August in a wink:

My Birthday

John watched Carissa in the morning while Wes was at school so I could get my hair cut and have a pedicure. Later my neighbor watched both kids so I could enjoy a peaceful lunch at one of my favorite places with this guy:

It is always so much nicer to eat without children around. And I got my birthday ice cream.

We kept it simple with pizza and a cake from Costco. My sister and her family shared the festivities with us.

Popcorn

Mail and Name tags
When Wes finished his summer session of preschool he brought home his name tag. Carissa instantly cottoned on and wanted one of her own.

She hand-decorated it with her signature scribbles.

Wes saw a segment of Sesame Street where Elmo talked about mail. And all of a sudden he was really into writing letters and posting mail. I think he likes to lick the envelope best, and Carissa likes to put on the sticker-like stamp best.

Our cousins, aunts, and grandmas and grandpas have been getting a lot of mail lately from Wes and Carissa.

Olympics
We watched the Olympics on TV a lot, which Wes loved because he is really into sports. He cheered on the athletes, and if they struggled or missed a shot he’d say, “Oops, try again!”

I started to recognize the influence the Olympics had on Wesley pretty quickly. He started doing flips and gymnastic-type things like headstands all over the house, and I caught him directing an Olympic-style race with Carissa, complete with the crouched start.

Sundance
A week after my birthday I got the other thing I wanted (the first being a lounge chair for the backyard so I can appropriately lounge while the kids play): a night out to watch a play up in the mountains. The performance was “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” one of my favorite musicals of all time.

John had a headache, and I didn’t have Tylenol with me like I usually do, so he spent the first half of the play like this:

During intermission I asked random people if they had any Tylenol or such, and I finally found a nice girl in the ladies’ room who led me back to her seat and gave us a couple from her purse. Relief! And John could enjoy (as much as he can enjoy) the rest of the musical. I loved it.

Carissa’s 2nd Birthday

This little princess turned 2.

I wanted to get her a special girly cake for her birthday, but as I looked around they were all so expensive. I decided to compromise: I made the bottom layer myself (using cake mix, even) and bought the top mini cake at a grocery store. I ordered the little Dora figurines online for just a few dollars.

My thoughts about trying to make a cake myself: 1) I’m not very good at it. It looked kinda sloppy up close, but from a distance it wasn’t too shabby. 2) I’m not 100% convinced the saved money was worth all the time it took to bake, cool, frost, and decorate myself.

But, she had a cake. And it was pink. And it had Dora, her most favorite character in the universe right now.

The cousins came over to share her birthday.

Wesley blew out her candle, but she didn’t mind.

After cake the kids went outside for ice cream cones (“ice keen cones”)…

…and to play.

The kids trooped back inside for gifts.

With cousins around, there were many helpers to open the gifts.

This was the first time we got Carissa real girly toys, geared directly at her; previously she just played with the toys we already had, which were originally Wesley’s. The verdict: She LOVED her new toys!

We got her some Dora the Explorer books, which even now (two months later) are her favorite books.

I found a used play kitchen for cheap in the online classifieds.

Her aunt Tara gave her a doll, which she instantly fell in love with. Add the doll to her new baby stroller and toy purse, and Carissa was in full Mommy mode. She loved it all.

Cruisin’
One day I looked out back to find the kids and didn’t see them anywhere.

Upon closer inspection…

They live the good life, for sure.

Carissa’s Outfits
We are constantly amazed at Carissa’s creativity and strong-headed independence. Wes is a little (a lot) more subdued. For instance, he doesn’t care what he wears, but she usually has an opinion about what shoes to wear, whether or not she wants to wear a hat, or if a walk outside necessitates certain accessories like a backpack, purse, and balloon.

Her favorite accessory is definitely her pink Hello Kitty sunglasses. And her favorite place to eat anything is the back steps. She likes cereal and milk, which is also different from Wes. Her favorite kinds are the Dora the Explorer cereal and Cocoa Krispies.

Water
Wes loves playing in the water. He wanted to go to the swimming pool a lot (like, almost every day), but I just did not have it in me to take him more than twice (it’s a lot of work for me). As a consolation prize we have a wading pool in the backyard, which he still really enjoys. He likes to put rocks in the water and toss them around. I also invested in a water squirters, which both kids like.

Umbrellas
I found Carissa’s pink umbrella for 50 cents at a yard sale. She likes it almost as much as her sunglasses.

Here’s everything I neglected to blog about in a more timely manner from July.

Our wedding anniversary. Our marriage is 10 years old. To celebrate we got a sitter and went to a free heritage days celebration that included interesting displays from the Pilgrim days and presenters demonstrating the work of colonial bakers and blacksmiths. It was actually really fun. And so NICE to be out without children. Good thing, too, because they would’ve been jealous of this:

My dad’s side of the family had a reunion near enough that we attended.

The kids loved the pinata. Not the candy so much as the hitting.

Cousins Carissa and Ashley.

My sister, brother, and me with some kids.

Girl cousins.

Wes went to preschool four days a week for about 2.5 hours in the morning. This was his aide assigned to give him a little extra help.

And while he was in school Carissa and I did motherly-daughterly bonding activities like drinking frozen hot chocolate at the mall.

One day I found that Wes had scribbled on the table. But when I looked up close and saw how nicely he had written the letter “W” over and over again, I couldn’t be mad.

The kids are joined at the hip, sometimes…

Playing in the sink.

In the sandbox.

In the wading pool.

Eating ice cream.

And apples.

