30 is not that bad (unless I start comparing my life to other people’s lives. This is always bad. Very, very bad).
Lily eating frozen blueberries for breakfast.
I found the difference in their farmer’s tan comical. Same time spent outside…
Totally forgot the sunscreen.
I was going to take the kids to a playground today, and Chris suggested that we just go to Rexburg with him since he only had one class. (one more week!!!!)
Just a little tidbit about Idaho; at a lot of the public schools they have free lunch for children 1-18 during the summer, I think the one near us has free breakfast too. I’ve never taken advantage of this, even though our school is within walking distance. In Rexburg they deliver the lunches to Porter Park; the park with the spray park, playground, and carousel. The kids and I were there, so I decided to try it out. Another point for Idaho for this perk. Idaho-2 Pennsylvania-925,898! If I was really keeping score Idaho would get 100,000 points for no humidity, 50,000 for Costa Vida, and 10,000 for fry sauce.
Then we went back to BYU-I, and walked around their gardens for a bit.
Strawberries in a gutter, genius!
I liked these raised bed gardens, no bending for weeding.
And a pretty nifty way to keep bugs off the veggies.
And, lest you think my days are picture perfect; my children were stinkers for the playground. Savannah mopped around because she couldn’t find a friend. Elijah asked to go to a “big huge pool” every five minutes. Lily was a peach, even without a nap. Both the kids asked for more food five minutes after they said they were full, before they finished half their lunches. I wish they could understand that it’s not exactly a walk in the park when I take them places by myself. It would be easier for me if we just stayed at home. I think my children are becoming a little spoiled, and I really think we should nip this thing in the bud before it gets to be a bigger problem. I think I need to trip to the library for some parenting books. I don’t think that I spoil them, they only get gifts on their birthdays and Christmas; unless it’s from grandparents. Savannah does get an allowance, a measly $1 only if she does all her chores for the whole week. Somehow they are acting a little bit entitled. Or maybe they are just as done with this semester as much as we are. Elijah is, he’s been crying for Chris a couple of times a day. That makes me feel like a crummy mummy. I just realized today that Chris works 6 days a week 2 weeks a month, the other 2 he works 5 days a week. Yea, maybe we all just need a break!! Everyone just needs to relax! :) In happier news, Chris has really good grades and we hope he will qualify for half tuition, where the school pays for half his tuition. Every bit helps!
My aunt invited us to go to Lava with them. We are about an hour and a half from Lava, oh I dread car rides by myself, I always try to plan trips around Lily’s nap time but she doesn’t fall asleep until we are 10 minutes from our destination. Oh Lily, it’s a good thing you are cute (Jessica used to say that about Alexander). I wish Chris could have joined us, but you gotta do what you gotta do. And when hubbies aren’t home very much wifies learn how to be very independent.
This is Lava–
Ultimate wedgie slides!
This is my cousin, Ross, jumping off the platform. You have to sign a waiver before you can jump. I didn’t do it, Lily doesn’t let me leave her side. Maybe next time! Serious!
Graceful!
The kiddie land pool is brand new, Elijah loved it!
It’s indoor, I love that! It has garage doors that open in the summer. And it’s open all winter. I think a 5 1/2 year old would love to go there for her birthday.
They keep the water 95 degrees inside, it was perfect!
They have this in the kiddie land, a hot tub that’s not as hot as their hot springs, but still nice!
Elijah was in his element here. You can dam the water and make wheels spin. Elijah loves this kind of stuff, to figure out how things work. Is he a Christopher Junior or what?!
Sweet baby.
This was Savannah’s favorite, the twisty slides! I don’t know how she didn’t pass out from exhaustion after climbing up those stairs I don’t know how many times.
Check out this cool random dude:
He landed perfectly, feet first every time. Can you imagine a belly flop from 33 feet? Ouch! I’m going to do it next time! Hopefully not a belly flop.
My Aunt Torie from Las Vegas and her very cute grandson.
It was a fun and tiring day. Thanks to my aunts and mom! We also had some delicious pizza, I have to take Chris if only for the pizza. We miss some of our yummy pizza places in PA, this place beats them all! Idaho-1 Pennsylvania-925,898Â (just kidding)
FYI- If you lose your 3-year-old and tell someone to make an announcement for said missing 3-year-old, they make everyone get out of the pools and they make the kids in the kiddie pool line up and all the life guards get to work. And the mom does cry. I never lose him! His hair practically glows in the dark, he is so easy to pick out in a crowd. We found him within 5 minutes. He was just wondering around. I literally just turned around, that slippery little minx. I knew he wouldn’t get in the pools himself, I was more worried about someone taking him. But, all is well!
