Ridiculous Children

Corbin won't drink water. This summer he has tried a little here and there when he was dying of thirst and there were no other options around, however for the most part he avoids it like the plague. We are trying so hard though, so we always leave a fresh cup of water in his room when he is playing or has to go to bed, hoping he just might see it sitting there conveniently waiting for him and decide to drink some.

Makelle won't drink anything out of a bottle. At one point we had nearly 400 ounces of milk in our deep freezer, just waiting for her to be willing to drink it. I think my mom said she once went about 14 hours with less than 3 ounces of milk (when she was still a newborn) rather than drink from a bottle while I was away.

So she absolutely refuses to drink from a bottle, but lay her down for a diaper change near Corbin's sippie cup and that she can do...


She was actually getting water out and everything, go figure.

To Punish or Not to Punish

The other day the kids were suppose to be taking their naps, so I got in the shower really quick. I get out and hear Makelle busting a gut laughing. Now Makelle is a super happy baby. She smiles ALL the time (seriously all anyone has to do is look at her and she radiates this enormous smile). But she actually doesn't laugh out loud very often, thus this peaked my curiosity.

So I go peek in on them and Corbin has climbed into her crib with her and is jumping up and down as hard as he can. As a result Makelle is bouncing around and she can't stop laughing. So I immediately leave and grab the video camera and try to capture this cute moment, but alas once they see me the magic ends.


I tried to tell Caleb about it when he got home and he watched the video and immediately questioned why I neglected to punish Corbin and promptly get him out the crib before he injured his sister.

Children's Museum

My cousin came with me and helped out with the kids on Friday and we went to the Discovery Children's Museum at the Gateway.

I thought it was pretty well done. There are two floors, the bottom one is more geared towards preschool age kids. There is a ball area and then a little village in the back. I remember going to a children's museum when I was little and the mini grocery store was my favorite thing. There is something about filling the roles of an adult that is so fun when you are kid.


So he used a mini crane to lift foam blocks up onto a platform and then build a house structure. He "cooked" me a yummy lunch in the play house and then even did the dishes afterwards :) We went grocery shopping, delivered mail, picked produce in the garden, fed the animals on the farm, gassed up the car, etc. They also had a fun water area where you could build damns and float boats and pump water and such, but it was almost too crowded, because every time we tried to set something up someone would grab a piece before we got to run the whole cycle.



Upstairs involved a little more creative, deep thinking, obviously for older kids, but Corbin still had fun. There was a fake news station, a stage with theater costumes, those Velcro pipes that you stick to a wall and create a path for a ball to roll down and we made a little movie by slightly changing the position of little plastic figurines and taking pictures at each frame. Our Hawaii trip must have still been fresh on his mind because he made a family of bears walk to the beach and build a sandcastle. It was cute.

Then we went outside onto the patio and he played around in a helicopter for quite awhile while Makelle had her lunch.




We tried to do a little bit of everything, and it was kind of crowded, so we didn't really get very involved in any one thing. But it seems like a good place to go back to when all the older kids are in school again and we can read the little posts and enjoy more teaching opportunities. There is a lot of stuff to learn about there. So overall I would say it was good.

Davis County Fair

On Friday I took the kids to the Davis County Fair with my little brother and cousin. First we watched the alligator show where this couple did a bit about alligator awareness and safety stuff, while entertaining the audience with wrestling and catching an alligator in the process. My favorite part was when the guy poked the alligator's eyeballs. Apparently they normally poke up right, but can be pushed down into the skull as a protective maneuver. It worked out as they had planned because it was definitely fun and interesting.

They had free pony rides, all you had to do was waste half an hour of your life standing in line staring at Mountain America Credit Union advertisements. But it was worth it to see Corbin ride his little pony around in a circle for 2 minutes.


We then passed the carnival rides, and Corbin wanted to go in, so I gave him a dollar and told him he could pick one ride to go on. Of course he forgoes the rides and chooses to spend his dollar to play on the inflatable bouncer instead. Oh well, as long as he has fun, right?


We then watched Matt and Eric go for a helicopter ride before finishing our adventure at the petting zoo. There were some cool animals along with about a billion goats. And Corbin insisted on petting every one of them. He literally would not skip any, and he would have to sit there and wait if one was in the middle of the pen and he couldn't reach it until it came closer.


Although why he liked them so much, I do not know, as they kept trying to everything and everyone is sight. I think a lot of people went home with small holes in their clothes.



Check out the horns on that thing! I forgot what kinda of animal it was.


For some reason I really wanted him to pet this buffalo. I mean how many people can say they have petted a buffalo?

They also had a cow that they were letting little kids milk and I was so excited for Corbin to try it. We waited in line for our turn, got all the way up there and were walking up on the platform when I finally realized, duh! He is allergic to milk, he can't touch it, milk is literally squirting everywhere. So he got to watch the lady demonstrate how milk comes from cows and then we moved on. Poor kid, he did get to brush one instead though.


On our way out to the parking lot we passed one of those little cutouts that you stick your head in, and I tried to get a picture with both of the kids. Somehow in the 5 pictures we took, Makelle was sweet and smiling and looking right at the camera in every one of them. And Corbin was staring off in some random direction in every one of them. How is it that the baby can focus better than her older brother?

Our Annual Soccer Game

Every year since they were formed we have gone to at least one REAL Salt Lake soccer game. Last year we went to the best professional soccer game Caleb had ever seen. This year the game we attended was a bit of a disappointment in comparison. Let's just say that both teams ended up down a player with red cards and we lost the game. But that is okay.


