365

A while ago I did a 30 day challenge, a photo a day for 30 days. Because I can't ever do anything on my own (ie... this) I was discussing my plan to do the challenge with Angie and we decided it would work better if we did it together.
I made it a solid 30 days, while Angie went on for a whole year.
I've always wished I had been able to do it too. Looking back on it, I realize that it would have been impossible to do at that time.
I was working full time and I was away from home for almost 8 days in a row, two times a month. It was not the best set up for taking a photo a day.
After seeing Angie's post I thought that it might be a good time to give it a go again. I want to improve my photography and I want to document our lives more. What better way to do that than a 365 challenge?
Angie and I chatted for a little while and decided we should do it and invite/challenge our other sisters to join in.
They happily said yes.
So here we go.
For the next 365 days I will take a photo each day and post it on a separate blog. I will continue to post on this blog as well, but if you wish to see my daily pictures you can follow the link to the right.
Today was day one... 

the attempted hike

We started out with plans to hike to some beautiful waterfalls and the boys were thrilled. Unfortunately, due to time limits (and my inability to realize that hiking with 2 boys would take us twice the amount of time that I had estimated) we were not able to make it to the falls. We definitely plan to go back and try again another time... like when we have all day to hike 4.5 miles.

But we love hiking. Every last one of us, and it was a beautiful day for a hike. So, even though we didn't make it to our intended destination, we had a lot of fun along the way.

We searched for bugs.

They held hands. (And in case you are wondering, that thing around Bridger's waist is a bungee cord. He found it in the car and wanted to wear it like a belt for the entire hike.)

We threw rocks in the river just to see how big a splash we could make.

On the way, Kyle was looking for some walking sticks for the boys. Bridger was attempting to help him when he picked up a stick about 6 inches in length and held it up to Kyle.

"Look, I found a good walkin' stick, Daddy!" And then, looking at it with a little disappointment he said, "It's missing some pieces though."

It was about an hour before it would get dark when we ran into the first hikers coming the opposite way. We asked them how much further to the falls and they kind of laughed at us, "Ummm... you've got a ways to go..." 

So we abandoned the hope of getting to the falls and decided to head on out.

It was a fun afternoon up a really pretty canyon. Hopefully next time we'll make it to the falls.

the fish

When we were preparing to go to the carnival, I prepared the boys for all the excitement. It's so much fun to get them excited for something big like the carnival (I mean, these kids get excited for PB&J everyday for lunch, so something big like the carnival was really something to get excited about.)

I told them we would go on rides and play games and eat treats, and their eyes got bigger and bigger and all day long they asked me about the carnival.

As luck would have it the rides were much cheaper than we thought they would be, but the games were still quite pricey.

I really had a problem paying $6 for Porter and Bridger to swing a hammer and see how strong they are.

So for most of the evening we rode rides and ate cotton candy and had a lot of fun.

As we were headed out of the park, Porter reminded me that we were supposed to play games. I had told him that we would play games, and not wanting to go back on my word, I set out to find a game that was less than $6 a pop.

We came upon a classic carnival game. The one where there are hundreds of fish bowls set up with water in each of them and you take ping pong balls and you try to throw the ping pong ball into one of the bowls. And it was only $2 for both the boys.

Kyle grabbed my arm as I headed to the game and said, "If they win, they get a fish... do you want a fish?"

"Of course I don't want a fish, but they aren't going to win one, nobody wins this game. They'll play it and we'll go home."

As Bridger picked up the last ball to throw, the lady who was running the booth came over and picked up a bowl and held it right in front of Bridger's face for him to dump the ball in.

Kyle's face was priceless, and I'm sure mine was as well.

The lady walked over and picked up a bag with the tiniest fish I have ever seen swimming around in it.

The boys were ecstatic.

We started walking home and coming up with names for our new little pet, when Porter turned to me and asked (very enthusiastically), "Can I eat him tomorrow Mom? Can I?" 

"Porter, we don't eat him. He's a pet."

"Mom, when you catch a fish, then, you eat the fish."

"Porter, we didn't catch the fish, we won the fish. He's a pet and we don't eat pets."

He seemed pretty content with that answer and he started to get even more excited that we now had a pet.

We got home and put the little guy in a mason jar for the night with plans to go out and get a little fish bowl and food the next day. 

We named him Max.

Porter woke up the next morning, thrilled to see and feed his pet. When we got downstairs to the mason jar we saw little Max with his belly floating at the top of the jar. Porter asked me if he was sleeping and I said no. Then Porter asked if he had died and I told him yes. Max had died.

And then, with the saddest little eyes I have ever seen, Porter turned and asked me the question that would turn my $2 miserly splurge into a $25 investment.

"Mom, will we ever have a pet that doesn't die?"

"Yes, yes we will. In fact we'll get you a new fish today!"

And we promptly headed out to get us some fish.

