Swimming

 

See the above picture?  This is what happens when you take your kids swimming.  They get so worn out their head never make it to their pillows.

We decided to get a pass to the rec center here in Vernal, so we'd have something fun to do and so there's no excuses to not exercise.  They have a great pool and my  kids never tire of it.  Landon had been sick so he stayed home with dad and I took Dalin and Braden swimming since we'd been cooped up all day long. It's nice to go without Landon because then I don't actually have to get in myself.  I can just watch from the sidelines and take pictures.  This is the last round of pictures from my old camera before it finally just wouldn't work anymore.  The pictures aren't great, but here we go.

This little area is what Dalin and Braden refer to as "the river". It pushes you round and round.

 

Dalin just loves the water slides.  I can't ever talk Braden into to going on one even though he could stand at the bottom.  Dalin will go on them over and over again.

 

Floating the river again.

 

Braden's the one getting splashed on.  They like to play tag in the river and will go around over and over trying to catch each other.

 

The pool is kind of like a wave pool without the waves.  It starts off shallow and gradually gets deeper until it's about up to Dalin's armpits. There are smaller slides for little kids that Landon loves to play on.

To the right of Dalin is a dinosaur slide that they all love to go on over and over again.

 

In the middle of it all is this huge play structure that sprays water everywhere and has multiple little slides.  If you look on the very top there's a huge bucket that gradually fills up and dumps water, a lot of water.  The kids love it.

Then there's two normal pools separate from the kiddy pool used for lap swimming when it's not open swim time that Braden likes to swim in.  He and Dalin both like to shoot hoops in the big pool.

Kind of Funny After the Fact

So yesterday I had to go to the eye doctor and get Braden's glasses repaired.  I have a feeling that a little boy wearing glasses is going to be an expensive endeavor.  He slipped on our tile floor and face-planted on the tile which chipped his lens.  After it chipped it wouldn't stay in the frames no matter how hard I tried to tighten them and it kept popping out.  We've had the glasses less than two months and I'm already replacing the lens.  BUT, this is not the story I was going to tell.....

so, I went to the eye doctor to have the new lens put in.  Dalin and Braden were in school so I only had Landon.  He can sometimes be a holy terror when we go places, not in that he throws fits or anything he just doesn't listen and gets into everything and runs away.  Any time he does any of these things he thinks he's absolutely hilarious.  Anyways, we got the new lens, I paid for it, and we headed out the door.  I opened the side door of my van for him to get in and turned for, literally two seconds to put my purse on the front seat, and when I turned back to buckle him in he wasn't there.  Then, I saw out of the corner of my eye that he was heading for the front door of the doctor's office at a very fast pace.  I raced to catch him, but just as I got to within arms length he slammed the door in my face.  He slammed it so hard that the whole building shook.  At this point blood is starting to rush to my face out of anger and embarrassment.  As I reached for the door knob it suddenly occurs to me that it won't turn.  The little terror has locked it.  So I'm outside, he's inside, and I can't get to him.  He could be doing anything or going anywhere inside the building and I can't see him or talk to him or get to him.  By this point another customer has come and is now standing with me outside the locked door.  I didn't know what else to do so I just started knocking, after what felt like an hour a receptionist finally opened the door.  Landon was in the back trying on some glasses.  Oh, my heck!  I could've killed him!  After profusely apologizing again and again I finally got us out of there and went back home.  What a little stinker!  Of course, the day after I find the story quite amusing, but at the time I was soooo embarrassed. 

Gnomeo

Braden is such a goofy kid.  He comes up with some pretty goofy things.  Dan opened this package and of course Braden got his hands on it and decided it would be fun to wear as a hat.  Dan kept calling him elf boy, but Braden didn't like that.  So I called him my little garden gnome because he loves the garden so much.  Then when he asked what that was I had to get online and show him pictures of gnomes.  He loved it and wore his gnome hat the rest of the night.

 

Braden Boy's Birthday

Braden is 6!  Well, he turned six in January, but I haven't had time to blog much since I've been in school.  Now that school is over be prepared to see some major catch up posting happen.

Happy birthday to my little boy!  I really just can't believe how fast time flies.  He loved his 6 pancakes, as always.  Notice what he's wearing.  This was one of his gifts from my mom and he loves it.  He loves anything Adidas or Nike and especially likes the warm-up style clothes.  He hates to wear jeans. These pancake pictures are right after he woke up, which means.....yes he slept in his outfit.  He had opened it the night before because a naughty little brother - we won't name names here - tore into it thinking it was his. The only way I could make Braden feel better about it was to let him just go ahead and open it.  Then he had to sleep in it.

