The Week In Pictures

MONDAY

This is sweet Josh hugging Ty after Ty's soccer practice.  We just happened to notice Ty's team practicing across our street, so we popped over  to say hi. After practice and some playing, Ty came over to thank Josh and they hugged. How sweet is this? 

 TUESDAY

Josh had his first outdoor lacrosse practice on this beautiful evening.  Josh is in grey shorts, kind of on the right. 

This is what Luke thinks of the 90-minute practice. 

We were so happy it was warm and sunny! 

 WEDNESDAY

Hump day started out like this...with two boys in my bed. I could not love this more!  Josh had a bad dream so he came down to sleep with us in the very early morning, and Luke came down around 4:30. (Dad's alarm went off at 4:45 so that was fun for 15 minutes...)  Just a few hours of mommy-sandwich, but I soaked it all up. 

Wednesday night was Cub Scouts and we did a service project of resurfacing a trail.  It was conveniently located right by our work, and it was timed perfectly -- we got done and were in the car with only 2 rain drops on us!  The boys worked hard!  Look at how hard Luke is working on the wheelbarrow. 

Josh raked his head off...we had 600' of trail to work on and about 25 scouts, so we had a lot of ground to cover. 

This is my favorite. They're so cute together. One day I will look back at the time when the boys were too little to do the wheelbarrow alone, and they were not too big to do it together.  Awww

I LOVE to see what the kids get from the school library.  This year Luke has borrowed a Berenstain Bears book each week, and the other one is always kind of random.  World War 1 is a new one...and a pretty dark bedtime subject. I love this stuff. 

 THURSDAY

Thursday morning was rainy, and the big huge worms were very entertaining.  Check this big guy out! 

Thursday at lunch I hiked the M with some friends, and we saw three of these crazy guys land.  It was kind of amazing to see so close. 

For our dinner before Lacrosse and Soccer practices (yep, we have a double day one a week!), we had Subway.  We were told by daddy to try it out because they have small bags of Jacked Doritos.  This is Josh trying out the spicy Hulk Doritos. Verdict: delicious.

 FRIDAY

Luke lost his 3rd tooth on Friday afternoon before we went to Movie Night at school.  The tooth was very wiggley, and had been for a few days, but while the boys were playing basketball in the garage it got knocked out.  Super exciting. 

Luke wanted to do a silly smile to show off his new hole, and Josh wanted to photobomb. Check and Check. 

That night Luke wrote a letter (with perfect finger spaces between words..) to Tooth Fairy.

Dear Tooth Fairy, Can you take a picture of me and you if you can?  Thank you from Luke.
A girl in his class brought a picture of her with tooth fairy for show and tell.  What is the world coming to? Doesn't she have parents to talk her out of spreading this kind of nonsense?  UGH!

Tooth left Luke a note that said "I'm sorry, but I forgot my camera tonight.  Love Tooth" and when Luke read it he didn't skip a beat and said "Well, next time!" God bless his little optimistic self.  

 SATURDAY

Saturday morning was fort building time in the living room.  Every fort they build has a place for the weapons.  Of course.

Daddy took the kids shopping for new BMX helmets and gear.  Luke came home with a shirt, gloves and a rocking' helmet. This is his #1 pose. 

Sometimes he looks like a sweet baby to me.  Those cheeks melt me.

Saturday evening the weather was lovely and so we biked over to the playground (full face helmet and all), and played for a bit.  Luke's turning into a confident little climber. Of course Josh helps him find his routes. 

King of the Mountain!  Josh was eyeing a new way down...he's a maniac.

 SUNDAY

We had a nice rainy Sunday. We played a little 31 at the coffee table.  Luke's backward shirt and silly face make me laugh.

I was putting away laundry and found this.  Champ on our towels.  Good thing she never sheds. 

Sunday dinner! Luke chose lasagna rollups on the Traeger, and they were absolutely delicious.  They're good cookers, these two. :) 

Chef Lukey

Luke's KidStir this month was to make pizza faces.  He's a great kneader...really puts his weight into it. 

These are our creations.  It was fun! 

Mill Creek Retreat

This is one of those posts that I kind of already posted on Facebook, but I think of the blog as a time capsule and so I have to duplicate the pictures.  

Our friends won a weekend at the Mill Creek Retreat and they couldn't use it, so they gave it to us.  We are always game for an adventure like this!  I unlocked the door, and the boys ran into the cabin and immediately up to the loft.  They kept saying "we caught a big one!" love read over. 

After we got settled, we had a gourmet meal of sandwiches and doritos while we played cards.  Mike was joining us later, around 9 PM, so we had some time on our hands.  

Time enough for some silly pictures. 

We decided that we should go walk to the river and see if the fish were biting.  This picture makes me laugh so hard because of Luke's face. 

We found a nice little rock slope to walk down and fish from. I couldn't believe how self-sufficient the boys are as fishermen.  They need a lot of help with knots, and of course we didn't catch anything, but still...

They're good little fishermen for being 6 and 8 1/2. 

After the sun set, we headed to the loft for some checkers. Luke and I were a team...which really meant that I suggested a move and Luke said "no we should go here" and then Josh jumped our man.  It was super fun. 

This big fish was very fun -- he came out to watch TV as we waited for daddy.

The fish also came in handy as a pillow.  The cabin was cool and had two Murphy beds...one double and one twin...and the boys snuggled in like best buds. 

