First Family Campout....Almost!

With all of the rain we've been getting and the fire bans lifted I decided it was time to take a family camping trip.  We had done a test run in the backyard a few months ago which Pax aced, so we were ready to go.  Ahhhh, maybe not.

Everything started off great.  Got to the campsite, and quickly found a free site.  It was really nice, but pretty close to the road.  We un-loaded and set up camp.  Paxton loved all the dirt and had a blast picking up all the random trash or "hidden treasures" left behind from other campers.  I gathered a nice pile of fire wood and quickly got the fire going.  This is where the trip got interesting.



The Mighty Eagle Scout!

Being the expert Eagle Scout that I am, fire building is a cinch.  In no time I had a nice little flame going.  Then to really get it going I bent down and started blowing.  After a couple blows, Connie told me to stop so I wouldn't get light-headed.  As the Eagle Scout, and a Macho Man, I of course knew my limits and added a couple more blows before stopping (I couldn't stop right then and let her think she was right in telling me when to stop blowing).  Well, as I stood up I immediately felt light-headed.  I staggered briefly and steadied myself on Connie's arms.  Then I began to lean into her as my eyes closed... and the next thing I know I'm on the ground with Connie yelling at me.  I heard a car coming down the road so I quickly jumped to my feet and started brushing dirt off, still not 100% sure what had just happened.  Connie, thinking it was a joke that had gone too far, is still asking me what the heck I am doing as she is laying on top of the wood pile.  When I told her I had blacked-out and didn't remember falling, she finally cut me some slack as I helped her off the ground.  A bruised butt for Connie and a "blow" to my pride as a Macho Man, gave us plenty to laugh about the rest of the night.


Pax and I sharing a little Root Beer.

Well, dinner was great.  Ate some hotdogs and roasted some marshmallows.  Put Paxton to sleep and let the fire die down.  As we went to bed we found it strange that cars were continuing to drive down the road well into the late night hours.  There was finally a lull in the traffic and we both fell asleep.  Our wonderful snooze was interrupted by a massive truck/trailer bouncing down the dirt road.  I woke up and thought it was morning, and I heard Pax over on the side utter his cute little sound, "Gloo."  He saw me peak my head up and excitedly began to climb over Connie to get to me.  He thought it was play-time, I thought it was morning, and Connie wondered what the heck was going on.  She explained that it was only 12 o'clock, and asked why we were up.  So, for the next hour Pax climbed about the tent as Connie and I laid on our mostly deflated, super uncomfortable air mattress.  Realizing that I wasn't going back to sleep, and Pax most definitely wasn't, we decided enough was enough and it was time to pack up and go home.  Lucky for us we were only 40 min. from home.  At 1 am we packed up the car, made a pit-stop at McDizzle, and headed home. 

All-in-all a great trip.  We got to enjoy the whole camping thing, AND sleep in our own bed, AND have a great fainting story.  Perfect first Family Campout.

A Late Gangsta Shout-out Happy Birfday Tim, Taki n Annette

Hey peeps, we got no flow right now to send gifts to our favorite peeps. So, we made you a totally hot video shout out for ya'lls birthday!!! It's about to go platinum, so enjoy dis hit dat we worked all night on. Actually only took about 30 min. But for real, we love you guys!!!

Hope all ya b-dayz was off da hook!!!! If not, they were now dat u seen our video!!! Much Luv!

Technology vs Nature

My apologies to the very few loyal Mau 2.0 readers, but I had carpal tunnel surgery about 2 weeks ago and it's been tough to get things done. But we did have an active 4th of July. I decided that we should go on a hike near our house to Elephant Rock. As you can see, Carter looks less than excited, despite being in a pretty sweet carrier that we got for $5 at a yard sale.

The 2.5 miles (1.5 hours) to Elephant Rock went well and Carter took a little nap. Unfortunately, just as we got to the top and were basking in the beautiful view, he lost it. Started really crying hard. We thought he had been bitten by a horse fly, there were about 2.4 million along the trail, but he was just tired of hiking. So we pretty much ran all the way back down the mountain and got down in about 40 minutes.

Casey kept taking pictures of the back of me while hiking (see one of the many below) not sure what that was about. But by the time we got home, we were pretty much done for the day. Carter went to sleep at 8 pm, so no fireworks for us. 

 Is Carter the next Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg? We shall see, but he truly is just like daddy-loves the computer. He even has the face down. One thing that Casey would really like him to do is crawl. I'm still not on board because once he is mobile; it's over. Despite using the computer and Haagendazs Mango sorbet, to lure him into crawling, he is still not moving.

 This picture shows that he finally found a use for the pacifier. He would never take it as a baby and has finally found joy in using it as a chew toy. Sometimes he tries to put the entire thing in his mouth, which is hilarious and he usually chokes himself.

But he's a fun little noise machine. He's getting big, about 27.5 in long and 18 pounds. I'm hoping for a future tight end.

The Pea Trend Ends

 I loved watching Ruby choke and spit out the peas and equally loved it when Paxton did it too. But alas, I was sorely disappointed when Carter ate the peas with no problem. So then I decided to try them and we should've videoed me because I made a face and spit them out.

This is the only look I got after feeding him half the jar of peas. Everyone that I've told this story to has been confused on why I wanted him to not like the peas.
On a different note, the shrewd and sometimes uncaring Lori that we all know and love has lost some of that. I hold in my hands an expensive bottle of special, super concentrated cleaner. It was sold to me by Manson, a native of West Warren, MI (Annette, he gave u a shout out!!) who is taking part in a special program for inner city youth to have summer jobs.

This kid was quite the salesman and a jokester. He showed me all sorts of cleaning demos and price comparisons. Perhaps I was blinded by the fact that he yelled, "Go big Blue!" about 3 times, but in the end, I couldn't say no to this little black boy from the ghetto. Bountiful is making me soft.

Move over Michael Jordan, Carter's got some prime time tongue action

 This is just a quick post of all Carter's recent tongue action. He looks a little stoned in the picture with daddy  who is also sportin a crazy tongue.

 This is just your standard everyday tongue action.

 This one is, I love to eat and hold my foot tongue. We see this one a lot!

And this is my naughty monkey tongue because he kept sticking it out during Casey's lesson and distracting the kids we teach. But who am I kidding, it doesn't take much to distract the 12 year old kids in our class. He's got such a big head and it's still bald! Casey just keeps saying, he's got a big brain in that big head. Let's hope!

SUGIFEST!

You all lived it and loved it so I'm not going to write up a big long post. Here's some pics. Enjoy.

Unfortunately this is the best of all the photos. Our photographer apparently really wanted to get ALL of those shrubs behind us :)

 Ruby still talks about "milking the horse with grampie."

Today ruby picked up a rock and said, "climb mountain, throw rocks." I think the hike was her favorite. 

I still hear about some of you daily with phrases such as:
-Play mini golf with Tim. And Kylie!
-Share babies with Paxton
-Wanna hold baby carter
-Play gooey with grammie
-Grampie give you candy (I hear this one the most :)

First of many Anniversaries

For our first anniversary, Casey took me to The Roof restaurant. It was an amazing view and delicious food. Especially dessert-tried almost all of them (it was a buffet). Both Casey and I loved the creme brulee! After that, he took me to the same park where he originally proposed to me and asked me to be sealed to him. He was delighted when I said, yes! It was a wonderful night, with an wonderful man.