Madison walking

This is the best video we have of Madison walking so far. She practically runs now. She just woke up from her nap one day and decided she was going to start walking. And she hasn't looked back.

Soccer Camp

This is Carson and his soccer coach, Coach Ben.

The soccer sessions were one hour long but Carson generally only participated for the first 15-20 minutes. I don't know if he is ready to play soccer this fall or not. That is still up in the air. When he did actually participate, he had a blast! Every time we would drive by the soccer field during the day he would ask where Coach Ben was. Carson even tried to talk like Coach Ben one day. We were driving home and Carson said, "Mommy, I saw a trailer!" Then he said, "I saw a traywa." I must note here that Coach Ben is from England.

This next video is of one coach 'soccer surfing.' It is about a minute long but watch until the end to see Carson try it out.

Little climber

Madison's climbing adventures continue on a daily basis. Her latest feat is scaling the inside of the refridgerator. She can already climb up in Carson's full size bed. She tries her hardest but she just can't quite make it up onto the couch...yet.

Carson's Birthday

Even though Carson's birthday was almost a month ago, I still wanted to post some of his pictures. We took him to Toys R Us the night before so that we could spend his birthday money. He picked out a train set and a few trains. We were able to convince him that he could not open them that night. I still do not know how we did that! So after he went to bed, we wrapped everything and put it in his chair at the table so that he would find them for breakfast. Maybe that was not such a good idea since the ONLY way we could get him to eat his breakfast was by giving it to him as he sat in the middle of his new train set!

After breakfast we went to the local children's museum. They had a Clifford exhibit that the kids enjoyed. Then we went to the Rainforest Cafe at MGM Grand for a late lunch. Carson loved all of the animals in the restaurant as long as he did not get too close.

We had his birthday party the next night and we rented a bounce house which was a HUGE hit.

Adventures in Vegas

We had quite a morning today. Actually, it started late last night. President Obama was in town. My friend Carrie mentioned that she took her boys out in their pjs last night to see Air Force One which was parked on base. I debated whether or not to go since both of the kids were already in bed. Deciding that this could possibly be my one and only chance to ever see AF1 in person, I drug the kids to the other side to see the plane. It was after dark but the plane was lit up well. I was too chicken to get out to take a picture since it was dark and I was afraid Secret Service agents might come after me! I did have a security forces(AF police)car follow me after that! Maybe it was just coincidence... Carson cried the whole 5 minutes home because we did not get to ride HIS blue airplane!!

Then this morning I find out through tv and Facebook, that the President is scheduled to tour the solar farm down the road and conduct a 'town hall' meeting on the other side of base. So Carrie, her boys, the kids, and I trek to the general area where he will be touring the solar farm only to be told that no cars OR pedestrians would be allowed. What??? All we wanted to do was take a picture of the motorcade! We were not just random people off the street. We were on base, after all.

So, we were told that IF there was room at the meeting, we MIGHT be allowed in. And what do we do? We head to it, of course! All they can say is no. And they did. No kids allowed. *sigh* We then walked over to see AF1 and get pictures. Carrie talked to every SF person just to see if they would give us ANY indication of where we might be able to see the motorcade and get a picture. They did not. And would you believe that the motorcade drove down the flightline? It did not come anywhere near us! All I wanted was a picture...I think we would have had a better chance if we had stood on the side of the street off base! Go figure.

My walking, teething monkey.

Madison took her first real steps on Tuesday!!! We were in the kitchen and she took 4 steps from the oven to me. I yelled for John to come in there and then she took 4 steps from me to Daddy! She is still uncertain about it all but I see her trying out her new skill at least a few times a day.

She is also teething like a maniac! For the longest time she only had the one tooth. Now she has 6 and I think I saw another this morning! If there really is another one there, that will mean that she has cut 6 teeth in one month. Oh my!

I think she is going to be an early talker. That or I am just forgetting how early Carson started talking. She has about 5 words now besides mama (which she hardly uses) and dada. They are dog, duck, book, juice, and Alex. I know she must have a word for Carson and I am just not picking up on it.

Ok, here's the stories behind the pictures.
Picture #1- I was working on dishes one morning and was called out of the kitchen by Carson. This is how I found Madison when I returned. Later in the day I was sitting on the couch and saw her little head bob up higher than the arm of the loveseat. She had climbed up ON TOP of the old tv that was sitting in the floor!!!! With the way she was bouncing on it, I was too nervous to leave her there to grab the camera.

Picture #2-Mad because she can't get her cup out.
Picture #3- Eating the bath bubbles. We will have to nix the bubble baths for now!
Picture #4- Diving in to the ice cream cone. She already thinks she has to have EVERYTHING that her brother has! Look at that bedhead!
Picture #5- Want some? I'll share!!

Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon was our third day of hiking and quite possibly the most strenuous. The hike down into the Canyon was fine. It was the hike up and out that kicked our derriere's. If you used a little imagination, you could make the hoodoos (the rock formations) look like all kinds of things! After we finished that hike, neither John nor I had any desire to do anymore hiking that day so we decided to drive to all of the lookouts in the park. It's hard to believe that half of the park is a pine forest! We were a little outnumbered at the lookouts. It seemed like most of the people spoke French or another foreign language.

After several hours of driving to the vistas (and some ice cream!) we mustered the energy for one last (short) hike to the waterfall. We are so glad we did it. It was only 1 mile round trip with no big up and down portions. This was the perfect time to view waterfalls in the are due to the snow meltoff. I must note that Carson was fast asleep during the last part of the drive but wouldn't you know he woke up the minute we pulled into the parking lot to get ice cream! The boy LOVES ice cream!

We had such a great trip. John and I were so excited when we arrived in the parks. We were like kids in a candy store! We had watched so many specials about the national parks on the Travel Channel in Arkansas. We would always talk about going 'someday' but it always felt like that someday would either be way off in the future or would not really come. We feel soooo blessed to have the opportunity to explore God's creation out here!!

One more thing. The temperature was wonderful on the trip. Usually 70s with the lows dipping in the 30s. Thank goodness the camper has a good heater! Then we came home to highs over 100 here in the valley! Yuck!