Canada II (loads of photos)

Since Max's job didn't start for another month and a half after graduation (and because we hadn't sold our home yet so we were sort of just hanging out in Iowa), we decided to make the trek up to Scott and Pat's lodge in Quebec again. I mean, we're twice as far now that we're in Utah. This time we did the driving in one very long day--15 or 16 hours I think. Cheaper and only painful for one day rather than two. However, we'd readily do two 15 hour driving days because of the destination.

We kayaked to rocky points where we picked wild blueberries (our pirate treasure we hid in the hull).
Wyatt did this at least 3000 times during our 5 days there. He was much braver than just a year before when it came to jumping off the dock and swimming around.
Max kayaking the Kipewa with Uncle Scott.

And we all had fun at Grand Chutes--Emmett came with us, just didn't do any of the jumping.




Plenty of ping pong.

More kayaking....

and swimming...and frog catching...

Seriously--wouldn't you drive 15 hours for this?

And this is how every day ended--happily exhausted!

Thanks Scott and Pat for letting us come up on such short notice and for your hospitality while we were there. Our boys say they want to move to Canada...can you blame them when this is what Canada means to them.

Catching up again!

I know I don't have to always try to catch up on what our family is doing, but I'm trying to keep a family record so here I am again, catching up.

Way, way back in June, Max graduated from the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa.

He had been class president and was asked to give a more informal speech at the lunch before the graduation ceremony. His speech was really great because he included every person in his class--28 people--by writing fictional journal entries that had to do with something that happened to that person during the course of the program. He was the hottest graduate too, if I do say so myself.

Grandpa Stirling and the boys found ways to pass the time at the luncheon.

Froggy Pirate

One day, after a few days, or maybe it was weeks, of rain--Iowa rain, that is--I took a bike ride with my three boys to the park. One section of the park had turned into a full-on swamp complete with tadpoles and hundred of frogs. Since I'm not much of a frog catcher myself and I didn't know how we'd get one home right then, I told the boys they have to come back later with Dad, who is an expert frog catcher. They came home with Froggy Pirate.
We went to the second-hand store and found a small terrarium for $5 and had a great little pet for a couple months. He was, however, an Iowa frog and so had to be set free back in the park where we caught him just before we moved.

???

I don't really know what to say about this except that Jonah is definitely creative and inventive.

The Science Party

In June we threw a Science Party. What is a Science Party you may ask? Well, I didn't know either. I just know that Jonah and Wyatt asked me multiple times each day if we could throw a Science Party, so we made one up. We invited a bunch of little friends to come have fun with astronomy, geology, paleontology, chemistry, and even some tasty entomology. After the invitations were sent out I had a couple moms ask if this was a birthday party. "No, just a party to have a party," I replied. I think the whole world should have parties just to have parties more often. It's a lot of fun and everyone would be happier.

First we started with astronomy. As kids arrived they got to color in the planets.
Once the planets were all colored, I handed out spray bottles with white paint in them to spray the stars of the milky way galaxy.

Next, everyone was assigned to be something in the solar system from the sun all the way down to asteroids in the asteroid belt and even some dwarf planets.
We used the They Might Be Giants "Here Comes Science" album and let each child run around when their part of the solar system was called. On the first verse, the planets are named slowly but then on the second it is much faster, and thus much more fun. If you are not familiar with They Might Be Giants kids' album, I highly recommend them!

Here's Max doing some "chemistry" with a chunk of dry ice blowing up a ballon. We used the dry ice to make homemade root beer.

And here is fun with geology. We talked about plate tectonics and how sometimes the shifting in plates makes volcanos. Every child got a volcano pre-filled with baking soda and little red Koolaid powder. Getting to pour in their own vinegar was definitely the hit of the party.
And here we are making some awesome slime.

Super easy recipe for slime:

Solution A

1 cup water

1 cup white glue

2 Tbs liguid tempera paint or 7-10 drops food coloring (optional)

Solution B

1 1/3 cups warm water

4 tsp. Borax laundry booster

Mix ingredients in solution A together in a medium bowl. In a second bowl, mix the ingredients in solution B together until the borax is completely dissolved. Slowly pour solution A into solution B (Do not mix!). Roll solution A around in solution B 4-5 times. Lift solution A out of solution B and knead for 2-3 minutes. Will store for a really long time in an airtight container or ziploc bag.

I didn't get a picture of our paleontology, but we took plastic dinosaur figurines and encased them in a soft Ivory soap concoction. When the soap dries out you can use the lump as hand soap and slowly reveal your dinosaur.

And finally, the tasty entomology. I lucked out and found some fruit snacks that were different parts of bugs--the wings, the thorax, the head--and we placed them with some worms in pudding-dirt. Most kids were happy to dig in. A few, like sweet Kennedy to whom Wyatt is talking, weren't too keen on the dirt even after I explained it was chocolate pudding mixed with oreos.

Such a fun party. I'm glad my boys asked for it and now that we're in Utah, we may just have to do it again with some new friends.

Don't you wish...

...pureed vegetables tasted this good...
...and made you this happy?

Long Summer Days

Since we weren't sure when or where we'd be moving, I didn't sign up the boys for any camps or lessons this summer. You have to sign up early to get a spot in just about anything where we lived and I didn't want to sign up and then have our house sell and have to move. So we passed the summer days in the backyard, at the pool, the park, and around the neighborhood. Max was busy finishing his last rotations and then studying for finals so we had a lot of time to pass. Here's some photos.

The littlest guy spent most of his summer in and out of the sand box.

He even braved the fountains downtown.
But he wasn't as brave as his oldest brother...

Wyatt graduated to a pedal bike. This is his very first attempt. He has always been a little bit more timid on bikes than Jonah, but thanks to his Boot Scoot he was riding on his own within an hour or so and now he's a pro!
Many, many hours were spent on the trampoline. I love having a trampoline.


I love these little guys!