July 2007 Archives

We just returned from 7 days in beautiful Denver, Colorado. The flight there was great because of the TV's in every headrest that Frontier Airlines offers. They charge you 5 bucks, but it is soooo worth it. Myra and Noah both enjoyed the cartoon selection offered. Uncle Boo Boo met us at Grandma's house and we spent a week hanging out and taking in the sights. We started off with some bowling. In case you didn't know, Mommy is an old pro at knocking down the pins. I, on the other hand, started off with a whopping score of 7 after 4 frames. Chris gave me some pointers and I came charging back and threw two strikes in the final frame and narrowly missed getting a strikeout. She still ended up edging me out, though I pulled ahead of Boo with my last ball. Oh, yeah, and the kids had fun, too. We played some skeeball and air hockey afterward and the kids got some "great" prizes for all the tickets.

More Bowling Pics here

The next day, Uncle Boo and I took the kids to the Denver Firefighters Museum while Mommy and Grandma went shopping and gambling. It was a hot day (like nearly every day there) but the kids didn't seem to mind. Noah and Myra were pumped to play in the trucks, but didn't want to wear any of the cute costumes they had there. They had fire poles all over that place (it used to be a functioning firehouse) and I was surprised at how high they were. I would have been too scared to slide down one of those poles. I'd have just had to run down the stairs or sleep in the truck.

More museum pictures here

We'll post more on the vacation soon!

We're back from Denver and we had a great time. We're still in the process of sorting pictures and getting some much needed rest, but I just had to post this panoramic picture that I took yesterday during our tour of Trail Ridge Road located in Rocky Mountain National Park. This picture is actually 10 pictures stitched together. It was taken at Forest Canyon Overlook (altitude 11,716 ft). Yes, it was chilly up there.

Ever since I took down the old photo albums, I've missed them. If you don't remember them or never saw them, you are in for a treat! I saved them all to a CD with the intent of putting them back on the site in the future. I happened across that CD the other day and decided to throw them up on the web. They are hosted from our home server, so they might run a little slow but they are all there for your consumption. I hope you enjoy your stroll down memory lane as much as I did.

--UPDATE--
I ran across this page hidden in the Albums Folder. I'd forgotten about this incident!

It's official! Noah is no longer a Terrible Two! This last week, I've decided that he's not quite a Terrific Three yet. He's been a bit argumentative and cranky, but yesterday in the pool, he did do the sweetest thing. Myra and a couple of her friends were rough-housing with me and they kept grabbing my feet and dunking me. Finally, I had enough so I went over and sat on the steps near Chris and Noah. The girls couldn't let this sleeping dog lie and they attacked me again. I told them I was "taking a break." They attacked anyway. Noah comes to the rescue splashing them and yelling, "No! No! He Taking Break! He Taking Break!" My little man to the rescue. --Tangent Over

Back to what I was supposed to be writing about: Noah's Third Birthday. In case you didn't know, he's really into fire trucks right now. Of course, we were up in Fireworks-land (Granny and Papa's House) and we had all the usual suspects there. Grandaddy and Mimi made the trip down from Stillwater with Rachel and J.J. The Cox family was there in full force as well as the Godes. Papa grilled ribs and hot dogs while Granny made some delicious homemade strawberry ice cream. After dinner, Noah, blew out the candles on his super cool Fire Truck Cake.

He tore into his gifts with the help of the other kids. Anything with wheels on it was a big hit. His absolute favorite toy was a fire truck with a real ladder that made siren sounds and lit up. He liked it so much, he slept with it that night. Next, it was pinata time! Chris found a cute pinata in the shape of...you guessed it, a fire truck. We cycled through all the kids hitting the thing more than once and finally Kennedy knocked a wheel off and Myra finished the job. The kids started the feeding frenzy on the candy.

We all headed inside for a little rest and cool air, but the party wasn't over yet! We gathered all the kids outside just in time to see a REAL LIVE FIRE TRUCK come rolling down the drive! Sarah's fiance had managed to get Stroud FD's prettiest red truck to swing by for a visit! Noah squeeled with delight when he saw that truck round the corner and he didn't stop smiling the whole time it was there. the kids had a blast crawling up on the truck and sitting in the driver's seat. The best part was honking the horn! Soon it was time to take the truck back to the station and guess who got to help? Me...oh yeah, and Noah too. He didn't say a word the whole time we drove it back to town, but his eyes were wide with excitement. He was just taking it all in.

Later that night, we all headed to Foster Park in the middle of Stroud to watch the Fire Department put on a very cool fireworks display. I've seen bigger and longer shows in other cities, but for my money, Stroud's is still the best. The whole atmosphere of being down in the park as families set off their own fireworks while they wait for the show is just great. Small town life definitely has its perks. After the big display, we all headed home for a well deserved rest. Like Christina said earlier, this birthday will be hard to top!

It has been busy busy BUSY since returning from one of the best parties of all times. (I can't give you any details of the festivities because I've already assigned that task to the daddy.) I'm not real sure how we're going to ever top this one. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the little man is into next year. Okay, enough teasing ...

Monday morning, Myra and I started our week at Avalanche Ranch (better known as vacation bible school). Myra got to join the "big kids" every day for three hours while I helped teach the 25 preschoolers. Even though I was completely drained of all energy by noon on Friday, I had a lot of fun. Both Myra and I look forward to doing it again next year. Hopefully, it won't take me all week to learn the kids' names.

Side Story: On Wednesday, I let Myra purchase the CD with all the music we had learned during VBS. That night while listening to it, she came to me with tears beginning to fall from her eyes. When I asked her what was wrong she cried "This sad song makes me feel like I'm going to cry." I explained to her that the song she was listening to isn't a sad song, it's just a slow song. She then said "I know. I'm just going to miss vacation bible school." That's when she completely broke down. And to think she didn't want to leave my side that first day. I literally had to pry her off of my leg.