He wasn't really sure about what kind of cake he wanted.  He kept changing his mind and eventually decided on a sports cakes.  This is what he ended up with.  I stayed up very late to this because I just didn't have time, with school and indoor soccer going on.  It's not perfect, but he thought it was the best cake ever so that's all that matters.

He had a few of his friends over after school to play and share some cake.  Boy was there a little bit of craziness going on in my house that day.

From left to right we have Alex, Riley, Cole, Landon, Braden, and Dalin.  There were a couple of other kids but I had a hard time getting them all to pose for a picture.

Riley was nice enough to bring Braden a present even though I told everyone presents weren't necessary.

Later that night after all those crazy kids went home Braden opened his family presents.  My camera was starting to really not work by this point so I didn't get very many pictures.  So frustrating.

He got his very own train set.

It took a while to set up, but we finally got it working.  He also got a Lego house, but like I said my camera just wouldn't work so no pictures. 

He had a very good birthday.  Here are some things about Braden.

1. He continues to be a very picky eater and most nights will groan and sigh exaggeratedly and say "I don't like this food".  

2.  His favorite foods are popcorn, Ramen noodles, pineapple, and spaghetti.

3. He absolutely loves Kindergarten.

4.  He loves to go fishing with his dad.

5.  He loves anything outdoors and can't wait to plant a garden.  He's my little green thumb.

6. He's really gotten into Legos lately and has built a whole city (more on that later).  He will Youtube Lego sets and watch as other people put them together.  His list of sets he wants is really long.

7.  He really likes dominoes and will Youtube videos of domino world records and claims he will beat them one day.  I might help him make his very own Youtube video.

8.  He is such an independent soul and wants to do everything himself.  He hates being told what to do.  

9.  Anything to do with water and he's all for it.  He asks me almost every day if we can go swimming at the rec center.

10.  I love this little boy with all my heart and I'm so grateful he came into our little family.

After School Snack

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This bowl of orange peels represents the latest after school snack.  My boys ate a whole 3-lb. bag of Cuttie oranges in one short moment of after-school chaos.  What the heck am I going to do when they are teenagers?  I think I might have to get a second job just to feed them!  They usually come home from school VERY hungry. 

Indoor Soccer #1

I had the chance to sign Braden and Dalin up for indoor soccer this year.  I will post on Dalin later because he started a little after Braden.  It was at this point that my camera started doing dumb things and wouldn't work so the pictures aren't great and I didn't get that many because they wouldn't download onto my computer.  Some kind of error in reading the transfer.  Stupid camera.  Anyway.....

Braden was pumped for soccer.  He was extremely excited to play.  They would have a short 15 minute practice before each game and that helped them with their ball control.  At first his team mainly just played bunch ball.  After a couple of games Braden said I'm really tired of just running and running.  So Dan and I coached him a little from the sidelines since his own coach didn't really do much.  I'm sure other parents thought we were crazy because we had to yell quite loud for him to hear us. We told him not to chase the ball all over, but to stand in the middle.  We did a lot of pointing and giving thumbs up when he was where we wanted him. I was happy when we played one very good team and another dad was out there yelling at his kid too.  I didn't feel like such an idiot out there shouting out so Braden could hear me. On defense we told him to stand in the middle and then when the ball came towards the middle to kick that ball out as hard as he could.  He was very good at defense and when he was there the other team did not score.  Then we told him on offense to just stand in the middle and wait for the ball to come to him.  The last game he finally scored a goal and was overjoyed.  It was great to see the improvement in him and I was glad he wanted to listen to our advice.  He doesn't always appreciate anyone telling him what to do.  He did great and is greatly anticipating outdoor soccer, which will start in April. 

This video is from his first game.  Major bunch ball going on.  The video of his last game didn't work.  I wish I had it so I could compare his first and last games.  I think he greatly improved.

Dinner Conversation

Last night's dinner conversation went something like this:

Dalin:  "I like Cars 2 because it has a spy in it.  I want to be a spy when I grow up after I marry Kyla (his cousin)."

Braden: "I'm going to marry Makayla (his cousin).  No, she's too little.  She'll have to have a lot of birthdays before I can marry her."

It was all Dan and I could do not to bust a gut and just listen attentively to their very serious conversation.