cousins

I just realized that Dallin and Porter have three cousins: Jack, Afton, and Michayla. That number is about to double. Since Ashley, Erin, and Mallory are all pregnant, Porter and Dallin will soon have six cousins. Wow, Porter has lived half his life with no cousins and suddenly, there are 6!

something's missing

Look very closely at the pictures above. Do you notice something missing? . . . Have you guessed yet? . . . It is . . .

Training Wheels!

The day I have dreaded has arrived. Dallin has been begging to try riding his bike without training wheels for a couple of weeks but I have been trying to get him to hold off (I have gone on many a bike ride with him and see how he falls down over nothing all the time, with training wheels on). On Thursday, while I was at work, Dallin finally convinced Joe that they should try bike riding sans training wheels. Dallin has taken to it like a champ. He oftens wants help getting started, but once he gets going, he can keep going.

Unfortunately, you can't learn how to ride a bike without falling down a couple of times. This is the bump Dallin got falling off his bike (and yes, he was wearing a helmet and this still happened).
Although the ouchy hurt him very much and we are still giving him tylenol/ibprofen occasionally for the pain, he likes to point out that he did a jump as he crashed.

this is the ouchy on the second day. The swelling has gone down some (though even the bridge of his nose looks swollen to me) but the color is coming in much darker (kind like with a black eye).

He is not letting the head bonk keep him down though. That same day, he insisted on riding again. Porter was riding around and Dallin wanted to join him. We were at Ashley's house and Dallin's bike was in the back yard. I told Dallin "no" because I was still worried he might have a concussion or something. He just stomped off to the back yard and came out a few minutes later, helmet buckled, sitting on his bike. He sort of glared at me and made a sad face at the same time. Finally, I relented and let him ride as long as Uncle Brett could run along side.

when violence is the answer and other funny things

Dallin has been exhibiting a fairly violent streak lately. He has always been a bit of a hitter, etc. I kind of chalked it up to being a boy, since both boys hit, kick, wrestle, etc. whenever the mood strikes. Lately though, everytime Dallin sees someone in a situation that they might not want to be in, he wonders why they don't just punch their adversary in the face really hard. It makes sense, sort of, when he is watching Spiderman, etc. and he says "why doesn't Spiderman just punch him in the face, like this" (and then he demonstrates). It makes less sense, for instance, when he sees ants outside and wonders why they don't just punch either for getting in each other's way. I don't quite know what to do with him. A couple of nights ago, Dallin got in trouble for not getting ready for bed (really, what night doesn't Dallin get in trouble for refusing to put on pajamas, fighting about teeth brushing, bothering Porter in bed, etc.?). Joe put Dallin in his room until he was ready to get his pajamas on. Dallin tripped over a toy or something when he got sent to his room and he blamed Joe for hurting him. He cried for a minute and then got angry. We listened outside his door while Dallin ranted and raved, "I hate Mom, I hate Dad. I hate Dad so much. Dad is a jerk. I am going to punch Dad in the face with this gun. I will punch Dad so hard with my gun." During this whole tirade, Dallin was in his room, totally naked, except for a pair of socks on his feet, holding his toy shotgun. I think Joe had better sleep with one eye open from now on.

Last week I took Porter and Dallin to Cafe Rio because they like the quesadillas and chips. Porter was really thirsty. He drank a whole Apple Beer himself in under 5 minutes. When he was done, Porter said, "I used all my hungry on my drink because I was so thirsty. Now I am not hungry anymore."

Porter's kindergarten class had a substitute teacher yesterday. Porter said the new teacher turned off the lights himself because he didn't know that is Porter's job. Porter is always supposed to turn off the lights. Some of the other kids have jobs too.

catch up

I know I have fallen really behind in blogging. Here are pictures of some of the things we have been doing this summer.

Porter and Dallin have started taking swimming lessons. Their cute teacher there is a girl who used to live in our ward, Brianne. Dallin says her name "Gran." Sometimes her fiancee helps her out. The boy in the goggles is Porter. We bought them each some goggles and it turned Porter into a fish. Prior to goggles, Porter was terrified of getting his face wet. The little boy holding the edge is Dallin. Dallin still won't put his face in the water (it is hard to get good pictures of swimming)

When it rained, we got all decked out and played in the rain.

Once, Porter and Dallin participated in a bike race in Park City. We were worried about Dallin because he often get upset, etc. on bike rides and won't finish. He was intent on getting a medal though and kept going. In fact, the race was only about 1/2 a block but neither boy saw the finish line and so they just kept going (up a hill no less). Porter came back around the block pretty quickly but Joe had to chase Dallin down and bring him back to get his medal.

eating ice cream, wearing their medals

Porter also got his face painted at daycare one day and won a prize for pin the tail on the donkey.

We went hiking a lot on Saturdays. On this particular day, we went to the temple stone quarry. Porter and Dallin wore their cowboy hats and brought their toy guns (don't ask me why). Porter also brought his camera. Porter found a "magic rock" that changed color when he wiped it across his forehead. As it turns out, He was so sweaty that his sweat wet the rock and changed its color. The boys hoped to see rattlesnakes and scorpions every time we went. They had to settle for bugs. Joe took them up to Timpangogus cave once while I was at work. It was a dream come true for Porter who got to see crystals, though he didn't get to take any of them.

skills

Dallin is finally starting to draw things that look like something instead of just scribbles. Dallin said these are some kind of monsters. This is a picture of our family. Notice how nicely Dallin wrote his name (this one got cut off in the scanner for some reason)