Saturday proved to be an unexpectedly wonderful day. We started the day with a stake primary day which the kiddies really enjoyed and I did a lot of work at. (How did I get the group of 16 11-year olds?) The moment we got home Robert informed me that his friend had invited us, last-minute, to his house on the lake, for the afternoon and dinner. We raced through lunch and threw the kiddies into swimsuits and set off. Bob's house is set up a slope just one minute walk from the lake. From his porch you have the most wonderful view of the lake surrounded by lush green foliage. There is a stone path that leads down to the dock. It is all very beautiful.
On our drive there we talked to the kids a lot about how we might talk for a while before we go on the boat. We talked about being patient and how it was important to let our friend tell us when we were going to go and not to pester him. As soon as we got there the kiddies burst out with, "Mr. Bob. Where is the boat? Can we go see it?" Ah well. He was a good sport and a very gracious host so we talked for a few minutes and then headed down.On the boat each of the kids went on a huge tube with Robert. One at a time, of course. Then Robert showed off on the wake board and I proved to be a disgrace on skis (they really aren't just like riding a bike, I found.) Today Robert and I can hardly move. Pathetic, really.

Rob and Laina.
Rob and Austin.
Rob and Ethan.
Rob showing off. I am so sad I didn't get him jumping or doing his spins. No proof.
Here I am. Full of hope and confidence. You can see in my eyes that I actually believe that this whole skiing thing is not going to be a problem. I am woman...hear me roar.
And here is my best shot of the day. I had actually made it up for about 3 seconds before I hit the water. Look hard...you can see one of my skis poking out...I'm a few more feet down, still attached to my other ski, drinking lake water. :)
After every crash Ethan would yell out, "Mama...you let go. Just don't let go next time!" Thanks buddy.

When we docked the boat, Bob went and put everything on the grill and had us stay down at the lake to swim for a while. I was a little worried about how they would do swimming, but before I could say a thing, Ethan screamed, "This is how you do it!" as he ran off the deck and jumped into the air in a backwards dive. OK. I guess the kids didn't need any prompting and thank goodness they had life-jackets on. It was fun to watch them jumping off the deck and "swimming" around the water. It was a very Noman Rockwellish moment for me.
After swimming we came up, changed the kiddies and ate a delicious meal on the deck. The sun was setting and it was really breathtaking. After dinner we went on another short ride in the boat. Bob was very sweet and extremely brave to let each of the kiddies have a turn driving the boat. I thought we might get picked up for drunk driving with all of the swearing we did. With the sun setting on the lake and cool breeze coming up off the water, it was really something.
You would think that our night would be over at this point. Oh no. Not us party-animals! We took the sleeping kids straight to Sara's house, put them down to sleep and played a rather competitive game of pictionary with Sara, Aaron, Aunt Cindy and her friend Lou. I am really sad to say that the boys won. (Barely) But, they had some crazy luck on their side because you should have seen the bizarre pictures that Robert drew and they still got them. (We played it on little Preston's easel instead of drawing on paper.) We finally got home around mid-night. We all had so much fun, but I really feel old today with all my sore muscles. Robert is even worse since he did all those fancy jumps and 360's. That what you get, show-off!

I took the kids to a free trial at My Gym a couple of weeks ago. They sat down and going around the circle introducing themselves. "My name is Olivia. My favorite song is Rock-a-bye Baby." "My name is Ian, my favorite song is Twinkle little star." Then it got to my kids. "My name is Austin. I love the ABC's" "I'm Ethan. I like the Wheels on the Bus." And when it came to Laina, there was silence. The girl in charge gave her a prompt, "What's your name?" Ethan pipes in, "Her is A Laina!" "And what is your favorite song, Alaina?" After a dramatic pause she takes a deep breath and belts out, completely off-key, "Hit the Road, Jack!" Bet they weren't expecting that! :)

Alaina dressed herself today. Crown, "pack-pack," shoes....everything. Just like her favorite book, "Pinkalicious." (I think her undies were even pink. If you are going to go pink....)
While I was driving I started flipping through the radio stations. Every song seemed to be a slow love song. As I continued down the row of buttons I heard Austin muttering behind me. "no. no. no." Finally frustrated I just settled on the least annoying song when Austin called out. "No mama. I only like the Rock......and.......ROLL!" Not bad tasted for a 4 year old.

