spray park and mini golf

Yesterday we all went to one of the spray parks together. Frank actually took the kids a few weeks ago, but this is the first time this summer I have gone. Frank and I did not intend to get wet. However, Frank got hot and decided to go under the misters. Well, Shianne seized the opportunity and pulled him under the dumping buckets and he got completely drenched. After that, he decided he may as well keep playing. Dylan really enjoyed the water guns and spent most of the time trying to spray people.

Last night, we downloaded a new game to the wii called family mini golf. Just like in real life, each hole has obstacles and as you play more you can unlock new courses. We played it for family home evening and really had a good time. Shianne won by quite a bit. The kids and I played again this morning and Dylan won the first time and Shianne won the second time. I think the rest of us are going to have to practice secretly when she's not around to be able to beat her.

white water

Well, apparently Dylan's bravery at Frontier City has now carried over to White Water as well. We went yesterday with mom. Up until now, he would only go on the slides in the kid area, in the lazy river, and in the very shallow parts of the two other pools. Yesterday, I took a big float and put him on it and we paddled out to the deep end of the wave pool. He kept yelling at me to go back, but as soon as the waves started, he quit being upset and was really having a good time. The next time the waves came on, he walked in chest deep and was letting the waves knock him over. Then he purposely put his whole face in the water twice. After that we went over to the bermuda trianle and sat at the bottom to wait for Shianne to come down. While we were there, he said he wanted to ride it next time. I suggested to him that his first slide should be the body flumes. He said "Ok, let's do that next". So when Shianne got off the bermuda triangle, we went over there and got tubes. Several times before we have gotten him to go up the stairs for this slide, but he always chickens out before he even makes it all the way to the start. This time, he actually let me put the tube in and got in. However, when I got him to put his feet up and his rear in the hole of the tube, he started getting scared and would have gotten out but I said "Are you ready?" and without waiting for an anwer, pushed him off. He had a blast and even went down again.

staycation day 4

Today we went to Great Salt Plains state park and went crystal digging. The trip started out pretty funny. I was reading the disclaimer at the bottom of the map I printed from the internet and it says "it's a good idea to do a reality check and make sure the road still exists". We had a good laugh over that. Unfortunately, Dylan got sick about 30 minutes into the trip (we're not sure if he was carsick or if his breakfast made him sick). He puked on his grammy quilt, once on the side of the road, and three or four times at the salt plains. We ended up only staying about 40 minutes because of him being sick and because of the blazing heat. Right before we left, I dumped a bunch of water on him and then we took his shirt off and made him lay down in the backseat. He finally started feeling better about ten minutes after that and felt fine the rest of the way home.

This is the view of the salt plains. In the distance, you can see the trees on the other side of the lake (which you can't see in the picture). It was a pretty weird site since Oklahoma is full of red dirt. In fact, once you dug down past the top layer, it was red dirt there too.



Dylan helped dig for a little bit before the tummy ache came back.


Shianne and I "digging" for crystals. Really, you dig a hole and then you repeatedly pour water over the edges to erode away the dirt and uncover the crystals.



Here are the biggest ones we found. They're about an inch long. They all have dirt encased in them, some more than others.


We had fun, but we'd like to do it again someday when the weather is cooler. We think if we go again, we'll probably rent a cabin so that we can go to the digging site a couple of times in short increments. Plus, we'd like to explore the lake area too.

staycation

I find the term staycation funny, since we started doing it years before anyone was calling it that. Anyway, today was day 2 of our staycation. This morning, we went to Red Rock Canyon state park and went hiking.

We tried to climb up this way, but it was a little steep and the kids got scared, so we had to find an easier route.

Dylan got going too fast down a hill and fell down. He was covered in dirt. In fact, he had so much dirt on himself that we didn't even notice that he scraped one of his elbows quite a bit until we got home.

Then, tonight we went to Incredible Pizza and let the kids play for awhile.

Don't tell Dylan, but I didn't actually put any money into any of the car/motorcycle games he got on. They have the sample run on the screen and he doesn't know the difference.

out of place plant

About a week ago, I was pulling weeds in my vegetable garden and noticed a little green plant that was out of place, but looked a little too familiar to be a weed. So I decided to let it grow for a little while and see what it was. Then, a few days ago, I looked out the window at the garden and noticed a bright speck of pink at the back. I thought it was probably a piece of trash or something that had blown in there. But when I went out to look, it turned out that the out of place plant was a petunia and the pink was the first flower. I have no idea how a petunia sprouted in my garden, I've never even planted any flowers in the back yard at all. Since it's growing amongst the green beans that are dying from the heat, I think I'm going to leave it instead of trying to transfer it to someplace else.

frontier city

Yesterday we went to Frontier City (the local amusement park). Last year, Dylan was scared of everything. He rode the carousel willingly and put him onto the tin lizzies (the tamest ride in the world) and the rapids kicking and screaming. This year, he rode everything he was allowed to ride. In fact, he was so excited he was running from one ride to the next. He even got mad at me because I wouldn't take him on the tilt-a-whirl.

Dylan and Shianne on the dragon

Dylan on the swings

Dylan and Shianne on the teacups

Dylan on the roller coaster. He looks scared, but he willingly rode again and wanted to go back later.

Shianne on the bumper cars. She had trouble figuring out how to manuver them and really only got going the last 30 seconds of the ride.

This year they have a Bob the Builder show. Dylan loved it and got to meet Bob after the show.

Shianne's dance recital

For those of you that didn't get to come to Shianne's dance recital a few weeks ago, here are the videos of her dances. They were taken at the dress rehearsal (since we're not allowed to take pics or video at the recital), so if you hear a lot of talking or anything else unusual you'll know why. Shianne has been doing ballet since she was three and a half, tap since she was four and a half, and she just started jazz last fall.

Ballet

Jazz

Tap

portraits of the kids

It's been years since we've had portraits made of the kids. I still don't think we're going to do professional ones anytime soon, so I took some yesterday (well, actually a alot). I'm really happy with how they turned out. You guys are welcome to copy them to your computer and print them out or let me know which one and size you want and I can get copies made. If you need something a little different (tall instead of wide or vice versa), let me know because I have tons more that I'm not posting.

Dylan riding his bike

This is the video of Dylan riding his bike last week for the first time without training wheels. No one had to hold on to him at all. Frank told him how to catch himself if he started to fall, and he just took off. Since then, he's had one fall where he got stuck under his bike, but he didn't get any scrapes, and a few other even more minor "falls".

I also have to show you guys this picture. I was playing around with it with my photo editing software. When I made it black and white, I noticed that Dylan looks just like dad as a little kid.