Monday afternoon, Noah and I took the long trek to Cityview (aka South Fort Worth) for Noah's three year check up. Noah had fun running around the waiting room jumping on the colored tiles and asking "What this color, Mommy?" When the nurse called his name, he replied in a somewhat annoyed voice "I right here!"

The first thing the nurse checked was his weight ... forty-four (that's one '4' followed by another '4') pounds! The nurse said we could probably subtract a couple pound for clothes and shoes. I'm sorry but we don't carry around a naked boy ... outside the house (we're still potty training - doing really well too). Next, we checked height. We couldn't get Noah to stand with his heals against the wall so the nurse said we could probably add another 1/2 inch to an inch onto his 39 1/4. After the doctor came in to check all the usual things ... eyes, ears, etc ... the nurse came back in to do the dirty work.

Noah got his finger pricked to check for anemia. He didn't cry. He was, however, upset that the nurse had the nerve to put a band aid on his little finger. Noah got a shot. Again, he didn't cry. He didn't get a band aid either. Finally, Noah got to the fun part ... peeing in a cup. I was skeptical since he had a warm pull-up but he managed to get just enough. After all was said and done, I headed to the front desk to pay while Noah followed asking repeatedly "Mommy, I want to pee in cup. Please?"

Fast forward to Tuesday afternoon. Time for Myra's first dentist appointment. She was very excited. She actually practiced what she was going to tell the dentist on the way there. "I have a loose tooth ... I've been taking really good care of my big tooth and my loose baby tooth ... I made a Tooth Fairy Box for my tooth that's about to come out." By the way, Myra has a loose tooth. My feelings were on the total opposite end of spectrum.

Yes, I was worried that the dentist would say that we were bad parents for waiting so long to get Myra in. Yes, I had had nightmares about the dentist counting a million cavities and telling me that all of Myra's teeth had to come out. And yes, I was pleasantly surprised when the dentist said it was okay that we waited ... "The baby teeth will be coming out anyway. It's the permanent teeth we need to worry about." Followed by "This little lady has some of the best teeth we've seen on someone so young. There's little to no plague at all." Whew! The best news Myra received that afternoon was that her loose baby tooth isn't alone. The one right beside it is ready to come out too.

Overall, the week went great. Noah's a healthy three-year-old. Myra's got beautiful teeth. Me? I feel better about our parenting ... that we're doing a good job. What a relief.

We headed up to Stroud to visit Granny and Papa because they live in the country and fireworks are plentiful as is the space to shoot them. This year has been VERY wet both at home and in Oklahoma. Granny had a swamp in her front yard. There was so much water and it was so deep that Papa couldn't even mow part of his lawn for weeks. That made for good firecrackin' weather.

The night before Noah's big day, we all hung out on the porch and shot off fireworks. Roman Candles are officially Noah's favorite firework. He loves to shake them and squeeze them like he's milking the each burst of fire out of the candle. A few minutes in, the little man walked right into my punk face-first. He got a nasty little burn on his cheek and I felt (and still feel) horrible about allowing it to happen. He was a trooper, though, and he didn't let a little flesh-wound slow him down. Hayden and Skylor put on quite a show with the big guns while Kenzie and Myra lit smoke bomb after sparkler after firecracker.

It was a great time and it really reminded me of how much fun we used to have each July in the backyard. I remember the anticipation as the fireworks stands were moved into place the last week of June. Some enterprising businessmen would set their stands up just outside of City Limits in order to get a few extra days selling. We'd all go to the stand and stare in awe at the top row of rockets, artillery shells and massive family packs. I used to want those so bad, but we never would get the big ones. I can see why now. I have a hard time shelling out out $20 for a box with one fuse and about 10 seconds of excitement. Instead, we'd always get some smoke bombs, a tank or two, and a whole bunch of Black Cats. I'm sure we got some other stuff, too, but those are the things that stand out in my mind. When we got home, Mom would find an old Cool Whip bowl and we'd go through the tedious task of separating each firecracker from the strand. They lasted longer that way, and truthfully, they were a whole lot more fun than just lighting a string and holding your ears as World War III played out in front of you.

Of course, my big brother Nate was very brave and he'd light firecrackers and toss them all over the place. I can even remember back when they still sold Bottle Rockets in Oklahoma, he would hold the stick of the bottle rocket while it took off. OK, maybe brave isn't exactly the word to describe Nate. Angie and Sarah were a little more reserved. They liked Roman Candles and those little aluminum disc fireworks ( I think they were called satellites). Anna and I were all about the Black Cats. We would lay a fire cracker on the ground, gingerly hold the punk out to the fuse at an arms distance and at the slightest sound we'd run like lightning away from the firework, many times missing the big payoff because we were still running away! The older kids got a kick out of yelling BANG while we were trying to light it and we'd jump out of our skins and then of course, scream at them for being goobers.

One year, our fireworks were apparently disturbing a family of wasps near the house. I had a punk in one hand and a bunch of Black Cats in the other. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off (like any other normal kid on the 4th of July) when suddenly POW! I felt like I'd been shot in the back of the neck! I went limp like a soldier being shot on the battlefield while I threw my punk and firecrackers up in the air dramatically. I'm sure I screamed like a girl as well, but I don't really remember. For some reason I was just SURE that Nate had thrown a firecracker at me and made it blow up right on my neck. I don't know why I blamed him, but I remember distinctly that I just KNEW it was him. Eventually, we figured out that I had been stung by a very agitated, obviously Communist wasp. I don't think I was as tough as Noah about taking an injury on the 4th. I seem to remember not lighting any more firecrackers after that.

Next time, we FINALLY get around to telling the story of Noah's 3rd Birthday!