B&B 2014: Wyoming and Colorado

The kids were loaded in the car and excited to leave Sunday afternoon.  We met up with Grandma and Grandpa near the intersection of I-80 and I-84, then headed to Rawlins, Wyoming.  We stayed at the Oak Tree Inn and ate breakfast at the adjoining Penny's Diner.  After a few meltdowns about who was riding in which car and how to properly wear your seat belt, we were on the road.

As we headed through several small towns in southern Wyoming, we noticed how full the rivers (I think mostly parts of the Platte River) were.  One town had even started sandbagging the shores.  

We saw lots of Pronghorns and James educated us on the difference between Pronghorns and Antelope.  We also saw a few prairie dogs and lots of cows. As we got closer to our next destination, Rocky Mountain National Park, the snowy mountains got closer and closer.

We stopped in Granby, Colorado for gas before heading into Rocky Mountain National Park.  Molly had another meltdown because she needed to go to the bathroom and the gas station we were at only offered port-o-potties.  We ventured to the restaurant next door and though their sign said, "bathrooms for customers only," we asked nicely and they let Molly use theirs.

Rocky Mountain National Park is cool!  We saw a moose and a bunch of elk.  We traveled to extremely high altitudes to what seemed like the top of the world.  You can see how high the snow was still packed on the side of the road.  (The park had only been opened for 2 weeks when we were there and it was only 40 degrees at the top.)

As you get closer to the top, it felt like the road was going to just take you off into the sky.

Once we made it to the top of the world, we headed back down to our stop for the night.  Mary and LaRon let us stay at the World Mark time share in Estes Park, Colorado.  It was really nice.  The kids went swimming, then we found a local grocery store and barbecued hot dogs for dinner.  

Binggeli & Binggeli Adventure 2014

For our first week of summer vacation, we decided to go on a multi-state adventure. Grandma and Grandpa Binggeli were our traveling partners. We started on a Sunday afternoon after church. We drove through Wyoming then the beautiful mountains of northern Colorado. We sliced through the rest of that state from north to south along I-25, staying for a couple of days to visit Amber, Colton, and new baby Joesy in Colorado springs. Next we entered the "Land of Enchantment," New Mexico (which maybe should be called "land of weird weather" since we drove through a crazy hail storm, torrential rain, and mega dust and wind.) We visited Albuquerque for a couple of days and then headed back north towards Utah, arriving home on the following Sunday night.

We ate some good food. We saw some cool things. We drove about 1800 miles.  We visited 2 military bases. We had a lot of fun visiting and spending time with family.

Molly and Jack were good sometimes and other times not. Our car was tested and survived. Compared to our usual sleeping habits, nights were fine (Jack slept all night every night but one). Grandma and Grandpa weren't totally sick of us by the end (or at least they didn't let on). And, our "Frozen" viewing was kept to a minimum.

Overall, it was a great trip!

Feeling like summer

It is almost summer.  We can feel it!

Uncle Jason came to our school program (along with both sets of grandparents and our friend Emily and her niece Zoe).  Jason rode home in the car with us and Molly took this scary picture.  The kids love Jason and always give him a workout. 

James took better pictures of the kids school program (Molly was a mermaid and Jack was a dolphin).  I'll have to upload them later.  The program was super cute.  

Happy birthday Jack

Jack celebrated his 2nd birthday on Friday!!

Jack is just a sweetheart.  Though he has a bit of a temper occasionally, he is mostly just even keel and happy to go along for the ride.  He loves to play outside, and would stay outside forever if we let him (bringing him in the house at night can cause his temper to flare).  He is very helpful and always wants to do what we're doing.  He loves his sister and likes to play with her until she starts to smother him and then he pinches her or pulls her hair.  He also knows that she is a bit of a drama queen and will occasionally do something to bug her and then run away giggling (as she screams).

He has such a funny personality and in the last little while has become very articulate with his words and just cracks us up.  He loves school and runs from me with "Bye mom" every morning.  He loves riding in grandma's car (either grandma).  He loves everyone, but especially his grandparents.  He loves to give high-5's and grits his teeth to hit as hard as he can.  He sticks his tongue out when he is really concentrating.  He is fast! I can almost not catch him anymore.  He loves nursery and just tells me "bye mom" when we take him there, as well.  Once there, he instantly removes his shoes, socks, tie, and anything else before he can seriously start playing.  Though he is very nice to the other kids, the nursery leaders call him a "bulldozer."

Today we went swimming after school with the daycare kids and Ms. Sarah asked him if he wanted to go down the big slide.  He unassumingly said yes, but was briefly terrified during and afterwards. He clung to me and kept saying, "No like it.  No like it."  After about 15 minutes of splashing in ankle deep water, he was having a great time and became more comfortable, but every time I asked if he wanted to go down the slide again, he nervously said no (his sister, of course, said no at the beginning and wouldn't even try it).

I don't know if he is right-handed or left-handed.  I think he is a lefty, but then he'll suprise us and change.  On Sunday in church I watched him go back and forth between hands while drawing on a magnet board.  It is just silly.  

We love Jack so much and I don't know what we would do without him (except sleep all night).  He keeps us on our toes and gets funnier every day. 

Happy Birthday #2!

Doctor visits

Molly and Jack both had birthday doctor visits this week.  I decided to take them separately to make for a smoother visit and it just ended up that their appointments were one day after the other.  

Here is the scoop:

MOLLY

Age: 4

Height: 41 inches (68th percentile)

Weight: 37.3 pounds (67th percentile)

BMI: 15.9 (68th percentile)

Heart Rate: 84 bpm

Blood Pressure 80/54

Vision: 20/30 in both eyes

Molly passed all the developmental questions.  She is doing just fine.  She was well-behaved, but super goofy at the appointment and refused to talk.  She just giggled and would only answer questions by shaking or nodding her head.  If there was a question that wasn't yes or no, she buried her head in my arm and giggled.

She could have gotten her kindergarten shots today to, but we decided to wait until next year.

As I've mentioned before, Dr. Havlik is very thorough.  We really like him, but sometimes he is just . . . thorough.  For Molly's safety talk before we left, he mentioned the usual - be careful at swimming pools, protect from the sun, always in a car seat, watch out for bbq grills, etc.  He also added a new safety tip I haven't heard before and as much as I agree, I just thought it was . . . thorough.  He said, whenever Molly goes to play at someone else's house, I am to ask if they have any guns and how do they store them.  He said people are going to have 1 of 3 responses:

 1 - they don't have guns and aren't offended by the question

 2 - they do have guns, but they are safely locked up and they are not offended by the question

 3 - they do have guns, but the guns are not safely locked up, they are offended by the question, and you shouldn't let your kids play at their house

Just some food for thought.  

JACK

Age: 2

Height: 36 inches (91st percentile)

Weight: 29 pounds (59th percentile)

Jack also passed all the developmental questions like . . .  he can kick a ball, throw overhand, remove articles of clothing, be understood at least half of the time, brush his teeth with help, get your attention if he needs something, etc.

We filled out and autism screening questionnaire.  He's not autistic.  

No shots today.

We talked about his sleep issues and why he still wakes up every night.  Dr. Havlik told me to read an older book by Richard Ferber called Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems.  It's methods include time increments of checking on your kids while letting them cry it out.  I bought it on amazon and I'll give it a shot . . . because I am tired all of the time.