Our summer "vacation"

We are not really taking a vacation/trip this summer.  I only have the first two weeks of July off from work and Michael is trying to save most of his vacation time for the holidays because big plans are brewing for December. 

We're going to go to Tucson for the weekend a couple of times in June and July, but our biggest outing was that we spent a few days at my aunt and uncle's house in Flagstaff last week.  It was nice to get out of the heat for a little bit.

 

Elliott had his blood draw Wednesday morning before we left.  It went about as well as you would expect.  He screamed and cried and fought us, but at least they got his vein on the first try and the whole thing took less than a minute.  His haircut, which he fought just as hard, took 20 minutes.

 

I'd like to not see his arm looking like this again until he's at least a teenager.

Wednesday eveing my aunt and uncle made us dinner and we ate on their back patio.  Their house is right next to a lake.  There was a beautiful sunset that night. 

 

This is the same view on Thursday morning.

Spencer was 5 years 9 months on Thursday so we thought we'd get the ol' monthly picture with a beautiful background.

 

But the lighting wasn't right.

 

The lake was lovely, but his face was too shadowy.

 

We decided to take a break for lunch and headed over to the campus of Northern Arizona University.

 

We saw some interesting art,

 

and let the kids roam free.

 

Elliott went down for a nap and we thought we'd try again.

 

These were my directions to Spencer:

 

"look at the camera and smile".

 

The kid can do multi-digit addition and subtraction in his head, but looking at the camera eludes him.  I don't get it.

 

Another break was needed, so we decided to feed the ducks even though it is against the Homeowners Association rules.  Shhhhhhhh!

 

This little guy was cute, but very aggressive.

 

One last chance.  Spencer, just look at me.

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  Look right at me.  Right here (I start snapping right next to the camera).

 

Spencer!  What are you doing?  You are NOT looking at me! 

 

Oh. My. God.  Just look at me.

 

No.  That's even worse.

 

Finally I started making ridiculous noises like farm animals dying and that got his attention.

 

His attention and his laughs.

And then we saw a snake so we got the H-E-L-L out of there. 

 

Up next:

 

We took the kids on a ski lift.  

Did I tell you about this?

I feel like I told you about this. But a 30 second search of my blog didn't turn up anything, so maybe I put it on facebook.

Sorry if this is old information.

 

At the end of April, April 29th to be exact, Elliott and I were playing in the family room during that tedious hour after lunch but before picking up Spencer from school.  I was looking at the area over the fireplace. At 2:10 I decided that I wanted to paint it.  At 2:12 I started taping around the edges and at 2:17 I put on the first coat.  At 2:30 we left to get Spencer and at 3:10, after we were back and Elliott was asleep, I did the second coat.

 

I used the left-over red paint from our bedroom.

 

I pretty much love it.

 

It looks nice with the art work to the right.

 

And the family photos to the left.

I was going to do a "This Is Our.......Something" post for today, but I'm all out of steam.  I worked two days in a row so I could take the rest of the week off.  After almost six years of part time work it's hard for me to do two days in a row.  Plus we started swim lessons this week.  It's like five times the work to take two kids to swim lessons compared to one kid.

 

Elliott has a blood draw today.  9:30.  It's going to be awful.  His haircut was like the 2nd circle of hell, and it didn't involve puncturing a vein.

 

Think about us, K?

Third last and other stuff

Spencer had his last day of preschool on Wednesday, May 29th.  He went to preschool for three years, so it was his third last day.

 

Of course I did a comparison collage.

 

 And just because I am feeling sentimental......

Here he is on his first first day of preschool.

And his first last day of preschool. 

It was water day and he had to wear his swim suit.  It will bother me for the next 66 years that he's not wearing the same outfit as the first day.

 

The second first day of preschool.

 

And the second last day of preschool.  He really grew up a lot that year.

 

And finally, the third first day of preschool,

 

And the third last day of preschool.

 

 Spencer had the same teacher for his second and third years of preschool.  We got her, and her aid, a little end of the year gift.  We filled a bag with orange shampoo, orange conditioner, orange nail polish, orange vitamin water, orange tea and orange gum.

 

Then we added an orange,

 

and an orange shaped card,

 

with a cute little message.

 

I thought they were pretty cute.

While Spencer was enjoying his last day of school Elliott was enjoying some binge eating in the pantry. 

 

We have to keep the cereal up really high or he finds it every time.

He also tested the strength of his chompers.  He just loves carrying these jingle bells around in his mouth. 

 

And speaking of chompers, Spencer lost his second tooth on Saturday.

The tooth fairy brought him another two dollars.  This time it was minus the glitter because the tooth fairy was busy and tired.

 

Elliott got a summer haircut on Friday, but I didn't take pictures until Sunday.

 

It was god-awful and I should have left the lady a 77% tip instead of the 20% I did give her.

He threw a huge fit and screamed and cried the entire time.  I'm shocked she did such a good job under the circumstances.

Michael's parents spent the weekend with us.  Michael and his dad took care of a few outside projects.  It was really hot on Sunday when they were working outside (first heat advisory of the year) so I went to the grocery store and bought a lot of food from the deli so they could have a manly lunch during their break.

 

Michael was holding and preparing to eat a fried chicken leg when Elliott took it out of his hands and then devoured the entire thing. 

After dinner Elliott found a bubble wand, shoved it in my hand and said BUBBLE, BUBBLE, BUBBLE.  I didn't even know he knew that word.

 

So, I whipped up some homemade bubble mixture and we got to work. 

 

I like this one because you can see the pieces of a broken bubble.

 

Did I mention the heat advisory we had yesterday?

 

These kids probably won't get fully dressed again until Halloween.