Popcorn Popping

Alexander is really starting to like singing. I didn't see him in singing time at nursery this week, but in the past he only sits and watches during the songs. I'm glad he's starting to learn them. It does make getting him to sleep harder though because he tries to sing with me instead of relaxing. I might need to pick some new songs he doesn't know for his sleep routine.

Benjamin is riding a 2-wheeler!

There are pluses and minuses to apartment living. One of the advantages for Benjamin is there are always kids around to play with. (I'm wondering how winter will be with us cooped up to avoid the cold. I guess we'll be inviting a lot of kids over.) Another good thing for him is that unless a toy is put away or being used by its owner, it is communal property.

Anyway, I was amazed when I got here that most all of the kids Benjamin's age were riding bicycles without training wheels. My parents bought him a bicycle "to grow into" for his birthday, so it's nice there's a bunch of little bikes without training wheels for him to practice on. (I'm thinking the training wheels on his bike will come off next summer).

There have been a few times Benjamin has asked me to help push him on the little bikes, but he wouldn't pedal and would just fall over when I let go. I'm also feeling particularly lethargic with this pregnancy, so pushing him around on a bicycle wasn't my top pastime. A week or so ago, Benjamin figured out he could ride his bike across the grass and then out of the blue he said to Ryan, "Hey daddy, look at me" and there he was on the sidewalk pedaling a bicycle without training wheels. We're not really sure if he'd been practicing a lot before that or what. Ryan tried to take some video of it, but every time Ryan started filming, Benjamin fell over. The footage I've included is from the 2nd and 3rd of Sept.

Benjamin doesn't normally wear a helmet on the quad, but he was wearing Cole's whose bike he was also borrowing.

Ryan was sitting by our door, trying to study, when he filmed this; so please ignore the porch railing!

Our Mini Vacation

We decided to have a "Staycation" during Ryan's 2 weeks off from classes. Part of the plan included a trip up to Hill AFB in order to get Alexander up to date on his shots (Benjamin wasn't due for any until next year, but then they said he could get them. He was excited to be getting more than his brother -- 4 -- until he got on the table and then he freaked out) and fill a couple prescriptions for me. It made sense to stay at the FamCamp for $5 a night and make it a mini vacation.
Ryan needed to exchange shoes his parents bought him for his birthday and the nearest store location was in SLC. The boys and I waited for him at the Olympic Legacy Plaza Snowflake Fountain, but the boys weren't very interested in getting wet. What they really wanted to do was ride the escalator which they did with daddy when he got back.

We were going to stop at the Natural History museum on the U of U campus, but it took us 4 hours to get out of our apartment so we didn't have a lot of time and we thought a visit to Temple Square was more important.
Benjamin and Alexander really enjoyed running along the flower beds and it was hard to convince them to do anything else.

The new model of the temple in the South Visitor Center is really neat and Benjamin spent quite a while looking at it. He was also amazed it took 40 years to build the temple.
Ryan and the boys rode the escalator in the North Visitor Center 20+ times. Benjamin was really excited he was a "big boy" because he wasn't scared to ride it by himself. Benjamin and I did sit and listen to the narrative at the Christus Statue, but he was antsy to join daddy and Alexander on the escalator. We didn't look at any of the exhibits in the basement and Benjamin now says we need to go back to Temple Square to see them after watching a few of the "Year on Temple Square" videos on the Friend website (lds.org).
The family photo was an afterthought. I'm not sure where Alexander's shoes are... he usually refuses to wear them.
The FamCamp at Hill only had 3 tent spaces so we didn't have a water spigot, barbecue grill, or picnic table. I had planned for us to roast hot dogs the first night and then have grilled ham and cheese sandwiches the second night. We ended up warming our hot dogs in the microwave at the mini-mart and eating them on the picnic table outside. Ryan was a bit grumpy about "feeling like a hobo" so we went to Red Robin the second night and used the rest of a gift certificate Ryan's parents had given us.

I told Ryan we didn't need to bother moving the pine cones out from under our tent when we were setting it up. I won't ever suggest that again. It would have been okay except the cap on our air mattress is broken and I popped the super glue seal that was holding it together because I thought it was leaking and tried to tighten it. Luckily Ryan was able to make another run to the mini-mart and buy more super glue and duct tape which fixed the problem.

Benjamin did great sleeping in his own tent although Alexander threw a fit when it was time for daddy to read to Benjamin and he couldn't join them.
The Hill Aerospace Museum had a great unadvertised kids area. We could have spent ALL day in there.
Benjamin and Alexander aren't into dress-up. I couldn't convince them to put helmets on and take a picture with me.
There were ~10 flight simulator with rudder pedals and all and that was a hit. It was crazy how rustic Omaha looked in the simulation.

Benjamin hurt his knee and was limping around after the Aerospace museum. At first I was worried it was a reaction to the shots. We are not very sympathetic parents b/c we kept making him walk on it. I'm grateful he was fine by the next morning.
There is a really nice children's museum in Ogden (but not quite as good as the Lincoln Children's museum) and it had free admission for military families until Labor day.

