Labor Day Weekend

We had such a fun Labor Day weekend, miraculous really...although Clark was on call he didn't end up going to the hospital once.  Yippee!
Saturday we discovered the Harvest Festival in Windsor, a cute little town about 15 mins. from where we live.  There was a concert, bbq, and dance on the beach of the lake in town.  The boys had a great time digging in the dirt and swimming.  

Caden loved being buried in the sand multiple times.

We even tried the aqua trike.  It was a lot of fun and also a good workout.

Today we went back to the festival and enjoyed the parade.  When I asked Caden what his favorite part was he said, "candy!"  We were so excited to have Clark home 3 full days!

Thumbs Up

This is Ethan's new thing:

And I love it.  When he gets excited about something, or thinks I'm funny he'll look at me and give a big thumbs up with a wink.  My new calling in our ward is to teach the 6 year old primary class.  I was excited last week to be in sharing and singing time with Ethan.  I got a lot of these thumbs up throughout singing time.  Ethan loves to sing, and boy does he get into it.  The chorister is so funny and just plays into him, last week he started calling Ethan his assistant choreographer, and let me say Ethan did his job of demonstrating the actions to the songs with gusto.  I couldn't stop laughing.  At one point the chorister had just Ethan's little Sunbeam class sing the chorus to the song.  Oh my, I thought for sure a blood vessel was going to burst as he belted out, "I will go, I will do...the things the Lord commands."    

The part I love is that he is so sincere, he just sings because he loves to.  And every winking thumbs up just makes my day!

A Good Day

We are pretty easy to please around here.  A good day is meeting Clark at the hospital for some free lunch at the cafeteria.

The only problem is he doesn't quite have enough hands to hold.

Creative Differences

My two boys are as different from each other as can be in so many ways.  One way that I've really noticed lately is in how they create things.  Caden LOVES to color.  He goes crazy coloring on every bit of paper he can find.  I have started to take a part boxes for him to color on, he just can't get enough.

 

Ethan on the other hand doesn't like to color, never has.  It holds his interest for about 5 seconds.  When we do something crafty, he is always coming up with something more.  Instead of drawing a picture of an airplane he wants to build an airplane, then he wants string and tape, then the next thing I know I'm standing on a chair taping his airplane on to the ceiling fan to watch it fly.  He is always asking me to tie things together and try different experiments.  It is kind of fun to see his little engineering mind at work, especially because I don't think that way at all.

One craft we all enjoyed together was making puppets of Grandpa and Grandma Johnson!  We made them for a video we made for their 50th wedding anniversary.  I've decided puppets are 10 times the fun when they have faces of people you know and love.  My boys now love to play with their grandparent puppets.  Grandma and Grandpa have been on lots of adventures now (they've fallen off cliffs, driven motorcycles, and have even hung out with a walrus and bear in Antarctica).  It is quite entertaining.

Little Corn Farmers

The church has a welfare farm here in Greeley.  They have a small little corn field that is open to the public to come and pick as much corn as you want for free.  So I took the boys one day and we found some corn.  I gave each of the boys a bag to put the corn in.  Ethan's bag was empty the whole time because he was having too much fun playing in the mud.  Caden filled his bag with husks and bugs.

I decided it was time to go when I noticed Caden eating all of the raw corn out of our basket.

I didn't end up picking enough to freeze, but we have been loving a lot of corn on the cob at our house this past week!

Takin' a Hike

On Saturday we had Clark the whole day to ourselves, so we went on a hike to Horsetooth Falls.  The trail is about 1.2 miles to the falls.  The boys loved it.

At the beginning this was our view...we were just trying to keep up with the boys!
I'm pretty sure Ethan did the trail at least twice, he would run forward and back, forward and back.

I loved watching these little legs try to keep up.
Caden just constantly chattered the whole way, giving a narrative of everything he saw.  "I don't need a hand mom-o," was my favorite comment.  It definitely took us a little longer than we thought it would due to the 2 year old wanting to examine every rock along the way.  He would climb on even the smallest little pebbles and say, "I king of the mountain."  

Then we finally got to the majestic falls!  Wait for it...wait for it...

Hmmm...because of the extra dry summer the falls resembled more of a dripping shower faucet.  Just enough water for Ethan to get wet.  Although the falls were a little less than we had expected the views on the side of the mountain were pretty at least.

With about a half mile left on the way back to the car Caden was done.  It was nap time and he was so tired he was walking like a drunken sailor, so Clark put him on his shoulders for a little rest.  He was complete dead weight, so so tired!  I love these next pictures because he just looks spent!

I love this dirty little face!

Poor kid could barely keep his eyes open.  He had a great nap on the way home.  I don't know who looked more tired by the end...Caden or the pregnant lady.  With all of the braxton hicks contractions I was having on the hike home I was pretty much waddling by the time we finished.  I kept laughing watching Caden, and Clark kept laughing watching me.  It was a great day!

Celebrity Look Alikes

This week in 2 different places, I had 2 different people tell me that my 2 boys look like 2 different celebrities.

I was told at Sam's Club yesterday that Ethan looks just like Prince Harry.  I had never thought of it...but I suppose with the spiky red hair, and mischievous grin there could be a resemblance.  I sure hope he is better behaved than Prince Harry.

The one that has me a bit puzzled was when a new friend here said to me, "I finally figured out who Caden looks like...Kevin Bacon."  Really?  I will admit I always wonder who Caden looks like, but I'm not so sure we have a Baconator on our hands!

What do you think?