The EH Team

Holmes Family Reunion- Waterton, Canada 2010-- Round 1

So we've returned from our trip & just when we think we recovered nicely, we all got sick. Damn airline travel and all its germs!

However, we did have a blast in Canadia!

Day 1: Our first day was spent driving on Going-to-the-sun Road from Montana to Canada. Gorgeous drive that I will never do again. 75% of it you are driving on a cliffs edge. Oh, and the road was originally paved in the 30's- NOT for modern day SUV's. I spent a good portion of the drive trying to distract myself from crying. I have this nutty a fear of driving off a cliff that stems from my youth- another blog, another time.

Family at Big Chief Mtn.

(side bar: My mom told us a story that when the Cardston, Alberta temple was built, the Temple President, President Wood said that the temple would stand until Big Chief fell. Big Chief now has large fissures in it.)

Day 2: We did a hike up to Bear's Hump that Grandpa claimed was an "easy" one. As If!!! this hike was basically steep "s" curves for almost 2 miles. I'm totally out of shape & dragging Max while Mike had to carry Tate. We made it to the top where we met up with some cousins on the Holmes side of the family who were vacationing the same time as us. Fun to visit with them.

My mom really wanted a family picture at the top of this hike. So while we set up to take one, a lady noticed her coat was in our way. She ended up crashing our photo. can you spot her? she's our new friend Marsha from Jamaica who did the hike in flip flops!

Every time we get together for a reunion my parents are under the allusion that every family wants to share a talent. Do we want to see other families perform a talent? Yes. Do we want to perform a talent? No. So instead of a talent (Tate refused to read his flash cards & Max wouldn't sing one of his mash-ups) Mike & I split the family into teams for competing in Minute-to-Win-it games. It was h.i.l.a.r.i.o.u.s.
Day 3: Was supposed to be the tough crew hiking up to Crypt Lake. Crawl through a 4ft wide tunnel blasted out of a cliff wall? Hiking a cliff wall while holding a safety cable? All while dragging Max... No, thank you. turns out the weather report was for rain so we decided to head into Magrath & Raymond- my parents home towns about an hr. away.

We stopped for a picture on the front porch of the house where my mom grew up & drove by the farm & barn where my dad grew up. We then visited the Magrath Cemetery where my Maternal Grandparents, brother & family members from my mom's side are buried. We found a headstone for a young Max Hindley (my mom's maiden name). We didn't know we had Max's on both sides of the family.

On the drive home Our car swung by the Alberta Temple where my parents were married for a picture. It's a beautiful building.

Here's a sampling of the fauna to be found in Waterton. Literally our first 48 hrs in the park we saw: a grizzly bear & her 2 cubs, a black bear, a mountain goat & her baby, tons of deer & squirrels so tame you could feed them.

Stay tuned for days 4-6 :)

Rebecca & the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

The 22nd was not a good day for me.

Terrible 2's & teething suck.

Looking at these pics again helped...a little.

p.s., If you haven't read Judith Viorst's book, you should. It's a great one from back in the day.

4th of July in Pleasanton

Right after I heard that my sister Gina and her fam were making the drive down from WA, I knew I was gonna convince Mike into driving us up to the bay area (& by "convince" I mean manipulate & fast talk). My sister Krista and her fam were on board, so Kim and her fam agreed to host us all! Lucky them!!!

It was a fabulous long weekend of swimming, sliding, eating, shopping, fireworks, & tons of good gab. I'm still recovering, particularly from the "accidental" groping from my used-to-be-favorite-brother-in-law. Yup. That's right. He grabbed the girls while hugging me from behind during the fireworks. He claims it all happened so fast he didn't realize what he did, but me thinks it's pay back for when I accidentally put my hand on his knee. Honestly, it was an accident. I was trying to prevent his son from falling off the bench and put my arm out to stop it. Can I help it if his knee was there?

Anyway...

Unfortunately Mike got sick, but lucky for him there was plenty to entertain the boys and I so we let him sleep in 'til noon each day. You couldn't drag Max off the slide once he got the courage to go down. Pretty much everyone had to take 15-20 turns going down with him. You'll get the idea from the small sampling of pics below how obsessed he was. Then he got the courage to go on his own & try jumping in. Thank goodnesss he tuckered out after 4 hrs.

I love how Jared (top middle pic) is so serious

about his job of helping Max down.

He wanted a piece of cheesecake in return for "babysitting".

Tate got in on some of the leisure activities by floating around in the kiddie area. There were plenty of pop-in visits from his cousins to keep him happy.

"fireword scaaaaary Mommie".

I think he was using it as an excuse to cuddle his cousin Whitnie.

It was so fun to see them all. I can hardly wait for the official reunion in August!

Sometimes Mommy cries

Last thursday was Max's last day of "school" at Parent Ed. He is usually fantastic but for some reason this day he felt like disobeyeing EVERYTHING. To top it off Tate screamed for about 45 minutes. I had to take him outside and walk around in the stroller so he wouldn't disturb the farewell the Teacher was trying to give. By the time I was loading the boys in the car I was choking back the tears.

Some days are just rotten & sometimes it makes mommy cry. Then, Max says this in the car...

Don't worry, I still held the grudge the whole way home.

A tricky game of Hide-and-Seek

Max loves to play Hide-and-seek. It's not that difficult to find a giggling 2 yr old, particularly when he's yelling "I'm in here!". He has a few favorite spots, but today's were hilarious.