We left Makelle with my parents because Caleb actually wanted to watch the game rather than spend the entire time wrestling with kids, but Corbin got to come with the promise of being on his best behavior. He was so cute, halfway through the game he decided it was cool to wear your scarf on your head. I quickly decided to join him. Poor Caleb, we can be so embarrassing :)



One day we will be super rich and own season tickets to one of those boxes, so that Corbin can run around all he wants while we watch the game. One day...

The greatest part of the whole trip was that when we left Makelle behind we left her with a bottle, which we usually do, although it usually doesn't matter because she has NEVER taken a bottle, but still, we try. So we get home from the game and miracle of miracles, she actually drank her bottle, without struggles, all gone. I sure hope this sticks and she will cooperate in the future as well.

Hawaii!!

Caleb's aunt owns some property at the Ko'Olina Resort on Oahu in Hawaii. Lucky for us they were unable to rent it out this month, so they invited his whole family out for a mini family reunion. A couple of discount plane tickets later and we were on our way to a tropical paradise.

It took a 6 hour car trip to Las Vegas, followed by a 6 hour plane ride to get there, but a mere 12 hours later and we were loving life! (Everyone keeps asking so I may as well inject here and say the kids did great on the plane overall. My only complaint would be that Makelle still wouldn't take a bottle and I had to nurse her in the smallest, cramped up, non-private location possible. Otherwise she only fussed a little [thanks to her Daddy] and Corbin was an angel and read books, went through his preschool workbook, did puzzles and watched part of Finding Nemo, to prep him for the experience ahead :)

After our full day of traveling, we arrived late at night and went straight to bed. The next morning we woke up and everyone hung out at the beach in the morning. Since we were on the resort we had 4 private lagoons, the public beach and multiple pools to choose between lounging at everyday. Then that afternoon Caleb and I went shopping at the outlet malls because genius Melinda forgot her entire suitcase in Utah. That's right, I showed up in Hawaii, with nothing but what I was wearing. After nearly a full day of being ornery and on edge, Caleb talked me into looking around and getting over it and I decided everything would be okay. Later that night Aunt Mimi and Uncle George hosted a fun dinner outside for everyone to get together and relax.

Day two Caleb's cousin took us all surfing at one of the local beaches. It wasn't one of the fancy tourist beaches; so we showed up, dragging our borrowed surf boards, looking like idiots, nearly blinding the locals with our pasty white skin and headed out into the ocean. We were given strict instructions to watch his cousin go out first and pay attention to were he ended up, because we were informed that it was hard to find each other once we got out there, but of course we lost him right away and four of us ended up drifting off on our own. I quickly realized why surfers have such crazy upper body strength because after what felt like forever paddling out to what I thought was for sure insanely deep waters we were exhausted already and then started trying to turn and get ready to surf without his cousin's instruction or assistance (it can't be that hard, right?). Then some guy, who was there showing his little kid how to surf, comes WALKING out to us, grabs the edge of the boards and pulls us back to shore to teach us what to do. Apparently we stuck out like a couple of sore thumbs and he was concerned. At first I was kind of annoyed, because I always think I can do everything on my own. But he actually really helped us out and taught us what to do, and I got up on my board and rode all the way in couple of times. It was a BLAST! I wish we lived on a beach and I could go all the time. After wearing out our arm muscles during our surfing adventure we played games, barbecued poolside and then went and watched the beautiful sunset on the beach.

The next day was Sunday and we went to church, met some incredibly nice people with the most amazing spirits and relaxed around the house. It was a truly restful Sabbath day and a chance to enjoy doing nothing much.

Monday there was supposed to be a hurricane coming, but luckily Ko'Olina is on the other side of the island and we had clear beautiful skies all day. So Caleb and I went for a jog along the beach, then we played in one of the pools all morning before coming back for lunch, naps and more fun games with the Millers. Then that night we all went to a Korean restaurant, which was a trip down memory lane for Caleb reminiscing about all the yummy rotten cabbage he got to eat on his mission. (It actually wasn't that bad... but it wasn't that good either. I can't handle spicy food, so it didn't even taste flavorful to me, just ridiculously hot. Caleb really did love it though.)

Tuesday morning we went to the beach one last time and then headed over to the other side of the island to visit the Polynesian Culture Center. We didn't have nearly enough time to do everything they had there, especially with two small children in tow, but it was pretty cool. We went to some of the little villages first and saw a guy climb a coconut tree, start a fire, catch a fish, etc. Corbin's favorite part was of course the guy that licked fire and the presentation where they gave him a large stick to bang on the floor, supposedly to a specific beat. He sat with rapt attention during the first part of the big final show (literally on the edge of his seat), got a little bored towards the middle, and then they recaptured his attention when they started mock fighting and brought out the fire dancers again at the end. It took a little longer to walk around and I missed out enjoying dinner because we had to take care of children, but I am glad we brought him and he was able to experience a new culture. It is always fun exposing kids to new things.


We got back late that night and then had to leave early the next morning to begin our 12 hour journey home, but all the effort getting there was definitely well worth it. We had a great time. Big thanks to Aunt Mimi and Uncle George for hosting us.

Birthday Party

My camera ran out of batteries, so I didn't get to take any fun pictures to document this moment. But I am having one of those sentimental Mom moments, because Corbin went to his first friend birthday party today.

Savannah is more or less the ring leader of his little troop of friends down the street and she was nice enough to invite Corbin to her birthday party. We picked her out a present and then he helped me wrap it up and we took it down to her.

They played in the sprinklers and her little pool, tried to play a few games (as best as you can with little kids, right?) and ate his vegan cupcake alongside all his friends. It is so cute watching him grow up and branch out and do new things. We met the Everetts a couple of years ago, right after we moved in, when Caleb got assigned to home teach them, and they have become such good friends. Thanks Savannah!