Smith Family: July 2010

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Water Logged

We've been spending a lot of time around water lately, but I guess that's just part of living in Minnesota... you can't get away from the stuff -- it's everywhere.

I think our favorite water adventure is still this...

Nothing quite compares to a good day on the lake. Especially when you find your own private island...

And friends come along...

Some of who are so afraid of the water, they refuse to let go no matter what...

But as a mom, one of my favorite things is seeing my kids learn new skills on the water...

Ready, set, go!

Gooseberry Falls Ward Picnic

In celebration of Independence Day, our ward had a picnic at Gooseberry Falls the day before
.

Ella and her best friend, Charlotte...

Flag raising...

Water isn't the only thing falling there... Chris, Solei, and Sierra made quite a splash off a nearby cliff...

Kickin' back...

Sliding down the falls...

This tree was obviously sad to see us leave.

Beach Bums

Who says Lake Superior is too cold for swimmin'?

And if you don't like cold water, there's plenty of sand to play in...

Normally Solei manages to avoid the prying eye of my camera, but once in a while I catch her when she least expects it...

I love summer!

Midsummer Blues...and Purples

I'm a little sad. Just a little. The lupines are starting to dry up. Meadows that were adorned in pure purple a few weeks ago are once more a naked green. And even the green has lost a little of it's newborn vibrance.

But I have my photos... so when the colors once again melt into snow I can virtually visit every season once again. Thank goodness for modern technology.

Grandma's Marathon

When we were still new to this town, Chris told me about a yearly local tradition, called "Grandma's Marathon". I remember thinking, "Really? How many grandmas out there can really run a marathon?"

I soon discovered that the race was named after it's sponsor... the favorite local restaurant... Grandma's Restaurant. Duh...

Apparently it's a pretty popular marathon, somewhere around 10,000 runners (some just run a half marathon).

Well, on the big day I took Solei down to mile 21 to help out. They were passing out drinks and wet sponges.

I snapped a photo of the first runners to pass by... one of these guys must be the winner, but I don't know which...

Yeah, I don't think any of them would qualify as a grandma.

Say Cheethe

Taron lost his first tooth! And then a couple of days later another one came out, so he is just rollin' in the dough (luckily the tooth fairy remembered to show up this time)!

Father's Day Stroll

We decided to take a stroll down the lakewalk on Father's Day. The lupines were in bloom as we crossed the tracks...

Which was a sharp contrast to the rocky beach just a few minutes down the path...

Now, don't jump to conclusions when you see this next photo... I just took it from a bad angle...he's not peeing on the tree...really...

This video shows what he is really doing...

Chris and Cody weren't the only ones who fought with a tree... Ella had a close call with a branch when she fell on some rocks. Fortunately she found some cool flowers along the way home, something that always puts a smile on this girls face...

Party Hardy

School's out - scream and shout...literally...we had a cajillion girls over for an end-of-the-year sleepover and it was pretty wild...

Thank goodness for the Wii "Just Dance" game...

And, of course, Apples to Apples...

Fun times!

The Mind of a Child...

When Solei was a toddler, she found some bark that was lying at the base of a tree and said in disgust, “Ooooooh! Tree poo-poo!”

When the girls were little, we were taking a walk with the dog who was bombarding Sierra with her friendly but slobbery kisses. Frustrated, our sweet little Sierra yelled out “NO KINA, I'M NOT YOUR ICE CREAM CONE!”

Telling Ella how to crawl, Caden explained “But I’m four, so I crawl standing up.”

I was sitting with Caden one day and I told him that the couch used to be a cow (it is leather), and I said (half jokingly) “did you know that cows turn into couches?” To which he replied, “No they don’t, they turn into pies!”

Watching the Tabernacle choir sing during conference, Solei (who was 8 yrs old at the time) said that they should sing “Do as I’m Doing” (with all the motions, I’m sure).

We put in an underground fence for the dog and Caden (age 5) saw us burying the wire. We then put up little white flags to mark where it was. A few days later he went outside and turned on the hose. When I saw him, I asked him to turn off the water. He looked at me questioningly and asked, “Until when? Until the fence grows?” He thought it needed watering!

Taron (2) looked at the varicose veins on grandmas legs and said, “owy... lightning!”

When Caden was 5, he would ask if he could go play with his friend in the morning, and I would sometimes reply, "No, it's too early". Well one day he finally asked me "can we not play on 'too early's? Can we play on 'one early'?"

Sierra told me one night that when she was little, she used to think the word “couch” came from the word “cow”, and that our couch had a cow inside (partially true since it is leather). She would try to sit down carefully so it would not run away. She thought the wood parts inside were it’s bones and the black pegs on the bottom were the feet.

Sometimes Taron (age 2) would find dog poop and say “Eew! Dog poop!” and then proceed to stomp on it as if it were a bug.

Caden (age 5) and I were talking about the sounds letters make and he asked if I knew what the sleepy letter was. I replied that I didn’t and he said, “It’s the Z... when you go to sleep then the Z’s come out of your head. And there’s a big round white thing too but it’s invisible. Maybe he had been reading too many comic books...

Sierra (age 8) made a Halloween card for her friend and wrote ENSTINE (meaning Einstein) on it, I thought it was an odd thing to put on a Halloween card so I asked if she knew who Einstein was and she said "Isn't he the guy who made Frankenstein?"

Caden (age 5) asked if it was a ghost who said the sacrament prayer because he couldn’t see anyone at the podium but he could hear the voice.

When Taron was 2 he would always respond to an “I love you” with “Much”.

Taron (3) woke up one morning, started to play and when I asked him if he wanted a pancake, he said, “Oh yeah, I was supposed to be hungry!”

Dad was singing “Jesus wants me for a sunbeam” and Taron said “Jesus likes sunbeans, they’re delicious!”

I was teaching Taron (5) how to read, and came upon the word "loose". I told him, "the two O's say "oo" and the E is silent. Slowly and deliberately, he sounded it out........"Loooosssilent".

Caden had been learning to tell time in school and was asking me about the big hand vs. the little hand on the clock. Apparently Taron was listening somewhat because he held up his right hand and asked "is this the big hand?"

Ella (4) came up to me with some of my reading glasses and said "Mom, when I put glasses on, I still don't know how to read!"

At a restaurant, Ella was impatiently waiting for her food and, looking for the waitress, she asked "when is the human coming back?"

One morning I said, "Ella, come look! There's a wild turkey in the backyard!"
Ella (excitedly): "Can we kill it?!?"
What kind of daughter am I raising???

Ella mistook another guy for Chris and was about to follow him to his car, but soon realized her mistake and said, "I was about to follow the 'not dad'".

Smith Family