Cameron the Artist

I had a week off from work and so took a TON of pictures and had a lot of fun doing things and spending time with the boys during my "Staycation"
Cameron enjoyed having me home and enlisted my help with his creative endeavours which I am always happy to oblige. Cameron LOVES to draw, color, create anything Lego's, blocks, etc.

He can do any one of these things for one to three hours at a time! It's fascinating to watch his long attention span and wonder when the stinkin' heck is he gonna get bored already! I watch him create while I accomplish tons of other stuff of course.....my attention span is not as long as my 4 now 5 year old's..... SAD.





Here's those beady thingies you create then iron together....I helped with this one...a little.

Here's a Haunted House sticker/glitter project he did himself . No help was requested....in fact; no help was demanded. Look at the cute crooked shutters he did. One opened and one closed....how does he KNOW this stuff?

This is an X-Box controller and DVD/Game. He made many games of different colors and built a Lego TV and X-Box to plug them into and "Watch"

Here is three of 6 Monster's INC. Pictures he drew after we watched the movie

He begged me to use Nathan's spare Poster board so he could draw REALLY BIG.....so he drew his shoe.....among other things. It's cute! He didn't trace it or anything, the perspective is really good.

This is the collection of Spongebob Coloring pages he did in ONE SITTING

Well we did this and Play-doh, and sidewalk chalk and drew LOTS of Ed Emberly's step by step drawing books (HIGHLY recommended for any kid 4 and up) ....he loves it! I really enjoyed my time with Cameron, he's sweet and lovable, very cuddly and fun, it's an adorable stage this 4 turning 5 time. I hope he doesn't outgrow this stage too soon.

Birthday A-Fair

Yes, on my Birthday we went to the Utah State Fair, and if any of you know me at all you know I NEVER miss the fair.....the freaky sales people selling their weird stuff, the animals, the atmosphere....aw, who are we kidding! It's all for the FOOD!

I love it!!

Yes around here we only give shoulder rides when we're sitting down....

Pony Ride!

Here's Kevin enjoying his favorite Polynesian Roast Chicken Vendors' Kahlua Pork.....

Then there's the weird stuff the weird people are trying to sell...... Seriously, who buys a mini-rat transplanted from some exotic rain forest somewhere....if you ask me it's nothing but disaster waiting to happen.... (Actually we DO know this, a friend of ours bought one of these Sugar Gliders.....nightmare)

At the activity farm again.....same as last year....

I thought this pic was funny, I was about to delete, then saw the like father like son pose....

Cameron liked the 4-wheeler that was just his size....

And then....my favorite Vendor.....the.....

My Friends....this is IT! HEAVEN on a STICK! Yes, they serve it on a stick, but it's a full size sandwich, warm and gooey inside, crisp and fluffy on the outside.....

Of course I could have stayed for the Deep Fried Snickers, Twinkie, Oreo, Brownie....etc.... But I had restraint....which I now regret....I would liked to have gorged on more items....

I have the recipe for this if anyone's in!

Wild Time at the Davis County Fair

We had a great time at the Fair! I'd never been to this one before but our friend Megan was the Fair Coordinator so we went to show our support!

It was fun! First thing they had a huge farm animal petting zoo, we got to feed all the animals some grain and Cameron had a lot of fun meeting and learning about the animals....

This Brahma Bull......a breed of Zebu cattle from India - are you impressed with my Google abilities?

A Buffalo, or Bison, or whatever it wants to be on a certain day I suppose....

This poor guy, I felt bad for him, his cage was too small....and his horns were caught....

Long Horn Cattle? It was HUGE! Poor thing; Cameron was trying to help but the beast didn't understand what we were up too.....in my old sales days, the motivational speaker addict in me says, "Big guy, help me, let me. help you. help me. help you.".....

The Goats were ALL over us, climbing out of their cages, pushing their cages down in some instances, and climbing all over each other and being quite rude I must add; to get some food, they acted more like pigs than goats.....the mom in me wanted to put every one of them a time out and talk to them very sternly about taking turns.....

The sheep were quite polite in comparison, they came up to eye level for us to help us feed them...Considerate widdle wammies.....

We got to feed some chickens, they ate from our hands, it was cool! I'd never fed chickens before.

So enough animals, lets wash our hands three times and use lots of sanitizer and paper towels....

NOW On to the human food frenzy! The funnel cakes! The corn dogs! The ice cream! The cotton Candy! The roasted rotisserie chicken! (sorry the goats got the best of me there)

I mean on to the rest of the fair....there was car racing in the kiddie activity tent....Cameron chose to push, smart boy.....I don't think I could sit in that even at his height and get the thing to move without major calf cramping......

We got a wrist band for Cameron so Unlimited Rides....this kid has no fear! He wanted to go on EVERYTHING, and with limited exceptions, (When mom decided that that thing looks like it could come apart any second, lets redirect) Anyhoo he went 8 times on all the various blow up items and sampled many other rides and was in kiddie heaven....

Here he goes!

Having a Blast I might add.


Then we got to pet alligators! How much better can this place get?!?!?

Nathan and Kevin went off to the Army Booth and did some manly men things; Nathan earned this awesome hat by doing 60, count em folks, 60 sit ups in the 90 degree weather.....



