An Adventure on the Roof

A maintenance guy was on the roof to clear off all the stray balls. We were hoping our soccer ball would be located before we moved, but to no avail. Benjamin thought he needed to be in the stairwell when the guy went onto the roof and asked if he could go on the roof with him. I'm sure the guy didn't think Benjamin could reach up ~5 or 6 feet and scale the wall to get on the ladder, but he didn't know that Benjamin has been practicing. So, he told him that he could go up if he could get on the ladder (and if I said it was okay). He was surprised to see Benjamin climbing up behind him. I promised I wouldn't incriminate the maintenance guy by including details of the location of these photos so he wouldn't get in trouble with his boss for allowing Benjamin to go up on the roof.

Platoon Marching Compitition

We practiced marching on and off for during Chaplain Initial Military Training (CIMT). This was supposed to take place a week earlier, but it kept getting delayed. My Platoon was the only one that stuck with standard military movements. The other three Platoons made it look like an interpretative dance. It made sense why they were spending so much time out there. It was frustrating to have it pitched as a military marching contest, to only see a bunch of silliness that was not remotely in the Field Manual (FM).

Battlefield Movement

This was a long day of ranges. The pictures are from the morning. In the morning we practiced individual movement under fire (no pics of me doing this one). We high crawled for 50 meters, than we low crawled for 50 meters, crawled under barbed wire for 5 meters, and than rolled over a small wood wall. There was pyrotechnics going off the entire time.

The pics are from when we practiced battlefield movement with Chaplain Assistants. These young men and women are trained to protect the Chaplain at all costs. You can see from the pictures, that the Private is rolling on top of me and than I got up, grabbed onto him as we rushed to the next piece of cover. It really opened up my eyes to what the Assistants are trained to do.

Here we are taking cover behind a rather beaten up Pontiac Fierro. What you can't see in the picture is that just prior to getting there, I slipped and fell cutting open my hand on the rocks. On our way to the car, the Assistant slipped, and I was able to haul him up and we got to our cover.

I am looking forward to meeting the Chaplain Assistant that I will be assigned. I was impressed with all of the Assistants at the range that day.

I Have a Six Year Old!

It's hard to believe Benjamin is six. It's also hard to fathom what six means. I heard a lady who had triplets once say, "Now that they're six, I'm trying to give them some more freedom by letting them play outside by themselves." I thought she was crazy at the time. Now I understand.

 Benjamin was excited to open grandma's package a day early. Part 2 of her gift is still in the mail... He's waiting for it with eager anticipation.

 Alexander was excited there was something for him in the package.

 Benjamin woke up at 6 this morning ready to open presents. I had hardly gotten any sleep so I told him I needed to sleep another hour. He kept asking me every minute or two when 7 o'clock was. I asked him what the clock said and after he told me, I'd do the math for him. I'm not sure it was effective sleep that last hour, but it was nice to prolong getting up.

There can't be gifts without a Disney Cars vehicle. I had to remember not to call it "Jeff Gorvette" because Alexander loves Corvettes like Benjamin loves Mustangs and would have been extremely jealous.

 Benjamin loved being read "Jack and Annie" books at BYU Kindergarten so when he saw a set of them in the Scholastic catalog, he was sure he needed them. Gram was visiting at the time and ordered them for him. Benjamin didn't know it, but then saw them on my dresser before I got them put away. I'm not sure how he knew what the package was, but he knew. He had a hard time waiting 3-4 months to get them and I had to move where they were hiding a couple times. Luckily, I didn't forget where they were in the end. I read one today and he's already picked out ~15 more he wants me to read tomorrow! (These are small chapter books w/~100 pages each, so I'm thinking one every day or two is more reasonable.)

Daddy send him an e-card with a cat mariachi band and dancing mice and Alexander thought it was great. He must have spent 30 minutes dancing to the music this afternoon. Ryan also sang "Happy Birthday" and sent it as an MP3. I love technology! Benjamin was excited that he was sung to so many times today (Daddy; Grandma; Gram, Gramp, Uncle Kendall, and Aunt Stacy; and then with his candles).

 Benjamin never cared AT ALL about stuffed animals until the last couple of months (He also pretends a lot more then he used to. I think it's a byproduct of kindergarten experiences... He really liked "dramatic play"). I gave him a choice of going to Chuck E Cheese or Build a Bear. He picked Build a Bear. We had never been there before. It was cute how they put a heart in the animals before sewing them up. She went through a whole routine with Benjamin about rubbing it between his hands to warm it up and putting it on his muscles to make it strong, etc.

 Here he's testing it to make sure it wasn't stuffed too much or too little. I wasn't surprised that he picked the bunny.

 I love to see Alexander so excited!

 They are "washing" all the excess fuzz off. I never got a photo of Benjamin's bear dressed, but he picked Lightning McQueen jammies and slippers. Normally he has a really hard time picking things, but once he found that outfit, he was sure he wanted it. I think it's b/c he has matching slippers.

 Benjamin and Alexander got backpacks (it was that or a little tent to share) and beach towels (a current Build a Bear promotion) too. I had a coupon which made the whole experience a bit more reasonable.

 We went and played in the mall play area for hours afterwards. Benjamin "met a new friend" and didn't want to leave, but Alexander was ready to go long before we left.

 James on his 2nd or 3rd nap of the day (We had a rough night last night and with the way he's been coughing this evening, it sounds like I'm in for another long night). James was asleep when we went in to Build a Bear, but the stuffing machine woke him up. He almost came out with a stuffed Angry Bird, but he put it down at the end. I thought the cow was the cutest and figured he'd like it since he likes to moo (Oinks are a harder sound to make). He carried it around most of the time at the play area, so he seems to like it. Benjamin dubbed it "Moo-y".

