Keepin' busy

So, we've been making the most of our time here in Jackson (and the precious time before the baby comes).  When it's beautiful, it's really beautiful, and we enjoy going outside, but we don't always have the best weather, and the apartment is small, so we've been coming up with all sorts of things to do.
The kids are almost as creative as their dad when it comes to finding things to do --although some of their ideas I question -- and I say whatever gets all that extra energy out without me having to do much is fine with me.
They came up with the 'run-away-from-the-big-spool' game themselves, but Richard instigated the "boof-the-cushion' game (coined so by Ethan) to run off some energy one evening.  I also helped them come up with rainy day ideas by making some activity sticks with them, letting them paint and everything, so whenever they start showing signs of boredom, we pull those out.  By the way, painting with two toddlers is an extremely stressful activity --that is, if you care at all about your carpet, furniture, and clothes.  Also, red finger paint stains.  Just so you know.
We've been lucky enough to have some friends and neighbors --a young couple in our ward who work with Richard-- offer to babysit so we could go on dates.  It's been nice to get out since I don't know that we'll get to go on dates much after the baby is born.  Ethan is constantly telling us that he wants us to go on dates, so obviously he enjoys his time with them.
Richard has been enjoying work, and keeping busy during his off-hours finishing up his thesis.  Hopefully he'll be done with that soon, and we'll have him back on Saturdays.  However, I'm not holding my breath, since he'll have to work on his syllabi for this fall semester, and research PhD programs so we can start applying.
I'm just doing my best to hold down the fort while preparing for when this baby comes and the ensuing move and all that accompanies things like that.  For now though, there's not much I can do so I'll not think about it.
Enjoy the montage.

End of May, and June 4th free fishing day.

The weather here has been pretty up and down.  On rainy/cold days we find various ways of getting the extra energy out and keeping ourselves occupied, for example by practicing our "gymnastic routines,"  going swimming, and crafting (i.e. making foam fish and "catching" them with magnets).
On the rare but welcome sunny warm days we go for walks to throw rocks in the river, build "sailboats" in the back yard, and go exploring.  On one of our outings we even caught a frog!  Fun fun!  Ethan wanted to throw it in the river like a rock I think.
Last Saturday was free fishing day here in WY, and so we figured we'd take advantage of it.  We didn't catch a thing (although the fish were jumping all around us --they just didn't want what we had to offer), but it was still a beautiful day and a fun family outing.  The kids had fun throwing rocks in the river some more (a favorite pastime that they never tire of), eating outside, and getting muddy.  What more could a kid ask for? (Besides eating fish --which I think they wanted to do just for the novelty of it.)  Anyway, just for an extra bonus, you get quite a few glimpses of my huge pregnant belly.  (Ugh, and I still have 7 weeks to go!)  I was hoping it would bring me good luck while fishing, since I was probably about that pregnant with Ethan when I caught my last fish (sad I know --we're not very good at fishing apparently).   We'll just have to keep trying.

Tongue in Cheek

Just in the past half hour Ethan said some funny things that I thought I should share.

Angry that I had made a new (quite reasonable, in my opinion) rule about eating dinner, (that he can eat what I made for dinner and get a popsicle or I could make him a different dinner but no popsicle) Ethan ranted and raved before finally succumbing to the unappealing fare he had before him.  Two of his rants were particularly humorous:

"This is not about you! This is about popsicles!"

"You be a nice Mommy!"

After finally cramming it down, and getting his popsicle, he pretended to read what was written on the stick:

"Won't you be my neighbor, of the Church of Latter Day Saints, of the Holy Ghost."

This also shows off his new short haircut.

I wish I could remember all the funny things that come out of his mouth.  This will have to do for now though.