NaBloPoMo - October 2012 (USU Homecoming)

I decided to attempt a NaBloPoMo for the month of October.  NaBloPoMo stands for National Blog Posting Month and is supposed to happen in November, but in reality it's any time you can commit to a month of posting.  Here is a little more about it if you are interested, from Wise Geek.

I decided for this month that I will post about past adventures that we haven't been able to blog about as well as what's happening currently.  Today's topic will be USU Homecoming.  The homecoming game was this past Saturday, September 29th.  Since Olsen is a Junior Aggie this year, he got to ride on the Junior Aggie parade float for the Homecoming Parade.

Olsen got to ride on the float with his friends Sean and Brendan.

Jovie decided to come and and bring her cat face

Jovie and Lisa were cheering on the Junior Aggie float as it went by

When the kids got home from the parade, they decided to go crazy with their balloons

After the parade, the kids had some rest and then on to the football game!  First the kids had to get ready with their pom poms and Jovie in her USU dress.

There was a Junior Aggie tailgate outside of the stadium with all kinds of fun.  Jr Aggies got to eat for free (our food was only $3 per meal).  Olsen got to ride on a very fun ride.

Olsen also got to go nuts in a bounce house.

But the main event (besides the football game) was the Junior Aggie Stampede!  This is where all the \Jr Aggies get to run across the field before the game starts.  Lisa and Jovie had to go in through the normal entrance while Olsen and I went in through another entrance.  On the way there, we got to meet USU football legend Phil Olsen, the brother of the late Merlin Olsen.  It was pretty cool to meet a former NFL player.  Getting on through the gate was a story in itself (but that's for another time).  There was quite a wait to get to run on the field.

But running on the field was super cool and Olsen had a great time!

After getting into the stadium, Jovie had already decided that she was not going to sit still and watch a football game.  She knew that she wanted to be in full control and just wanted to eat chips.  So we found a little grassy patch for her to crawl around on and mess around.  It's funny how they are so lax on the rules here versus A&M or any big stadium.  They don't care if you stand in a stairwell to watch the game, or hang out in a walkway or really, they don't care what you do.

Nearer to halftime we found another grassy patch where we were closer to the field to hopefully watch the band.  But Olsen and Jovie just wanted to go crazy and play the whole time.

All in all it was a great day and the kids had a lot of fun.  They were super tired later.  Here is a picture of some cool clouds over the stadium.  Oh and this game was a "white out" game and the fans did great.  You can see all the white shirted people.  The stadium was nearly full and USU beat UNLV 35-13.

Estes Park!

We were so lucky to be able to go back to the cabin in Estes Park this past June. We had a great time, and it was truly a relaxing vacation. We were unplugged in the cabin, with no TV, internet, or cell phone service in the cabin. I even read a book for fun (The Help)! We spent our days climbing the boulders around the cabin, hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, and looking around the shops and eating ice cream in Estes Park. Olsen loved bouldering around the cabin and called one gathering of boulders his "fort" where he would carry pine cones and sticks within the boulders.



our cabin!


Olsen, on his boulders


Olsen shuffleboarding at the cabin


strolling around Lily Lake


The only unfortunate incident was that Jovie ended up having pink-eye the entire trip! It was going around Olsen's daycare. Olsen never had it, but we are assuming he must have passed it on somehow. We went to a pediatrician in town and had drops to put in her eyes. It was like baby torture putting those drops in her eyes.


Jovie, looking cute but with slightly swollen pink-eyes!


Olsen did a great job hiking. One day, we might have pushed him a little too much. We went to the Bear Lake region of RMNP and hiked around Bear Lake, which is only about half a mile around. Then from there we hiked up to Nymph Lake, which is about 3/4 a mile uphill. Olsen got a little tired going up to Nymph Lake but was happy to run around the lake and was fine hiking back down. While we were in the Bear Lake area, since it can be an ordeal to get to due to construction, we decided to also hike to Alberta Falls, which was another mile uphill. Olsen got tired on the way to the Falls but he loved the actual falls because there are a lot of rocks to climb all around. Then we had to hike back down to catch the shuttle to our car. Overall, he did really well and we ended up hiking to four different water falls on our trip.



