coming soon: giant summer photo dump

So, very soon I plan to upload a ton of our summer photos for your viewing pleasure. Notice I said "plan" . . . you know what they say about the best laid plans . . . But until then I leave you with this, a perfect pictoral representation of how I've spent the summer:

safety first.

So, a few posts back I mentioned that we had found a new way to ensure Josiah's safety on a daily basis. Behold:
Yes, I'll admit it's a bit bulky but I think in the long run the lack of medical bills will be worth the hassle and the smooshed cheeks.

Actually, some friends dressed him up in their karate gear during one of the softball games and he spent the whole time running around trying it all out:
Intimidating, to say the least. Quite the little black belt. Personally I'm trying not to think about my little Bud in the ring with another kid kicking the crap out of each other.

Happy place, Amy; happy place.

relief . . . and thankfulness.

So, the lab just called back with the results of the kids' blood tests this morning. They were so cooperative and neither of them cried at all - not even a whimper out of J. Kev came with me to help hold them down and we were both floored that there were no tears, no nothing!

Oh, and the results were completely NORMAL!!!! No Hypophosphatasia in either of them!! They could still contract it later if that particular gene mutates in them but the adult versions are SOOOOOO much less severe than the childhood version Kev has . . . the symptoms are much less painful, etc, that it should be manageable if it does happen.

But for now, all is well. Thank you, God!

dr appts, etc.

So, today I had the kids in to the dr for their check-ups and I must say it went way better than I thought it would. Since G starts kindergarten in 2 weeks (TWO WEEKS?!?!) she had to be seen and get her last round of shots - of course, there's been a run on the clinic for kids' immunizations before school starts so they were completely out of all of the shots my kids needed - and J needed his 2 year check. All is well, thankfully, although J is still underweight for his height. Oh, and they are only 11 inches apart in height . . . G is 3'11" and J is 3' exactly. But they are both developing just fine. Tomorrow we are going back in for a blood test for each of them to check if they have Kev's disease Hypophosphatasia. The dr isn't really worried since they don't exhibit any signs of it yet . . . G has a little caved-in part of her chest bone right by the sternum which the dr said might be related to the disease but it isn't threatening her lungs or heart . . . but she wanted a base-line test so if anything shows up later they have these readings to compare to. Other than that it was a good visit. J barely cried at all!

Oh, and Kev gets the rest of his teeth pulled tomorrow afternoon. One more horrible week of pain and throbbing and we'll be done with all that mess. Yay for genetic disease!

outside fun

So, long story short, we've finished the backyard for this season. We did a ton of stuff to it . . . before and after photos to come . . . and got it done just before J's birthday. Kev got him a few little water/sand toys that J's been just itching to get back outside to play with. These photos were from the other day when I took the kids outside to shoot J's 2 year portraits and G's "My brother is getting his picture taken and I just have to get in there, too, Mom" portraits. It took no small amount of Cap'n Crunch and many, many promises that we'd play in the sandbox AS SOON AS WE ARE DONE to get the pictures but they turned out really cute so I guess it's usually worth it.
And so are these:
I love little summer hands covered in sand.
He caught a bug on his shovel.

Then he turned the shovel on me. He thought it was hilarious to try to dump rocks on the end of my lens.

almost 36 hours

So, Kim and Pat came out to visit with us for a few days around Josiah's bday. We had a great time at his party (photos to come) then we got in the car and did the Tazmanian-Devil's version of Yellowstone: there and back in just under 36 hours. We left GR at 3am on Monday and pulled back into town at 2:30pm on Tueday, just in time to drop Kev at his dentist appt. Kim and Pat had never been there before so we got to play tourguides. . . our having been there once last summer makes us the experts, right? :)


It rained off and on the whole day so we bought sweatshirts . . . didn't think to pack cold weather clothes because it was crazy hot the day before we left. Silly Amy, you know WY weather is ridiculous. Josiah spent a bunch of time playing peek-a-boo from under the hood of his stroller. Apparently he can't be bothered with such natural wonders as geysers and hot springs. At least he was in a good mood.
We hit some of the highlights: Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic Spring, Heydon Valley where all the buffalo are, etc.

Honest to goodness I think we saw one of the oldest living buffalo on God's green earth. I still maintain he was one of the original two from the Ark.

At one of the turnouts there was parked this Yellowstone Jitney - "the rubbernecker bus" as my mom calls it - and no one was around so I took Gennie over for a photo.

Kev took a page from the Kodak School of Red-Shirt Photography . . . ask my mom and her sisters about that. :)

Overall the kids did tremendously in the car. I don't think they've been confined to their car seats for that length of time at once before. They each slept a bunch and Gennie spent quite some time upside down on her pillow looking at the clouds as they sped by - whatever keeps you busy, sister. We had a great time and it was fun being able to show Kim and Pat things they hadn't seen in real life before. Oh, and we hit an owl in Eden on the way there so that was exciting. Darn bird flew up from the oncoming lane just as we entered Eden and it hit the driver's side windshield - didn't make a crack, but left a schmear mark on the window from top to bottom - disgusting greasy beast. Oh well, one more for the list of animals we spotted! Thanks for the wonderful trip, guys! See you next year!