Bees and Carbon County

Ikey went to a Bees baseball clinic. I think it was the first time he swung a bat, wore a mitt, or threw a ball. He needs a better coach than me because I've never done any of those things either. His favorite part of the day was the tour of the clubhouse.

Of course he was very friendly and he spent most of the time talking to his "team".

Uncle Clancy and Aunt Kathy partied with us on their way to Reno for a bowling tournament. We love family!

Jovie wore plasic cups for shoes at the end of TB's birthday party (more on that in another post). She is so silly!

We took Grandma Faucheux to the Helper Mining and Railroad Museum in Carbon County...

The Amtrak station in Helper...

 I promised Ikey some M&M's if he'd show me his face instead of hiding...

We had lunch on historic Helper Main Street at Balanced Rock Eatery.

We drove on a long dirt road to Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in Emery County. It's a pretty cool place for an amateur geologist and museum-y kids, but the temperature gauge read 115 deg for a little while there. It didn't feel too hot, just windy! The kids and I hiked to Raptor Point to check out the view.

Ikey was under his own power the whole way. He's an especially great hiker this year, so let us know when you want to go hiking with us!

 

We finished up the day at the car wash and now we just have to get the dust out of our shoes and hair and we're ready to start a new adventure tomorrow.

Key West

 Todd is such a fantastic drug salesman that he earned us another big vacation. Did I say yet that he was promoted to EXECUTIVE SALES REP this spring? He was and he's awesome!

We went to Key West for five nights in May while the kids stayed with grandparents and Aunt Nikki. We rode bikes all over the island and ate good Cuban food and good seafood.

We rode on a huge catamaran to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas.

We trespassed (just a little) on private property on Sunset Key that probably is owned by Shaq or Oprah. We rode on kayaks through a mangrove forest.

We ate a lot of key lime pie. We went to every kind of musuem. We capped off our Ernest Hemingway book club with a visit to his home full of six-toed cats.

We visited the Little White House where President Truman spent 16 working vacations during his presidency. You know how I love a good Democratic President!

The kids had a great time without us, and we would still be there probably if we hadn't missed them just a little.

New York City

We all went to New York City in April and had the greatest time. We stayed with the super fun Layden family and the kids LOVED all the girls.

Hannah had an art show for her MFA, and it was really amazing.

Todd rowed us around the lake in Central Park. TB and I went to the David Letterman Show.

We saw a polar bear at Central Park Zoo.

We went to the Empire State Building and Grand Central Station and we saw the Statue of Liberty.

We saw the Space Shuttle Enterprise fly over while piggy-backed on a 747 and Ikey and TB were interviewed on the radio.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/04/27/space-shuttle-enterprise-on-its-way-to-new-york-city/

We rode the subway and taxis and we ate pizza.

We walked everywhere and ate at great restaurants.

The kids bonded with "Uncle" Mitch.

 We terrorized the Layden's home for FIVE DAYS, and Jovie even got into Grandma Jackie's makeup.



















We visited the 9/11 Memorial on the week that the Freedom Tower passed the Empire State Building as the tallest in New York City. When it's finished, it will be the tallest building in the country.

We visited the Air and Space Museum on the USS Intrepid air craft carrier.

Jovie was quite an attraction in New York: families asked to take pictures with her two times, someone asked us what nationality she is, and a group of school kids surrounded her at the zoo and asked me why her hair is so light.

Since the last post...

Refer to the Early Summer post below...Since "appetizer", Jovie has chosen "damaged", "bartender", and "Shantaram" (a book TB is reading) as words of the day. This morning, we were making egg sandwiches for breakfast. Jovie said, "Can I have mayonnaise?" I said no, and she said,"then I will slap you with my bread." Ikey said, "Now she's making threats."

Early Summer!

These kids are so funny! Ikey is in his room singing TB's favorite Akon song "Sorry, Blame It On Me". Weird choice for TB I know, but there's no explaining taste. Ikey's version goes, "You can put the train on me...on me... You can put the train on me..."

Ikey has added "consequences" to all of his requests. For example, "If you don't give me oatmeal, I'm going to take my clothes off and put them in the fridge." Other classics include, "If you don't let me play in the sandbox, I'm going to wear my new Crocs in my bed." The scariest one is, "If you don't let me stay up, I'm going to take off all my clothes and get in your bed with my dirty bum." Jovie has started saying, "Don't threaten me, Ikey."

Jovie told me about her cousin, "I like Chloe. She's so nice. She has a round head."

Jovie makes up a rhyme for just about everything she says. TB was on his way out the door for an overnight trip and she said, "Do you have to go to work like a jerk jerk?" TB said it was demoralizing.

Ikey told Jovie I was making muffins and she said, "She's quite a baker!"

Jovie's latest joke is to call me Grandfather. She thinks it's hilarious and she just laughs and laughs.

Jovie's favorite word yesterday was "appetizer". She told me she had an appetizer on her arm (just a scrape really) and one on her foot (toenail) and requested appetizers for dinner.

I started doing triathlons again since the babies are bigger and I'm smaller. I did one in May in Kearns and one in June in Daybreak.TB is so nice to "sponsor" me and the kids are great at cheering.

 

Garr Ranch at Antelope Island

The kids and I went to the Cowboy Legends Poetry and Music Festival at Garr Ranch on Antelope Island. This was my first time to the Great Salt Lake in the 30 years I've lived in Utah and I was so impressed at how pretty it was. We saw a bison "stampede" http://youtu.be/0rwZbXj6HkE and ate Dutch oven peach cobbler. It couldn't have been better!