Campers

We went camping at the beginning of the month with the Bakers.  Sam is our stick finder, and he's a good one.

 We don't have sleeping bags, so we just bring all the blankets we can find.  We were all warm enough, but we needed every blanket we brought.  This was the first time Thomas has slept outside of the pack'n play while camping.  Sam and Thomas did really well sleeping side by side like that.  

Stephen Baker and Thomas enjoying some breakfast snacks.

 Stephen, Thomas, Eliza, and Sam.  We had to try a few times and never really got a great shot.

Dave, Catherine (with Beth strapped on) Eliza, Robert, Stephen, and Sam.

 Turkey sighting!

We took a hike down to the lake.  The kids threw rocks into the lake, making small splashes, despite a sign warning not to make skin contact with the water.  They should really make it sound more foreboding to strike a little fear into our hearts.  Something like, "Do not make skin contact with water.  If you do, your skin will be eaten away by vicious bacteria."  It's like that sign on BYU campus that says, "Do not walk alone in this area after dark ..."  leaving the rest to your imagination.

I don't know, this one is just random.  They're turning the fire truck into Noah's ark.

We studied the bones of the body in preschool.  I figured since Sam broke his, it was a good time to learn about it.  He now is brace-free.  He's supposed to wear it when he's out playing, but it's awfully hard to remember it even though I keep it by the door.

Sam is quite the chef!  He is the official pancake maker in our house.  In this picture he is helping make tortillas.  They didn't turn out as well this time as they usually do, but that had nothing to do with Sam.  Maybe I used a different recipe than I have in the past?

Sam decided to dress in Dave's clothes.  Good thing those shorts have a draw string!

And now with just Dave's socks!

 This was just this morning.  I've started going for short runs again and since the kids are always awake before I go I have been taking them.  They usually have a blanket but this morning Sam decided to travel in comfort.  They had a blanket, a pillow, cheez-its and water.  If you look closely you can see Thomas' first black eye.  I don't know how it happened.  I'll try to get a better picture on here sometime.  Last night Sam and Thomas were playing in the pack'n play which was set up randomly.  They were back in Thomas' room and suddenly we heard a crash and they both started crying.  It had tipped over somehow and I think they both hit the dresser.  Thomas had a scrape next to his eye (not the same one he nearly gouged a couple of weeks ago) and a puffy purple eye this morning.  Sam had a big scrape on his back.  My goodness!  Who knew that could happen with a pack'n play!

August Fun

Get ready for a lot of pictures.  

 

Block tower at grandma's.                                    Cute brothers helping me cook.

   

Went to the steam trains one day.                            Harvesting carrots.

    Brotherly love? or choking?     

   Grandma T and Rachel visit. Feeding sheep at Little Farm.

                         More Little Farm

Chabot Space and Science Center with Grandma T and Rachel.  We got pizza at a yummy place and found a nice park and ate lunch afterwards.

We went to Habitot with some friends.  Sam and Spencer below.

Sam broke his arm...sort of.  It's actually a buckle, so I guess it's not actually broken.  But usually they would cast it.  But since Sam seemed to have very little pain, the doctor thought he was recovering well enough not to need a cast.  I was happy because it meant I didn't have to take him back to the doctor.  It wasn't even very exciting how he did it.  He was climbing shelves in the closet (I know, that maybe sounds negligent, but they're sturdy and built into the closet) to put Thomas's binky in the top shelf of the closet where Thomas can't reach.  He jumped down (we didn't see him land) and started crying and holding his arm.  That was on Saturday.

There was no swelling or bruising, and he seemed to be playing normally.  But Monday night when I was helping him put his arm through his sleeve of his pajamas, I must have moved it just right (or wrong) and he immediately grabbed his arm and cried in pain.  So we took him to the doctor Tuesday.  But I have to say, Tuesday morning before I took him in I was paying more attention to whether or not he was using his arm normally.  He was hanging from a bar with both arms and with his feet in the air above his head.  So it didn't seem to be causing him much pain.  I think Sam was pretty excited at the doctor's office.  Getting an x-ray was probably the highlight.

Sam being so helpful and changing Thomas's diaper (in his undies no less).

 This was the best idea we had for the trip to/from Utah.  We tied a basketball hoop to the driver's headrest and then put Thomas's blanket under it so it would roll back to him most of the time.  (Thanks Cami for the blanket idea.)

 

 One of Thomas's girlfriends, Maddie.  They walked holding hands for probably 5 minutes.  I hope Lucy doesn't find out!

 We went to Off the Grid (or food trucks as we call it) in the city with Teresa and Rachel when they were here.  It was fun!

Maddie, Isaac, and Thomas all crammed into a tent, happy as can be!

 
Thomas had a sad moment while we were leaving the library a week ago.  He must have been looking somewhere other than the direction he was walking.  He smacked right into a big sign.  The poor kid got knocked to the ground.  It would have been funny if he hadn't been hurt.  Thank goodness he missed his eye.

Thomas decided to just try these shoes to see if they would fit.  After he put them on he said cheerfully, "They're too big!"  I wasn't sure until he tried them on.

