These are a Few of my favorite things...

 I love chocolate mousse! Actually I love any food, unless it is green or eggs. Then I probably won't eat it, but green is negotiable.

I love to go through daddy's wallet. I'm not sure what those little cards are for, but they must be important.

But my most favorite thing to do is climb! Mom gets mad at me for climbing on top of the counter all of the time, but what can I say? There is so much to do up there! That's where mom keeps the bananas, and I LOVE bananas. Sometimes there is even a cup of water up there that I can spill all over and splash in when it is hot. Climbing in the bathroom is even more fun! I can turn on the water and fill things up. I can also put my toothbrush under the water and brush my teeth! I really like to brush my teeth and when mom tells me it's time, I'll respond with an excited, "Teethers!"

P.S. I still have blue eyes!

The adventures of a three-year-old

Today, when Eli asked me if I wanted to play, I could tell that he said something like, "Hide-and-Seek," but I couldn't tell what he said instead. Apparently what he said was, "Bite-and-Seek." So guess what he did when I found him.... Yeah...

I told him I didn't like that game and didn't want to play Bite-and-Seek anymore. So he said, "How about Hit-and-Seek?"

Boys.

Monsters!

A couple of nights ago Eli ran into our room during the middle of the night (despite previous blog posts this doesn't really happen very frequently). I was very groggy, having just been awoken from a deep sleep. As near as I can recall, this is what he said:

"Mom! I was sleeping, and when I woke up, there was a monster in my room! Then it sat on my head!"

I groggily told him to go and get his pillow and blanket and sleep beside our bed which he immediately did.

Those stinkin' monsters. What do they want to sit on a little boy's head for?

Yellowstone

Over the fourth of July, we went camping in Yellowstone. It was beautiful! I've never been before, so I was amazed by all of the hot springs. I couldn't believe how different they all were! Cameron, of course, went to see the wildlife. Here are a few of the pictures from our trip.

Our biggest wildlife related scare actually came from buffalo. We were driving across a bridge over a deep gorge. There were three buffalo crossing in the other lane. Cameron was driving and was trying to creep past the buffalo. The HUGE one in front stopped and stared at us with a look like, "What do you think you are doing?" He was big enough that if he decided we were a threat, we would have ended up at the bottom of a gorge! Cameron stopped the car entirely and waited for the buffalo to pass.

 Despite the light color, this is a black bear, not a grizzly bear. We saw about 6 bears total, most of them black bears.

A coyote we spotted on the side of the road. Cameron was disappointed that we didn't see any wolves.

 Tower Falls. Named for the rock formations to the sides of the falls.

 While in the campsite, the kids spent most of their time playing in the dirt.

 With my wee ones on a hike!

Mammoth hot springs

I really liked the colors on these.

This one was like a boiling pond

 You can see steam billowing behind us from even more hot springs.

While hiking around the mammoth hot springs, I was telling Eli about the sink holes. I don't think he entirely understood what I meant and responded, "I don't like big hot springs. Because they make the world fall down." Cameron thought it was hysterical and said, "Deep thoughts from Eli Rognan!"

Another Eli-ism

Last night at about 3:00 in the morning, Eli came into our room wanting a drink of water. A few minutes later, after being given a cup of water, we heard stumbling around followed by a crash and crying. We waited for a few minutes, assuming that he would come into our room again, but he didn't. He just went back to bed. This morning, Eli and I had this conversation.

Mom: "Eli, how did you hurt yourself last night?"

Eli: "I didn't hurt myself."

Mom: "But I heard you crying. Did you bump into something?"

Eli: "No. I was crying because Batman is the boring-est movie ever."

A little bit more background. Eli and Cameron watched parts of Batman Begins a couple of nights ago. Cameron fast forwarded through all of the scary or fighting scenes. Last night they watched one of the old cartoon episodes on You Tube. Eli loved it. He thinks Batman is the coolest ever and now wants a Batman cape. Hmmm... Maybe I should teach him the definition of boring.

Camping Adventures

Ah! Summer! The time of year meant for s'mores. Nights under the stars. Scary stories around the campfire. And... cleaning vomit out of a tent?

Yes, it's true. In trying to escape the summer heat we went camping in the mountains. Things seemed to be perfect. The temperature was sublime. Dinner was delicious. The s'mores were divine. And then at midnight everyone in the tent awoke to the sound of vomiting. Well, actually I wasn't asleep yet. I was sharing a sleeping bag with Brianna and she wiggles too much to allow for sleep.

I voted for packing up and going home, but Cameron was determined. He pulled out the soiled sleeping bag. Cleaned up Eli. Made a makeshift bed for Brianna, including a zipped up sweater as a sleeping bag and then directed Eli to climb into my sleeping bag. I actually slept better after that since Eli doesn't wiggle as much as Brianna.

The next day I had the envious job of cleaning sick off of a sleeping bag, shirt, sleeping pad, pillowcase, and teddy bear, while Cameron went hiking looking for snakes and Eli lay on a cot by the campfire. Meanwhile Brianna was doing her best to become as dirty as possible. One day I'll be able to look back on this family trip with amusement. Right?

I did it!

And here's the proof. This is at the top of Angel's Landing. That's right! We hiked the entire thing, with our kids! Now to some, this may not be the greatest of accomplishments, but you have to consider that I am afraid of heights and have chickened out of the end of hikes before. This is the scariest hike I have ever been on, and I went all the way to the top instead of waiting for Cameron on the less scary part of the trail!

 This is at the very beginning of the hike. That big cliff in the center left of the photo is Angel's Landing.

This is called the wiggles. It's a little difficult to tell from this photo, but we are at the very bottom and there are a series of switchbacks leading up this little hill. If you look closely, you can see some people further up the wiggles. Just before this was refrigerator canyon. Cameron told Eli that we were in the refrigerator and that a big monster was going to come and open it and then pull us out to eat. The entire way through the canyon Eli was asking where the monsters were.

 Eli saw some kids playing in a little "cave" so when he saw this one he wanted to get in.

 This was at the end of the non-scary part of the trail. Just after this, Eli was put in the backpack on Cameron's back.

 All of us at the top.

 Posing at the top.

Eli is turning into quite the motivational speaker. Once we got to the scary part of the trail he kept saying, "Mommy, you can handle this." And, "This is the easy part mommy! You can do it!" I couldn't have done it without him.

This is the kind of view we had from the top.

 

But, don't think I have entirely overcome my fear. I slid down the scary half mile on my bum. I'm sure the hundreds of other people on the trail were getting very tired of waiting for me to go down.