Rockets

In Utah on the 24th of July we celebrate the day the first group of pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley. The festivities are very similar to the forth of July. Our ward has a big breakfast celebration that morning at the park.  Each year Brother Johnson brings rockets for the kids to decorate and three rocket launchers. It is every child's favorite part. Last year Tim came home wanting to build his own launcher for the boys. After about a month he forgot. However, when we went to the breakfast this year he was determined to build his own...

Ian loved helping build the rocket launcher. His favorite part was painting on the purple PVC glue.

The video really does not do it justice. I would say the rockets reach heights of at least 60 feet. 

Ian getting ready to launch his rocket.

Aaron excited to press the button to launch his rocket.

That night we headed to another neighborhood party at the Jonas house. The kids love playing in their backyard. It is not hard to see why! Yes they are playing with hockey sticks. John loves hockey so they have a basketball/hockey court just on the other side of Tim. Did I mention that they are moving in a few weeks too :( We have decided we should not get to know people anymore or they move. Hmmm...what does that say about us?

We came home had fun shooting off more rockets and then enjoyed the firework shows throughout the valley. I have enjoyed the fact that fireworks are still restricted in Cedar Hills. It means they are not close enough to keep my kids up all night! 

Except on the 24th of July a neighborhood down the hill from us always does a huge firework show -we are talking stadium style. I am guessing they received special permission this year. While Aaron was amazingly fast asleep Ian was so excited to sit on the deck and watch the fireworks.  This picture is not zoomed, they really were right in front of us!

Uncle Andrew

On Sunday Uncle Andrew came for a quick visit! To say the boys were ecstatic would be an understatement. Aaron is obsessed with Andrew. Anytime a phone rings or he sees a phone he immediately begins saying "Annn rewww" over and over. If we are face-timing with others, Aaron begins hollering for Andrew.  Whenever Andrew is around they tend to want nothing to do with me. So the boys had fun playing basketball together.

Aaron would run and hide in various bedrooms and shout "Andrew, come find me." Which sounds more like, "Anrew, om fine me." He would also just holler Andrew's name if he was not near him. I tried to get a picture of the boys with Andrew but they did not want to cooperate. If you can't tell Aaron is in this mimicking stage. When Ian puts his hands over his face Aaron follows. Making the chance of getting a decent picture nearly impossible. Lindsay going to have her work cut out for her this fall when we do family pictures :) Maybe we should just try for family pictures next year :)

Getting closer...

I give up....make a funny face :/

The boys have been very very into wrestling. Aaron will constantly jump on Ian without any warning. In the picture below Aaron is trying to give Ian kisses. Ian was giggling trying to block them all.

 The boys also discovered that Andrew makes a great gymnastics bar!

The boys had so much fun and have decided that Andrew should come over every Sunday! Ian also suggested that Andrew could just sleep in his room, then he can stay here forever. I am not sure Andrew would survive :)

Friends

This last week was so much fun! We had friends over out our house daily and the kids had a blast!

We started the week off with Kimball and Taft! It may look like they are fighting but they nonstop laughing and wrestling. Aaron would always jump on top of the boys near the end of the match. 

The next day the Andrus family came over. Their parents were busy packing to move to Provo while they begin building their house just down the hill from us! It is sad that they will not be a few house down but at least they will be just a couple minutes. Aaron absolutely loves Lily! Not too hard to see why, she is such a cutie! 

While Aaron and Lily enjoyed playing the boys also had their own fun! Point of the game -do not get hit with the darts!

They had to build castles for protection.

After being completely exhausted (I think they played with the nerf guns for almost 2 hours) they decided to kick back and play some mariokart. 

We finished up the week going to the little lake for almost five hours with Kimball and Taft. The boys did not want to leave. I did bring Aaron home for a nap while Ian stayed with his friends and their mom. I am not sure Ian even noticed that I left.

 

So now what are we going to do? The Andrus' will be living in Provo, plus Kimball and Taft will be out of town the next two weeks. Who knows? I think Pike will be excited. I have started to notice a lot of gray hairs on him :)

Spiderman

Sometimes it is just way more exciting to head to the store looking like spiderman! 

Especially when everyone refers to you as spiderman!

Trouble Trouble

We have been out and about doing a lot of activities this summer. When I have a millisecond to spare while watching my boys I love to watch other people. Now I would consider myself a "hovering parent" and "mama bear" tends to come out when other kids, or parents hurt or upset my children. I always wonder what it would be like to be a parent that could just let my child go outside and not have the slightest concern about where they are or what they are doing. The thought stresses me out! Don't get me wrong even though I hover and am trying to watch their every move we still have our own problems.  

Ian decided that while I was busy cleaning the dishes and he was supposed to be playing cars with his brother that they were hungry. He came in got out a cookie sheet, unwrapped a frozen pizza, and placed it in the oven to cook (thank heavens he forgot that you have to turn on the oven). Yes, I sat back and watched the whole thing...and found it quite funny. After we had a discussion about how to cook the pizza, spray the pan, preheat the oven, setting a timer, and over safety of course. It made for a fun learning experience.

