Tee-ball

Brady had his first tee-ball game this week.

Both the league and this particular team are somewhat lacking in organization, so I was pretty irritated after the first practice. (Really...15 kids on the team and you have them run the bases one at a time?!?) I was all up in my irritation when Brady ran over at the end of practice and said, "Mom, that was awesome!". Um...keeping my mouth shut!

Anyway, at the "game" : Each kid gets to bat until they get a fair hit off the tee. Then that kid runs to first and advances around the bases with each subsequent hit. As you can imagine, it's not exactly a nail-biter of a game. :)

Warming up:

Looking pretty confident...

First time at bat:

Safe at first

and second...

and heading toward third...

Brady got to play shortstop:

And, here's Rudy, entertaining himself with some funny faces...

And...here's what James has to say about it:

So Sisyphus was the guy who had to roll the rock up the hill, and Tantalus was the guy who couldn't reach the the water or the grapes. What was the name of the guy who had to watch t-ball practice?

So, even though we're not thrilled with the experience so far, we're not coaching so we're going to put on my happy face and thank the coaches for their efforts. And I'll reconsider coaching in the spring (or, better yet, work harder to convince James to coach next spring)! I'm sure Brady is still learning...teamwork? Commitment? One of those important things, I'm sure...

Fundue

The Melting Pot had a kids-eat free special, so we took the kids as a very special treat. Saying that they loved it might be a bit of an understatement. They liked everything about it...the dipping, the cheesy-goodness, the saucy accompaniments for the main course, and obviously the chocolatey deliciousness!

I love this picture...it looks like James is pretty peeved that Rudy is eating all the chocolate :)

Navy flier uniform

We had a bit of a dry spell for Rudy-isms, but he seems to have had a bit of a comeback lately. He still prefers to wear mismatched socks and he's now usually dressing himself most days, which leads to ensembles such as this:

When he came out of his room, he asked me if he looked like a Navy flier. (Presumably because there are some old school bombers on the button down shirt?!)

Incidentally, Rudy is about the same age now as Brady was when he started picking out his own clothes...apparently, there is a bit of a learning curve for little boys :)

Later in the day, he changed his socks to these "flip flop socks." I found them on clearance last week (gosh, why were they on clearance?!?) and knew he'd love them!

In other funnies from Rudy:

-He's started using the word "age" instead of "measure", as in: Will you age me on the wall? Let's age this car to see how long it is.

-He was playing outside with James yesterday and told him all about the "peanut butter cups", the "wood packer", and the "haircut chompers" (hedge trimmers).

I scream...

We had to take advantage of 5-cent cone day at a local ice cream shop last week. Rudy insisted on wearing his British-policeman hat. Ben was wearing a hard hat, but wouldn't let me take his picture with it.

Weeknight Hike

James was out of town for a short trip. Brady was caught up on his homework and we had a free evening, so we headed down to our local "river hike" after we got Brady at the bus stop.

These were some filthy kids. Besides splashing in the river shallows, they were rolling down this sandy hill. Yuck!

Project Complete!

James finished the final piece in our bedroom set yesterday. Now we have a bed, two nightstands, and a mirror that actually all match. (It only took almost 12 years of marriage!)

How cool is this?!?

Peeps

I showed the kids the Peeps entries from the recent Washington Post contest. They were inspired to make their own yesterday...

Tooth #5

Brady lost tooth number 5 today!

Arizona 2010

Click here to view this photo book larger

Grand Canyon

On Wednesday, 7 of us loaded into Kelly's (7 passenger) car for the 4-hour drive to the Grand Canyon. The drive to and from was surprisingly painless, although it was pretty cozy!

When we first got to the canyon, we parked and walked out near Mather Point for the boys' first glimpse. We'd told them the Grand Canyon was a really big hole in the ground and they'd seen pictures, but I still think they were quite surprised by the size of it! Rudy said it didn't even look like a hole...it was too big!

Below is Brady's journal entry for the day. He combined both Wednesday and Thursday into one entry, I think. He channeled a bit of Wimpy Kid style with his "uhhh...that's what I call bad handwriting" comment. :)

After we took a short stroll along the rim, we stopped in at the visitors' center to get the kids their junior ranger packets and then we headed over to check in at the hotels. We saw a few elk strolling right through the middle of the parking lot! We didn't get a picture of them, but I snapped this one early the next morning on a walk. (We think they're elk, although we're still not clear on the difference between elk and mule deer!)

This was only my second trip to the Grand Canyon. Every time I caught a glimpse of it, I was newly amazed at its enormous-ness! It's such an astounding view, everywhere you look. We took quite a few pictures...

Wednesday night, we rode the shuttle out to Hermits Rest and then walked back to Hopi Point in time to watch the sunset. It's amazing to watch the canyon colors change as the sun goes down. These pictures were from that walk...

View of the river:

Sunset pictures...

Working on their junior ranger packets at sunset:

Not the best, but a sunset family picture:

We did a fossil walk with a ranger Thursday morning, where we walked up to some limestone deposits and found a ton of marine fossils. It was the first time the boys had found fossils on their own. (We'll have to take them to the fossil pits at home!) They were both quite impressed with the idea that the desert used to be under the ocean.

We knew we couldn't do a serious hike into the canyon with the kids, but we wanted to at least let them get a view from inside the canyon. We walked about 30 minutes down the Bright Angel Trail before turning around and heading back. James and I both really want to go back when they're older for a hike all the way down to the bottom, and also to raft the Colorado.

You can see the Bright Angel Trail all the way down on the plateau in this picture. (We didn't got that far!)

After our mountain hike experience in California last year, we pretty much kept a death grip on the kids any time they were anywhere near an edge. James took this picture while still holding Brady's hand. Brady told him he was trying to not make his scared face.

Time for a break! (We didn't take the kids' camelback packs out, so they rehydrated with ours!)

We managed to catch only the tail end of a Hopi Indian dance on Thursday and got a picture with the dancers as well.

Nana and Popsie with their boys:

The Easter Bunny brought each little boy his own camera. I can't wait to see how those pictures turn out!