Hell No!

It's not a term Zoe has used yet, but her enthusiasm with using the word "NO!" may as well be the same as "Hell No!" The kicking and screaming has begun and she is delighted with herself. I'm not sure that I am prepared for the third and final round of the terrible twos, but I take a deep breathe and remind myself that it is essential to laugh.....often.

Her favorite naughty things include:

Climbing on the kitchen table. This often includes something flying across the room. Typically I wouldn't worry about her climbing on the table, but we have a tall bar style table and I don't do well with blood. Plus, every time she stands proudly in the middle of the table, I think of her future and hope table dancing is excluded. My morbid imagination seems to take it a bit further because Tina Turner's hit "Private Dancer" plays over and over again in my brain. In fact, it's the only song I have in my head these days....ask Landon.

The infamous flailing of the arms and legs at the attempt to put Zoe in her car seat. I think every parent goes through this with their children. Today Zoe was insistent upon kicking me in the head repeatedly. Zoe thought this was quite funny between her screams of agony. Surprisingly, I had no reaction to being kicked. I was more focused on confining my little angel and shutting the van door as quickly as possible.

Coloring on walls. She is my first wall artist and she takes every opportunity she has to happily draw a mural of scribbles on the walls, doors, cupboards, fridge and whatever else is under 30 inches tall. At visits with our pediatrician he always drills us on keeping medications and cleaning products out of reach, but he fails to mention crayons, markers, pens, paints and all other art products. These are critical products to keep out of a toddlers reach. If all households in America had these items on the top shelf, I have no doubt that child abuse statistics would drop drastically.

It's not too often that I want to shake Zoe. The rare occasion that I do want to shake her, my self restraint kicks in. Instead I opt for timeouts. Zoe is quickly becoming familiar with this practice of punishment at which she sobs and tries to cling to my leg. The sobs of "Mommy, Mommy" don't typically make me pity her. They do make me wish for a time machine to fast forward through the next year....at least the screaming parts. She also understands "spanking". It's not something I practice often, but just the word gets her attention and causes her to listen.

Zoe is still the sweetest little girl I know even though she is becoming known as Little Miss Independent. She is stubborn. Stubbornness is a horrible trait to have to deal with as a parent, but it will be a great attribute when she is in middle and high school. Her stubbornness along with her new age of independence keeps her repetition of the word "NO" so frequent that you'd think there was an echo.

Hi Ho Hi Ho It's Off To School They Go!

The thrill of school starting is running through the veins of our house. It's all Parker talks about these days. I, too, am equally excited...maybe even more excited than Parker. Today, we officially registered Parker for kindergarten. It's done! He starts on September 3rd. I think I hear angels singing......

Our Tropical Salt Lake City Vacation

So Salt Lake isn't what one would call tropical, but this year we enjoyed it as our summer vacation. We stayed at my mom's house for a week to house and pet sit while she (Toni) and my step-dad Delbert when to Oregon to see Delbert's uncle's 100th Birthday party....seriously, I hope I don't live that long.

We had a great week. It was a nice combination of family, friends, activities and just a bit of relaxing. I understand the concept of "vacation" is relaxing, but I like to go and do, not sit. Landon specifically requested that there be some sleeping in and down time.

We took the kids to Thanksgiving Point where we visited the Museum of Ancient Life and the farm. Talk about a great museum. My boys loved every minute of it and that includes my hubby. He probably had the most fun of all of us. After the museum we went to the farm. Landon named all of the animals. Landon and the kids petted a donkey (better known as both jackass and democrat) and the calf (Veal). Both animals got jealous when the other was getting attention. The calf kept ramming the donkey's kennel and the donkey was jumping around screaming. Oh, and the boys got to milk a cow. It was only three squirts each, but they thought that was fun. Landon was disgusted by it.

We hit the zoo while we were there too. It's not quite the zoo I remember as a kid. A lot of animals seemed to be gone. The lions and the polar bears are no more. A trip to the zoo is a trip to the zoo. They don't fascinate Landon or myself (well, maybe if we went in the spring), but the kids, particularly Zoe, really enjoyed it. She was all about the cats. The snow leopard looked her up and down asif he was ready to take a bite. Her favorite cats, where the small ones that looked like house cats. She would have loved to cuddle with them.

Our last big outing was Lagoon. Grandma Toni kept Zoe for the day and we took the boys. It was fun. No major meltdowns...well until it was time to leave, but the bride of cotton candy brought back smiling faces. I had two highlights of the day. First was taking Owen on the Log Ride. He shrieked when he got wet. Everyone is line was laughing. I had a hard time getting out of the log he was shrieking so loud. Immediately following that we took him on the river rafting ride. Of course I told him he wouldn't get wet! As we approached the waterfall, I decided I'd better cover him as much as possible, but it really didn't do much good. Surprisingly, he was okay with the river rafting as long as he didn't have to do it again.

My second favorite part of the day wasn't a moment, but the facial expressions and the joy you could see on the boys faces. It's stands out best on the Musical Express. Owie was hellbent on keeping his hands up the entire ride. His eyes were open as wide as they go. He put so much effort into keeping his hand up that there were no sounds coming from his smiling lips....unusual for Owen, who is the loudest kid I've ever met.

Our vacation was also filled with lots of family time. We went swimming with my brother Nate and his family. Nick, my nephew-age 6, was jumping off the diving board when he slipped into a perfect dive. Nick was terrified, but I think the crowd gave it a perfect 10. My brother has identical twins, Erik & Zack who are always fun to watch.

Family time, includes Kamille. We've been friends for years and for some odd reason we've never gotten sick of each other. Kamille has been married for almost 11 years and has four kids. This was the first time we've ever spent time together with our families. Typically when we see each other our husbands keep the kids and we go to lunch. I can officially say I like her husband Jeff. Prior to the 24th of July, he was just Jeff. There was no personality attached to it. To my surprise he is quite a delight. Their kids; Ethan, Maya, Kate and Logan are equally delightful and probably the most polite children I've ever met. Go Kamille!

Fun with Kamille includes a combination of white trash meets high school. The huge hill in her backyard allows for a thrilling homemade slip'n'slide. Parker's bloody nose and my grass burns ought to sum up the speed of the slide.

The best part of our vacation was the date night that Kamille planned. We went water sliding down a drainage covert under the I-215. No kids for this...and while I first questioned if I might die, I quickly realized that was absurd and the worst thing that could happen was being arrested. There's nothing like adding a bit of thrill to your life!

There were lots of other things that we did on our tropical vacation, but these few things needed to be highlighted for my memory's sake. Sadly, I can offer no photos. Our camera decided to die the first day we were there.

As for having a hometown vacation, I highly recommend it! Maybe next year, we'll vacation in Vernal. While everyone thinks this small town is vacant, I find it's a treasure if you scratch the surface....plus we've got a 42" rule for Disneyland.