Have I mentioned that I love Idaho in the summer? Yes, even though my husband goes to school during most of the lovely summer.
Chris commented today that I haven’t been taking very many pictures lately. It is true, I haven’t taken any pictures of little things. And I think little things are just as picture worthy as the big things. Last year I was so proud of our first garden, I was posting lots of pictures of little sprouts, which makes me laugh now. I still love our little garden. It just makes me happy. This is what the kids and I did tonight after supper–
Lily’s favorite thing is the rocks. I like it too, it’s the only shade in the backyard. She likes to dump cups of pebbles on her head, then I find surprises in her diapers.
We picked some peas. My kids will eat anything from the garden, will they eat canned peas? Nope. But canned peas are nasty.
Savannah loves to help water. Our garden is doing well, we just have the normal things planted. We even have pumpkins growing, and we did not plant pumpkins. We did throw our jack-o-lanterns in the garden after Halloween. I can’t wait for some more bread and butter pickles.
This is Elijah’s favorite thing, searching for ripe berries.
We are going to have a ton of raspberries. We could easily just eat them fresh, but I really want to try jam making. Does anyone know if I can freeze the berries until I get enough for a batch of jam?
Elijah loves to collect bugs. He was quite interested in his ladybug.
I had to talk him into leaving the ladybug on the lettuce so he could come in and have a bath.
It’s the small things!!
It’s been hot and dry here in Idaho. Hot for Idaho, and I’m still not used to this dry climate. The kids have been asking to go to the pool, actually Savannah has been asking me, “Have you sold enough crafts to take us to the pool yet?” I decided to be brave and do the pool by myself. I’m not sure if I will do that again. It wasn’t bad, just stressful having three children that can not swim. Thankfully Savannah listens to anything I say, and Elijah does too. I’m so glad we are out of the two’s, that stage was rough. As we left, both Savannah and Elijah came up to me and said, “Thank you so much for taking us swimming.” They are pretty good kids.
Anywho, some pictures. I only took like 15 pictures, a record low for me I’m sure. Actually, I haven’t been taking very many pictures lately. I’ve been leaving the camera at home a lot.
I brought Alex since his days in Idaho are numbered.
Lily does not like the water! I hope it was just because she was tired. This makes me sad because I love the water. Christopher isn’t a water and sun lover, either.
Lily and I trying to hide from the sun. Long gone are the days when I would put baby oil on myself to try to tan. I only did that once. Thankfully I’ve gotten a little wiser since then.
Chris came after his classes and held Lily for a bit so I could float the lazy river. Then he had to leave to go to work.
It was so busy!
And this was today–
This was after a water balloon fight. Didn’t I say I wasn’t going to do that again? Everyone ganged up on me. Why does everyone pick on me?
I was on a mission today. To exhaust two out of three children so I could play catch up on laundry or weeding or mowing or maybe just maybe read a chapter of a book that is not Farmer Boy. I took the kids to our new favorite spot, the pond. I packed up the bikes and stroller and away we went! Elijah was complaining a few hours in which meant I did what I set out to do, make him tired! We come home, I heat up leftovers, and then plopped the two littles in bed.
I quickly put away some laundry (confession: I haven’t put Lily’s laundry away in over two weeks. She has a lovely habit of emptying out her drawers, so what’s the use?). Then I start watering the garden(with a blow up toy meant for children to play in) and I decide to try to read outside, it’s lovely out. 12 seconds later Elijah comes out to join me. So now I’m watching him play. Good thing I love that boy. Can he stay three forever? I love three.
But! You all know that I have wanted a red headed child. There are many things that I want my children to inherit from their dad; red hair, hard worker…etc. The one I have not wanted them to inherit is his smart mouth. So far we have two smart mouths! Children! And Lily can’t talk but oh boy that little girl is already giving me a run for my money. I’ll talk about her a little bit later, it’s a very good thing she is cute!! :)
I wrote this post a couple days ago but I wanted to add some pictures of our new favorite spot. These pictures are from a couple visits.
Everyone loves to throw rocks. Chris is the king of skipping rocks.
It’s our favorite place to ride bikes. It is relatively new and hardly very busy. It’s my favorite place to run, I mean trot.
It’s like nature’s playground. But it’s man made.