Our hiker


Jovie, the sleeping hiker.


Family picture at Bear Lake


Alberta Falls. Jovie is sleeping.


Alluvial fan


Olsen also became a junior ranger. It was fun to see that he is now old enough to participate in the junior ranger activities. We went to two ranger talks, one about beavers and the other at the Junior Ranger Headquarters about nocturnal animals. He was very cute when he tried to answer the Park Ranger's questions. He got his badge and took an oath to protect the Park from harm.



Olsen getting blindfolded for a game with the other Junior Rangers.


Olsen was also old enough to go to the little fun park place in Estes Park, where they have huge slides and bumper cars. I thought the slides looked a little scary, but he was not afraid to go down.


giant slides!


go-karts with Daddy!

My favorite place in  Estes Park is the Baldpate Inn. It's this really old bed and breakfast close to Lily Lake in RMNP. They have a brunch buffet that consists of soups, three different types of salads, and lots of breads. They had these peanut butter muffins that were so good.


The Baldpate has the largest collection of keys in the world!


We had a really great time. We are wishing and hoping that we might be able to use the cabin again in a few years. We had one bad incident on the drive back, where Olsen ended up throwing up everywhere all over his car seat. It was very gross, and we ended up staying the night in Rock Springs, WY because of it, blech.

Two July Birthdays!

I am really behind on my blogging and have a list of things I want to write about, but I thought I would start with our two July birthdays. Jovie turned one on the 6th and Olsen turned four on the 24th! We had a joint birthday party for them on the 7th at the park by our house. We have been looking forward to the summer Olympics (and it brought back memories of when Olsen was born and how all we did was watch the Beijing Olympics while feeding and holding him), so we had an Olympics theme. We started with the opening ceremonies with the Olympics theme song and wooden maracas.
 

Then we had a series of events: the 30-yd dash, the balance beam, rhythmic gymnastics, shot put, discus, and long jump.

 





We kept things really simple and ordered pizza. We did do presents this year. I was undecided for awhile if we should do them or not. Last year, at Olsen's party, we specifically requested no presents, and it was a really nice time. Olsen had a lot of fun at that party being with his friends. However, he had been going to several parties this year and has picked out gifts for his friends, and I also did not want to be too grinch-y. They are only kids once and there really is not that many years where he will be getting birthday presents, so we decided it would be okay to have them. We brought Jovie's portable chair and I thought Olsen and Jovie looked really cute sitting together and opening presents.

 
Ready for cake! I bought little country flags and we placed them around the cake. There were not very many countries represented by the flags, though.

 
This picture makes me laugh for some reason. I was standing in front of Jovie, but I went to walk behind her to help her with her cake, and she started crying because she thought I had left.

 
 painting their wooden maraca Olympic torches

 
opening presents

I think the kids' favorite part of the party was the medal ceremony. We wrapped cookies in gold foil and hot-glued a ribbon to it. We played the anthem and called each kid to the podium.
 



We had a good time and were so glad that so many of our friends could come.

For Jovie's actual birthday, we got black forest cupcakes from Sweetly Divine. The sad thing is that after I blew out her candle, she touched it and started crying because I think it must have been a little hot. Then, Olsen started crying because he was so sad that Jovie got hurt. All was better after eating cupcakes.

 


Jovie's birthday present, a pink ball.

Team Crush

Olsen has started indoor soccer. He is on Team Crush, along with his friends, Ben, Peter, and Sean. I was told not to expect too much, so I just figured it would be total chaos. Which it is, but since I was expecting so little, I feel like it is better organized than I thought it would be. It is pretty funny. They spend about 10 minutes doing a little drill, where each kid tries to kick the ball into the goal, and then they play a "game" with another team. It is funny to watch. Olsen has such a good time just running around and being generally silly. Getting to the ball is a secondary objective to him. Below is a video that I think is pretty cute. Olsen actually kicks the ball and then later he falls for no reason and afterwards, Peter falls on top of him.