This one is my favorite; his head in the dogs toy basket.

It epitomizes "I can't see you, you can't see me"

Not hard to locate when you're head is peeking out from under the crib.

Where, Oh where could Max be?

Here I am Mommy!

Busy & Lazy

Here's a quick recap of the last 1 & 1/2 mos.

We went to Disneyland.

Max really enjoys the rides now & its hard to drag him away when its time to go home. I should have taken a picture of them both passed out in the car before we even left the parking lot.

I love how serious Max is about his coaster riding

We had farewell Philly cheesesteaks with our friends the Andersons.

They ditched us for Tulsa, OK. I still can't talk about it.

Max & Weston @ Philly's Best

We tried out a children's restaurant called Giggle's n Hugs in L.A.

Mike and I stole away for our anniversary and went to Morro Bay. Basically its famous for this giant rock, but it also had great seafood, fun shops and... ...this really cool elephant seal preserve up the shore. I'm not kidding, there were thousands!

My sister watched the boys for the weekend and we came home to Tate with a 103 fever.
I love how he's still trying to smile through the pain.

Max now loves to read.

We read stories after stories, then he "reads" them back to us.

We went to one of Daddy's softball games.

Max had fun watching this groundhog dig out its tunnel.

Plus he got to throw the ball with Daddy on the big field.

We went to the Skirball Museum w/ Sachia & Sienna.

What's not to love about running around in Noah's ark?

Max & Sienna loading the animals 2 x 2.

Even Tate enjoyed himself.

Tate now enjoys his bog boy food.

Here's the B Boys enjoying leftover pizza for lunch.

So now we're all caught up. Hopefully I stay on top of things a bit better.

Mothers Day bragging

Happy Mothers Day!

Thank you to the wonderful Mom's in my life. My wonderful Mom, mother-in-law, sisters & girlfriends who are such a great support and example.

I figured this was as good a day as any to brag about the boy's latest accomplishments & shenanigans. It's crazy how big a difference a couple months make. I feel like they are both doing so much now.

Max:

- Can now reach light switches & loves to turn everything "off".

- When he walks into a room he says "Oh HI, it's me Max". Oh, thanks. I had forgotten.

- Still says "I want to hold you" if he wants to sit on your lap or be carried. I doubt he could hold me anyway.

-If you are holding Tate when he wants to be held, he tells you to "Put him in bouncy chair".

- Tries to lie and say he is 4 like his cousin when you ask him how old he is. Then he smiles and says "No, I'm 2".

-Being tickled tops his list of favorite things. "Tickles Mommy?" No thank you, but I'll tickle you.

-Everything is "scary" right now. I don't mind playing along since I usually get hugs out of it so I'm not so scared anymore.

-Can sit still now through a book. Loves to read his stories at nap time and bed time. He "reads" the ones back that he likes. Pretty funny to hear him use the same voices his dad and I use when we read them to him.

-Speaks really clearly. He still puts an "s" on the end of his sentences. "Mommy, that's silly's", "Oh no, what are we gonna do's?", "Where's Daddy's?"

-We get asked a lot how old he is & then get shocked faces when we say 2 & 1/2. Is it because he is tall? Is it because he is constantly jibber-jabbering? He seems 2 & 1/2 to me.

-Loves to do anything his Dad is doing. It can make Saturday afternoon chores take a while, but seeing him out there with his own wheel barrow & shovel with his Dad is one of my favorite things.

-Likes to brush his teeth, but doesn't like it when Mommy & Daddy have to help him. He mostly just sucks the toothpaste off.

-Chases the poor dogs & tortures them by holding a ball and not throwing it. Sometimes he gets mad when they jump on him to try and get it.

-Sings CONSTANTLY. You can hear him an hour after you've put him to bed still singing. He does his own mash-ups now. My favorite is the Wonder-pets/Jesus wants me for a sunbeam mash-up.

Tate:

(you're just supposed to notice how cute & adorable Tate is in the 2nd picture. Not that I just woke up & haven't showered in 2 days.)

-No crawling, just rolling. Or, he kicks his feet in the air when he's on the back. He's learned he can gain a few inches in any direction doing that.

-I swear he has bigger cheeks than Max did.

-Smiles at anyone who has a smile for him. I love it when I walk back into a room and he gives me a huge grin. At least someone is happy to see me.

-Plays the screaming game. This is when he screams at me, smiles & waits patiently for me to scream back. Then I scream and smile, then he screams again and so on. Things can get really loud when big brother chimes in as well.

-We are not in a rush for him to grow up, so he's still on soft baby food. He does not like veggies but loves fruit.

-Hates, Hates, Hates to be alone. So does his father. I can just see them now snacking & buying things they don't need out of boredom whenever I'm gone.

-Has the grip of a grown man. You can't tear anything out of this kids hands. Thank goodness he can't crawl into my shoe closet.

-He has been sitting up on his own for a while, but now he kicks and rocks himself back and forth when he's excited. This often occurs when I let them watch TV.

-Can hold his own bottle if you put his hands on it for him. I don't know what to do with a free 5 minutes anymore.

-Tate does not go to bed w/o first being snuggled for a good 5-10 minutes. He needs to be held close so he can play with your hair or your ears. I think he just needs some decompress time with no one bothering him. Funny, Mom's and Dad's need that too!

I love my boys so much and am thankful every day that they are healthy, happy and mine :)

Mother's Day 2010
(Rose Bowl for Brunch)