T-ball and a sleepy girl

It's been a hectic few weeks at the Pauley household.  Do I always start blog posts off with that sentence?  Anyway, we've been busy, blah blah blah.  Glenn and I ran a race this past weekend.  He did great. I survived the 13.1 miles, barely.  It wasn't my slowest race but it was darn close.  The kids have had a few sleepovers with both sets of grandparents and everyone survived that experience. 

We're finishing up the last week of the kids' t-ball season and can you believe that it's the middle of July?  How did that happen? 

Here's Will lining up to knock the ball out of the park - or at least over the infield's head.  On his next up to bat, he actually hit the first pitch and it was awesome!  (The coach pitches three teams to each kid and if they can't hit the pitch, they get to use the tee.  Incidentally, for each of Reina's turns at bat she just tells the coach that she wants to hit it off the tee.  Girl knows what she wants.)

Not bad form although it's looking a little golf-y, which will probably make the Grandpa's excited.

I included another shot of Will batting but I want to direct your attention to the little blonde in the red shirt in the background.  That's the Bronco Baby sister who's paying zero attention to the game (she's on second) and instead is directing all of her attention to the (older) second basemen on the other team.  Sigh. 

I was cleaning off my camera phone and found this picture.  I'm not sure when or why I took it but I love it.  It completely captures Reina right now.  She goes and goes and goes and goes and says "I'm not tired!" and upon waking up in the morning announces "I don't think I'll take a nap today" and fights and fights and fights it, but when she's sleeping, she looks
like this. 

The kids have been a lot of fun, if a little crazy, lately.  Summer is in full swing and we have nightly negotiations/fights/tantrums/battles over bedtime and the (perceived) agony of us pulling them away from all of the seasonal fun that is surely happening outside. At day camp,  Will is swimming like a fish and sporting a tan that would be the envy of many a teenage girl.   And his pasty mom.  I'm also jealous of his schedule.  He swims on Monday, roller skates or bowls on Tuesday, visits a park on Wednesday, sees a movie on Thursday (more on that in a minute) and goes to another park on Friday.  In between are lots of snacks, an art project every once in a while and lots and lots of sunscreen.  Reina goes to the park, has gymnastics on Friday (she does somersaults until she topples over with dizziness), colors 100 pieces of paper a day and lectures me on the rainforest and tree frogs on the car ride home. 

Last week, Will saw the movie "Chimpanzee" at the theater.  Glenn and the kids watched it on a cold Saturday last winter, but I was doing something else that day and I was also worried about anybody watching it because (Spoiler Alert) - the mom chimpanzee dies at the beginning.  In fact the whole plot of the documentary is how the baby chimp is 'adopted' by the alpha male.  In a further tangent, I actually tried to watch it later by myself but couldn't make it to the part where the mom is killed.  And people wonder why I don't hunt?  Anyway, I asked Will about the latest viewing when I picked him up afterwards and he reminded me that he'd already seen it, but that he liked the movie.  He talked about the mom chimpanzee getting killed but that the little baby had a new stepdad at the end.  I love how Will's brain works. 

Boys' Camping Weekend

Last weekend, Glenn and Will headed up to the mountains for an overnight backpack trip, no girls invited. (Which was pretty fine with us girls because the thought of backpacking one of us into the backcountry makes me twitchy and I have flashbacks of carrying Reina all the way from the far end of Disneyworld to the front gate.)  But I digress.  So the boys filled a backpack with the necessities (doritos) and headed out. 

 

An awesome self portrait that is my new favorite picture of the two of them.  Yes Will looks like a professional basketball player but hey, he's out in nature and enjoying it. 

Guarding the campsite, naturally. 

Fishing!  And now, that's not a wad of chewing tobacco in his mouth, just a granola bar.  He's a multitasker. 

Home sweet campsite.  Glenn says that a big thunderstorm rolled through in the middle of the night and it rained and thundered for a few hours.  But Will slept through the whole thing.  Glenn did not. 

Armed and dangerous?  Dangerously adorable! 

By all accounts, it was a successful first backpacking trip. Nobody bled, nobody complained about wanting to come home.  There was a lot of hiking and wildlife watching (a moose and her calf!  But from the safety of the truck for that one!) and bone collecting.  We have the scapula of something currently sitting on the end table downstairs.  There was a lot of the aforementioned dorito-eating along with freshly caught fish for dinner.  Will slept in the truck all of the way home so that's surely a sign of a good weekend. 

For the record, the girls had a nice time, too.  We gardened and napped and went to the movies where we didn't eat doritos but a big box of Skittles instead.  On Sunday we went to church, bbq'd at a friend's house and painted our toenails.  We don't have any pictures but we do have sparkly feet. 

Road trip!

Last week, the kids and I and Grandma H packed our bags and drove to the Midwest. I had a two-day meeting in Des Moines so the rest of my traveling companions swam in the pool and played in the hotel room (true story - they liked just hanging out in the room, playing with toys and being somewhere new.  I love that they are still at that age).  After the meeting ended on Wednesday, we drove a few hours north to visit the Dunlap side of the family in Minnesota.  While I had been in my last meeting that afternoon - this happened: 

 

The First Lost Tooth! 

