Afternoon at the museum

We took the boys to the Children's Museum at the Gateway today. It turned out to be two-dollar off Tuesday, so we joined the discount crowd along with two elementary schools of children at the museum. In spite of the fact that it would have been easier if there had been 200 fewer children there, we had a great time. The boys probably need to be five or six years older to really appreciate it, which is parent code for saying that the parents wished the children wanted to spend more time in the neat storytelling and media stations for older children.

Simon was just thrilled to have colorful balls to play with. He didn't care they were in a museum. Parents take children to museums so they can play with the same toys they would play with at home, but in a more educational setting.



Ben had a great time playing in the balls, but he was mostly confused by the construction zone area. He went back to the balls, and spent half an hour feeding balls into a vacuum tube that sucked the balls away. Tons of fun!



There was a baby area where Simon got to play.


In between crowds of elementary school kids, Ben finally got a chance to play at the water station. He wore the smallest smock they had, which was huge on him. Splash!





Once Simon saw his brother playing in the water, he demanded to play in the water too. We took his shirt off and he had a great time splashing around.





Simon was delighted to discover a little bitty Simon-sized slide in the area reserved for bitty kids.

A Busy Day

Today Simon and I turned over the front flower/tomato garden with a shovel.  Okay, I did it while Simon played on the lawn on a blanket.  I turned it over and mixed in a couple bags of Nutrimulch.   My arms and back are sore from that much shoveling.

Meanwhile Mommy and Ben were digging her lavender bushes out of our real "Garden" aka the weed patch.  She's dug them out and potted them in preparation for tilling the garden.  And now all four lavender plants are now in pots.  We'll baby them for a couple days before putting at least a couple out by the front flower bed/garden/litterbox, in hopes that the lavender will help keep the neighbors cats out. 

We planted the lavender and a few other xeric plants our first year here, but due to the difficulty Da had weeding them while pregnant with Ben, she wasn't able to keep up with the weeds, and the plants were soon well surrounded by weeds.

Actually, most of the plants she planted are still doing fine, though some of them tend to get well hidden by the weeds that rule the garden.  But we're only going to save the lavender bushes.

The Garden, we think it was the garden of the previous owners by how well it grows weeds, but on the otherhand it's so sandy it might have been the site of a swing set.   The sandy quality of the soil is the main reason we haven't planted a garden there before this year.  I've been dumping leaves, small branches from our willows (Anyone need twigs?  We've always got a million of them.), and any dirt I dig up from other parts of the yard into it to try to build up some organic materials.  

Now we just need to borrow a tiller from some neighbors, and till it all in to see if we have soil, or just sand only capable of growing weeds and xeric plants.   Da has already arranged it, so Dad doesn't need to bring his down.

We also started a whole bunch of plants today.  We like those little greehouse trays with the peat pellets.  Ben liked watching them grow when I filled the trays with water.  We have tomatos, zuchini, beans, crookneck squash, oregeno, and basil planted so far.  By mid April they should be ready to transplant to either the garden, or the flowerbed/garden we've used the last couple years. 

So we all enjoyed the great weather today, while working/playing in the yard.  I'm sure it won't be the last time if the weather holds.  The biggest problem will be avoiding the temptation to put plants or seeds into the ground too early.

Cabbage Patch Dolls

Yesterday at Church, a friend Christina pointed out that we have a real life Cabbage Patch™ Doll in our family.

See if you can pick the real one out from the pictures below.

Yes, we realize his hair is a little too straight so we augmented it for this final picture.

He's Home!

Welcome home, Dirk! He arrived safely at 5:45 a.m. I found out the reason the flight was so early is that Southwest is the only airline that wanted the charter contract the military put out, and Southwest said when they would fly. *yawn* The Army also insists soldiers be at the airport at least four hours before the boarding, so Dirk was at the base airport at 11:00 p.m. last night to arrive in Utah at oh dark hundred this morning. We only had to get up at 4:00. I didn't get much sleep either, though, because I woke up every 10 minutes to look at the clock: "what do you mean, it's only 1:10 a.m.?!!"