Here we are relaxing at the Rodeo.....I couldn't get good pics of any action there, just us sitting...at least my subject held still....I couldn't get the Bronco's to do that for me. Whatever. I didn't want to blog about them and the cowboys anyway.....cowboys.....

All in all it was Awesome, I got me some fresh veggies at the farmers market; we bought cheep toys and sunglasses and were harassed by only some of the vendors.....we were there two days; I LOVED the fact that it was free entry.....and we.....

Yesssssireee!
Thanks Megan, you did a GREAT job girl!

More Medical Drama

Kevin's in the hospital! See, here's proof in case you don't believe me.....

He had some chest pain Saturday morning, it got pretty bad so he drove himself to the hospital (I was stuck with NO car at the cabin) UGH!

He found out he had two blod clots in his left lung. No worries though, they've got him on blood thinners and he's okay.

He's here under observation for a few days. They want to make sure his heart doesn't go into arrhythmia from the stress the clot causes on the heart.

Bad news is he'll have to be on Coumadin for at least a year.... or forever....depending on if he has any more clots. or leg swelling, or anything like that.

He has Hyper-coagulation. Meaning the clotting factor in his blood is on overdrive and the meds he'll be taking wont thin his blood but inhibit the clotting factor in his blood to stop producing so much.

It doesn't have anything to do with cholesterol or weight or diet even. Kevin's dad has the same thing so they'll be Coumadin buddies now.

He gets to go home tomorrow maybe! Or Wednesday or Thursday of this week. He'll need to take 2 shots a day in his abdomen of blood thinners for awhile, and he'll have to have his blood taken daily for awhile to check his INR levels, then every other day, then weekly, etc.

The good news?

The view from his room!

My baby is Ancient!

Nathan's Birthday!
Yup, my first baby is 14.
Wow.
2 years from driving
104 weeks left;
208 weeks till he's 18.
Yipes! I feel old.


Ain't he handsome? :)
Here he is at the cabin, playing an XBox game we got him, he played like 6-8 hours this day


Here's his gift from Nama and Papa, Nathan saw John Bytheway at EFY this summer.


One of three shirts we got Nathan that my brother Dave designed; Dave sells these and some other great Zombie and Star Wars shirts online, (great quality too) and bumper stickers! at Zombies Happen.com This isn't a shameless plug. I'm just proud of my bro!

Then Uncle Jeff gave Nathan the Ultimate Gift AIRSOFT!!

We had a GREAT weekend at the cabin; fun, relaxing... awesome! I love it up there, so peaceful, relaxing, beautiful. FRESH AIR!! It was kind of COLD but SO nice. Next time we'll bring sweatshirts....just didn't think we'd need them in AUGUST.

Campin'

We went to Lava, Idaho a couple of weeks ago. Just kind of on a whim, I thought the boys needed to say they did something in July. So I girded up my loins and volunteered to suffer through a night of camping. Yes folks, the things I do to sacrifice for my boys.....

We went swimming at the Olympic public pool. Ick. Another sacrifice on my part. I've never been into bathing with a community and marinating in eachother's ....whatever. But! I persevered. Kevin and Nathan went tubing down the Portneuf river. They said it was pretty intense....


Cameron and I hung out at the end of Lava and waited for them to float by.....



Cameron was a little upset that he didn't get to go with them; so upset in fact that his head swelled twice the size it used to be, swelled up like a balloon.....



After the water activities we headed back to camp....
Kevin set up the tent; I helped too....a little....what a great job, baby!
Like our fire "pit"? Ha! more like a fire cup!
I have cooking bowls bigger than this. Looks like I could build a fire in them at home....who knew?



The camp site was someone's wheat field-turned-profit-maker-porta-potty heaven.



Cameron had a blast on the playground equipment.



Cutie!




The tent is pretty big! Big enough for a pillow fight without involving me....for a bit.
The night for the boys was fine. My air mattress deflated twice in the middle of the night so I was a little stiff in the morning, and got maybe 3 hours of sleep total.....wow, it sounds like I'm complaining but really.... I am.

Here the boys are having breakfast at our picnic table.....what did we have you ask? Muffins! From the night before, when we abandoned camp and drove to Pocatello and went to Perkins!!

Ask me what part of the trip was my favorite. I'd have to say....Perkins!



Nathan was kind of wanting to get back to the camping part..... he's so young.

Happy Independance Day!!

So we had a pretty relaxing day at home, I'm as patriotic as they come....but I don't do crowds if I can help it. But See? My room is all red white and blue! This print is on my wall! I'm patriotic all year. -Ann, you started the Americana thing, I LOVE it and had to keep it going :) -

Anyway, Cameron agreed to have his picture taken so we had a little fun.....

He helped me with some props.... too bad I didn't have a back drop....

The token pose....



We had some fireworks outside and Cameron LOVED the sparklers, he remembered from last year and just grabbed them and did like 4 or 5, no whining, no "ouch!" no fear! These are the cheap ones with the short handles too......

Brave kid.

Nathan enjoying himself until I told him we were not going to do the llegal fireworks his uncle gave him for today....
Then we got this face....

Um...Nathan? We have two police officers living on both sides of us....do you really think it's wise?

Hope your day was great too!