According to the witnesses, they were at a local swim park, splashing around and Will walked up to Grandma with his tooth in his hand.  He just pulled it out himself.  It's been disgustingly loose for a while but I'm so proud that he did it all by himself and with very little drama.  The tooth was one of the two that he was born with so it was tiny which made it difficult for the tooth fairy to find it under the hotel pillow later that night, but it's out! He looks like a real first grader.

 

The rest of the week was spent hanging out with family in Minnesota.  It was a really nice few days.  We spent a fair amount of time on Aunt Mary's porch, blowing bubbles, fighting swords in the backyard and paying close attention to Sammy the Cat (not pictured because all of the photos just show a brown/beige blur as he decides whether or not to stay in one place before the 4-yr finds him again.)



We spent one morning visiting the tiny town where the Dunlap girls grew up.  We stopped at a bakery and ate delicious cupcakes.  It was bizarrely cold.  Minnesota weather is almost weirder than Wyoming weather.  One minute I'm sweating through my shirt while jogging because it's so stinking hot and humid and then the next day I'm wishing that I'd packed jeans and an extra sweatshirt.  Good thing we had chocolate to keep us warm. 

 

One Friday night, the kids attended their first Major League Baseball game.  We watched the Twins play the Royals.  The game started off with a rain delay so we had to kill time taking baseball-like pictures. 

I just told him "Smile for the camera!" and this is what I got. 

Followed by this.  I love the serious baseball face.  "I'm just happy to be here, hope I can help the ball club...." 

And now the sad/serious, I'm-just-holding-a-hot-dog face. I really did say "smile"!!

Rain delay over - and now we are in our seats. 

We didn't last long enough at the game to sing "Take me out to the ballgame" but we sang that enough in the car and in a visit to my uncle who's in the hospital to make up for it. The kids know every word to the song which makes me happy. I think their Great Grandfather Dunlap would've been tickled that their first MLB experience was a Twins game. The last conversation I ever had with him was about the Twins winning the World Series in 1991. I hope he can forgive our National League sympathies today. 

On Saturday night we bid farewell to Minnesota and headed back to Des Moines.  We spent the night and woke everyone up early to head to Omaha for breakfast with the Pauley side of the clan.  We had a nice (but too short) visit and headed home. 

 

There's always enough time to wrestle with cousins! 

The rest of the drive was looooooong and painful at times.  A 4-yr old running on pancakes and syrup, 6 hours of sleep and an 8 hour drive is a bit of challenge.  But we made it home in one piece and we already planning our trip back next summer. 

Who me cause trouble?  Never!

More from the camping adventures and other summer tidbits

Just a few more pictures from our camping trip last week.  Glenn wore the dogs out playing catch in the water.  I think they might have had the most fun of any of us on the trip.  They got to go jogging, run in the water, sleep for hours, guard the campsite, bark at other dogs and lick marshmallow covered hands.  Not a bad way to spend almost 48 hours.  And Trigger has outgrown his nifty little habit of barfing in the kennel whenever he's in the truck so that's nice for everyone. 

Will took this picture of Glenn and I on the beach.  He used my phone and it came out really well!  Okay, so he took about seven shots of my feet and legs, one detailed close-up of his own finger and then this one.  Not bad for a budding photographer. 

Along with the guard dogs, we also this soldier guarding our tent.  I want to point out that he's not holding just a plain old stick there, that's a double-sided lightsaber, naturally. 

This picture isn't from camping, but we signed up both kids for tball this summer.  Sports Boy up there loves it - they are on the same team and Will's on the upper end of the age range.  La Reina is not so impressed.  Before the last practice, she came downstairs wearing this ensemble.  I said "Reina, are you wearing that to tball?"  Her reply?  "Yep!"  For posterity, that's a "my first birthday" bib around her neck and snowboots to bring it all together. 

Today, I took the kids shopping because Will needs some new tennis shoes.  He's been asking for weeks for a pair of shoes with that slash thing on them (Nike) or Reebok or whatever else cool 6-yr olds want.  I warned him that those shoes are really expensive but if we could find a good sale, we could probably get a pair.  Well, we went to three stores, looked at probably a dozen sale pairs and came home empty handed.  He's pretty particular about his footwear.  Either the shoes were too white, not white enough or had the audacity of including a tiny speck of pink somewhere on the shoe.  He was also bothered by the color of the laces until I pointed out that laces could be changed pretty easily.  So the search continues.  The days of me bringing home a box of something with Star Wars/Superman/Ninjas on them and slapping the shoes on his feet are looooong gone. 

