rodeo parade

Saturday morning was the rodeo parade (we're still in Moab, at this point).

This is pretty much the first real parade (complete with candy being thrown)

that my kids have been to. Sad, right?

Aiden's been hung up on having a pet snake lately, and was really hoping to find and catch one

while we were in Moab. I told him once that I had seen one before in Moab, so he thought the chances of seeing one were pretty good.

He and my dad walked down to the parade early, sticking close to the creek in hopes of spotting a snake. They didn't find any (dang it) but Aiden was pretty worn out, and thirsty by the time they got there. Once he got a drink of water, he was back to himself.

Just in time to see Smokey the Bear! Smokey tossed Aiden a "Prevent Wildfires" frisbee.

Aiden had met Smokey before at school, so he was pretty excited to see him again "in person".

More horses than anything else, not the typical parade.

We pretty much had to convince him to go out and gather up ALL the candy they had thrown in our direction. There wasn't anyone else in our general area, and they threw a lot of candy toward our general area, so were responsible for a lot of candy.

Aiden isn't much of a candy lover, so he ran out into the street, ignoring the suckers and tootsie rolls, and grabbed the only candy he really likes, the starlight mints. He's kinda strange.

We didn't really have to do much convincing with Capri.
All we did, was show her that there was candy out there, and she was happy to go pick it up and bring it back and stick it in her cup and insist she be allowed to eat it ALL right now.

Once Capri figured out what was happening, though, she was all over collecting it.

Fun times in Moab!

ice cream on the ground

After the carnival, we went and got ice cream and took it back to the

house to eat it on the front porch. It was the perfect evening!



Capri had some of mine in a bowl, but it didn't last too long in the bowl.



She has this bad habit of dumping everything out.

She doesn't mind eating off the ground. Really, if I was a good mom

I would stop her from eating ice cream off the sidewalk, instead of taking pictures.

But really, I'm not that great a mom.

It was all fun and games till...

Grandpa had to go and ruin all the fun.

She did get over it eventually, but it took her a little while!

a different kind of carnival

A couple of weeks ago we were in Moab for Karrina's (Kenny's littlest sister's) high school graduation. We had so much fun hanging with family. That weekend there just happened to be a carnival and rodeo happening, so we went over to the carnival for a little while one evening. It was a pretty sad little carnival, but we found a few things to occupy our time.  

The first ride Aiden wanted to ride was this nice little carousel that spun around and around, slowly.

Or so I thought.

It spun us so fast! I wasn't prepared for it.

I love almost all rides, but not the ones that go so fast, around in circles. I hate that kind.



See?

The biggest hit of the night was this trampoline, that you could jump on while attached to bungee cords on either side, so as to jump super high. There was no line to wait in, nor was there anyone waiting behind Aiden, so he got a really long turn.

Sorry about all of the pictures...



I can never decide which one(s) I like best, so I just post them all.

He loved it!

He worked hard to get the most he could out of every single bounce.



 Capri was not a happy girl (It seems like I'm always saying that...) but every once in a while,

if we allowed her to do whatever she wanted, she stopped crying long enough to enjoy a few minutes here and there.

Like here, when she was hanging out with Daddy, watching Aiden jump.

He rode the train...

And then he toured the little "fun house" (which was really just

the trailer of a semi truck, decorated on the inside)





While he was inside, Capri kept herself busy on the front entrance.

And then Aiden went into the "haunted house" and Capri could not stand that she had been left behind. So my mom took her in a little after Aiden.

Haha, I don't think she loved it, but she did get what she wanted :)

graduation day

Aiden graduated from Kindergarten on May 21st, 2012.

We were all so excited for it, but nobody was more excited than Aiden.

He cannot wait to go to first grade. He's so ready.

After I got Aiden off to the bus, Capri and I ran to the store to get some balloons and doughnuts for Aiden to celebrate his achievement. Which was why we were just a little tiny bit late. We actually got there right as they started singing their first song, and that's about when I started to cry.

He just looked so cute and so grown up up there singing his song. I started out taking pictures, then took some video of the other songs they sang later (which I have been trying to upload for three days now, and it will not) but I wish I had gotten the first song on video too.

It was something about a rooster, and in the song they would all go to sleep, then the rooster would "cockadoodledoo", and they'd all WAKE UP and sing. It was the cutest thing ever. I hope I never forget Aiden's funny faces.

Here, they're asleep.

Then, the rooster did his thing, and they woke up, and Aiden found me.

The rest of the time, he sang just for me.

I can't put into words how much I love him.

One of the songs they sang, was something about going on a bear hunt. "We're going on a bear hunt. We're gonna catch a BIG one. With big green eyes, and a fuzzy little tail." And when they got to the "fuzzy little tail" part, they all wiggled their bums toward the audience. All except Aiden. I knew why he wouldn't do it, but I asked him the other day, why he wouldn't wiggle his bum when every one else did. "Because it was too silly for me, mom".

Yup, that's what I thought.

Luckily, Kenny was able to come too,

and see Aiden and keep Capri occupied so I could get some pictures.

Then after several super cute songs, they handed out diplomas.

Woohoo!

All the kids drew a picture of themselves, and here is Aiden with his.

There was no mistaking which one was his.

I love how self-aware this kid is. He knows he's brown, and all of his friends are white,

but it doesn't bother him one bit.

Aiden and his cute teacher, Mrs. Thornberg.

Leaving the school for the last time as a Kindergartner! (Ok, not really. They had one more day of school after graduation. I know, weird, right?)

My giant, graduated big big boy. It's funny to look at pictures of him with the rest of the kindergartners, he's huge compared to the rest of them. He likes to say "I'm five, but I'm almost six. I'm as big as a seven year old, and as smart as an eight year old!" It's pretty much true. I love him so much, and I'm so so proud.

If I ever figure out how to upload the super cute video of their song, it will be here. If I never can, then what the heck good does it do to take videos of your kids anyway?

parks-a-plenty

There are so many parks around where we live.

And there's such a variety too! We love it.

We go to this one park a lot lately. It's quite the drive (like 15 minutes)

from our house, but it's worth it! There is a little kid playground, a splash pad,

and a playground designed for bigger kids, stuff that they can climb on, and ride.

More than just your typical swing/slide/playground setup.

Aiden LOVES it. He spends the entire time there, on the big kid side of the park.

Forget the splash pad!

We usually go equipped for the splash pad, just in case, but my kids are spoil sports

when it comes to splash pads. They'll never just run through the water.

Capri is never predictable, when it comes to where she will go,

and what she will want to be doing. Typically she hangs out on the little kid side,

but this time she threw us off a little.

There was a big group of teenagers hanging out on Aiden's favorite thing to play with,

so Aiden was hanging out with the teenagers. This is why I got no pictures of Aiden.

He had much more important things to do, apparently.

Capri loved this contraption. It's a U-shaped track that this little

platform skims the top of. That's the best description I can come up with. Anyway,

so we put Capri on it, and slid her back and forth, making sure she would hang on and not

jump off before we let her go high.

It doesn't look like it, but she loved it.

She's holding on for dear life, and has no extra energy for smiling or laughing.

We'd take her off, and she'd scream and climb back on.

This is the best emotion we could get out of her. I think she went a little too high here...

After she got off she was just content to push it herself.

I wanted to try it too. Not the best picture ever, but then it's pretty rare that anybody takes pictures of

me, so I take what I get. (I am not complaining here...)

And I had to include this picture of Kenny. These things, you "just go stand on it, and it spins by itself" he said. When I couldn't get it to work, he went to show me. And he couldn't get it to turn either :) haha!