I also wanted to write what Sam told me as my birthday was approaching.  He told me, "When me and Daddy go shopping for your birthday you can hide under the table.  And when we get back, after we wrap the presents, then you can get out."  What a birthday treat!

Poland

Well after England we headed to Warsaw, Poland.  Dave was presenting at the International Combustion Symposium in Warsaw, so that was the reason for this leg of the trip.  Here is Dave in the Polytechnical University building where the symposium was held.  It was very pretty, but no air conditioning so it was hot some days.

This is a picture of us at the picnic.  It probably would have been pretty fun if we drank alcohol, but we don't, so it was a little dull.  But we met some friendly people that night so it was nice.

Dave participating in a nail hammering contest.  The mc on the left was actually pretty good at entertaining a group of engineers he didn't know, and not in his native language.  He did a much better job than I would have.  But that's not saying much.

 This picture is dark, but it's showing giant plate of food Dave got one day at lunch.  It took up 2/3 of the length of the table.  That was probably the best Polish food we had.  By the end of the week in Poland I was missing food that is familiar to me.

 This is a video of me making some pottery at the picnic.  Watch the cute man's reaction when I mess up.  He didn't speak a word of English.

Ok I know, you can't really see this because it's a picture of a picture.  But to me it helps me remember that 80-85% of Warsaw was destroyed during WWII.  Can you believe it?  I learned that Poland has a pretty interesting history.  It's been through a lot.

Poland was nice because we got to have all our meals together and it was, for me at least, relatively carefree.  It wasn't exactly carefree for Dave since he was presenting near the end of the week.  It helped knowing that our kids were very happy and were doing quite well with Grandma.

Utah and England

Well, I guess it's time to post about our trip.

At the end of July we drove to Utah again.  The kids do pretty well.  It's kind of fun, which sounds strange because it's about 12 hours driving, but it's not very often we get to spend that much time together without a whole lot of distractions.  So we actually kind of enjoy it.  We spent a few days in Sandy before Dave and I left the kids with Grandma and Grandpa Edwards and got on a plane to London.

 Sam started swimming lessons.  It was a little too cold in the morning for his liking.  But I got to run into Sarah Brown, my old roommate who also had a daughter in swim lessons at the same pool.  That was fun.

 We caught the Days of '47 Parade with grandpa and his bag of chips.

 And we went to the Butler Days fair where the kids got to sit in a mini fire truck and play in bounce houses and slides.

I was nervous about how the kids would handle us leaving, especially Thomas.We tried to prepare them and talk about how we'd be leaving and then we'd come back.  We made a special calendar so they could see what days we'd be flying, be in England/Poland, and what day we'd fly back.  I think that was a good thing to do, at least for Sam.  Anyway, when I was saying bye to Thomas he was just sliding down the stairs on his tummy, waved and said, "Bye Mommy."  No tears, no gripping my legs and pleading to be picked up, no devastation.  Wow.  That was unexpectedly easy.  And since they handled it well it made it a lot easier for me to handle it well.

We flew through the night to London, arriving at Heathrow on Thursday morning with very little sleep.  When I was tired on the plane Dave and I were watching a show so I didn't go to sleep.  When it was over I had a hard time falling asleep.  I don't know if I've ever been that tired as I was Thursday afternoon.  I'm not one that usually falls asleep super easily, but I kept falling asleep.  Dave kept waking me up because we wanted to try to stay awake so we didn't ruin our chances of a good sleep that night.  But I just kept falling right back to sleep.

Anyway, Thursday morning my parents (who are serving as missionaries in the London-South mission) picked us up at the airport.  We rode the tube into London and went to the tower of London.  We could see the city was gearing up for the olypmics which were about to start on Saturday.  The Tower of London was fun and interesting.

Dave in the armory.

 Us in the tower grounds.  The tower mostly seems to be about execution.  On the bridge behind us you can see the olympic rings.

 My dad went to check on something and he came back and said, "I saw Matt Lauer."  So we decided to go check it out.  Matt Lauer, Katie Couric  Meredith Viera, and-I'm not sure who the middle one is- were there, presumably to cover the olympics.

 The tower in the background with me about to blow my nose.  I had a cold and my ears wouldn't pop after coming down in the airplane.  It's surprising how irritating plugged ears are.

 Our guide at the tower-very entertaining.

Friday we went to Winchester which was a lovely place south of London.  We also managed to get Dave's glasses which he stepped on the night before.  Below is the round table, if it even exists.

 Mom and me in Winchester.

 Dad and Dave in Winchester Cathedral.

Pretty windows below in the Cathedral.  Sam wants me to say that it's Sam and Patti in the picture.  I said, "But Sam's not in the picture."  He said, "I see two Sams."

Saturday was a bit long on the traveling side of things (which didn't seem to be anybody's fault except maybe the olympics), but we finally made it to see a few things.  This is Dave in the British Museum.

 Big Ben

 West Minister Abbey

 Buckingham Palace below.  Can you tell I'm tired?

I think I'll save Poland for the next blog post.