After a few pases, Kenny really seemed to be getting the hang of things.
Finally, we were confident he could handle the rest of the yard on his own.
In all seriousness, we did not make him mow the entire yard by himself. He did help Daddy mow the entire yard.
Ken got the opportunity to go flying with a man in our Stake (Les) who has been his mentor in the flying world. He took Ken out to the oil rigs in the Gulf. Les flies a Sikorsky S-76, a multi-million dollar twin-turbine helicopter. Besides being a great opportunity to experience the cream of the crop in helicopter flight, Les turned the controls over to Ken for 1.6 hours of flight time. He even got to take off from a rig platform. I am so grateful he has a mentor ho knows the business in and out and can offer such great advice and encouragement. Every time Ken talks to or flies with Les he comes away with a renewed vigor for what he is doing.
First, we went bumper bowling. Kenny can't boel the ball, but he is good at rolling it. Unfortunately, he got his little thumb stuck in one of the holes and sprained his finger. But he still played. He bowled a 74. I bowled a 73. He beat me...but I let him. I swear. Cross my heart. I really let him win and was NOT beat fair and square by a 5 year old little boy.
After bowling, we took Kenny to this new place that just opened near our house. It is called Fan Max Jumpin'. It's an inflatable world. We had the BEST time! This place is cheap in comparison to other places like this. They also let parents play for free with your kid. They also have counselors available to play with your kid if you want to take a break in the parent's room- a lovely place where no children are allowed, there is a big screen t.v., leather couches, magazines, and a window into the play world. We jumped, slid down inflatable slides, and played tag. It was so wonderful to have fun play time with just Kenny. I loved seeing how joyful Kenny felt. His charming smile never left his face.
Due to various circumstances, we ended up with a full house for cake and ice cream. Kenny had a Star Wars cake with a light up Yoda on top. We got the opportunity to meet my new little niece, Avery. She is very sweet. We talked and the kids played. All in all, I think we had a wonderful day.
Today marks a special anniversary. Ken and I have been changing diapers for 5 years now. That is 1825 days. Ah, the memories.
head, tucks his top lip under, and sticks this bottom lip out as far as possible. He then walks with the weight of the entire world on his two year old shoulders and rest his head dejectedly against the wall with his hands hanging at his side. I'm telling you, it is impossible to keep a straight face. He also likes to be held on your lap. If you try to put him down before he wants to be put down, he pulls his legs up and straight out. He refuses to put his feet down. I stand there bouncing him up and down trying to encourage him release his legs, but that boy is stubborn. He does the same thing on grocery carts. If you try and put him in the seat part in the front, he sticks his legs out and hooks them on the back part of the seat. Once that happens, the only way to get him into the seat try to hold him with one hand while using your other hand to manually bend his knees. Let's just say it never really works and he ends up walking or sitting in the basket.
And my sweet little Kenny-man. When he gets upset he lowers his head and scrunches up his mouth and forehead. His voice also goes up an entire octave which, given his already high pitched voice, rapidly reaches the level only canine animals can hear.
If you drop a pot holder on the red part of a hot oven, it WILL catch on fire.
We had a busy day. My hubby woke up at 6:00 to get ready for a long flight. Being the amazing, sweet, loving, and incredibly handsome man that he is, he made the boys and I breakfast (bacon, eggs, and toast.) After kissing him goodbye and sending him off to fly these southern skies, I tackled the toy room. I have been asking Kenny to help me work on this room for weeks, but he just sits and watches me clean it. So I told him he had to do it. Of course, every time he went in to clean it he made an even bigger mess. It had reached the point of total disaster. I told Kenny I would clean it, but I was cleaning out and getting rid of some stuff. He was not exactly happy about that, but he'll deal. I spent 1 hour and 45 minutes cleaning out the closet and the room. I boxed up all the straggling baby toys, tossed a sack full of broken or lame toys, and took a big tub over to my parent's house for them to keep for grandchildren. The room looks much better now.
Ken came home around 2:30 and we all went swimming for an hour. After drying off, we left the boys with my mom for an hour so we could go get Kenny's birthday present (Star Wars theme). Then it was home for dinner, a few rounds of Star Wars X-box for the K-men, bath, and bedtime.
We went to Austin to spend the holiday with my sister and her husband. Of course, it rained the entire time. We had to change all our original plans due to the weather. We went to this cave in San Marcos. I love caves. There is something so awe inspiring about being under the earth. This particular cave was formed by an earthquake. You can actually see the two plates and and where the gulf coast plate slid under the hill country plate. Very cool. The boys had an okay time. We went with Rissa, Kevin, and Landan. One of the three boys was fussing at any given time and I have to admit, by the end of the tour I wondered why we thought having children was a good idea in the first place. Then I looked into their sweet little eyes and remembered all the loves and kisses and joy they bring into my life. Of course, at this point one of the angels would hit another one and the cycle started over again.
Now the real story surrounding the train. Kevin and Ken wanted the train to go through the waterfall without the little machine parting the water so the passengers stayed dry. We sat in the last car and the conductor person said he would try and shut the water-parting machine down early so our car could go through the water. The first time we went past the fall the bench I was sitting on got a little wet and the other bench stayed dry. The second time I told Kevin to move to my seat because he and Ken wanted to get wet, not me. So I moved to the dry seat with Nathan and Marissa. Look at what happened.
Please make a note of who is wet and who is not...mean boys.
After the cave place we went to see Kevin and Rissa's being built house. Due to it still raining, we took everyone to a movie. The men folk went to see Transformers, while us woman folk took the rugrats to see Ratitoulle. It was a cute movie. Of course we sat on the complete opposite side of the exit and Nathan pooped twice and Kenny had to go once as well. But they had a good time. After the movie, we sat out on the sidewalk and watched some fireworks displays because the dad's movie got out an hour later than our did. Nathan loved the fireworks. He would squeal with glee every time and say "That preddy!" Kenny was mesmerized by the cars driving by and Landon was into the grass.
Kenny made his very own most favorite food in the whole world- a peanut butter and honey sandwich. Lovely. First bees, then a brand-new-now-half-empty honey bear. Let's just face the facts. My kitchen attracts honey. It's fate- what can ya do?
I got a bubble machine from a friend and turned it on in the living room. The boys went nuts! It was fun to see how excited they got. Nathan kept saying "bubbles, bubbles" over and over. Each time his voice got a little higher. Cute!
When we were first dating, Ken worked at a flower shop as a delivery driver. This meant that I always had a fresh supply of beautiful purple roses. These arrived for me on Friday. I haven't had purple roses in a long time because Ken has not been able to find a shop that carries them here. I was positively giddy with delight when these arrived. They are absolutely beautiful! This picture does not begin to do them justice.
We went back to my apartment and I changed into a sweatshirt. We headed up the canyon and parked at this beautiful spot. We talked for hours (and did a little kissing- don't judge me.) I had the most wonderful feeling the whole time. When I got home that night my roommate asked me how things went and I told her "I think I'm going to marry him." Four weeks later he bought my ring and nine months after that we were married in the Salt Lake temple at 9:40 am.