I figured Alexander would pick Spider-man for his bear and he did. But he wanted to name it "Barry" (After one of the stuffed animals that used to come home with Benjamin from Kindergarten every once in a while) and not "Spider-bear" or something like that.  

We went to our friends' for dinner and I provided mini-cupcakes and ice cream w/ magic shell. I forgot to grab my camera (this is low-res from my phone). I knew Benjamin wasn't feeling well b/c he went and laid on their couch between his cupcake and ice cream. He threw up when we got home. Alexander was sick Sunday morning and I was hoping the rest of us would avoid it :( At least it seems to be a 24-hour thing so Benjamin should be fine by the time he flies to Colorado on Thursday.

Utah Lake Festival

Sifting for shells. James was fascinated by the duck pond in the background. Mostly because he could splash in the water.

 James is also fascinated with animals, especially ones where he can make the sound for them.

 On the hay ride. 

James is wearing a harness. I got him to wear it by asking if he wanted to be my puppy. He was all over that. At first he tested the boundaries with it, but then he became really concerned when I wasn't holding on to the end of it, because I didn't end up using it that much... but I pulled it out after I lost him twice... not far, but far enough.

 I can't remember the name of the tractor, but this one looks like one from a book we've checked out at the library... 

 Alexander is mellow and fairly patient. He really wanted to catch a fish. When I asked if the boys wanted to fish or go on the tractor ride, Alexander said fish and Benjamin said tractor. When we were leaving, I asked what their favorite thing was and they both said the tractor ride. I hope Alexander wasn't too bummed out about not catching a fish. It seems like he is in his brother's shadow a lot of the time and I need to figure out how to get him out of it. 

Benjamin was handing me his fishing pole after reeling it in most of the way so I could recast it and right as he handed it to me, we had a fish on the line. I set the hook and handed the pole back to him so he could reel the fish in. I couldn't get to the camera so we didn't get a photo of Benjamin holding it. It was a blue gill and after not being able to get the hook out of it's mouth and just cutting the line and releasing it, I felt really bad for the fish and hope it can still eat with a hook near it's mouth. It was a great violation of ahimsa :(I wasn't planning to take home anything we caught anyway. I can't really stomach un-filleted fish... brings back too many ugly childhood memories... Not to mention the odor). At that point I started hoping we wouldn't catch another fish, much to Alexander's disappointment.

It is so nice that Benjamin is getting to where he can take care of himself. He took the pole back to get a new hook and took the other one back when the reel stopped working. He even went to the potty by himself. He couldn't remember where they were, but luckily I told him the tractor stopped right behind the port-a-potties so he followed the tractor to find them. (Today we missed church b/c Alexander was puking last night -- couldn't be the hotdogs b/c we all ate them -- and Benjamin was so proud that he walked there by himself. I'm grateful he didn't get sidetracked on the way... you never know with him sometimes.)

I was kind of amazed I didn't lose James in the water. It was his nap time and he was getting fussy. I tried to nurse him but it was too hot for him to go to sleep while undercover. He ended up sitting on my lap. It was hard to cast fishing line sitting down, so I had to put him down a couple times. We did lose all our worms, but someone gave us more of theirs when they left.

We waited too long to get t-shirts and they ran out of adult sizes and child smalls... but the free popcorn was a worthwhile trade (for Alexander especially). I was just happy to get a couple Swedish Fish out of the day. Yum.

Eagle Mountain Demolition Derby

I decided to drive an hour to take the boys to a demolition derby because they 1) love cars and trucks and 2) love to see things being destroyed (This is especially true of Benjamin!)

One really nice thing about being in Utah is there was no alcohol at the event. They also said a prayer to start the evening off after the national anthem (It was almost like being at a ward activity). I'm sure a demolition derby in other places might not be as "family friendly".

It was a happy surprise to find there was free wireless internet (that had a stronger signal than what we get in our apartment) and we were able to "face-time" with Ryan for part of the evening. It sounds like he really appreciated being able to share a family outing with us.

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 The little boys wouldn't wear their hearing protection, but when I asked Alexander if I could return his to the store, he told me that he needs it when things are louder, but it wasn't too loud at the demolition derby. I thought it was pretty loud. I'm sure Benjamin will get a lot of use out of his "ear muffs". He likes to follow around the people with leaf blowers; now w/ a pair of sunglasses he can at least do it safely.

"Gumby" was the boys' favorite car. Benjamin and Alexander both favor green, so I think that's why... Plus, it was an easy car to follow.

There were only 3 trucks competing and "Junky" was the last truck running. The driver apparently decided to give the crowd a show. It was the highlight of the evening for the boys. I can't imagine the driver didn't get whiplash, but he did get out of the truck and stand on top after the jump. The announcer asked if the truck still would run even though it had a bent wheel and a popped tire (It was un-steerable). The driver revved it while it was being towed and much applause followed.

 "Miss Eagle Mountain" was sitting behind us and the Eagle Mountain Rodeo Queen was sitting next to us. The Rodeo Queen talked to Benjamin quite a bit during the evening and as we were driving away, he said, "I'm in love with the Rodeo Queen and I miss her already". I told him after his mission he would find a beautiful woman like her to marry. He said he wouldn't and she was the only one. (I recall him declaring he was going to marry 2 other girls this week including a 7 month old baby... so I'm not concerned. Although, as far as I know, this is the first blonde he's ever swooned over.)

Benjamin and Alexander both think they need to be demolition derby drivers when they get older.

I packed sandwiches, but because the boys were up so late past their bedtime, they were hungry again on the drive home so we stopped at McDonalds for McDoubles. Alexander is my junk-food kid and was sure we needed to stop for another burger on the way home Saturday.