This Is Why...

My back doors are never clean.

In case you were wondering.

When You Have Boys

Instead of running away like a sensible person, you chase things like this down for a closer look.

You climb snow slides.

You have head butt wars.

You risk taking a freezing cold bath by adventuring out onto a rickety, homemade diving board.

You catch bugs.

You wear flip flops with socks, and no one even notices.

You learn the art of making a turkey cheese cracker & Oreo sandwich.

And you stop being even the tiniest bit surprised when you see things like this happening at the dinner table.

Triumph

We went camping a few weekends ago. It was muddy, so the trailer floor got extra dirty and covered in grime and hair and camping-related filth. Cole was sweeping up and a dropped fruit snack ended up in the pile of gunk. Tukker noticed it (he can spot a fruit snack from 3.7 miles away) and tried to grab it, but Cole told him it was too yucky to eat and swept the pile outside.

Tukk looked dumbfounded - why would anyone ever throw out a fruit snack? - and then a lightbulb must have turned on because I heard him mutter "go down wamp [ramp]!" to himself. I was making dinner, so I was only half paying attention. A few minutes later he was back with a triumphant look on his face, saying "wook I find!" He was holding this up: He'd gone down the ramp on the back of the trailer and rummaged through the dirt and rocks until he found the abandoned fruit snack. He was so excited that we didn't have the heart to take it away from him. We just watched him eat it... hair, dirt and all. Judging by his giant smile, you'd think there was nothing better than a dirt-covered hunk of artificial color and flavor. Delicious.

The Wild West

We spent the weekend in Ely, Neveda. I'd only ever heard of Ely because Cole and his bff Jed painted a church there. Aaaaaaaand bought a t-shirt... from one of the town's infamous brothels. I'm sure they were giggling and blushing like schoolgirls. They wore their shirts with pride.

Anyway, we did NOT visit the brothels, even for a t-shirt. This was a family vacation. On Saturday Cole's parents treated us all to a ride on the ghost train. It goes out through a ghost town on the outskirts of Ely. The boys thought it was awesome. They blew the whistle about 300 times on our 2-hour ride, and every time Tukker got super excited. Plus, there were tunnels. When you're 5 and 2, there is nothing better than driving through a tunnel. Especially when you're going through that tunnel on the open cart of a train with smoke and ash and sparks from the coal engine making you cough and threatening to melt your hair. It's magic.

Then, as if the tunnels weren't mind blowing enough, we also got held up by a gang of outlaws on horseback.

They fired their guns off and made us reach for the sky. Caulder was quick to point out that he couldn't raise both hands because one of his arms was in a sling. I think he was a little nervous that the outlaws would think he wasn't being compliant. Then he and Tukk tipped the bandits to make sure they wouldn't haul us off to their hideout.We also visited Lehman Caves. It was incredible. Seriously. So amazing. These crappy pictures do not do it justice. I couldn't believe all the formations it has.

The boys loved the trip because they got to hang out with their cousins for 3 days straight. In a hotel. I don't know why kids think hotels are so amazing, but I'm pretty sure we could spend the weekend at Payson's Comfort Inn and they'd be just as excited as if we took them to Disneyland.

And we spent lots of time swimming.

Side note: Remember when Tukker's dietitian wrote on his chart (his permanent chart... gasp) that he was "malnourished"? And remember how offended I was? I can't imagine where she got that idea. Sigh...

We even managed to get Caulder in the pool. They couldn't cast his broken arm, because the break is too high, so we just bought an extra sling that he could wear in the pool and wrapped it tight with an ace bandage so he wouldn't move it. (If you have any concerns about us letting our 5 year old swim with one arm lashed down and immobilized, please go ahead and refer to my "parents of the year" post. We're just trying to edge out the competition.) When we got home we asked Caulder what his favorite part of the trip was. He said, "Swimming. And eating." Just like his momma.