After a run, or a trot. You can see Chris in my glasses laughing at me.
Wanna take bets as to which child will fall into the water first? My money is on the three year old. He gets distracted the easiest, his new favorite obsession is pointing out and exclaiming about sprinklers.
After another run, while the kids road their bikes beside me.
We sure are blessed with these three blondies!
Ah, I love summer! 3 more weeks of this semester! I can’t wait.
Alexander came over to spent the first part of the week with us last week.
The first thing we did was head to the splash park.
Then we went home because Lily really needed a nap.
The kids kept playing in the pool I got for my birthday.
Alex showed off some skills–
Ultimate hula hooper.
Ultimate hide and seeker.
Silly putty fun.
One day we had a water balloon fight. I’m never doing that again. It took me an hour to fill the balloons and it took the kids about 5 minutes to throw them all. Sound like just about everything a mom does. An hour to clean the playroom, 5 minutes to destroy it. Such is life!
David sometimes comes out of his shed to watch the kids play. I think he gets a kick out of them.
We like our neighbors, David and his wife Kathy. And not just because Dave gives us sprinklers that he’s fixed, and not just because Kathy has an awesome garden and tells me what to do with mine, and not just because Kathy does my hair for dirt cheap, and not just because Dave helps Elijah when he gets his bike stuck in their driveway when I’m not looking, and not just because Dave lets Chris borrow tools and rototillers, and not just because they don’t say anything when Cat defecates in their garden (sorry!). Dave drives a cool little scooter that’s as old as I am that Chris is jealous of. We like them. Our street is kinda going down hill (Is that judging? I don’t mean to.) It’s nice to have good neighbors. Although, I wouldn’t mind a more private fence so I can sit in the pool I got for my birthday without anyone watching me. Now I sound like a spoiled brat.
And then some strange things happened.
Alex was really mad at me for taking his picture.
I’m pretty sure Elijah only did this because Alex did it first.
Then on Wednesday we stopped at the park before taking Alex back. The park.
We had fun with our Alex!
On Saturday we went on a bike ride, not our normal bike ride around the river because it’s really busy and busy with people who don’t know what “Passing!” means. It drives us crazy. But we found a different, lesser known about part, that we love. Not as much as we loved our trails in PA, but you know, this will do for the time being. We brought the kids’ bikes and let them do an easy part after we rode for a bit. It was really cute, riding along side the kids. How did they get so big?! Elijah, that boy! He is so strong and I think he’s getting muscular. We need to start saving our pennies for football. If we pushed him, he could be riding a bike without training wheels by the time he’s 3 1/2. I don’t think we will, push him that is. He has great coordination and balance, and it comes so naturally for him.
I didn’t take the camera because I was a major grump at the beginning, but the bike ride mellowed my mood out, for a bit. Of course, I wished I had brought the camera. Next time!
As Chris was tucking Savannah in on Saturday night, she said to him, “I can’t wait to give you the shirt and tie we got for you!”
I tried to take a picture of Christopher and the kids on Father’s Day.
This is what Chris thinks about having his picture taken.
Chris’ Father’s Day wish was to go to Cress Creek to do the hike and have a picnic dinner.
And then I stopped taking pictures because we all just wanted to hurry and finish the hike. It was HOT! Please take Arizona off my list of places we could live after graduation.
It was that hot.
Did you know that Yellowstone is a Hot Spot, it used to be a huge volcano. Most of Idaho is on that Hot Spot. The grey on this rock formed when a volcano erupted 3 million years ago, this is what the ash did. Christopher learned all about volcanoes around here in his Natural Disasters class.
Idaho has windmills. Some people like them, some people don’t. The energy goes to California. I think they are neat.
I’m almost caught up. I hope. I don’t want to see another 4th of July craft until next year. I had wanted to do one more, but I’m so over these things. Please don’t tell my Grandpa B that I’m using my beautiful hope chest to put my crafts on. :)
I started running a couple weeks ago, if you can even call it running. It’s more like a trot. I ran a couple times this week at night, because sometimes it’s just impossible to wake up at 5 am. So I had to take the kids, on their bikes. Elijah loves it. He’s competitive, which made me go a bit faster to keep up with him. But after tonight, I’m thinking it’s not such a great idea.
Today I’m thankful for Clorox wipes. Why can’t children tell you when they have ‘accidentally’ peed all over the bathroom floor? No, they wait until your feet find it and then you have to try to discover what the huge puddle is. Gotta love 3 year olds!
Nazelrod Family 