4th of July 2010

Kylan played T-Ball this summer for the first time. He was the youngest on his team since it was a 4-5 year old league and he turned 4 just days before the session started. I was nervous that he wouldn't be as good as the others--but my fears were quickly eased as I watched all these little kids who couldn't catch, hit, or throw, try to play a game of t-ball.

The first game was amusing, after that every game was pretty much the same. One kid would hit the ball. All the kids on the field would run towards it. There would be a dogpile for the ball. One kid would finally get up with the ball in their hand. At least one other kid would cry because they either got hurt in the pile-up or because they did not get the ball. The adults would then have to tell the kid with the ball Over and Over to throw it to first. The kid would under/over throw it. First baseman would then run around trying to retrieve it. Next batter.

The runner was limited to first base, unless they were the last batter then they got to hit a homerun. (Be sure to watch Ky's first homerun in the video below!)

Ky enjoyed the game. I enjoyed watching him. He would often try to go up to bat with his glove still on. It was so fun to watch!



The beginning of July, I dug up the rest of my carrots. It was very exciting since I had not grown carrots before. They were so yummy- but I am not sure they are worth the work since I can get them so cheap at the store. Nonetheless--fun! I never realized how funny looking carrots can grow. Be sure to notice the photo of one of my carrots that appears to have it's legs crossed!

For the fourth of July Weekend we went camping at YellowStone Lake. It was highly recommended by a friend of mine. It was a cute little campground--but not my favorite. The lake was actually manmade, which was a bit disappointing. And while the water was clean it had clumps of algae junk-EW!

We reserved our campsite online--knowing that the campground would quickly become crowded for the 4th. However when we got to the site we were quite disappointed. We had to park on top of a hill where there was some free space for the kids to play. At the bottom of the hill was the fire pit (can we say DANGER!) and just beyond the fire pit was the picnic table and then a spot for our tent. This actually made it very difficult for us since we had to be careful of the kids running down the hill and falling in the firepit.

We tried setting up chairs between the hill and firepit, but you couldn't sit in them due to the incline. We also used a white rope to make a line to show the kids where they could not walk. It worked okay--but Ky ended up with a lot of time outs until he got the "rope" system down.

We arrived Friday night and set up camp. The next morning we decided to do a trail before swimming. It was TOO hot! And honestly the trail was not that exciting. At one point we found a puddle with tadpoles--and that was about the most exciting part--that is until we found the inchworm. Otherwise there really wasn't any other wildlife and the trails just were not as scenic as we hoped. And then the trail got whiney (not WINDY, whiney). Yes, the boy began to whine. He couldn't walk anymore. He was tired of the trail...blah blah blah. (Notice the sad boy pics.)

I think we were all pretty annoyed by then and Ky was not helping the situation. We made it though--and went straight for a well-deserved cool swim!

While at the beach, Ky met a boy who was a little older than him. It was really cute watching them play. At one point Ky came to me and asked me if he (Ky) was in preschool--I assume the boy had asked him. I told Ky "Yes and that he was in his Mommy's Preschool of Love." He then went back and told the boy that--TOO CUTE! And the boy just nodded, like "yes, of course."

Towards the end of our beach time I decided to bury Ky in the sand. We had a lot of fun doing that and even had some stray children join in. We tried to mold his body to look like a gingerbread man, but then he started moving.

After that it was back to the campsite for dinner and s'mores. This was Alaina's first time roasting marshmallows--so I did make sure to get some video of that. Not to mention, it is too funny watching these wee ones try to deal with all the sticky.



At one point, Alaina actually knocked her chair over and fell into the firepit, but thankfully the angels were watching her. She did not get hurt, just pretty scared--which helped to prove our point of needing to stay away from the firepit.

The next day was the 4th of July and I tried dressing the kids in their red, white, and blues. Unfortunately, Alaina's skirt was a bit too big in the waist, so she had droopy drawers for much of the day.

That morning we walked another trail. This one was more interesting because it went around the water preserve. Ky caught a monarch--and this was TOO neat to watch--be sure to watch the video of it--his expression and holding the butterfly is just PRICELESS! We saw several differnt water bird including a heron? pelican?, yeah I don't know what it was. At some point on this trail though, I got stung by something and it really hurt. I was done with the trail by then and just wanted to get back to the car.



After that we had lunched and then tried to figure out what to do. We had planned to camp one more night, but the forecast was calling for storms. We were also watching tons of clouds moving in. We decided to pack up and leave after dinner. We didn't want to have to deal with packing up a wet tent the next day or trying to get the kids to sleep through a storm. Turns out we made a good decision. It rained a couple of times that night. All in all it was a good 4th of July weekend.