Jason.  My gorgeous surprise child.  He is constantly making me laugh.  He is all-boy.  He jumps from the couches, and the table and chairs.  He runs and growls and yells.  He is as thick as a tree trunk and fast.  So fast, I can never catch him.  As rough and tumble as that child is, he is equally as sweet.  He demands his hugs and loves and cuddles.  He loves to cozy up to just about anyone who will play with him.  I love my little man.

Over the past couple months, I've been jotting down little conversations that I've had with Jason or that I've overheard.  The list has gotten quite long, which means it is time to post them up on the blog and share them.

Jason and Mama.  Jason was playing with some plastic bowls, so I thought I'd see just what he was up to.  "Jason, what are you making?"  Instead of answering he put up his bowl to show me and asked me, "What I making?"  I thought about it and answered, "Cake."  Jason nods, "Oh right.  Good.  Here you go."  He allows me to take a bite.  Curious, I ask, "What in the cake?"  His answer is immediate, "water, eggs and pickles!"  Ah.  Naturally.   I tell him, "Pickle cake.  I love it."

He smiles and keeps stirring his bowl.  Smiling now he asks, "What I making?"  I love this game.  "Hmmm.  A pie, I think."  He likes that idea, "Oh right.  Good.  A Pie.  Here you go."  I take another bite, "Ooh.  What's in it?"  He nods.  He thinks I have good questions.  "Ah yes.  Pickles and choc - o - late."  Without waiting for my response he quickly asks me again, "What I make?"  I'm ready.  "I think you are making a shake now."  He agrees.  "Oh yes.  Good.  A shake."  I prod him along..."What's in it?"  He's an enthusiastic chef now.  And confident.  "Pickle, cheese and chocolate.  My FAVORITE!!"  Hey, don't knock it 'till you try it.  Pickle, cheese and chocolate are all very awesome ingredients.

Jason woke up on the right side of the bed the other day.  When I got to his room he was all smiles.  I asked him what made him so happy that morning:

Jason - I do got good dream

Mama - what was it?

Jason - I dream bout me  (enter dramatic pause)  and Dada!

And that was it.  The whole dream.  Just Jason and Dada.  Hanging out.  I guess dreams don't get much better than that.

After dinner one night, Jason came over and lifted up my shirt to check out my belly.  He then proceeded to have a pretty much one sided conversation.

With my shirt up he asks  -Oh you got your belly button full?

He gives it a better look - That is really big.

He gives my belly a tentative poke - oh, ha ha....

Now he starts squishing it around with both hands - It SO full!

He walks over to Alaina and pulls up her shirt - Nai Nah....you got full belly button?

He shakes his head - No.  Not full belly button.

Then, one by one, he walks over to the other members of my sweet family (who are laughing).   He lifts up each of their shirts and decides that, no, their bellies are not full yet.

He comes back to himself and asks - Jason got belly button full?

Then he answers. - No.

Now he's made a circle of the table.  He's back to me.  He checks my shirt one last time. - Mama!  you got bellybutton full!

It's enough to make you want to have dessert.  Lots of dessert.

I gave Jason a string cheese which he gobbled up and then he started waving the cheese packaging, while yelling at/to me, "go put it in the garbage!  Go put it in the garbage!"

Where did this little dictator come from?  I politely told him that he could go and put his own garbage away in the garbage can.

Jason, a man of few words, simply replied.  "No."

I tried buttering him up, "Yes, you are a BIG boy!"

He gave it back, "You are a BIG Mama!  You go put it in the garbage!"

I tried encouragement, "You can do it all by yourself."

He gave it back...again, "You can do it all by yourself."

I can also be a woman of few words.  I gave him the 'mom' look coupled with a very stern, "Go."

He frowned and whispered 'okay' and put his garbage away.

A couple hours later I was helping Emmett and I asked Jason if he'd take something over to the garbage for me.

Without skipping a beat he said, "No.  You a big Mama!  You can do it all by yourself."

I hate quick learners.

Alaina was running late for school.  Again.  When she was almost at the ladder to hop over to school, Jason ran to the door and demanded a hug.  Alaina can't say no to the child and she quickly ran back and gave him a hug and sprinted off again.  Jason called out after her, "I love you!"  and then "Have good day!"  Alaina quickly told him the same and was off, over the fence and gone.

Jason looked at me with his eyes full of admiration.

"Laina fast like a cheetah!"

Then:

"My fast like a cheetah too!"

Happily he concluded,  "Both like a cheetah!"

So cute!



Whenever I do something that Jason can't do for himself, he yells out, "Mama BIG   and   STRONG!  while showing off his big muscles.  I always agree.  This is the only time in our lives that I will be big and strong to my boy...I'm going to milk it for all it's worth!