Dirk's flight actually got there early, so no one was there to watch him walk off the plane. Well, other people were there, but none of Dirk's relatives. The second plane, due in at 6:45 a.m., also arrived early, so all of us who were there for the 5:45 plane got to cheer for the second half of the soldiers. I tried to take pictures of the flags they had lining their arrival, but it was too dark. Here are dark pictures.




Shawn and Ethan, and then Kecia, Glenn and Emma were there first. Then I arrived with Kelly (glad I ran into Kelly in the parking lot because he carried Ben for me). My parents found us not long after that. Mauri and Ira brought the whole family. Susan was last. Poor Susan! Her alarm didn't go off, and I don't even want to know how she managed to get from Layton to Salt Lake as fast as she did.






I'd told Dirk we'd be carrying St. Patrick's Day balloons so we would stand out from other sets of yellow and patriotic balloons. Turns out there weren't that many balloons there anyway, but Dirk said he spotted my green balloons before he saw me, so they worked. Shortly after that, the balloons made a dash for freedom:



It was wonderful to see Dirk. The big hangar was freezing and crowded, and it was just awesome to see all the soldiers wandering around carrying yellow roses and finding family members. The military rock band was also there (bet you didn't know the military had a rock band). They added to the festive atmosphere, but the sound system in the hangar is so enthusiastic that it made it hard to talk.

Afterwards, we all went for breakfast at IHOP. There were two other big groups of people there with their soldiers.





Yesterday, Susan brought down lots of flags, and put the rebar into the soft dirt in the flowerbeds. The flags looked great when she put them up yesterday! Then we took them all down for the night. The next morning, the wind was so strong that 5 minutes after I'd put them up, several were leaning dangerously, so I pulled a bunch of them out. The ward put another two dozen flags around the perimeter of the yard, and those held up great! Our yard looked festive! Susan made a lot of yellow ribbons too, and those looked wonderful.






After we got home, Simon went right to back to sleep. Then he woke up, and Dirk and Benji are napping now. I get the afternoon nap shift. So if you're wondering how we celebrated Dirk's safe arrival, we all just went back to sleep.

We're so happy he's home!

The Air Force Museum

We went to the Air Force Museum with my folks last week. Big airplanes made a nice change from big dinosaurs, although it was too chilly to see all the ones outdoors. Ben kept announcing, "Pane! Biiiiig pane!" He had a grand time. Not only were there lots of biiiig panes to see, but the museum was huge enough to run around in.

I hadn't been to the museum in years, and it was great to go back and read some of the history and just marvel at the fact that things that big get off the ground. One of the transport/cargo planes was absolutely huge, and I wondered if Dirk will fly home in something like that.

The museum is the second largest airplane museum in the U.S. The biggest one is at Wright-Patterson AFB. Of course, it would be hard to have a small airplane museum, considering that this is one of the smallest planes:



Ben checks out a display case.



Simon got to hang out with both grandma and grandpa! He's decided he'd rather be carried than sit in his stroller. He's quite the big baby, but he sure is a cuddly boy, and enjoyed being passed around to everyone.






Ben is standing next to a toddler-sized fighter jet.



As we wandered through the museum, we noticed a bunch of people in uniform who all looked like they were going somewhere special. It turned out that the museum was hosting a retirement ceremony for a Brigadier General. We politely avoided the corner they were using, but then a soldier started calling people to attention. "Ten-hut! Hut! Hut! Hut!" Well, Simon knows that game! When someone shouts, you do the nice, social thing and shout back. So Simon started replying between "Huts!" with a friendly "Aaa!" Big buildings like that are echo chambers, so we quickly wandered away. A man chuckled at Simon's shouts and suggested we sign him up, as he'd make a good drill sergeant.

Piggies

This is a random moment from Dirk's leave last November when he was behind the camera and I played "five little piggies" with Simon. Mostly, I decided to post it because I was having such a good hair day that day.

Ten months old!

Ten months ago today, we welcomed this little guy into the world:





And now look at him! He's sure wonderful to have around, and I'm glad I had both my little boys this year while Dirk was gone.