The next day we went for a walk to check a campground and a fishing spot, and found a downed tree.  The boys walked down the trunk of the tree, not around it.  Of course not.

We fished a bit from the bridge that lead to the campground.  Luke caught his first cutthroat, so he now has caught all four trout species in his life.  

My favorite part of Luke fishing is the smile he has after catching it. 

Josh tried to catch a fish, but didn't get one.  Even his tongue didn't help him. 

We headed upstream for some fly fishing lessons. Luke and I tried the spinner, and again I'm happy about how self-sufficient he is. 

While we were waiting for Josh and Daddy, I was trying to keep Luke occupied so I asked him to find an  L-shaped rock, and sure enough he was happy until they joined us. 

The boys love to climb rocks...this is about 10-15' higher than the road.  

Ruby is not very photogenic. I blame it on her curiosity.  This is one of the best pictures we have of her.  She is sitting while I have a stick in my hand....distraction 101. 

Since the fishing wasn't super, we decided to have lunch at the Chico Bar and take a dip.  These crazy boys are a lot of fun to swim with! 

This is the Super Hero pose.  I have no idea what Josh's face is all about. Or Mike's duck face.  

This is the pose Mike suggested, and now it's a favorite.  I love that the boys fit on his shoulders.  

The rest of the day must have been pretty uneventful because the next pictures are from Sunday morning.  We went upstream to some private property that looked like ideal fishing. Turns out the river was high and fast and just not ideal. 

This is a super random picture.  Josh's hair has two swirls, and they always make a sticky-uppy mess in the  back.  It's just Josh.  Josh's hair always sticks up.  This is kind of a perfect length for the spike, and I happened to be standing directly behind him.  I love this boy, spikes and all. 

He decided to jump to this rock, further than I would have allowed if I didn't know where the dry clothes were, and he made it!  He's a daredevil. 

Californication

Thursday morning we headed down to Lancaster, CA to visit the job site (aka Daddy's Second Home) while the boys were out of school. They are great little travelers, even at 5 AM. 

At the SLC airport, Luke saw a huge "airbus" that he wanted to take a picture of, but he couldn't smile because he still misses daddy.

We had a very short layover, just enough time to do some silly pictures and get a snack.

On the second flight the boys were on one side of the aisle and I was on the other. They ordered their own drinks and had their own little entertainment...when did this growing up stuff happen? 

Before too long we were at the job site and geared up for a job tour.  We started in the yard, where Luke liked to watch out the window more than walk around.  Daddy warned us about snakes and Luke took that to heart! 

He wasn't even going to walk 5' from the car...

Until we pinky promised him that there were no snakes here...
It just has to be said that I LOVE his crooked hat.

Funny face boys! 

Joshua Jenkins in front of a Joshua Tree.  

Friday the boys went to the Long Beach Aquarium with some Barnard friends while Mike and I worked.  Then Friday night we went to a Lancaster Jethawks (minor league) Baseball game. It was across the street from our hotel, so we walked over.  We could see the bouncy houses from our hotel room, so they were pretty much our first stop. 

Josh does not smile for pictures. He didn't smile coming down the slide, and he sure as hell won't smile after it's all over. 

Luke smiles the whole way down. 

And he slides very straight. 

We went to the souvenir shop and found Kaboom, the Jethawks mascot.  

This pose is Luke's idea. ;) 

Our seats were kinda terrible, so we popped around the stadium a lot.  This is where we had dinner. 

I love watching baseball...summer nights are my favorite. 

Seat option #99, on the first base line. We thought this sign was funny, and of course Luke thought it was funny to play "Whack a Josh" all night with his huge bat. 

At the 8th inning, all the kids who wanted to could chase Kaboom across the outfield.  Josh is toward the right in this picture, in gray pants and a neon yellow shirt. Daddy told them that if they beat Kaboom, they could have souvenir baseballs so Josh was in a full on sprint.  

Saturday morning we got up and went to Venice Beach. We checked out the skate park-- such a cool scene.

The kids checked out the water.  Is it warm enough to swim? 

Luke's posture cracks me up -- he's so tentative, and so completely fine letting Josh test the water for him! 

After a little detour to the car to get swim suits on, and sadly Luke got sick, we went back to sit in the sand.  Luke was really sick -- he had thrown up the night before and again in the parking lot -- and was such a trooper!  He played in the sand taking it easy and played fully later. If I was feeling like him, I'd be lying in the car begging for a hotel room. 

His shit eating smile makes me happy.

Josh fully buried -- he wanted to be kind of sitting up. 

This is as close to a smile as we're going to get out of him. You can tell he's having fun. 

As we drove through Beverly Hills and Hollywood (Josh's only request was to see the Hollywood Sign), Luke's sickness took over. We made several bathroom stops and just tried to hurry to the hotel room for the poor kid.  After we got everything settled in the hotel room, we went to the outdoor pool to let Josh swim. Luke and I joined later...he said he'd rather watch Josh than sit in the hotel room. I'm telling you he's a trooper! 

After swimming Luke was too tired to walk back up to the room.  Josh did about a zillion different versions of canon balls - he was taking requests so we did stuff like "monkey climbing a tree" and "lacrosse defender" and "the sprinkler" for him. It was really fun for all of us in our own ways. 

And this is what Sunday looked like.  Luke still sick, not willing to take the medicine that made him throw up (ammonium for kids...he swallowed a bit and then threw it up when we got to the hotel Saturday night....so no more of that!), and just so so so wishing he was home in his own house.