Now, that's probably enough for right now.  Give me another month and I'll have another full post of cute little sayings.  Really, I don't see this cutie slowing down.

Gina's family all went off into the sunset, but we got to keep Gina here.  Lora drove up and Mom drove down.  Before we knew it, we had our girl-group together and we all drove up to Saint George to spend a few days together for a girl's get-a-way.

We stayed at my aunt's trailer home, which was very generous of her to allow us to use.  It also was a perfect fit for us.

After we stocked the fridge with a load of food and enough cheese to feed a small country, we got down to the important things...like figuring out who exactly was the shortest Scribner girl.  Turns out it was me.  I hate to admit it, but I don't think I can deny the old knife-on-the-head balance test.  

That night we saw a local rendition of 'It's a Wonderful Life.'  The playhouse was very cute and the actors were very animated.  It made for a fun evening.

We spent the next couple of days doing things that we never have the chance to do when we are surrounded by all the kids.

We ate out.  A long, relaxing breakfast at a restaurant without chasing down little ones or hearing any complaining?  Yes, please!

We stopped by the Saint George temple.  It is so pretty.

We shopped the antique stores.  It's amazing how silly we can be when we aren't busy telling our kids to stop being silly. 

We stopped in art galleries and, get this, actually stared at the art.

One evening we drove to the mountains and we stopped at the Tuacahn Theatre and we decided to have the Scribner Family Cloggers perform a couple impromptu numbers.  We were awesome.

The audience loved us.

Out biggest day was actually one I wasn't super excited for.  Since we were so close to Zion's park, we all wanted to spend some time there.  Mom was thinking about a drive.  I was thinking about a couple small hikes.  Gina was thinking about buying the postcard.  But it was Lora's day.  And Lora was thinking about rappelling down the mountains.  What?  I know she is young and sprightly, but I'm nearly middle age, Gina (although more in shape than us all) is even closer to middle age and Mom is just barely past it.  What was that girl thinking?

Well, I guess she was thinking we needed a little adventure in our lives.  And we did!  Here we are not really knowing what to expect. 

We just decided to go for it, and we followed our fun, young guide straight up the mountain.  

And when I say...straight up the mountain, that is exactly what I mean.  This was not easy hiking.  This was mountain goat hiking.  We had to find footholds and handholds and sometimes bum holds (when the person in front of us wasn't quite making it :)  Somehow we scrambled up those mountains 4 times in a row.  Half of the hike was covered in snow.  

This was our first rappel.  It was a sort of 'sink or swim' sort of training.  Jack hooked us up and told us to head on down.  I have to say, the first time was pretty darn scary.

I can't believe how brave Mom was doing this.  She picked it up like a pro.  I have to admit, I was pretty nervous, and on that first decent, I stumbled a bit and ran into a weird tree-bush that scratched my leg up so good that the bruise was there for a good month.   These were big drops!

Now prepare yourselves for many, many photos.  Something like this, really needs to be well recorded.  (Who knows if this will ever happen again?)

 I think that is lora coming down the mountain, way up there.

The view.

This rappel was our very steepest.  You can see that the ledge to drop down was tiny.   The actual drop was completely vertical and flat.  That made it scary-fun.

This picture looks scary, with Jack's hands look like he either just pushed Gina off the cliff or was trying to grab her.  He was a funny kid.

Here is Mom making that same rappel.

Now this picture looks like I didn't rotate it, but that is the drop Mom made.  The wall is so vertical, that when Jack leaned way out to snap her picture, it looked like she was just standing straight up.

Here is a view of the same drop from the bottom.

Hiking back up.

On one of the hikes we took, the path kindof disappeared for a small stretch.  Jack balanced himself on a small ledge below us and he held our feet as we walked across the ledge.  

Lora coming down.

Gina coming down.

This was a tricky 'path' as well.  We had to work our way through this crevice.  About half way down we could drop down and walk on the ground again. 

Mom on her way down.

The view.  This was the the field that Robert Redford and Paul Newman rode through while filming Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Many of the places we went where through were tight little hole in the walls...or ground.

But this rappel started at the end of what I fondly call 'The Wedge.'  We had to shimmy through this crack and then rappel down.

It was worth it.  Can you see the wedge way up high from this next shot?  That was a fun drop and sadly, our last one.

We made it!  We lived!  Thanks to Lora, we had a wonderful new adventure. 

And that, my friends, was a great way to end a very fun girl's trip to Saint George.   Too soon, we all had to head on back to our normal lives.  No more spur of the moment antiquing.  No quiet lunch dates.  We all love our crazy little lives at home, but it was sure nice to be a kid and a sister for a few days.