Bedtime

As in any household with small children, Bedtime doesn't always go smoothly here. Usually there's a little weeping and wailing, some gnashing of teeth. "I don't want to take a bath!" followed by, "I don't want to get out of the bath!" and then a few naked hooligans trying to escape the inevitable, etc. However, every once in a while we get surprised and something fun happens that makes us remember it's not really all that bad.

Charlie loves to "read" us Green Eggs and Ham. He does pretty well considering the fact that, well, he can't read. Tonight he gave us a special treat.

Charlie: (at the end of the book)

"And I would eat them on a train, and I would eat them in the rain. I would eat them in a car, and I would eat them in the snow."

Bart: "SNOW??"

Charlie: (giggling) "HAHA! Just kiddin'!"

I just wish I could have caught the look on his face on camera. He was so pleased with himself.

Last night Bart and I enjoyed watching some Brian Reagan comedy. Somewhere in the middle we heard the pitter-patter of little feet and some peeping noises on the stairs.

"Hello?" I called. All pitter-patters and peeping stopped. We thought the culprit had gone back to bed. (Shows how much we know, right? I mean, seriously, what 2 or 4-year-old is going to go back to bed by themselves when Mom and Dad are CLEARLY having more fun??) 45 minutes later we found this atop the stairs leading to the bedrooms:

Apparently Jane wanted to listen to Brian Reagan too. He IS hilarious after all!

Charlie-ism

"Mommy, I got that spider!"

"You killed a spider?"

"Yeah, I killed him with my bat. Isn't that AWESOME??"

Has it REALLY been 2 years??

2 years ago we moved to our current residence.

At the same time my younger (because I can hardly call him "little") brother left for the great Confederate Capitol of Richmond to serve his Heavenly Father.

Because we don't get to go home to see his return, we called and got permission to go up and take him out to lunch (thanks Mom!). We even got to play a little frisbee and the next day we drove him to the mission home.

Even while it was a little bitter-sweet, it was good to see you, Sammy!!

The first time Jane got to see her uncle since she was 6 months.

Frisbee skills.

Bart, Charlie, Jane, Sammy, Anne, Elder Bond, and Elder "Dang it!" Richardson

Before we left to see Sam, I told Charlie he'd throw him in the air to make him fly. Charlie, who doesn't even like to swing, said, "That's too high for me!"

I was a little surprised at how much he really liked flying!

Of course Jane couldn't be left out.

Dropping him off at the mission home.

Charlie was there, but isn't too big on goodbyes. He was more interested in the playground.

Mountains

It has gotten hot here.

I mean HOT.

With the heat comes humidity. With the humidity comes bugs in all their variety.

And not that I'm complaining, because at least we don't have long winters, but I was a little sad this last week when I walked outside at 9:30 PM expecting some cool mountain air to rush over me and instead I got...heat...and humidity...and a cockroach on my door.

It was a momentary brain lapse. We have lived here two years after all, and have also lived with Caribbean island weather which is much the same in the summer, but it hit me.

I MISS THE MOUNTAINS.

This feeling was multiplied by 1000x when Charlie and I walked across a baseball field one day and while crossing the pitchers mound he exclaimed,

"Wow, we just climbed a high mountain!"

*sniff* Really? My kid has forgotten what a MOUNTAIN is??

I quickly forgave him because he is only 4, but like I said, it just made me miss mountains more.

The other thing is, (and forgive me. I truly don't mean any offense by what I say next) any old mountain will just not do. We have visited several nearby mountain ranges and have had a wonderful time breathing their air and glimpsing their vistas.

The Great Smokies, for example, are BEAUTIFUL.

But they're not the same.

This is where I grew up:

Not the cabin, silly!

But this dwelling is on my Granddad's land and we used to play in that cabin and climb the hills you see behind it.

This is a reservoir, 5 miles from where I grew up. We used to bike there in the summer and cliff dive. There are also several beaches.

Notice the HILLS.

These are pictures of canyons near my home town.

(this one's for you, Fruitland Native)

Not good enough for you?

I'll give you another sampling of MOUNTAINS I grew up with. Mountains we have climbed, breathed, explored, slept under, and made memories with.

And the BEST part about the mountains I grew up with is

THEY ARE NOT ALL THE SAME.

Eastern mountains are BEAUTIFUL, especially in the spring and fall, but we found that there's not much variety (again, no offense meant).

The mountains I grew up with are unique, each and every one*. And with every turn there's a new adventure.

I have heard some say that some of my mountains are ugly. That's fine. They're entitled to their opinion.

I think they're grand.

*Due to a computer fritz, we lost some of our coolest photos--therefore, I had to steal some images from the internet. Most of these are ours, but not all.

A Serious Threat

"I will grow big and be a monster and

EAT YOU!"

That's how angry four-year-olds lash out at their mothers.

It would be a little ridiculous if it weren't so cute.

Holstered Gun

I guess we better get Jane a belt...

Charlie-ism

After spending the day at the beach with 3 hairy-chested men, Charlie said,

"I don't WANT a beard on my chest! Please don't make me have a beard on my chest!"

We didn't have the heart to tell him that, genetically, he's doomed.

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