Mutton Bustin' Boy

Yesterday I became a proud rodeo mom!

Ethan participated in the Wool Riders Mutton Bustin' Competition yesterday at the Puyallup Fair. Last week I heard that it was open to kids ages 3-6, so I showed Ethan a few mutton bustin' videos on Youtube and asked if he wanted to do it. He was all for it.
Since I have a bit of a rodeo background myself (mutton bustin' at the Duchesne County Fair rodeo 1986) I felt it my responsibility to prepare my son. So we practiced...I was the sheep.
When it was time to sign him up I started to get nervous...the 6 year old kids looked a whole lot bigger than my little 3 year old. When we went over to show him the sheep his only remark was, "I want to ride a clean one." Oh dear, this wasn't going to go over very well.
When they put the little helmet and vest on him my heart really started pounding because I remembered my own experience bustin' a mutton; and it is one of my most vivid childhood memories because of how terrifying it was!

He was the last rider, number 21, he watched with huge eyes the 20 brave souls that went before him. After watching for a bit it was clear this wasn't a game for a 3 year old, the other little guys that age either refused to do it when they got up there or fell right off as soon as the sheep moved. But not my little rodeo prodigy, apparently our practice paid off as you can see here in the video (and yes the video is shaky because the rodeo mom was shaky, and I got so excited I missed filming half his ride).

The goal was to make it 6 seconds, we think he went about 5.5, definitely the best 3 year old rider!

The audience loved that when he finished the guy had to pull off his face guard because his mouth was so full of dirt. His biggest concern when it was finished was that he got dirty! I was so proud of my little mutton buster!

And here is Ethan's eye witness report...for posterity's sake...so proud to pass the baton to my first born.

Date Night

A few nights ago Clark and I had some time to ourselves without the boys...you could say it was a spontaneous date night. At about 10:30 pm while Clark was hauling our trash cans to the curb I remembered a little pile of recycling I wanted to take out. So without a thought I dashed out the garage door, when we heard the door close behind me we both stopped in our tracks. "You didn't just close the door?!" were the words out of Clark's mouth.
Even without checking the door I knew we were locked out of the house with both little boys soundly sleeping upstairs in their beds.
I rang the doorbell and knocked like a crazy lady trying to get Ethan to wake up and let us in, but that kid sleeps through anything and didn't budge. Clark jumped a fence to try the back door, my attempt at picking the lock with a bobby pin was futile (sadly I have no criminal skills)! As much as I like a date night, it was a terrible feeling to be outside while our boys were in.
Before we panicked too much we realized Clark had his phone in his pocket. We were able to call our wonderful landlord (a family friend from Durango) and she came over in a hurry and saved the day.
I'm wanting a better date next time!

S is for Smecher

Smecher (pronounced Shmecker) is a Romanian word. The official definition is "sly boots" someone that is sharp or cunning. Ethan can sometimes be a smecher!

Ethan has been having a little trouble pronouncing his consonant sounds, since we are on the road this year I have dubbed myself his speech therapist.

The other day we were practicing the "S" sound and he got it for the first time. So all day we practiced saying words that start with "s." He did well when he said a word by itself, but reverted back to his old ways when using it in a sentence. That night he was showing off his new "s" skills for Clark, and this was the conversation:

Clark: Ethan can you say, "we drink soda?"

Ethan: We drink foda.

Clark: No, we drink soda.

Ethan: We drink foda.

Clark: Try again, we drink soda.

Ethan: We drink water!

Done and done. Smecher.

Brothers

I've loved watching my boys become brothers! They are at such a fun age right now where they love each other, torment each other, entertain each other, and wrestle each other to the ground!

Our family prayers have turned into a 30 minute wrestle mania each night. Caden is definitely the agressor and loves to body slam Ethan, and Ethan laughs and laughs.

Caden is entertained by everything Ethan does, including blowing bubbles in his water cup at McDonalds:

Ethan is Caden's biggest defender. When I took something away from Caden last week Ethan told me, "give it back mom, he wants it, that wasn't very nice of you." The other night Caden was more squawky than usual, his little scream was getting on my nerves a bit, and that's when Ethan said, "when Caden sings like that it makes me happy, when he doesn't sing I'm sad." It made me smile.

I LOVE these brothers!!!

Adventures in Seattle: Pike Place Market

We had our first Seattle adventure at Pike Place Market.

Watching the fish fly through the air really is entertaining!

We stood by this giant piggy bank long enough to get the picture that people started giving my boys coins to put in.

After exploring the market we walked along the waterfront. We tried some Ivar's clam chowder and fed our leftovers to the rather aggressive seagulls.

Caden finally met his match! He has such a shrill little scream and we were surprised to find he sounds just like a seagull!

We are taking full advantage of the heat wave and sunny weather!

Point Defiance

I've been so excited to come to Seattle because our good friends Tom & Debbie (and their cute boys) live here! Debbie is my kindred spirit that I met when I did a semester in Nauvoo. On Labor Day we met them at Point Defiance at the beach. It was so fun, we've been able to get together with them a few times now and I'm loving every minute!

Austin and Ethan are good buddies.

Our Travels to Destination D: Seattle

On August 31st we said goodbye to my parents and headed out on our next adventure. The first night we drove across Oregon to Portland so Clark could visit the program there a few days. We have seen a lot of different landscapes in the last few months, all beautiful, and the drive along the Columbia River was no exception.

PORTLAND
The boys and I explored a little bit. We thought the tram ride was the best public transportation we've ever tried.

We also tried a haunted pizza place for dinner, I thought it was funny that Ethan's face looks so scary at the haunted restaurant.

ASTORIA

Clark finished early Friday so we found a cheap hotel on Hotwire and headed for the coast.

We climbed the 164 steps to the top of the Astoria Column for the amazing views!

Then we drove across the longest truss bridge in North America to see the ocean. The boys first time on the beach was so much fun, it was a little chilly and the sun was setting, but they loved chasing the birds and playing in the sand.

It was all fun and games until Caden fell face first into a tide pool.

SEASIDE

The next morning we headed up the coast to Seaside! It was fabulous! The day was sunny and warm, and we spent it playing on the beach. The long walk up the beach took us forever because Ethan had to stop every 3 feet to fill his bucket with sand, he couldn't believe we were passing up perfectly good dirt to play in!

We all loved playing in the ocean waves a little bit, but no one loved it more than Caden! He would not get out of the water, and that water is not warm. He loved having the waves come in and knock him down, we had to keep a firm grip on him to keep him from going out to sea!

This was my favorite travel time yet! We are now settled in and so happy we get to be here for 2 whole months!