Ryan's New Trick
A photo journal says it all.

I should admit that I caught him climbing and then figured that if he was so close to getting out that I might as well teach him how to do it a safe way. Sometimes I agree that I may have shot myself in the foot, but usually he is SUPER cooperative because he likes the autonomy of getting in all by himself when it's time for bed. We'll see how well it lasts...

Maeser Barbecue/Slip n' slide

This is how we all started out. The Bayles' and the Kisby's. It was a Friday night barbecue for students and we met there for some good fun and entertainment. The Hintons met us there shortly after we arrived.

We had heard rumors that there was a slip n' slide going and the guys went over to check it out while Gina, Veronica, and I were chowing on popsicles and talking about eating raw food (go figure). We joined the guys over at the slip n' slide when we heard (from Caleb, I believe) that Derek and Brian were planning on going down the thing. Well, let me point out that the weather was cold enough to warrant Derek wearing long sleeves - probably in the upper 60's so we were definitely not all anxious to jump in the water. Derek and Brian thought that Lance and Ryan would want to go so that was their logic behind deciding to do it. We watched a bunch of other crazies going down for a while and they looked like they were having a good time. This is how the night started off...

Lance going down on Brian's lap, Ryan on Derek's.

Then things progressed to this...

And THIS... Spencer was a great sport and loved going down on his tummy.

And finally this...
The grass was getting so wet at the end of the slip n' slide that when they hit the end, they would go longer and faster on the grass and mud. You can see the grass just splashing Derek straight in the face.

Here are a few shots of how these guys looked. They KEPT going and getting muddier and muddier. We were all shivering just watching, but it was pretty amusing.

Afterwards it was about 9:30 and Divine Comedy was starting so we figured we might as well stay for it, but the guys were wet and freezing. Veronica had brought a sweatshirt so Brian took off his wet shirt and put on the sweatshirt. Veronica also had on two shirts at the time so she took off one of them and offered it to Derek. It was SUCH a girly shirt so instead I gave Derek MY t-shirt and I wore Veronica's girly shirt which was flesh colored and made me feel totally nude. At least we were all dry AND covered. As we were walking to the Divine Comedy area a guy who had Volunteer t-shirts said something like, "You guys look cold, do you want a shirt?" We all jumped at the offer and got free shirts out of the deal. We were glad the Kisby's brought a camera to document the night.

A walk to the duck pond

We went to the duck pond with Veronica and her two boys to feed the ducks. It seems that the ducks get over-fed in the summer though and they weren't interested in the bread crumbs and cheerios that we brought. The boys basically ended up with a pile of cheerios at their feet for the ducks to eat later on. Here is Ryan with his best friend Lance. Lance is one year older and a whole head taller than Ryan (as you can see in this picture).



It actually ended up being quite a crazy day. In the hour and a half that we were there, Lance wet his pants (he's doing the potty training thing), Katie had a huge blow out (and I didn't have a change of clothes for her), Spencer sat in a pile of ants and was covered from the waist down, and then we looked over and saw Lance with his pants down about to pee on a tree. Luckily they were things that we could laugh about afterwards since no one was hurt in any of the kid craziness.

Veronica is such a good friend - we're going to miss them when we move.

 

Katie Photo Shoot
Very nice job Derek, if I do say so myself.

 

Let's Talk About Infant Bathrobes
(I knew Gina would want me to post something un-gross at the top)

So, a friend brought me over this baby bathrobe. I have seen them in the stores and all, but I just don't get it. What is the purpose of a baby bathrobe? Is it to keep her modest when she gets out of the bathtub? It seems to me that it is just an extra step, because otherwise she'd be wrapped up in a towel and then I'd quickly dry her off and get her diapered and dressed anyway. Am I really going to put on a bathrobe to take her into the next room just to take it off again and re-dress her? I'll answer my own question. No. Is it for when company drops by late at night and she can cover her pajamas when she answers the door? That's an easy one, no. I guess I just don't see ANY purpose whatsoever for this thing.

Oh well, maybe we'll use it as a swimsuit cover-up when she gets out of the pool to keep her warm. Yup, even THAT seems far fetched.

 

Quoting Ryan, "Petty goss Mom nentis"
Which being translated is, "Pretty gross lentils Mom."

I, of course, would have to agree with him.



Unfortunately when I made lentil soup recently it turned out less than desirable. I was discouraged and left it sitting on the stovetop. Then I forgot about it until about four days later. Anyone need a science fair project on bacteria growth?

This blog is turning out pretty gross lately. Well, so is my life. Remember how Ryan was sitting on my lap this morning and then I realized he had diarrhea because it had leaked all over my pants. Unfortunate.

 

A Year Makes Quite a Difference

We recently took a picture of Ryan watering the garden that reminded us of a picture of him from last summer and made us realize how much he has grown up over the past year. These pictures were taken a little less than a year apart.

This was Ryan then...

This is Ryan now.

 

Grav·i·ty: The natural force of attraction exerted by a celestial body, such as Earth, upon objects at or near its surface, tending to draw them toward the center of the body. Gravity is also generally recognized as the force which keeps one's face clear of bodily fluids when expelling air forcibly from the mouth and nose in an explosive, spasmodic involuntary action resulting chiefly from irritation of the nasal mucous membrane.

Warning: Graphic and Disturbing Pictures of Disgusting Viscous Bodily Fluids

One great thing about kids is the fact that they help you learn all sorts of things that you otherwise would never have known. For example, without Ryan we may never have known (or even wondered for that matter) what it might look like if someone sneezed in a negative gravity chamber.

But, thanks to Ryan, we now know that it might look something like this...

Notice the lovely snot bridge from nostril to noggin in this profile shot.

How the heck did this happen?

 

Swimming Lessons

Well, today was Ryan's last day of swimming lessons and I would have to report that I really was glad that we signed him up. The first day he cried THE ENTIRE time. He was begging to get out of the pool but I blame it on the fact that the first thing the teacher had us do was dunk our child under water. Yeah, he HATED that. The second day he cried MOST of the time but I finally was able to get him to kick at a toy and from then on we had a blast. We sang songs and learned a couple of new skills and he was a good sport. I just waited until the very END of class to dunk him so we could get out afterwards. Today I was able to dunk him 3 times without him crying so I'd say we made some progress. He sure is a great kicker. Oh, and we also got to go down the big waterslide since it was our last swim lesson day. (Yeah, he was pretty scared)

Baby Evie
Here are two pictures of my niece Evie. I know my sisters would be interested in knowing what she looks like so I just HAD to post these. Pretty cute eh? The second picture really looks like Rachelle to me. It will be fun to see her in person in August.

 

Memorial Day

On Memorial Day we took a walk with Denton and Joanne to the Provo Cemetary to put flowers on a few family gravesites. It was a pleasant day and we enjoyed looking around at some of the tombstones and thinking about the past.

Henriod is Rosalee's maiden name and Katie's middle name is after her mother - Naoma.

As we were walking out of the cemetary I looked down and noticed that Ryan was holding Katie's hand. It's fun to picture them being good friends as they grow up.


We went over to Denton and Joanne's house and seeing as how they had locked themselves out of their place we waited around for Denton to break in. He had to go through the window so it's unfortunate that he isn't some scrawny little shrimp. Luckily he didn't get stuck. We then played a few rounds of Monkey Golf (which is a pretty darn decent game - we should try to get all our friends hooked on it) and then went out to Costa Vida for one last hurrah with Denton before he moved out to D.C. for a summer internship. We'll SURE be missing him.

Did I mention that she giggles now?