School's Out...

Officially, yesterday was Nathan's last day of school! (Aaron finished up last week) What seems to be tradition, there's usually some water fun involved ;)

Beach balls in the car to pickup Nate after school!

Water balloons!

I guess I'll call these water shoot sticks! They also had their "car wash" up and running (that we came up with last summer) and water trucks. Not pictured : snowcones!

And as usual, I've got the boys signed up for numerous classes,camps, they'll also again be spending time with both their Nana and Grandmother a few hours each week...which also means, I'll be back to posting weekly summer updates! Stay tuned :)

A Campin' We Shall Go!

It's been a busy camping season already! The past two weekends my lucky boys have gone camping. The first weekend was with daddy and the Cub Scouts, while the second was our very first FULL family (including me!) camping trip with our church.

 Cub Scout Camping

We weren't sure at first if the boys were going to get to go at all, as there was bad weather and last minute family visiting plans. It ended up then that the boys left a day late (and only stayed one night instead of two), and at least got to visit with family. Luckily the weather cooperated once they were there so there wasn't any snow, storms, etc. Just chilly!

Pack

The boys were thrilled they came up with Star Wars swords to play with

Geocaching

Helping daddy setup air mattresses

Church Campout

It's never been that mama is too diva like to campout. No, it's bigger than that - and it has sharp claws - BEARS. Making matters worse, the campground the church picked happened to have bear attacks three summers ago. *gulp* As that would figure, boys wanted me to go, and I've been wanting to "attempt" camping and see how it would go....or not go....

Well....it didn't go. Before I get into why, a few pictures first...

S'mores pie! We brought it up to share among our fellow campers. Delicious.

We had reserved a Group Site...but since there was only three families total, we each had a lot of space!

The "bear proof" container for food

As soon as we got there, mama got my chair, drink, magazine and fire going!

Aaron found his own chair :)

Fish hatchery in Tonto Creek

Camping selfie! Wouldn't it have been something if a bear photobombed us?? :/

Hiking with dad

And now begins my story...all in all, if you're fine with camping, not scared of possible bear sightings/wanderings, Ponderosa Campground is great. The hosts were nice, they had clean restrooms...no complaints. As soon as we arrived we got camp set up and the boys went for a walk while I enjoyed peace around a fire.

Love listening to the wind through the trees!

Then...about a half hour before our "bear meeting" was due to start...the boys were up a slight hill above our campsite (in view, of course). Josh and I were attending the fire, when all of a sudden we heard Nate start screaming. Like, bad, cursing screaming. You can only imagine what my first thought was - BEAR! Scared out of my mind, Josh and I ran up the hill. We found Aaron all puzzled looking, with Nate just standing there screaming (and thankfully, no bear!) It wasn't until that I got to Nate a minute that I started to feel it....bee stings! I'm not sure if there was a hive or if the boys just surprised them or made them mad somehow, but they were stinging us, right up into our clothes (for instance, I had gotten stung on the inside of my thigh, and I was wearing tight-ish pants!) As quick as we could we got the boys down the hill, tried to disrobe them and get them in our tent, all the while Josh swatting to get a few bees flying around and I'm trying to just tend to the kiddos.

Josh somehow escaped getting stung at all, but I got stung twice, Aaron got stung 3-4 times, and poor Nate got the brunt of it - 6-7 times :( Luckily, the boys didn't react to the stings (though they started to swell right away, as shown below....)

I had brought Children's ibuprofen but no Benadryl....thankfully, we met a fellow camper who had some along for her allergic son. I administered that right away and thankfully (sorry, I'm apparently just very thankful!) that seemed to be all that was needed. I'd say it took 2-3 hours, but then the pain was gone and our swelling started to go down. We were fine the rest of the time.

After our "bear meeting" (which, for a bear phobiac was painful to sit through....listening to how people wake up with bears above their faces) we just hung around camp, had dinner with our fellow church campers....and then it got super dark pretty fast. I couldn't bring myself to sleep in the tent...just waaaay too many horror stories about those being ripped fast and people being dragged out. So, despite our food being in the car I "slept" in the car. Yeah I didn't sleep very well....if I could have fit underneath the seats, I would have hid underneath. I covered my head with my sleeping bag so that I literally could not see the windows. Longest night ever.

Unfortunately....I decided I couldn't stand another night. We stayed a part of the following day but then went home. I feel bad, disappointing the boys....but, I think it was big of me to even try in the first place. Now I know that unless we're staying in a cabin (something with secure four walls and a roof), that camping can be a fun bonding activity for the boys to do. They'll have a lot more fun!

We're done with camping for now, at least until July when Josh wants to go with some friends from work. Mommy will stay safely and sanely behind.... :)

And PSS- we've recovered from our stings :) Thankful (there's that word again!) that we didn't experience any itching the following day, no lingering pain....this was our first bee sting experience.

Aaron is FOUR!

Well that wasn't allowed to happen...letting my littlest guy get another year older! But he did, just this past week. He luckily had the day off of school so we got to have a whole day of fun. First some pictures from his day, then some Aaron facts!

First started with some birthday preparations : magnets on the fridge..

A sign on his door...

Homemade funfetti cinnamon rolls!

After we took Nate to school that morning, we came home and had a playdate outside with my bestie and her son, Cal (despite the two year age gap, they've become quite good buddies!) Then we met up with my mom for lunch at Aaron's request --

Rainforest Cafe - just like brother!

Since the birthday boy has started to wake up between 5:30 and 6:30AM now most days (there's an early fact for you), he usually falls asleep in the car at some point going someplace. Clearly he needs more sleep, but wakes up with the sun now. My boys have always been that way! Seasonal sleepers.

Anyway, mommy got her own birthday present - Aaron staying asleep when we got home, even transitioning to bed! (rarely does that happen) He slept for another 1.5-2 hours! So, we didn't do anything else before having to leave to pickup Nate from school.

Once we got home, Aaron enjoyed just playing with brother (another favorite) before it was time to leave for our dinner destination - again, another Aaron choice - a brand new Chuck E Cheese near our house.

Both sets of grandparents and my sisters came to celebrate with us. Again, thank you to my other sister this time for snapping some pictures for me!

As you can see, the games were a hit! We were there for almost two hours before coming home and getting ready for bed. Aaron was a Chatty Cathy for awhile before he finally dozed off between 9 and 9:30PM. Exciting and busy day!

And now...for some Aaron four year old facts!


--Haven't been to the doctor yet for his well check visit, but I imagine he's pretty high percentile for his height and low on his weight, just like brother. Ugh, I am NOT looking forward to all the shots he's suppose to get... :(

--As I said, is getting up pretty early and now is back to taking naps in the car,usually when we're out and about. 95% of the time I never have luck actually getting him to sleep in his bed so it was truly a miracle when he did it for me the other day. He truly had to have been tired. I imagine this will go on until it gets back to being winter time again, and the sun comes up later...boo for mommy and daddy.

--I'm told more everyday on how social he is (and a contrast to Nate in that way). He is a pretty good boy, but I do worry he'll be the one I'll have to worry about behaving down the road.

--Along with that, he is a pretty good follower. Nate can at least distinguish right from wrong, but Aaron is still learning that...

--Loves Sunday School. It's also amazing to me how much he soaks up. In general I'm sure he soaks up a ton, but in particular he has talked to me more about church and religion related things than anything else. I hope he holds on to enjoying church. (Nate seems to be the same way, too)

--Since he was a year old (maybe younger?)- LOVES art and cars. STILL. I'll be curious to see if I'm saying the same thing next year, too! I was so glad he got a bunch of art stuff for his birthday.


--Is my total carb and milk guy. He could survive off of bread and milk if needed. And actually, I think that could also be what he prefers...

--He is his mama's boy, my "Cuddle Bug". Sometimes just a cuddle with mom makes everything better.

--As I mentioned earlier, playing with brother is also a favorite activity (most of the time). However, he is VERY quick to tell me if brother does something he doesn't like/or something brother did, sort of a "tattle tale"-er I guess you could kind of say.

--Aaron can also be sensitive. On bad days, there can be a lot of, "you broke my heart". Which is usually solved by cuddles with mom :)

--Is a lefty! I'm sort of amazed with that. This is probably normal, but he's much advanced at knowing his letters, numbers, shapes (and how to draw/write them) than Nate was. Things he picks up from brother?

--Still would prefer to spend most of his time outside. He'll become sad pretty soon when it gets warmer...though he always says he "doesn't care" if he's hot.

--Likes to go to the movie theater.

...and be silly!

He also just had his last day of school!Nate has seven more days yet...it was getting a little tougher this week in particular trying to convince Aaron that he needed to go to school. Next year he will be going to the same school as Nathan, woohoo! Not only does it mean one drop off in the morning, but I'm also glad he'll be on the same schedule as Nate too (same breaks, start/end dates, etc) He'll also have the same preschool teacher Nate had. Win-win-win!


5-19-15 : ADD ON : Another huge favorite trait of Aaron's I can't believe I forgot to mention - though maybe in past years I mentioned it - compared to Nathan, Aaron is a homebody. Which, now that he's ended with school for the year, I'm totally taking advantage of until Nate is out of school (and wants to be busy). In fact, I'm realizing this fact now as I'm listening to him play, independently, while I get some house things done. I truly treasure just being able to stay at home versus having to car hop. Perhaps an additional reason why I decided against him going to school everyday next year - so he has another year of more time to just chill out at home.

Aaron's Soccer Birthday Party

What you do for one...you must do for the other! ;) At first Aaron wanted to have a firetruck themed birthday party, but once we had a picnic with his preschool and a firetruck came to that, we switched to a soccer party (a favorite game to play at home). Plus, we also decided to have "sports games" be a part of his party, so it made more sense.

Just like Nate, Aaron wanted to be part of the planning/creating process. Unfortunately the birthday boy had been sick the week of his birthday party - one of those 24 hr bugs - but, very fortunately he had it early enough in the week to feel better for festivities. Whew.

Also, thanks to my sissy for the majority of pictures - she took over the camera while mommy socialized ;) 

Held at a local recreation center, where Aaron also went to preschool

Buddies enjoying popcorn

Autographing Aaron's ball

First game - obstacle course! There were ten stations.

Second activity - soccer, of course!

We also had the birthday boy's favorite - vanilla ice cream!

Kiddo friends left with personalized water bottles

The day ended with Nana and Pap Pap coming over to play and spend time with them while the hubs and I had date night. Perfect kind of day!

Just Keep Swimming...

Just simply because this will most likely rank as one of my favorite experiences ever....I had to post!

Really starting maybe two years ago I noticed how the big-wig swimmers came here (AZ) every Spring for a swim meet competition (not sure if it's somehow just for practice or if they benefit in some way...) Issue has been I've always realized when it's been too late to try and get tickets or the event is over with.

Well...this year, I found out a week ahead of time and was able to get tickets! Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Matt Grevers and many other men/women Olympians came. Literally I bought tickets and wasn't even sure what I bought them for - as in, who was actually going to be there and compete, what events, etc. However, I got lucky enough to choose the right day/events that the biggest swimmers competed in. Super woot woot!

Got in line an hour ahead of when they opened the gates to go in - I was wanting to be SURE we got the best seats (open bleacher seating).

Prior to the actual prelims beginning, swimmers practiced in "shark tanks" as they were called (practice lane pools). Being that we were some of the first people there, I got a good standing spot by a railing to (again, luckily!) the practice pool Michael Phelps was in! That was where I was able to get my best photo shots. Only TWO lanes away from him, pretty close. Unfortunately, despite numerous opportunities, he didn't choose to come over and do any autographs. He was too busy being the big man he is getting massages and being served his cup of coffee ;)

Phelps and Ryan Lochte

Pretty awesome getting to do see the swimmers do their thing! How often can you say that?!

Phelps in the center, blue shorts

Lochte on the end in the colorful shorts

Made me want to practice laps! ;) Not sure how things will pan out next year with it being the Summer Olympics, but it'd be awesome to see again!