Making a birthday card for their grandpa.

And getting messy doing it.

Eating breakfast on the couch.

Wes likes to put toys or DVDS (which I have since hidden) on the treadmill (which is unplugged) and push them down the conveyer belt, go to the other side, pick up, and repeat.

He also likes to build tall towers, but sometimes he likes to line up the blocks instead.

He is a climber.

Carissa loves her teddy bear.

She’s also a pretty good shopping companion.

She is a painter.

This is her favorite place to sit–on the back steps.

Picture time.

One day I took them swimming. I don’t have pictures of the pool, but of them enjoying their post-swim milkshakes in the car.

We had a church party in the canyon that involved playing football…

…and wading in the stream. Which I wasn’t willing to do, but a kind neighbor was.

About five seconds after we left, this was the kids:

Our grass mysteriously died in patches while we were on vacation in the spring. John miraculously brought it back to life after careful reseeding and diligent watering. Another reason I’m grateful for a husband; if it were up to me, the grass would’ve just died and that would’ve been that.

Park morning with cousins.

“Airplane!”

We took the kids to a Taste of the Valley event. Here’s us leaving.

And I took the kids to a small local parade. To say they loved every second is an understatement. Wes loved yelling “hi” to the floats, Carissa loved grabbing as much candy as she could, and Wes loved throwing the candy right back at the throwers.

On Tuesday (day 13) we drove about two hours north to the city of Córdoba, Spain.

Carissa was our navigator.

After our first day in Spain, spent getting lost in the small, impossibly narrow streets of Seville, the first thing we did when we drove into the Córdoba was stop and get a map. Lucky for us we parked near a tourist information kiosk that had maps readily available. And while we picked that up, John went in search of a SIM card to convert his tablet to a cell phone (he found a store, but waited ridiculously long and never get helped).

Córdoba was an interesting place to visit, in part because of its history and in part its age. Right now there are only about 300,000+ residents but in around the 10th and 11th centuries it was the most populous city in the world, and for a time it was considered one of the most advanced cities in the world. There’s a strong mix of Roman and Muslim influence due being handed back and forth between the two peoples.

One thing I loved about the place is that it’s so OLD. I mean, just look at these pictures. I snapped these just as we walked from our car to our destination, the Córdoba Cathedral/Mosque. We were on some narrow streets among the locals and saw some school children in uniform walking back from school (not pictured).

The first item of business was stopping for lunch. The thing about Spain is that businesses commonly close around 2 pm for siesta time and don’t open again until 4 or 6 at night. So we made sure to eat early and get it done. We found a nice place inside a hotel. We ate in the courtyard.

I loved visiting the Córdoba Cathedral. It was unlike any other cathedral I’ve been to. It started as a place of Roman Catholic worship, but when the Arabs stepped in it was built up as a Muslim mosque. And later, after it returned to Roman hands, became a Catholic cathedral again.

Some cool beams hanging near the ticket counter from the original structure.

The inside of the cathedral was so beautiful, but I had a hard time picturing myself attending church there. I think I’d be staring at the red and white arches the whole time.

The place was giant. HUGE. You can see it a little better in the video.

Even the door to exit was big and grand and ornate.

Across the street, of course, were tourist shops. My mother-in-law and I enjoyed browsing the shops but John and Guy were ready to move on pretty quickly.

The kids? They ate ice cream (“helados”), of course.

After leaving the mosque-cathedral we walked across the old Roman bridge (I mean OLD–built around 1st century BC), crossing the Guadalquivir River to see the historical tower on the other side. It was hot. H-O-T. We passed some street performers (bridge performers?) along the way, and I can’t imagine how miserable they must have been under the sun.

You got a good view of the cathedral from the bridge:

Here is the tower on the end of the bridge. We bought water from the smart people selling it in the tent to the right.

And its moat. I don’t know what it is about moats, but they are just so neat.

We stopped at one more famous landmark in Córdoba, the Alcázar (which means “the palace). It was the residence of Queen Isabella and Ferdinand. It has a rich history including Isabella meeting with Christopher Columbus before his sailing to America, hosting some of Napoleon’s troops in the 1800’s, and serving as a prison. In the 1950s the Spanish government turned it into a tourist attraction.

The actual Alcázar wasn’t bad but the gardens were lovely, definitely worth the visit.

Alcázar entrance and statue of King Ferdinand, maybe?

There was one small bathroom that we waited around to use so I could change the kids’ diapers. No toilet paper, but at least we had baby wipes. Wes waiting on the rocks outside the restroom for his diaper turn.

Like I said, the gardens were the best part.

The kids liked playing in the dirt. We had to drag them away.

When we were walking back to the car we stopped to let the kids play at a playground. It was just what they needed. Kids need to play.

The funny thing is that we were at the park for a while, but it wasn’t until we were back in the car and driving away from the park that we noticed a sign on the building across the street from the park: “La Iglesia de JesuCristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias.” (Or something like that.) It was an LDS branch meetinghouse. Kind of fun to see.

It was a two-hour drive back to our hotel, and I thought our kids handled the car time pretty well overall. We had books and an electronic toy (for Wes), but it was often near bedtime by the time we headed home. During our time in England and Spain Carissa was just starting to develop a more independent and chatty nature. Here she is chatting as we neared Malaga.

The next day was Wednesday, and we had enough of road trips. We were going to stay home, do laundry, and play!

My two kids were in the backyard the other day, and after a while when I peeked out I couldn’t find them. Looked empty to me.

Then I saw this:

And this: