Teaching Alex to Pray

It may seem a bit irreverent that I'm taking pictures of Alex learning what he should do when we pray.... but it was so dang cute I couldn't help myself. I love the look on his face that says, "I guess I'm supposed to squint my eyes since that's what everyone else is doing." Of course we're all squinting because we're trying to take a peek at him!

Here he's almost got it down. The head is semi-bowed and we've got the one arm crossed.

There we go! It sure looks like it's taking a whole lot of concentration, but he finally got it down!

Hot Hot, We Got It!

Alex loves the movie Polar Express. If you've never seen it, there's a scene where a bunch of singing and dancing waiters with handlebar moustaches come out to serve hot chocolate to the children on the train. They sing, "Hot, hot, we got it...hot chocolate!" Well, the other day I found Alex with a black marker in hand and a line drawn across his upper lip. I didn't think much of it until he started doing a little dance and singing, "Hot, hot, got it..hot hot, got it...". Then I realized he had drawn on a moustache so he'd look like those waiters. Sometimes it amazes me how much these little ones retain when you think they're not paying much attention. Who knows, all this time we've anticipated a future athlete, but maybe we've got a future Broadway star in the making!

Family Camping Trip

Over the 4th of July weekend, we went camping in California at Grover's Hot Springs, a great campsite my family has been going to since I was a little girl. All of my family was there, minus my brother and his family, plus my cousin and his family came so we had a large group.

I've been trying to get Alex to eat watermelon all summer, but he's shown very little interest. Perhaps being in the great outdoors did something for his appetite!

Our sites were near a creek, Alex loved throwing rocks in. He was such a good boy and never tried to wander off. He loves being outside so much, camping is definately like being in heaven for this little guy!

My theme for this camping trip was "simplicity". I just wanted to be able to relax as much as possible, plus knowing that I would be chasing after a 2 year old, my goal was to make things as simple as possible. So, in the campsite next to us one of my sisters was making some delicious chicken fajitas, and to the other side of us, another sister and her family are dining on grilled tri-trip and dutch oven cheesy potatoes. And here are the Lillys preparing a gourmet meal of roasted hot dogs!! But hey, basically no prep work or cleanup was required, so my goal was fulfilled, and let me tell you those were some scrumptious wieners...Alex ate two!

Alex in his 4th of July attire. Would you believe some idiot campers actually brought fireworks...into the FOREST?! We had some fantastic rangers though, who were up to their site as soon as the first one was shot off, and they hauled his drunk @#* off in the ranger car. Serves him right.

My brother-in-law Mark brought this inflatable raft for the little guys for the creek. Alex and Adam sat in there for probably close to an hour being pushed around, they had a blast.

There's a huge meadow at the entrance to the campground that's gorgeous, especially at sunset.

You know Alex is exhausted if he actually allows himself to fall asleep in someone's arms.

The whole gang, minus Alex who had crashed at this point. We couldn't have asked for a better trip, it was so nice to get away and spend time with family. It's such a great bonding time for all the cousins, we've already made plans for same time, same place in 2010!