Trampoline photo op ( is there any other kind?)

We had a most excellent BBQ a couple of weeks ago at our friends' house and Clyde and Will happily availed themselves frequent use of the trampoline. I happily availed myself frequent use of the camera to capture their serious adorableness.

Clyde mid-jump. I like how, if you use your imagination, it appears that he's in the middle of an exercise routine where he will touch his left knee with his right elbow, jump, and then alternate with a left elbow/right knee tap. For the record, I don't believe that's what he was actually doing.

Clyde, mid-jump again, and Will, mid-(um)-back roll? As demonstrated in the next few pictures, Will preferred a 'jump, sit, fall backwards' routine. Unfortunately, he now tries it regularly in our living room, where he finds the carpeted floor much less 'giving' than the trampoline.

Ohhh, sweet baby Will. I really can't get enough of this child, although truer words were never printed on a t-shirt ('my parents are exhausted'). Mucho gracias to my mom's good friend Bonnie for finding that shirt for Will!!

On his way down. Excellent form, eh?

Giggly boys. I was pretty amazed that no serious injuries occurred (hello, these are MY boys after all, AND this is the same backyard where Clyde broke his leg last year) despite their many run-ins while jumping. Also, Clyde's monkey shirt says "I'm a little bananas" and it likewise rings VERY true.

And finally, I love how relaxed Will looks in this one, like he's lying down there on purpose to more closely examine the trampoline surface instead of as a result of a crash with Clyde. Good save, Will, good save :).

Mother/daughter road trip!

Last weekend my mom and I had the chance to take a quick trip to Utah to meet sweet baby Bailey. It all came together pretty last minute, which worked out well since it gave me less time to focus on the fact that I was LEAVING MY CHILDREN for 72 hours.

So it's a little blurry, but here we are getting ready to leave Boise Thursday afternoon. And yes, I'm wearing a Star Wars shirt; our family (read: Clyde and Chuck, and by association, Jana and Will) is hardcore into the epic trilogies right now. Definitely more to come in a future post.

Last minute good-bye to Cody.

We drove my mom's car down and since her tank was 3/4 full I opted not to top off in Boise, but see how far we could make it instead. And then I kind of stopped paying attention - whoops! We were rapidly approaching 'empty' and not as rapidly approaching Snowville - we were still about forty miles out. My risk-taking (and often stranded) mom was sure we'd make it - "My car ALWAYS gets 30 miles after the fuel light comes on, and it's not even on yet!" but I erred on side of caution and stopped at a podunk gas station in the middle of nowhere. There wasn't even a town associated with the gas station - just a lonely Sinclair, charging $3.70 (!!) a gallon to silly, silly people who don't fill up their tank before they leave town.

So we bought one gallon of gas :).

Well, almost a gallon. It was pre-pay inside, so I went in (carefully avoiding the LIVE BABY RATTLESNAKES that were fairly unsecurely caged in the gas station's lobby area) and handed over my debit card as I told the nice lady I'd like $3.70 on pump #3. The clerk took my card, turned to run it, and then slowly turned back to me: "Oh, sometimes I forget to tell people first, but I have a $5 minimum to run a card." Hardcore, right? Luckily I had cash :).

We arrived safely that evening at the Smith residence for an overnight stay there. Gloria and Reed offered dinner AND lively conversation - Reed regaled us with recent stories of employee incompetence at the pizza restaurants and we pretty much laughed until we cried. Then Heidi came home from work and I kept her up way too late on a school night so we could facebook stalk people and giggle!

The next morning my mom and I made our way to Orem. We had planned to stop at the Salt Lake Temple on the way, but I definitely drove right past it, despite (alleged) large signs telling me where to exit. Luckily, we were in Utah, where beautiful temples abound so we made our way to the Mt. Timpanogos temple instead for a session.


And then it was time to see Bailey, yay!

Grandma Pam meeting her first granddaughter!

Chuck and I have several nieces and a nephew on his side of the family, and now we have a beautiful niece on my side!

She even obliged us by waking up for a bit - isn't she a doll??

That night my mom and I went our separate ways and both stayed with good friends.

I crashed at Ben and Courtney's apartment and we fit in a quick photo op the next morning before Courtney left for work. Isn't she so cute in her scrubs? Cute enough to cancel out my grubby "I'm still kind of asleep" look, eh?

My mom and her good friend/college roommate Sandra.

Then it was back to Sam and Terri's house for more baby-holding! Although we did manage to do a little bit of shopping (I find it hard to resist a new Saver's and D.I.) here and there.


It was so neat to see my brother interact with his daughter. Bailey is definitely very loved :).

I loved her little wrapped up hands!

Terri's sister Dana was able to visit the same weekend, and it was really fun to see her again. Plus I found out she loves the TV show Bones, which I have recently become EXTREMELY obsessed with. Not even joking, it's semi-unhealthy. Anyways, it made me love Dana even more than I already did :).

Saturday evening we left Orem and headed back for Smiths' (my mom had to be back in Boise in the early afternoon on Sunday so we figured we'd shorten the return trip a bit). It seemed appropriate that since I was kid-free, I continue in my regression and pretend to be 17 again, and Desirie and Heidi were happy to help me!

First we made a somewhat obligatory stop at a party, where Dez definitely told people I was 14. And then 30. (Eh, split the difference and you're pretty close to the truth - 25).

