So Long, Farewell

We're hitting the road for a few weeks on a last-minute summer trip to Idaho/Utah, or Udaho as Mark cleverly (or so he thinks) calls it. And where we're going may be the last place on earth (the mountains of Cache Valley) that doesn't have internet access, so here's a few updates to remember us by while we're gone (in case anyone misses us):

A fun day trip where we went to find windmills (FAIL) but found Chittenango Falls by happy accident:

NO, Shelby's still not walking, but we had to save her pants - I mean, seriously, I am so tired of sewing up holes in her pants tushies!! I'm about to just leave her in her diapers and let her scoot around and let bum-rug burn finally motivate her to walk. Anyway, here's Shelby's new form of transporting herself around. It works great until Noah decides he's too lazy to walk around and shoves Shelby off of it.


Noah likes to get himself dressed lately. This was one of his latest ensembles. He insisted he was as dressed as he needed to be and pronounced himself "handsome."


Connor earned his karate Yellow Belt! Bravo! Where soccer failed for Connor, karate has succeeded. He's already calculated the time it will take him to earn his Black Belt - right around his 8th birthday in less than 2 years. We're very proud of Connor! (Not to distract from Connor, but look at Shelby peeking around the corner and wearing one of the boys' discarded socks - she LOVES socks.)


On a sad note, we had to put one of our dogs, Holly, to sleep. She was 14 years old and had developed more tumors and it was just time now. Noah was particularly attached to her, but he happily reminds us every day that Holly is in Heaven now and is playing and happy, along with our other recently deceased pets (4 pets in 18 months is tough to handle). We'll see you later, Holly. (And yes, Noah puts his own pajamas ensembles together, too - I take no responsibility whatsoever for his "handsomeness.")


Noah has made peace with his green birthday car and now loves it (see our April post about Noah's birthday for the whole story - it's worth reading!). He and Shelby can happily tool around for hours in the backyard now, although Mark is getting disturbed by the trails that are getting worn into our grass (since Noah drives the exact same path over and over and over and over again).



We've called Shelby our Bling Baby for several months now, as she LOVES shiny things. She got into my gift-wrapping box, got out the silver ribbon (the shiniest, of course), and proceeded to decorate herself with it and scooted all over the house, happy as a little bedazzled clam.



More of my failed attempts at the perfect children photo. Shelby looks like the perfect pretty princess that she is, but her brothers....UGH! Yeah, nice legs, Connor. And look at the second photo of Noah...we think this is EXACTLY what he's going to look like at 16 years old, Mr. Too Cool.



One of the most terrifying days of my life occured a few weeks ago when Noah came into my office and showed me that he'd painted his fingernails. OH. MY. GOSH. I swear I jumped over chairs, pets, pillows, playpens and anything else in my way and ultimately landed on Shelby's Happy Singing Bear to save my nail polish (and my couches, floors, tables, and everything else in the living room where Noah had conducted his operation). And of course, Noah didn't pick my clear or pale polishes, he went for the reds and the black vampies. His hands looked like they were dripping blood. While several bottles of polish were open and tipped over in my nail polish caddy (I'm serious about nail polish, okay?), it was NOWHERE else to be found. To this day, *all I know is that in my childhood I must have done something good*, in order not to have my beloved (and Limited Edition and no longer available for less than $50 on eBay) vamp Chanel Feu de Russie nail polish spread all over the living room furniture and floors.


As if that weren't enough, later that day Noah got his hands on some GooGone and sprayed it all over, around and actually INto the litter box. While I appreciate the thought that GooGone might miraculously make cat poo disappear (can you imagine how RICH I'd be???!!), messing with the cats litter box is very much akin to messing with my nail polish. Don't. DO. It. Indiana & Pequop protested by going the bathroom NEXT to the litterbox for the remainder of the day (until I discovered the Goo Gone problem late that night).

Fortunately (for him), later that evening in the car, Noah redeemed himself by asking to listen to Mamma Mia songs. There's nothing like Abba songs (and the sound of a cute little 4-year old voice singing Super Trouper) to make all the bad things go away!

A-ha! Here we have the perfect family children portrait: Yessssssssssssssss!


See ya in July with updates from Lava Hot Springs, Yellowstone, the fountains of the Gateway, and all other great things that Udaho has to offer!