And that's how Kevin and Russell joined our little family. 

I'm proud to say that they have now been alive for well over a week, and Porter has finally stopped asking every morning if they are dead.
The boys are so excited to have the fish and they take great care of them.

I'm also proud to say that I've learned a couple things from this experience. 

#1.  Kyle is almost always correct.

 and

#2.  A $6 hammer swing is actually cheaper than the $2 fish game.

Carnival

Carnivals are fun. 

And a little expensive.

Luckily for us we went on the night where all rides were a buck.

We rode some rides.

We ate yummy food.

FYI: Funnel Cakes + Caramel = Heaven

After dinner we waited in line for the ferris wheel.... and we waited... and waited.

 To pass the time, I took pictures of the boys. Bridger didn't want a picture of him and his brother and so he gave me this look.

 Then Porter tried to force Bridger into smiling for the camera...

Forcing Bridger to do something always works well.

 Although I wanted a picture of them smiling, I think I ended up with a much better picture... I think this one belongs on the wall.

 We met up with some friends and played games (an entire post of it's own) and kept the boys up way past their bedtime having fun at the Carnival.

The boys have been begging to go back... next year when it's dollar night at the carnival we'll go again.

Kickball

We signed Porter up for kickball this year, and he has been so excited to play.  He loved his first game, and he did so well.

 They play at a beautiful field... have I mentioned how beautiful our little city is?

 He made friends with the kids as he ran the bases. This little strawberry-blonde boy and Porter became fast friends. They checked out each others shoes...

 and prepared to run the bases together.

 His favorite part of the game was at the end when they got to tell the other team "Good Game!"

It's going to be a good season.

Hiking the Y

 We decided it was high time to hike the Y. Gramma and Papa joined in as well.

 Porter showing us the way we should go. He did this at every post and he would quickly declare whether we should turn left or right. I don't know how we would have found our way to the top without him!

 Porter and Papa were racing each other. It may look like Papa is pushing Porter out of the way, but Porter doesn't exactly fight fair either. He uses his little elbows to get the best of Papa.

 I was so proud of Bridger, he hiked the entire thing by himself. And I think he only asked to be carried once or twice.

 Porter interpreted this sign for us, "Don't let your dog eat us."

 Porter almost to the top. He also hiked the entire thing by himself. Here he is at the top of the last hill and he's taunting Papa by telling him that he's going to win.

 Porter doing his best "Y" on top of the Y

 Disclaimer: Bridger hiked UP all by himself, but he got a piggy-back ride from Papa on the way back down. I turned the corner to find them like this. Bridger apparently told Papa that he (Bridger) needed a rest and he needed to lay down. Papa was happy to oblige.

It was a great hike, and a beautiful view. A little too busy of a trail for my taste, but I'm glad to finally be able to say that I've hiked it. I was so proud of my boys and how well they did with the hike. We'll be finding a lot more hikes to take this summer.

graduation

Porter had his graduation from preschool tonight. I didn't know I could cry so much about something like a preschool graduation (especially because he's not truly graduating... he'll be doing preschool again this fall) But I got a little teary-eyed seeing my little boy not look so little any more.
He's definitely growing up and the kid is smart as a whip. I was so surprised to see how many things he's learned in school that I never knew about.

He knows the Pledge of Allegiance by heart, which he has never said at home. He can sing The Star Spangled Banner word for word as well.

I never knew.

He's sang several songs that he learned from preschool, but somehow these ones never came up.

He's definitely the most active in his class, Porter doesn't sit down for long. All the kids were given an award from their teacher... Porter's was the Busy Bee award because he's always keeping himself busy. And it only took the other parents about two minutes to see why that was Porter's award.

 They sang songs and performed dances for us and in the middle of one of Porter's favorite songs, he stopped and ran over to me. "Mom! This is my favorite shirt! I love this shirt Mom!!" I quickly told him to go back and join his class. "Okay Mom, okay!!" And he was off again. (It may appear that he is showing his friend his tummy, but he's actually showing her the shirt.)

 He's sitting next to his best friend in preschool. Little Avlyn is so sweet and she has made Porter her best friend. Avlyn's mother was so excited to finally find out which little boy was Porter because Avlyn apparently can't stop talking about him at home.

I'm so glad we got Porter into preschool this year... it has made a huge difference for him. He loves school and is always so excited to go. He loves his teacher too. Miss Nicole has been great.

After graduation we went out to celebrate and we got snow cones.

This kid has personality oozing out of him. He's such an amazing little boy and I'm surprised at how much he has grown. I think I held it together pretty well tonight, but I don't know what it will be like in another year when I'm looking at sending him off to kindergarten. It's been weird having him at preschool and realizing that he has this entire other life aside from me. He goes on his own, has his own friendships and knows things that I wasn't aware of.  And while it makes me a little sad, I'm just so tickled that I get to have him the rest of the time.