to Zach, because that is supposed to be very important to him. I like Whole Foods, we ate there, my budget just doesn't allow me to shop for 6 people there all the time. I loved the sign on the trashcan that said, " Landfill". Your other options were recycling or composting. Why don't we just relabel it, "If you cared about your grandchildren at all, you wouldn't put anything in this bin". I do have to say though, we ate at some WONDERFUL local eateries, enjoyed the many parks and ponds, and thought it was a friendly sort of town if not a little eccentric. I think we will like it once we settle down. 

Denver will be our closest temple (2 hours) until they build the one in Fort Collins in a few years. 

CSU campus 

I Just had to take a picture of the squirrel since I hadn't seen one in so long.
There aren't enough oak trees in Utah to support a squirrel population

I'm assuming this is unsolicited art at CSU but perhaps not. I thought it was lovely. 

 "Honor yourself" has become a running joke between me and Zach now. Honor yourself by honoring your dog, your body, your pallet, your mind... Enough said. 

Scottish Pride

Zach tells me he feels his Scottish roots when he wears his new bow tie. The guys went fabric shopping a while back and specifically picked out this pajama flannel to have matching bow ties made. I'm not the fashion designer, just the worker bee here people. If it makes them happy, it makes me happy. (Rog had a little help tying his bow tie but Derek made the attempt himself). Zach said the bow tie was their entrance to dinner fee. They remembered; it was a good father's day dinner.  

Roger and Derek's roommate was the odd one out. Or perhaps the other three were the odd three out...

Giving Zach the ultimate message for Father's day

Every Mother's Dream

To find their boys getting beautiful in the bathroom

Big Splash!

The boys know the drill. Hope Fort Collins has a place like this. 

She's a nose scruncher. Loves to crinkle that little schnoz 

Took Ruthie a few minutes to warm up to the idea of playing in cold water, but in the end it was just too tempting not to. 

Helping out sister so she can fully enjoy the water. 

First Pedicure

As I sat in the bathroom and painted my toenails I had some unexpected, always welcome visitors who happened to be very interested in what I was doing. David, Mac, and Ruthie came in to inspect what mommy was doing and Ruthie just sat right down beside me and stuck out her feet. The boys know polish is only for girls, but they still wanted to do some of the application on Mommy and Ruth's twinkle toes. I let them do a few strokes on my toes but figured Ruth's were a too small a target to hit to let them try. David likes to pick out the color I should use too. Ruth let me paint the first foot no problem, it only takes half a stroke to cover each toenail, but then she got restless and I had to hold her a little bit to finish the last few tootsies. It was fun to be twins for the few days it lasted. I'm sure it won't be our last mother-daughter pedicure. 

First and Last Day of School

First day of 1st grade on the right, last day on the left. We took a little more care to dress nicely at the beginning of school I guess than the end. 

I don't know how different the boys look, but 8 months and a few inches of hair sure made Toothie Ruthie look different. These are my two everyone is always telling me look most alike, I can see it. 

Hurrah for finishing! Hurrah for summer! Here we come Colorado. 

If I buy it, they will eat it

This week my family polished off:

4 grapefruit
5 pounds of strawberries
2 pounds grapes
18 oz blueberries
15 apples
8 pears
12 bananas
3 lemons
and various other fruit such as raisins, canned peaches, canned cherries, and dried cranberries

They would have eaten more, especially Mac and the blueberries, had I brought more home. It really doesn't matter how much fruit I buy, they will eat it- happily. And then ask for more. I know this is a good problem to have, especially since they will also eat vegetables, but it just doesn't fit in the fruit bowl any more. After I come home from shopping the produce is delicately balance as high as I can get it in the bowl and then spread out all over the counter. The extra apples go in the cupboard, the grapefruit in the fridge etc. On shopping day I cannot see the back of my fridge on any shelf but 5 days later- it is looking sparse again. I have little kids too! Oh the food bill when they get to be teenagers. Gabe already eats more than me at meals and he's only 7. I better start learning the art of being a fruit gardener.

Camping

Ah, the great outdoors. The very best place for star gazing and fresh air. A few weeks ago, while my father was visiting from North Carolina, we went on our last Utah camping trip to Goblin Valley before we  move. We rented the on site yurts (think round cabin) instead of trying to tent-it with 4 little kids. The only down side to that was that we didn't figure out the heater until the morning after some of the kids had been chilly all night. Our hike through Little Horseshoe Canyon was excellent. Gabe and his boundless energy would have hiked the whole loop but we made the executive decision to turn around after 4 miles. I wasn't sure how far little legs could go. Ruthie was carried by Zach almost the entire way but Mac did a super job on his own Flintstones power. He didn't even really start complaining till about mile 7 and Zach carried him the last half mile while I carried Ruthie.  Overall a very good trip and probably the last one for a while. As a side note, someone saw us pack our van and asked us how long we went camping for. They were very surprised when I only said one night since it was stuffed to the max with people and gear- and that was without tents! I think they were expecting me to say a week or so.