Then we jumped on A.J.'s trampoline for a while. I was pretty stoked to show off my awesome toe touches, until Dez and Heidi shot me down by doing like sixty in a row. Turns out I have a lot to learn about being 17; they have some pretty sweet moves.

We tried to do some more 'circle head' pictures, but Courtney's absence was seriously felt and our photogenic-ness suffered as a result.

But definitely an A for effort, right? Pretty much the whole time we laughed and laughed and then it got too cold so we went inside and laughed some more and A.J. and I compared cool Star Wars shirts and Dez said my super awesome line of 'get to know you' questions reminded her of some teacher (a cool teacher, Heidi promised me) and I played with Heidi's hair. We headed home at midnight (yep, definitely 17!) and I made Heidi stay up even later so we could talk some more!

Oh, how I love Heidi!!

And that was our fun road trip to Utah! We made it safely home Sunday afternoon and it was LOVELY to see all of my boys again. Chuck did an excellent job while I was gone - the little boys were appropriately fed/dressed/bathed/changed/entertained AND loved the whole time (and they were apparently pretty much on time to church, show off!). I really appreciated how supportive Chuck was of my 'weekend away' - and I'm glad he now understands how it IS possible to spend a whole day doing nothing but changing diapers and making PB&J's :).

Our very celebratory Mother's Day

Ahh, a nice picture with my sweet youngest child on Mother's Day.

And a more accurate depiction of how I spend my time as a mom - chasing Will.

I'm the Best Mom Ever.

The sweet note and gift Clyde made for me in preschool that week. Granted, it was not at all a surprise since it had been my week to teach preschool, but still very cute!

Happy Mother's Day to my mom! We got to spend most of the day together, which was very nice. She spoke that morning in her ward about the joys and challenges of motherhood so the little boys and I went to hear her. Although, if I had known that she would say really, really nice things at the end of her talk about me and my mothering and make me cry I might have opted to stay in the foyer :).

We got her some purple-y earrings. The other part of her present was getting to host Clyde for a sleepover the night before Mother's Day. I know, I'm very generous - don't tell her that it was kind of a present for me too!

My oldest brother Cody's birthday fell on Mother's Day this year, so my mom and I shared the party-ing with him.

First, I gave him a super cool peace t-shirt.

Then I let him entertain and play with Clyde and Will ALL day long. Again, my generosity astounds me!

Will was in heaven!

I took these pictures while Clyde was napping, but he had loads of fun with Uncle Cody too - playing tennis in the driveway. (I would have taken pictures of the tennis playing, but that was when I was napping!)

Happy birthday Cody! My mom has officially been a mom for 30 years now - that's a loooong time.

Chuck had to work all weekend, which was lame, but he was able to come over to my mom's house for dinner before he went to work.

Another exciting aspect of Mother's Day was getting to talk to Elder Braden!

My mom talking to Quinner. His present for her came the next day; he made (sewed!) her a wall hanging with flamingo fabric. Suck-up.

Cody talking to Quinner! Clyde talked to him for a little bit too, before he fell asleep.

Finally, the MOST exciting Mother's Day occurrence was definitely the debut that morning of sweet Bailey Hiroko Braden - Sam and Terri's adorable baby girl! See their blog for all the details.

And that was our very busy, wonderful Mother's Day!

Little boys + hats = cute

Instead of bemoaning the ridiculous cold weather that has seized Nampa the last few days, I'm opting to happily reflect on a wonderfully Spring-y Saturday a couple of weeks ago. Chuck worked in the yard, we rode our bikes around to some garage sales, and the little boys both adorned Boise State ball caps while riding trikes and playing with their shovels. SO precious.
*Chuck also wore a BSU hat and looked very cute but I don't have any pictures of him.

Clyde Monster on his beloved trike.

Sweet baby Will!

Double teaming some chores - Clyde's in charge of digging up some water, and Will's on top of mowing the sidewalk.

Will loves to take his hat off and put it back on - hence the super hip sideways style.

He also loves cooling off in the sprinkler :)

I got Clyde's attention and took this really quickly because I knew . . .

that this would follow. Go Broncos!

J is for Jumping

So there's a new indoor bouncy house place in Nampa that we have patronized several times in the last few weeks (and luckily for y'all, I had my camera each and every time). It's an excellent way for my crazy little boys to get their energy out, and so far it hasn't been super busy - although I'm sure school letting out for the summer will change that, which is why we'll let our month pass expire soon and maybe start up again this fall :).

They have several of these 'Cozy Coupe' cars for kids 4 and under to careen around in; Will is obsessed. He loves climbing in and closing the door - so cute!!

Clyde and Kenzie after they finished the obstacle course

Paislee hopped a ride with Will :)

Clyde took Chuck on in some sort of battle arena. . . .

Chuck must have won, because then he faced McKay.

That slide is steep. And as we've seen before, I'm not big on slides.

So, Lynndi and I decided to race on the obstacle course. It was alternatively hilarious and humiliating. Lynndi definitely kicked my butt.

Will getting his balance . . .

Cute Clyde Monster at the top of the ladder

Chuck and Will going through the obstacle course

Clyde and Will playing some basketball . . . I see this as a preview of their teenage years; Clyde will probably still be wearing Star Wars t-shirts :).

Clyde and Kenzie racing! Last week was the letter 'J' for preschool, so we went there as a field trip (although we were bummed Deion wasn't feeling well that day!!).