Nana and Grandaddy's visit

We had a great visit with Elizabeth and Kent this past week; non of us were ready for it to end.

Grandaddy graciously enters into the kids world and plays Minecraft with them.  They were just a little excited to snuggle on the couch with him.

You know people love you when they come to the dessert in July to see you.  I am so glad they didn't melt away!  I think our coolest day was 106°.

 

We were curious how the Fourth would be here in Yuma and were pleasantly surprised to find it really quiet.  Ben bought a couple of fun things for the kids to do, but we didn't see anyone else out and only heard a few big booms late at night.

At first, the boys were pretty timid of the little fireworks,

but slowly warmed up and by the end of our stash, they were begging for more.

We ate a TON of yummy food.  

We made a stop for donuts and burritos one morning.

We went to our favorite taco truck, but maybe chose the wrong night.  It was 115°!  We've been before when it was above 100, but this night was different.  I was crazy sweaty, but the food was still so yummy.

 

I pretty much spent the entire time misting the boys and eventually took the kids to "cool off" in the car.

We also tried a new restaurant recommended to us by the lady who did Elizabeth and I's pedicure.  It did not disappoint!  They made the best fish tacos I've ever had and Ben was thrilled with his red snapper.

 

The kids were so intrigued by the fish right there on the plate.  I thought they would be freaked out, but they wanted to touch it.  Eli said, "Next time we come, I'M getting a fish."

 

 

Nana and Grandaddy got to see Alison and Eli play basketball.  The kids were excited to show off their skills.

We also stopped by the Colorado River one night and the kids swam in the river some and played at the park.  Maya got in the water a little for the first time, but mostly sat right by the edge, keeping a close eye on her pack.

Apparently we had just enough fun, because we wore this little boy out.

 

We had a great week and look forward to a future visit when we can really enjoy the outdoors.

A fun week

Ben took Monday off and we took the kids to 'Finding Dory'.

I missed the nice reclining chairs that the theater in Virginia had, but we still had a great time.

Tuesday, Ben headed to Canada to go fishing with my dad.

Wednesday, the kids and I pretty much spent the day on base.  We went to the library for their summer reading program, then to a free movie of 'The Incredibles' (and snuck in lunchables) and then to basketball practice.  The kids said they had almost as much fun as Christmas that day.  I love that they are so easy to please.

Thursday, we met some friends from church at the "Children's Museum".  I put it in quotations because that's what they're calling it, but I would call it more a children's exhibit.  They have set up some activities for kids in the art center for a couple of weeks and opened it up free to the public.  

Alison spent the whole time making up plays and dressing up.

It was nice to have a cool place for the kids to play and use their imaginations and the moms got to sit and talk.  Win, win.

The only bummer of the week came on Friday.  The kids had been working hard to earn an extra fun outing on Friday.  They talked all week about going to gymnastics...a website I've been following for Yuma information said there's a gym that has open gym time that you can play on the gymnastics equipment without signing up for a class.  They were beyond excited about going and Alison even had a list of everything she was going to do there.  We pulled up to the building and they were literally packing up the place and there was a big 'Sold' sign on the door.  There were some tears and we sat for awhile trying to come up with a plan B.  I came up with nothing.  

We ended up just going home and read a bunch of books.  Maya could not handle that we were all snuggled up together and she wasn't part of it.  She kept jumping on the red chair, trying to get in our laps.

Ben comes home today and Nana and Granddaddy come tomorrow, so I have a feeling the fun is just going to keep on rollin'!

Eliot James, 6 yrs and Colin William, 4 yrs.

 

Eliot James:

31% for weight

70% for height!

He's grown 3 inches since November!

Colin William:

At a whoppin' 31.6lbs, Colin is in the 14th percentile for weight.  

56% for height.

Both boys are doing great...no concerns from the doctor which is a first in Colin's life.  They play great together and it's not uncommon for them to get lost in a pretend game for the afternoon and will come to dinner and say, "Hey.  We didn't have quiet time today." And they would be right.  If they are playing, I let them play and don't interrupt for electronic time and some times even count it as some of their school time.  I think this time that they have to play together is one of the most valuable things in life.

1st Basketball Game!

Eli's new cheese face...I remember Alison going through this same phase

Our Saturday was full of watching basketball.  I have a feeling this is just the beginning of long days of sports for this family.  The games were running behind, so we had to watch part of a game before Alison played.  It actually worked out well for us to sit on the sidelines and talk through the game with the kids.  They've only had a couple of practices where they ran through drills, but didn't really know how to actually play the game.  Ben was really excited for the kids to play basketball because it's his favorite sport, but I think I was equally excited because it's pretty much the only sport I really understand and can help them with.  

Both kids did amazingly well in their first game.  

Watching 5 and 6 year olds play basketball is one of the most entertaining spectacles in life.  It was the best!  Plus, they're pretty stinkin' cute in those uniforms.

Ben giving Eli some pointers before the game

Eli taking a shot!

It was exciting for me to see these two kids get in the game, really participate and LOVE it.  

 

This and That

Random happenings of life:

Eli put on Colin's pants, which was hilarious on several levels.

1.) He would not be convinced that they were not his pants.

2.) His tushy is still so little that he can fit into Colin's pants! 

3.) The simple fact that he thought these were perfect storm trooper pants.

