Silverwood

What a hectic day. Alexandra and Xavier both earned free admission tickets to Silverwood through the reading program at school. Which is great except my ticket was over $40. We decided to meet up with our friends the Mckinnis family hoping that her older kids would ride the bigger rides with Alexandra. I haven't been to Silverwood in 15 years. I didn't realize how spread out it is. There aren't that many rides there and all my kids are at different stages of rides. Eli wanted to ride the small rides. Xavier was ready for rides like the boat and log rides. Alexandra wanted to hit all the roller coasters. I swear I walked a good 5 miles that day, in circles. I am so grateful my mom babysat Vanessa that day. We rode the rides for most of the day. We had split up. I stayed with my boys hitting the smaller rides while Alexandra went with the others to go on the bigger rides. We met up late afternoon at the water park. Alexandra went on some of the crazies water slides I am not sure I would ever go on. It was a long day. We were heading out about 6 when I asked Alexandra if she had gone on all the rides she wanted. She hadn't even gone on one roller coaster. I felt so bad. I thought that is what they were doing the whole time but they didn't. They had gone on rides but no coasters. So we went back to the rides and she went on a coaster. I should have stayed longer and let her go on all of them but I was wiped out and still had the 3 hour drive ahead. All in all. I won't be going to Silverwood again any time soon.

Beautiful

Vanessa 2, Eli 4, Xavier 6, Alexandra 9

Xavier never lets me take pics. So i am lucky I got this one

I love this pic of Vanessa!!!

Woodland Park Zoo

Eli on the Carousel

Vanessa claimed all the hippos as hers

Alexandra on carousel

MMMMM... Sugar

Alexandra watching the elephants

Me taking a dip... I was told to put more pics of myself on. there you go.

Xavier and Eli just monkeying around.

A few summer pictures

Xavier in the tub

Eli up to bat. I hate pitching to them. They hit really hard


Jaidon and Quinton Lybbert with Xavier


Xavier is learning frisbee so he can disc golf with daddy.


Vanessa making a splash!

Eli cannot stop twirling his hair. The other day he while holding his gum accidentally twirled it into his hair.

The reason once again for not having as many pics of Alexandra is because she is often off doing her own thing. Not close to me where I can take lots of pictures of her. I will try to get a few more shots of her. We have lots of summer to go.

Bikes

So while buying Xavier's bike Eli wanted to get a new one. I told him he had to ride without training wheels. He said he could. I said he would have to wait. When we pulled into the garage he got out of the car walked over to the bike Xavier learned on and rode it across the garage. then looked at me and said I told you I could ride without training wheels. Guess I owe him a new bike.

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He has now been riding for a couple weeks without training wheels. He is fine with the bike he has and loves to ride. he can spend hours going up and down the road. I don't' let them go far. One day Grandpa Glade took Eli, Xavier, Carter, and Byron on a long ride out to Pelican Point and around. Eli talks about that day all the time.

Taylor Swift

One morning a couple days before the Taylor Swift concert in Spokane Vanessa came out all dressed up. She said "C'mon girls, it's time for the concert."

Xavier, Eli, Vanessa and Shorty stayed with Cousin Shammee at her house. They read books and went on a treasure hunt. They were so excited to show me what they had found. Items included a bright yellow flat soccer ball, pad lock with no key, baseball and polished rocks. Cassius paid them 4 quarters for picking up rocks in the backyard. They had a great time. Alexandra and I went to the concert which was insanely crowded. We waited in line to get her a t-shirt. Alexandra was surprised by how loud the music actually was. We had floor seat on the end of the row. Next time I am opting for cheap seats. Because we were on the floor and everyone stood it was hard to see the stage. But during the concert Taylor walked around and came right by us and went to a smaller stage closer to us so we could see better for a little while. The concert was pretty good but I have to admit it was different going as an adult. I just wanted to sit back and listen to the music while the younger crowd there wanted to shout I love you's and try to follow her as she walked around wanting to get hugs and autographs. Afterwards we headed back to Shams where we had a sleepover. The next morning we shopped a little bit getting Xavier a new bike I had promised for riding without training wheels.

What I do with my spare time

Someone recently believed that I was spending much of my time on myself. If I have time to spend on myself it is only because I am about to explode and cannot function anymore. In that case I use this "spare time" to shower, walk, or stare at some inanamate object until something awakens me back to reality. Oh and occasionally I will write up a quick blog. So if I am not spending all my time on myself then what am I doing. I will list a few for a typical work week: (Random order) Coming up with breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. Cooking/preparing them, cleaning up the dishes and wiping counters. Packing lunches for school. changing diapers(avg. 10/day) changing kids clothes from pj's to clothes bathing and back to pj's. Sometime changing wet or muddy clothes. finding shoes. Wiping noses. Finding socks. Laundry.............. Changing bedding from accidents. After stripping the entire bed having the dog crap on the mattress without its protector on. trying not to kill mentioned dog and spending a good hour scrubbing and shampooing bed. Soaking up pee from do all over the house. Cleaning up spills from kids cups. brushing teeth, mine and 3 others twice a day. turning on and off sprinklers. moving hoses. wiping butts on toilet. helping wash hands. starting movies. helping apply fake fingernails or polishing nails or clipping toenails. taking out the trash. teaching kids its not ok to say stupid. Teaching them what is ok to say and in what tone, losing the sarcasm. spelling out words at a pace they can write them to make signs for forts. helping construct forts. driving to and from practices. answering phone calls. making phone calls to schedule appointments. breathing. sweeping, mopping, vacuuming. mow lawn. set up slip n slide. supervise water play. fill up squirt guns. rearrange cushions back on couch.
Those are just a few things. I am sure we all have many days when asked what did we do today we opt for saying "nothing much" when really it is so full of stuff it would sound similar to the above. So please for my sake don't assume that because I am home all day with my kids and a few others that I don't do anything. or spend the day on myself. thanks.