water fight

here we were, first day back from st. george, and pace requested we have a water fight.  it was me against the boys.  david and pace each had one of those squirters, and after some blood, sweat, and tears, i had both hoses, had knocked over their primary water source, and usurped the other container as a helmet.  i had a stripe or two of water on my clothes while both david and pace were soaking from head to toe.  david still would not agree i won that fight.  pace knows, though.  he ended up saying, "next time, mama, me and you are gonna win and beat daddy!  i want to be on your team!"

a couple other really fun pace-isms, before i forget:

• i love witnessing pace applying what he is learning.  pace fell and skinned his knee the other day.  he was very concerned about the scab that formed.  i explained the purpose of the scab, and that it would fall off when new skin formed underneath.  "like a gila monster!  scabs are good guys like white blood cells, right mama?!"  when we saw the gila monster at the visitor's center in st. george, it was shedding its skin, and pace could see its new, pink skin underneath.  so we talked about the difference between humans and reptiles, and how reptiles shed their skin and grow new skin underneath.  so, yes, scabs are like gila monsters!
• pace says "this day" for today, and "another day" or "the next day" for tomorrow.  yesterday he said, "mama, on the next day when daddy is home, we can get in the jeep and go high in the mountains, up there!"  "we could!  would you like for us all to go on a jeep ride in the mountain together and have an adventure?"  "no, mommy.  just me and daddy and maxwell.  you can stay home and read books."  he's right on track with mama and adventures...
• we were weeding our garden last night, as it had become slightly overgrown while we were out of town.  i was showing pace which plants were weeds, and said, "weeds are bad news, huh pace?"  "yeah.  and good news comes from news helicopters."  pace says "yeah" like he's laughing the first syllable.  very funny.
• david and i went to the temple tonight, and got back an hour later than we had planned--it was a huge session.  david had taken pace's binkies away earlier in the day, but forgot to put  them on his bed for bedtime.  so our sitter had quite the bedtime escapade with pace.  as it turns out, pace was still wide-eyed awake in bed at 1045, when we got home.  i went up to say goodnight and pace said he had been crying for me.  then he said, "mama, claire [our babysitter] doesn't belong to me.  only you belong to me."  melt.  your.  heart.

last day in st. george!

on our last day we decided to first explore the children's museum, which was so awesome, and i was very impressed at its condition and quality, considering it is totally run off donations!

the boys were very hesitant to "milk" the cow, and only max decided to kind of try after seeing me do it.

the garden was a bigger hit.  pace was very intent on making vegetable deliveries via usps. 

next up:  an airplane ride (don't you love the background?--it looks like they are really on a runway!

then a mechanic's shop.  pace was very uncertain about going under the car to check out its engine.  even with me laying next to him he wanted to get up.  i think i've perhaps passed some of my claustrophobia on to him?

future banker?

i loved watching pace in the grocery store.  instead of piling random and voluminous groceries in his cart, like the other kids, he took his time scanning the shelves and very selectively chose his favorite items.  it was hilarious to see what they were at checkout:  macaroni and cheese, cookies, brownies, cottage cheese, and oj.

the hallway had a little fireman station, and next was the science room, where the boys saw the tornado machine, and we all played in the shadow room.  

right across the meadow from the childrens museum was this awesome splash pad for kids to run around on and play.  totally free!  pace was in heaven, climbing on the rocks, running laps up and down the rock wall, and back again.  little mountain goat...  

we finally convinced max, who hates water and splashing, to give it a go...

but he was still very against the idea of walking down a waterfall with me.

and, of course, the favorite attraction:  a carousel!  max giggled the whole time--that little boy is so, so ticklish!  i think this carousel was faster than the one we go to in orem, and max's tummy felt the difference!

and then...back to the splash pad!  we found these water squirters, and pace fell in love.  

pace was a little hyper at lunch time--we were all looking forward to heading back to our room for some quiet/nap time.  once we got there, though, max and david promptly fell asleep, but pace decided it was time for him and me to head somewhere in search of those water squirters.  thanks to walmart, we found them, and have had a number of very successful water fights at home.

after our shopping trip, pace and i checked out the resort pool, with his squirter in tow, of course.  both of my boys inherently don't like swimming pools/deep water.  the top two things i wanted to teach my kids were 1) how to read, and 2) how to swim.  slow-going on the swimming goal.  i finally convinced pace to let me hold him and kick around the pool, but after we did that once, he said, "no more swimming, mommy.  i have to practice shooting."

when max and david woke up, he took the boys out on another adventure--pace's new favorite toy making a great playmate.  pace requested david take photos of his silly poses.

after dinner we all went on one last quick hike at the red cliffs campgrounds.  we brought the hiking backpack just in case max got tired, but the one time i stuck him in it (because he was taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r to walk), he screamed bloody murder until i took him back out.  

max is a pretty hilarious little hiker.  he is very vocal and talkative.  he was grunting and huffing and puffing the whole time, putting his body weight into walking the 10 minutes it took us to get up this little hill.  so he'd grunt, and then point out things he saw, and then grunt again, then slip on sand and say whoa!, then point out something...it was very hilarious...went something like this:

"uh! uh! oh!  daddy!  hace!  uh!  uh!  whoa!  phew!  tree!  heaf!  whoa!  uh!  uh!  oh!  hock!  hock!  uh!  uh!  oh!  whoa!"  and on...and on...the entire 10-15 minutes!  

we even got to see a real dinosaur footprint in the sandstone!  and growled like one, too!