Life at our house this month has been busy and exciting. The best news of all is that Joseph finished his Master's Degree. All hail, Master Anson! We are very proud of him. Since I do the blog, I can brag on him all I want. He graduated with a 4.0! What a guy. I am grateful for a husband who works so hard to provide for his family. Joseph walked around for a day or two with a big smile on his face and would stop at random moments and say, "I'm done," almost like he still did not believe it himself. His stress level went way down and we spent the first part of the month playing to celebrate. He whisked me away for an overnight stay at the Anniversary Inn. We got to go to dinner and a show and then stay the night in Juliet's Balcony. It was AMAZING. Later that week, we took a family trip to a cabin in Heber, details to follow.
The kids have stayed busy just having fun. Zac and Ally enjoyed swim lessons. Sariah does not want much to do with swim lessons, but we have convinced her to get in the pool in our backyard. Ally takes to the water like a fish. This summer she has also learned to hop on one foot.
Here is Zac demonstrating his floating skills. He can do anything if he has his goggles on. Another big accomplishment for Zac was learning how to pump himself on the swing. Yesterday we went to the park and he got on the swing by himself, got started, pumped, and slowed down all on his own. He was quite proud of himself. I was proud of him, too.
Sariah just keeps losing teeth. Her last two actually made it under her pillow for the tooth fairy to pick up. She has enjoyed playing with friends and helping Mom.
In all our fun, we have had to dodge construction vehicles. They are doing construction on the road in front of our house. It will be very nice when it is all done. It is just so loud. In fact a big truck just went screeching by. I might take it upon myself to put a little WD40 on the wheels tonight after the workers go home for the day. For the last few days we have had to park our cars around the corner so we can come and go as we need to. One night we snuck out and looked in the big hole and took a few pictures. Even Brook knows what is going on. Today she said, "truck." It seems she becomes more aware everyday.
I think we would all agree that the highlight of summer has been our trip to the cabin. Some friends of ours graciously let us use their cabin for a few days and it was awesome. The kids loved it and keep asking if we can go back. The view was beautiful and there was so much to do. We especially liked wading in the creek nearby. The kids saw a little frog even; it made their day.
We decided to have a little safari theme for our vacation. We made safari hats and binnocculars from toilet paper rolls. We hid stuffed animals upstairs and sent the kids on a "safari." We watched animal movies and read animal stories. We ate such delicacies as ostrich egg sandwiches, gorilla fingers (hot dogs) and lion face pizza.
Brook did not get the whole safari thing, but had fun anyway. She was such a trooper. The day we left she had her 15 month checkup. That is when we found out she had an ear infection and a sore throat. So we got to take her antibiotics with us. She did great. She loved pushing the doll stroller around and riding on a little rocking horse. After we got home, her virus blossomed into a horrible looking rash. It did not bother her and it was not contagious, but it looked awful. We called her spotty body and splotchy. Zac called her a leopard baby. As the rash faded, he declared, "Brook is turning human again!"
We loved just being together. It felt so nice to not have to worry about the time or about being anywhere. We made great memories together and I hope the kids will remember them for a long time.
And no safari would be complete without seeing real animals. We went the long way home by way of Hogle Zoo. It was Brook's first time and she could not get enough. She made monkey noises at the monkeys and growled at about everything else. She was not content to ride in the stroller. She needed us to get her out every time we stopped so that she would not miss anything. They liked the carousel and the train. We stopped for dinner on the way home and then took our very tired and very happy family home. Life just does not get much better.
Brook is EVERYWHERE! She gets up in the morning and just runs from one room to the next to see what treasures she can find. She has a few places she likes to check just to see if we have let our guard down. Places like art boxes (she loves markers), the bathroom (she loves the toilet), the pantry (she loves to help herself to boxes of cereal) the big kids' room (she loves to play with toys that she shouldn't.) When she does slow down, one of her favorite places to land is in a chair at her table reading her book. She is pleased as punch with herself that she can climb into the chair herself. And she loves books, especially books with pictures of babies or animals.
Another favorite activity is to climb into anything she can. On this particular night, Brook and Ally were supposed to be cleaning up the mess you can see in the background. But climbing into the box was much more fun that putting toys in it. My favorite thing to watch is when she tries to climb into something that is not quite big enough. She is at such a fun stage right now. She understands so much of what we say to her and what is going on around her. It delights her to no end when she can communicate with us and we understand what she needs. Her little personality manifests itself more each day. In fact, tonight she finally figured out how to climb on the stool in the bathroom and see into the sink. She just giggled. Then she leaned over the side as best she could and made little spitting noises -- copying what the big kids do when they brush their teeth. It was hilarious. You make my day, Brook.