Easter update

I haven't updated in awhile. Jovie is now 9 months old! She is not crawling yet, but she is really close. She can somehow get around by scooting to where she wants to be. She doesn't eat a whole lot of solids, but lately she has been enjoying shredded cheese. My babysitter has been watching her twice a week for 2.5 hours each time. Jovie cries when I hand her over but I'm told she stops when I leave.

Jovie at 9-months

We had a fun Easter. We decided to have an Easter party and not counting Jovie and her baby friend, Vivi, we had 11 kids here. I was a little worried at first, but it ended up being pretty fun. Kids can entertain themselves for the most part.


Easter egg hunt


Egg dying

We also got a lot of cute pictures of Jovie in her Easter dress.

Jovie's update

The last post was all about Olsen. This one is about Jovie. Jovie turned seven months old last week!


Jovie's 7-month portrait


This picture makes me laugh, because Jovie doesn't seem too excited about the hug.

Jovie has been eating some solids. She has had: avocado, banana, sweet potato, apple sauce, squash, peas, and carrots. She does not really eat too much, but I think she is slowly getting used to eating.


carrots!

For Valentine's Day, I put the kids in red clothes for some pictures. I thought Jovie looked so cute, because I usually do not bother with real clothes on a baby and just put her in easy zip-up sleepers. Poor Jovie, stuck with a very unfashionable mother.








Jovie is very interested in Lucy's nose.

I have hired a babysitter to come watch Jovie for a couple of hours a week. I had 61 applicants from my ad on the USU off-campus job board! I haven't been getting much done on my dissertation, and this way, I will also be able to meet with my advisor. The first day will be tomorrow. I'm a little nervous about it, because the instant someone else holds Jovie, she cries. I am hoping she can get used to a new caregiver soon.

Olsen's activities

It seems like Olsen has been undertaking a lot of activities recently. He has been doing really well skiing and has been able to snowplow down the bunny hill on his own. He was doing so well that Adrian took him up on the lift on his 4th day of skiing. Adrian said Olsen did pretty well but is not the best at turning. We ordered a little backpack harness for him and will try it next time to see if it will help steer him a little better. This video is of Olsen and Adrian coming back down from their first run from the chair lift.



Olsen has also started swimming lessons. He is in a class with three other kids. He does well for the most part, but we hit a little snag where he doesn't always want to jump into the water to the teacher. When it's his turn to jump, he'll shake his head no. The teacher will get him to his feet and he'll do it, but his first inclination is to not want to. He told me it is because water gets in his eyes, so I was thinking of getting him goggles to see if that will help. I am not sure if he is going to be able to float on his back on his own by the end of these lessons, but I think he has had fun with it.


Olsen practicing how to float on his back.

I feel like Olsen has been doing a lot of activities that promote his gross motor skills, but I need to do more to help him improve his fine motor skills. Olsen does not really care for arts and crafts. I can set out the paints and even spray shaving cream on the table for some finger fun and it will keep Olsen busy for a maximum of 5 minutes, sigh. Sometimes I get concerned because it seems like a lot of kids his age are into the whole drawing thing and can write their names. But I have also heard not to push it and he'll get it when he's ready.

Funny story, I was talking to a friend (his daughter is 6 months older than Olsen and draws birds and things) about how Olsen doesn't hold a writing utensil correctly yet, and he said that sometimes he gets concerned too because his daughter doesn't always hold her chopsticks correctly, ha ha ha. Oh well, Olsen has a kind heart and is quite interested in reading, so I think he is fine. I have read that in Finland, they do not teach kids to read until age 7, and Finland consistently scores high on academic achievement tests. So from that, I am taking away that, right now, young children mostly need the opportunity to learn through play, and they can experience academic rigor later.