Alexander wouldn't wear the cowboy hat until he saw Benjamin wearing one. It didn't last long for either of them.
Ryan dreaming.
Benjamin was fascinated by the hole punch shapes. He wanted "millions" of cut out airplanes. I made a bookmark for him with all the cut outs.
I'm amazed Alexander wasn't covered in ink after his possession of the stamp pad. He seemed fairly unsupervised! (Daddy?)
They had participatory story time, but Benjamin is too reserved to volunteer. The story was about "Emperor Bag of Rice". Ryan thought calling him "Emperor Bag of Doughnuts" made for a better story.
That tower could have made for an interesting game of Jenga. We didn't get a good photo of it, but the boys spent a lot of time in the train table area. Ryan also read all of "Spirited Away" to Benjamin and he sat through the whole 30+ minutes of it and was really excited to tell me the plot afterward.

Gram, Gramp, Uncle Kendall, and Aunt Stacy's Visit.

Benjamin is fascinated by cougars (i.e. mountain lions).
While the Lewis clan was catching up on sleep (they drove all night from NE to get here), Ryan took Benjamin to the BYU football practice. Benjamin is becoming quite the fan. He chanted "B-Y-U, B-Y-U, B-Y-U..." as they were leaving to come home.
Benjamin slept on the living room floor in his sleeping bag near Gram and Gramp while Kendall and Stacy took over the boys' room. Alexander needs his own sleeping bag. It was so nice of Benjamin to share with him while Ryan read books to them.

We never get many photos when we're with Ryan's parents. They went to the pool and again to the football practice on Saturday morning.

Ryan's Surprise 30th Birthday Party

I had been planning to give Ryan a surprise party for his 30th probably since I turned 30 almost 2 years ago. This spring I made the mistake of telling Benjamin about it. Who would have guessed a then 3 year old couldn't keep a secret? Luckily Benjamin had been watching a "Max and Ruby" episode at the time about Ruby's surprise party so I was able to cover it up. I then didn't tell Benjamin ANYTHING else about the party. It was kind of sad because he was still up in the quad riding his bicycle when everyone yelled "surprise", so he doesn't even really know daddy had a surprise party after all!
I was worried no one was going to come to the party because it was 5 minutes after I asked people to arrive and there was only 1 family who had shown up. We did have the perfect small group of guests in the end. Ryan and Kendall ended up being 40 minutes late to the party because they had walked Stacy up to the Missionary Training Center so she could help new missionaries with their Indonesian and Benjamin had insisted on taking his bicycle. Ryan's mom had texted Ryan's brother to see where they were at and Kendall's response was "the boys are being difficult." My children were good birth control for Kendall that day.

It was kind of funny because Ryan ran into some guests on the way to the laundry room. It was a guy from his Chaplain program and his wife. J.D. told Ryan he was going to dinner at one of the other Chaplain guy's places (who happened to be in Idaho at the time, which Ryan knew... this wasn't the best time for a party because it was during the semester break). Luckily, Ryan just figured he had the date wrong.
Because Ryan was so late arriving, the kids at the party were getting antsy. I had intended to have the door open when Ryan came down the stairs, but it was so noisy that I missed my window. Ryan was at the last washer wondering where Stacy's laundry was when he heard "Surprise!" from across the hall. I ended up having to usher the party into the laundry room and yelling "surprise" a second time for Ryan to figure out what was going on. I didn't get a good photo of his initial reaction, but I don't think his expression changed too much.
This is the poster I made for the party. Ryan asked what the poster board was for when I brought it home from the store. I said it was for a project Benjamin and I were doing. He didn't ask anything else. I was going to include Benjamin so there were no lies, but Alexander threw a fit when I took the poster away from him after he danced all over it and tried to carry it off... After that, I figured it was just easier to assemble it alone. I was sad to see that I unintentionally didn't print/include a single photo of Ryan with his brother Alexander.
Benjamin looks ready for cake!
I was hoping the candles wouldn't set off the fire alarm in the building (and they didn't). There's a rule against candles in the buildings and someone had told me people have always done it anyway, but I think it's been for 3-4 year old parties and not 30! Ryan did blow wax all over the cake and I'm amazed people ate it anyway!!!
The party must have been meant to be because I got a free cake (great news for a party on a poor college student family's budget), our neighbor who had the keys to the basement just happened to be outside when I needed to find him, and Ryan was clueless. It really helped having his family in town and being 8 months pregnant so I had an excuse not to go swimming on Friday and to lunch on Saturday. I needed the extra time to get things ready. I am also grateful Ryan doesn't check our financial accounts AT ALL. It definitely made things easier, but it is a little scary about how oblivious we can be to the events around us. I wonder what goes on around me that I have no clue about!?! I am glad the party is over and I was able to come clean on my phantom Facebook account and changed e-mail password. It was hard doing some of the planning, including hijacking Ryan's Facebook account without feeling like I was doing something nefarious.
Ryan really enjoyed the party and might even end up liking birthdays after all. (He's despised them since his 17th birthday when EVERYONE forgot until a week later). People are so great too... Like I said, we had the perfect group of guest at the party and Ryan's gotten gifts and cards from people we never would have expected. Thanks for your generosity!!!!