Alison and Eli are both playing basketball on base.  They don't communicate what you are really committing to when you sign up; 2 practices a week and a game on Saturday would be a lot for just one kid, but I have TWO kids playing.  So Monday and Wednesday evenings, we're on base for 2+ hours and we have our first game filled Saturday tomorrow.  AND the season goes all the way until mid-August.  Positives?  We're getting a lot of bang for our buck, it gives them an air conditioned activity to do through the summer and they are both loving it.  

I anticipated having to really encourage Eli to participate, like we did with soccer, but I was wrong.  He's jumped in with both feet and done really well!  At his first practice, he ran over to get a drink of water and I whispered in his ear, "You're doing great!  I'm so proud of you!" and he said confidently, "I know." and ran off.  A little mini Ben came out of him that I haven't seen before and it was awesome.

Eli in the orange shorts

Nana sent us a Cold Stone gift card to treat everyone for birthdays.  The couple of times we've been, the boys always want cotton candy.

 

Alison on the other hand, always chooses something new and different.  I've been impressed.  They haven't been flavors that I would choose, but I like it that she's exploring new options.  This time she chose banana with white chocolate chips.

 

Minecraft got a new update which I couldn't tell you a thing about, but I can tell you that all the little people in this house have been dying to play it as much as possible.

 

I kind of like it that they can play it together.

We survived our first 120° day!  I guess it might have actually been hotter than 120°, but our thermometer was maxed out.

 

We went to small group that night and the kids still wanted to eat/play outside.  I kept calling my kids inside, but non of the other moms seemed phased.  I stopped worrying for one minute and soon found both of my boys playing on their slip n' slide with their clothes on!  I guess you gotta do what you gotta do when it's 120° and all your friends are outside.  I threw the boys in the car naked to go home and Colin fell asleep on the way home...I have no idea how.

 

Poor choices was a theme this week with these 2.  Monday night, we had basketball practice.  I told the kids to get shoes on while I started the car and pulled it out onto the drive way to cool down.  Everyone loaded up and we drove to base.  We got on to base and it hit me..."Eli, you put your basketball shoes on, right?".  His response was a sheepish "no".  I parked the car and found Colin without shoes as well and thought, "What is happening?!".  I just don't understand how they didn't even put on flip flops!  So, I carried them into the gym and they were not even phased by having to sit at practice without shoes on.  Boys.

 

Maya is 99.9% better.  She still walks a little funny down the stairs, but she is back to running around the yard and chasing balls and doing naughty puppy things like eating Legos.

 

This picture is not the best and you shouldn't take pictures while driving...but seeing dust devils completely freaks me out!  The Kansas girl inside of me is screaming, "WHY IS NO ONE ELSE FREAKING OUT AND JUST DRIVING BY?!"  

 

The public library is only a mile away from our house and it is amazing.  There's a little cafe inside that the kids have been really curious to check out.  So today, I treated them to lunch at the cafe after we stocked up on books.  I was disappointed that it's really a glorified concessions stand, but the kids thought it was awesome.  Colin asked for a chili dog, which is a novelty for these kids.  It was messy, but they all loved that chili dog.

 

Today, during our school time, I asked Alison to write a paragraph about some fun things she would like to do this summer.  She wrote "Some fun things to do this summer would be swimming, go to San Diego and go to China."  Clearly getting away from the heat is on her brain.  I'm with her!  I'm trying to convince Ben to plan a trip to Flagstaff in August, just so I can have some cooler days to look forward to.

Update on Maya

This was Maya, last Saturday, the day before she was let out:

When we brought Maya home Monday night, she could barely move.

I was up at 4 am, Tuesday morning with her.  I carried her outside to potty and sat in the living room with her, feeding her by hand.  Ben and I debated about whether to take it slow feeding her (like you would if you had the stomach bug) or to feed her as much as we could.  I chose to feed her as much as I could and it seemed to help.  I even made her scrambled eggs and gave her a couple of cans of tuna.  Yes, she's a tad bit spoiled.  All day Tuesday, I had to carry her everywhere and she slept a lot.  I gave her bath; she had dirt caked into her fur and had a couple of wounds on her paw that needed to be cleaned up.  I also covered her paws in ointment.

This is her walking Tuesday: 

She walked gingerly, with a limp and would just lay down when she was tried.

Wednesday she was trying to walk more and even would go up the stairs, but had to be carried down.

She was starting to look more like herself and her paws looked so much better!  She started to perk up and chew on her bone.

This is her walking on Wednesday (video courtesy of Alison):

By Thursday she was almost walking normal.  She still slept a ton, but was trying to play again.

One of the hardest things about this ordeal has been helping the kids understand what is going on.  They assume that Maya is home and everything is back to normal and want to jump on her and play with her.  They would try to get her to chase them or do tricks and would be so confused when she just laid there.

Saturday, she started going down the stairs again, but it's pretty obvious that it still hurts her.  She also attempted running and was wanting to play.  She had enough energy to dig up a sprinkler hose and chew off part of Eli's Minecraft book, so I'd say her puppiness is coming back.

We kind of joked that Maya came back a perfect puppy.  Obviously perfect puppies don't dig up sprinkler systems, but somehow, when she got back, all of the commands we were working on with her clicked.  The week before she was lost, she had several random "anxious" accidents in the house.  But when she came back, even when she could barely walk, she would hobble over to the back door and ring the bell to be let out.  It was the one time that I expected her to have an accident and somehow she would make it to the edge of the grass to potty.  She also miraculously got the command "drop it" and would easily give up anything we told her to drop.

I still have the image of finding her etched in my brain, but am so thankful to see her healing and most of all, am thankful that it happened last weekend and not this weekend when it's 120 and Ben's out of town!  This story would be far different if it were.