I took the kids to Ethan's OT visit the other day. While in the waiting room we see several people there for physical therapy; people who have lost limbs or who are in wheelchairs. They have talked about the wheelchairs before but just small comments here and there. Each time I talked to them about how the wheelchairs or walkers help people walk, move or just keep their balance. However, when we were leaving after our last visit all three started pointing and talking about one particular guy in a wheelchair. Instead of just talking to me, they went right up to the guy's legs and started pointing and laughing. "I can't believe it! Look at that guy!" "Mama....look at that man's legs!" "That is SO funny! Can you see him?" A little surprised and starting to get a little embarrassed at their outbursts I just said the same things I always say. "Isn't it great he has a wheelchair to help him out?" Instead of moving on, they persisted with their pointing (one inch away from the poor man) and talking excitedly to each other while pinning the guy into a corner. He was actually pretty gracious with my kids and showed them his foot saying, "yeah, this bum foot isn't working anymore." But the kids apparently felt we weren't 'getting' just how different and amazing this particular guy was and finally Ethan shouted, "No mama. LOOK!" pointing to the guy's feet, "He's wearing Daddy's shoes!" Oh. So that is what the fuss was about. Not the wheelchair, or the fact the guy couldn't walk. It was the shoes. We all just looked at each other and started laughing at how innocent and pure minded little kids can be. That really should have been the first thing I noticed as well.

Here are my kiddies pretending to go camping. I wasn't able to catch them in the act but just before the twinnies were on the blanket and Ethan was sitting in front of them driving the car. Every now and then he'd yell something back like, "You better have your seatbelts on or you will be dangerous!" The twins would then go, "click click" and wait for the next order. It was pretty funny to watch.
Austin held up his cookie today at dinner, slowly turning it around while he examined it. "Is a cookie fruit?" No. A cookie is not a fruit. He accepts this as fact and tries again. "It is a bet-chable?" No. It is not a vegetable either. Clearly puzzled now he asks, "What it is then?" Hmmm. It's a treat...now eat up.

I'm still behind in my posts.

While we were in California we spent a few days with Gina and her family and a day in San Francisco (without kids...thanks again, Gina) with Jen & Bradley. With Gina we were able to go to a couple parks, go to a children's museum in Sausalito and help celebrate Thatcher's birthday. On our day in the City on the Bay we were able to explore Golden Gate Park and eat in a fabulous, tiny Cuban restaurant and overindulge in chocolates, cupcakes & carrot cakes from a chocolatier. Yum. We managed to stay too late playing rock band and our car was locked up in the parking garage for the night. Bradley was kind enough to put us up for the night at his house. (Thanks again :)
On our way home in the morning, we stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge where Robert proposed to me 11 years ago. Can you believe it? And the most amazing thing is that we still like each other. I guess we'll give it another decade or two.

And finally...our 4th of July photos. I can't believe I got so far behind but there you have it. Our neighbor's mother from Delhi spent the evening with us, watching Robert run back and forth lighting up our fire-crackers. She happened to be outside when we got the kids out, so we invited her to stay. She has only basic English skills and her accent is pretty strong, so the only thing I really got from her was that she wanted to take Lainy back to Delhi with her. I'm pretty sure she was joking. But not positive.
Ethan was really worried when he first held the sparklers. It took him awhile to understand that it wasn't going to hurt him. He was almost as worried about Austin and Alaina as he was about himself. The noises were also a bit hard for him to take, but he finally got into the spirit of it after he saw the first few go off.
In South Carolina you can buy fireworks year-round. We were able to get what we thought was a huge ol' package of fireworks but honestly, it would have been simple to get three times as much.

And that is it. I'm officially caught up with the blog. Yeah for me. :)