Ian has decided he loves getting food for himself. While I was getting Aaron changed after swimming all day Ian decided to fix himself a snack. Chips, Pretzels, and Fruit snacks all thrown into the box I use to help keep the snack bin organized (which is clearly now a mess). 

While this was not recent (3 months ago) it fit well with this post. During quiet time Ian snuck scissors into his room and thought he would cut his blinds. Why? I don't have the slightest idea. I was just relieved that it was not the curtains I sewed for his room. When he gets a little older maybe we'll replace them.

Now, while Ian has always had a wild mischievous energetic side don't count little Aaron out too soon! The boys are enjoying a saturday night movie with popcorn. 

Aaron has now decided he enjoys sucking the butter off the popcorn then spitting it out! No more popcorn for Aaron.

If given the opportunity (forgetting to lock the pantry) both boys will sneak food. You'd think I never feed them.

Yes, like Ian he too loves to run around with only his "underwear."

Aaron has become very picky and particular about his food. He wants it the moment he sits down in his chair. He does not want to be in his chair. If he does not like it there is a high probability it will land somewhere on you. If he does like it don't you dare try to come anywhere near him.

After a late night out and about Tim stopped and got Jamba Juices. He got a large one for the boys to share (they love smoothies). As you can see Aaron was not to keen on sharing his food.

I love that Ian tries to distract him with a high five. Aaron thinks about it for a split seconds then decides against it.

Why? What could possibly be fun about being on top of the firetruck? Screaming for mom to come and get you down of course!

I was told that the definition of boys is a noise with dirt on it. I completely agree! So while I would love to be the parent that could sit there and relax while my child ran around doing whatever. That will never be the case and I am loving it!

Baby escape

This last weekend Tim and Ian got all packed and ready to go camping with our ward for the annual Father and Sons Campout. While they were loading up the car it started pouring rain and was very windy.  Ian said." Look mom, waves!" Yes I think we have been playing in the wave pool at seven peaks a little too much.
Ian was so disappointed to not be able to go camping but luckily a lot of the dad's and boys all decided to head to McDonalds then go and see Madagascar Three at the dollar theater instead. Since it was suppose to be raining off and on all night. While they were gone Aaron and I headed out to dinner with Elyssa and Lily. Then stayed up a little late playing outside.

Aaron loved to have my complete attention, and try to hit me with the bat.

He is also getting quite good at telling you what he wants and what he is thinking.

He also discovered something new that day...climbing out of the crib :( After putting him back in the crib about eight times he will stay and fall right to sleep. I should maybe be more concerned that he is going to break a leg or an arm but he gets out of his crib quite gracefully. Unlike Ian who would not stop throwing himself out of the crib at a year old. Aaron swings a leg over the side then rolls over so that he is dangling from the side while still holding the crib with both hands. Once his arms are maxed out he lets go and drops. As of now (July 25th) Aaron is still in his crib. I keep saying I should put him into a bed since he climbs out of his crib just like it were a bed but....I don't know. We'll see.

Fishies

One of our new favorite places...Highland Splash Pad! I had heard of the highland splash pad last year but never did attempt to find it or see what it was like. We were too busy then enjoying all of the other splash pads, parks, and everything to do around this crazy overpopulated valley. I can't believe this was our first time going. The boys got new swimming suits last week. Going to Seven Peaks water park once a week does a number on your swimming suits. Yes the boys got matching Superhero squad swimsuits and shirts! Ian saw them at Target and went crazy which meant Aaron to started going crazy especially for Ironman. I am not a big fan of having them in matching clothes but I love it! It is so easy to spot them at any moment.

 Where's Ian? See, you have to admit the matching swimsuits are great!

 Taking a break to grab a quick drink

 Drying out before the ride home.

Having played in the water soooo much this summer my boys are becoming fishes! The both love the water. A couple weeks ago we went with some of our friends. Ian and their boy Tyler are good friends,  and Aaron and Lily love playing together as well. Tyler loves going down the slides by himself so Ian decided he too had to do it by himself! He absolutely loves it! The green and light blue slides are his absolute favorite (picture from Seven Peaks website). I will go down with Aaron in my lap and Ian will go down the other slide and we will race! I am not sure who enjoys it more Ian or Aaron? They both have a permagrin on the entire time, and giggle the whole way down! They both also love the wave pool. I think we could stay here all day as well.

After that much playing in the sun a snack is always needed. My one complaint about seven peaks... their rules change daily! Yes you can bring in water bottles, no you can't, yes you can. You can bring in small snacks for children, must be in ziplock bag, sandwich size ziplock, snack size ziplock, only one bag per child. Annoying!!! I had been three times in one week and everyday the rules were different. Yes, I did voice my annoyance to the park representatives as well :)

 

 Now my next task is to find a good place for Ian to take swimming lessons.  We decided not to enroll him in swimming lessons during the summer because they are so overcrowded and we are working with him ourselves. Many of the people in our neighborhood love taking there children to this place called O'Neil Aquatics. Long story short, you can start when they are three months old and they throw the child in the water and see what they do. Parents are not allowed to be in sight during the first couple of lessons??? Yeah, I think I will pass. I did find a great place that my cousins, and some other good friends recommended, so fingers crossed that we will be able to register in a few weeks!