Summer part 2.5

The show the kids put on at school was really cute!  They all picked what character they wanted to be, and then worked as a group to decide what story would happen with all of those characters.

They made a poster in art class that showed the beginning, middle, and end of their story in comic strip style.

First, Ruffy dog was guarding the princesses at their tower while the train came along the tracks.  The train broke down, but Mario fixed it and they kept going.

Once they found the princesses, Indiana Jones used the Crystal Skull to scare Ruffy dog away so they could rescue the princesses.  Ruffy was supposed to run away, but he came back a time or two before he truly ran away. :)

And then they had a party to celebrate the rescue - and bowed at the end of their play.

Needless to say, Kaitlyn loved every second of the spotlight.  Tyler seemed mostly excited to pretend to be Ruffy and play with his costume and dog.

The song they sang from their music class was one of Tyler's favorites.  He loves pointing out things that are silly, and this song was about fishes that woke up from their nap and then took a shower ("washing their fishy beards") or rode their bikes all over town . . . until they said "wait a minute, we're fish!  Let's go swimming!"

But during the actual performance, Tyler just sat.  All of his class was "swimming" in circles around him, or sleeping on the ground, and our little guy just sat and watched the world go by.  Sigh.  His teacher tried to get him involved, but he was content.  Unfortunately, that is one of the biggest issues with Tyler's learning progress.  When he is engaged, he moves forward, and when he just "checks out", he doesn't have a care in the world.

Of course, Jasmine wasn't all that interested in the show.  But the PEZ in my camera bag kept her happy for a while.  And then she decided that opening and closing it in Daddy's mouth was quite hilarious.  The things we do to keep babies happy!

From there, Grandma took over and Daddy and I headed off to freedom!  It was our 10th Anniversary that day, and we had a grand weekend getaway.  We shopped the outlet malls (which is glorious without kids in tow), checked in at Little America (where we stayed on our wedding night), and had dinner at The Roof (an amazing buffet at Temple Square that is worth every penny and calorie).

The picture isn't the best, but the view from the restaurant is wonderful.

And at the risk of sounding sappy, I have to say that I'm grateful I got to spend a weekend just celebrating how awesome my marriage is.  The kids might drive me crazy some days, and my house might look like a tornado hit it, but I have never for one second wanted a life without this guy in it.  That part of my life is always awesome.  He knows all of my flaws and faults (and I've found a few of his, over the years), but we make a fantastic team.

He cracks me up, though.  One of his running jokes this weekend was bringing every conversation back to the Argo somehow.  He is pretty excited about his newest purchase.

This . . . vehicle . . . is hilarious.  Somewhere between a tank and a four-wheeler, it is a loud and slow machine that can power up anything.  Eventually.  The coolest feature about it is actually one we don't intend to use, unfortunately, since we don't have any water nearby.  Because this crazy thing actually floats on water.  If you look on youtube, you can find videos of people not only driving these into lakes, but even running them down ramps and jumping into the lake.

We bought it because it came with snow treds.  While things went rather smooth last winter trying to bring all the kids up by snowmobile to the cabin, it was not ideal.  We used to all fit on one snowmobile, but we just can't anymore.  And I can't hold a baby and drive a snowmobile at the same time.  So we had to either leave the kids at one end or the other and hope we would be back soon to get them (they are usually pretty good kids, but leaving them alone while you drive a mile away is not a good plan at this age), or put them bouncing in a sled behind the snowmobile, eating the exhaust and snow we kicked up.

This thing, however, fits all of us just fine.  And by all accounts, it should take us up the hill through some decent powder.  Here's hoping!

And while I am posting, I figure I should toss in some pictures from last night.  Our neighbors let us come swimming, and we are always game to take them up on that offer.

"Please!"  She wanted to go swimming, even if their pool only has stairs that are shallow enough for her to play on.  And even if Mommy grabbed a swim suit that was too small for her.  The bottom fit, but that top was a bit small for her and I have to admit we ditched it.

Tyler and Daddy had a lot of fun, since Tyler takes everything as hilarious.  Even if you take his noodle away and make him sink, or chuck him to the other side of the pool.

And of course, they loved the diving board.

So then Jasmine decided she needed in on the action.  (Sorry, half naked baby alert!)

She was so determined.  Too bad she is too young to even know how to jump.

Eventually, I lowered her down to Daddy.  But she decided it was still so much fun that she asked to go again a few more times that night.

Silly girls!