Collin was excited to finally lose one of his front teeth (courtesy of mom and a piece of floss), and then his next one came out the next day (courtesy of dad and his fingers).
Back in July we took a little road trip with the whole family. We drove from North Carolina up to Palmyra, NY where we spent several days seeing the LDS sites (where Aubrey’s sister Megan is serving a mission) and the Hill Cumorah Pageant. We visited the Peter Whitmer farm where the Church was organized in 1830, the Sacred Grove on the Smith farm, and the Grandin Press where the Book of Mormon was first printed. It was all very nice and memorable.
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| From July 2008 – New York trip |
We spent another day on a side jaunt to Niagara Falls. We went on the Maid of the Mist boat that took us right down below Horse Shoe Falls. Everyone loved it, and we got drenched. We also went over to the Canada side and enjoyed the better views.
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| From July 2008 – New York trip |
Then we drove across the state to NYC where we stayed for about a day and a half. We hit Toys R Us and rode the indoor Ferris wheel. We walked around Times Square. We enjoyed a big breakfast in a diner. We went to the Museum of Natural History and saw all the dinosaur bones. Then we stood outside in the 100 degree heat for several hours waiting to get on the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. It was so hot and the kids were totally sweating, but we kept buying water every chance we could get. Did I mention that money does not last long in your wallet in NYC?! The Statue of Liberty was awesome though, and the kids loved it. We also walked all over the Soho district trying to find this Grilled Cheese Sandwich Company restaurant that Aubrey found listed in a book, but when we finally tracked down the address, it was gone. It had shut down two years earlier. By that point all our kids were dragging, and Collin, who had walked all over the city in flip-flops and had even helped pushing one of the strollers some of the time, was even limping but still barely complaining. Fortunately, we were near a great Jewish deli called Katz’s Deli. We had huge Corned Beef and Pastrami sandwiches at $15 a pop. That was crazy. But it was good and we were hungry.
All in all, it was an amazing trip and tons of fun. The boys did great and had a blast. I’m sure they’ll remember it forever.
I put a bunch of pics on my Picasa Web albums. Here’s a sampling:
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| From July 2008 – New York trip |
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| From July 2008 – New York trip |
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| From July 2008 – New York trip |
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| From July 2008 – New York trip |
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| From July 2008 – New York trip |
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| From July 2008 – New York trip |
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| From July 2008 – New York trip |
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| From July 2008 – New York trip |
Here’s a funny little story about Wesley. Aubrey says he is pretty much wrapped around my finger, and I would have to agree. He’s quite the daddy’s boy. He is always sitting on my lap, giving me hugs, telling me he loves me, out of the blue.
The other day I was fed up with him watching Star Wars movies so much. He gets so caught up in watching them that he forgets to go to the bathroom. He just pees in his pants. So, I banned him from Star Wars movies (same reason we banned him from GameCube), which didn’t make him happy at all.
Later he came up and said “I’m so sorry dad” with tears in his eyes. Then, Aubrey told me that he borrowed a pen and paper from mom so he could make a drawing for me. When he finished, he showed it to me. It was a picture with some people and it said “Wesey Poo”.
He pointed at ‘wesey’ and said, “This is my name.”
Then, with a big smile on his face, he pointed at the word ‘poo’ and said, “And this is your name.”
Aubrey and I laughed really hard at that one. We’re ‘pretty sure’ he was just writing random letters for my name.
Owen started gymnastics today! He played soccer last year, but he didn’t show any interest in playing soccer again (Collin just started up again). Instead, he’s been talking about gymnastics. Of course, Aubrey was excited about that (having done gymnastics as a girl herself).
It was fun to see him out on the floor stretching and climbing up on the pommel horse and jumping on a trampoline. He’s obviously just getting started, but it will be fun to see how he does.
The most interesting part about our hour at the gym however, was when I found Wesley in the bathrom, sitting on a urinal going number two. Yes, he was pooping in the urinal. LOL! (No, Sara, I didn’t take a picture 🙂
So, it was fun to clean up those two turds and get out of there before anyone saw us.
The kids are tracked out right now for another couple weeks, so it’s pretty crazy at home right now. Grady explores the house with the other boys, Wesley loves playing Lego Star Wars on the GameCube, Owen searches his “Where’s Waldo” books for hours on end, and Collin is reading “Holes” (Louis Sachar) and lots of “Captain Underpants” books.
Oh, and I finished reading “Twilight”! I highly recommend it. I’m also reading a book called “The Dip” by Seth Godin, which is a short self-help book about quitting. The guy makes a pretty good point that in order to be the best in the world at something, you’ve got to quit some things and push through the important things. Basically, quit the wrong things, stick with the right things — push through the dips.
Last week the kids started crafting a home-made rocket out of cardboard and tape, and they wanted to start it on fire to launch it. It obviously sparked the idea to try a real model rocket that would really launch in the air.
So for Family Home Evening we went on a mission to find a hobby shop, and we bought a ready-to-launch rocket, the Estes “Patriot”. It turned out to be not quite ready to launch, and I had to figure out how to set it up, so we ended up launching it the next night. It was awesome. We ended going 4 for 4 with successful launches, two of which I filmed entirely. For the first launch I used a B4-4 engine, then for the last three launches I stepped up my game to a bigger engine: C6-5.
Yes, the C6-5.
Take a look!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWA39kI7IAQ[/youtube]
Anyway, it was a great activity to do on a warm summer evening as a family. And we were smart to go find the biggest open space that we could.
Collin had his second piano recital (see his first one) the other night, and he did really great. You can see for yourself by watching the video:
My band also performed the previous weekend at a Stake Youth Conference dance. The coolest part was that we got Aubrey to sing a song with us and it turned out awesome. Everyone loved it — it was probably our best song! Check it out:
To see all our other songs, go to my YouTube channel.
One of these days I might get around to posting pictures of our awesome vacation to New York, pics from Grady’s 1st birthday, and many other fun happenings from the summer.
Oh, and Owen no longer has a cast on his arm, which is really nice!
Oh, and are the rest of you addicted to things like Facebook, Scramble (on Facebook), and reading stupid blogs (seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com)?=
My Grandma Folsom passed away Friday at the age of 92. She stood only about 4′ 9″ but had the biggest heart of gold. Everyone who ever met her loved her. She was a constant source of encouragement and spirit for me. I will always remember her for her undeviating devotion to the Gospel. She truly endured to the end! I will miss her, but I’m glad that she is with Grandpa again.
Collin performed his first ever public piano recital tonight! He did a wonderful job! It’s so fun to see him doing well and practicing diligently (with Mom by his side most of the time). It has been a joy to have the kids spending time at the piano.
I hope you enjoy this video of the recital:
And here is a photo. Click the photo to see more from the recital.