Summer, Volume 1

We traveled to Nebraska this past weekend for our annual Lake Minatare camping trip with Aunt Vicky and Uncle Matt.  We had the best weather we've had in our three years of going there - not too hot, not too cold, just right.  The kids and dogs wore themselves out playing in the water and running around the campsite.  Glenn fished and I finished a book.  All told, it was a really nice weekend.  Here are some pictures from our adventures. 

It's not a camping trip without a few swords and battles right?  Glenn is somewhat handicapped by the 4-yr old wrapped around his neck and Will's getting ready to go for the kill.  I think Glenn's cat-like reflexes kept him from any real pain.  This time.

Even gangsters like hanging out in Nebraska's only lighthouse. 

It's pictures like this that make me fearful of the future.  Goodness.  The timing of the head turn.  The blonde locks blowing in the wind.  The jaunty hand-on-hips pose.  Just please just let it be something respectable, like the cover of Golf Weekly or how about the Smithsonian? ... and not Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.  (whimper)

Cheetos!  Cheetos Time!  Aunt Vicky brought a giant bag of cheetos and she was the most popular person on the trip.   Except when Uncle Matt took people on boat rides.

Future archaeologist?  Or mud wrestler?  Will was busy on the beach for quite a while. I was reading in the shade and periodically looking up to make sure no one was in the water.  When Will finally walked over, he looked like this.  That's mud in his ear and nose.  Ewww.   The reason for all of the mud is below.

He dug a hole as deep as him armpit.  He was pretty proud of it.  Ironically, we went back to the same beach the next morning and Will accidentally stepped in his own hole and got mud up to his knee.  He was wearing dry, clean clothes up until that point.  This is part of the reason why I had nine loads of laundry when we got home.

Aunt Vicky took this picture and I love it.  Glenn trying to take a short rest and Reina wasn't tired.  Sooooo boring.  And shoeless. 

The last day of kindergarten

Yesterday was Will's last day as a kindergartner.  This school year flew by too fast!  This morning he woke up bright and early, dressed in his "sports clothes" and ate breakfast. I drove him past his school to the place where he will attend parks and rec camp all summer, and as we passed the normal drop-off spot, he said, "I'm a little sad that I won't see my teacher today."  I think that one sentence sums up his kindergarten experience.  Lovely.  He (and we!) liked his teacher a lot, he did very well on his report card (yes, I know it's just kindergarten but it's still nice to see high marks) and he grew up so much.  The fresh-faced little ninja-shirt-wearing 5-yr old has morphed into a sports-obsessed, hat-wearing, please-can-I-have-a-nike-backpack first-grader. 

Let's look back.  First day of kindergarten.  Those shorts hardly fit today and the shirt has been relegated to the back of the closet because it's not made of performance fabric. 

 Baby face!! 

Now the last day of school.  With Grandma Hansen who was celebrating her Last Day of School Ever.  Happy retirement Grandma! 

Last week on the monkey bars.  He's so proud of himself that he can cross all by himself.  He couldn't do that at the beginning of the year. 

 I'm not sure how tall her grew since August but it feels like 3 feet. 

Will now has TWO loose teeth and at his dental check-up this morning, the dentist told Glenn that Will needs to keep wiggling the teeth or even have Will's mommy wiggle them so that they'll come out faster.  I thought Glenn was pulling my leg but apparently moms have smaller hands than dads.  Will's dentist has apparently never met me (Mrs. Man Hands) plus I get queasy even thinking about helping him loosen his teeth (I really just shuddered and gagged a little bit typing that) so, yeah. 

OKAY - retraction time.  While telling Glenn that I was putting that story on the blog, he giggled and said that he was just kidding and he told me that just to freak me out.  Mission accomplished eh?  Glenn is officially in charge of all things involving tooth extraction. 

Today was one of those days of the year when I woke up and wished that I had gone into teaching.  Alas.  While I don't have a long summer vacation ahead of me, the kids do and we have a lot of fun things planned.  Bring on Summer 2013!

Darth Reina

This picture just about sums up life with Reina right now.  No, she's not the leader of the Dark Side (most of the time).  She's just a little goofball.  She has a wicked sense of humor.  Glenn was traveling for work last week and when he called home on the first night, Reina informed him that we had two new dogs (named Princess and something else that I can't remember) and that Trigger had died.  She's also not a shrinking violet.  She makes her presence known and she's not shy about voicing her thoughts.  While watching baseball on tv with her Pop-pop, he yelled something at one of the players and she let him know that "Pop-pop, he can't hear you."  When I came back from my jog this morning, I took my shoes off and one of my socks was bloody at the top.  My foot didn't hurt and as I was taking my sock off, I told Glenn "I can't figure out where the blood is coming from."  Reina was standing next to me because there's nothing a 4-yr old loves more than looking (or talking) about someone else's booboo and she matter-of-factly told me, "Mom, the blood is coming from your foot."  Like, duh lady.   Besides, the bossy, smartypants thing that she has going on at times, she's also a sweetie.  After diagnosing my foot, she told me that she wanted to come sit with me while I showered in case I needed any help.  Darth Vader certainly wouldn't have done that for anyone.