Cole Family

This is Garrett’s ingenious trap he set up to catch the rabbit that has been visiting our garden and sampling the fare.  Garrett checks the trap everyday, but so far, there’s just a bunch of nibbles off of the carrot and no rabbit.  “That rabbit is SO tricky!” he says, shaking his head. “How does he escape the trap?!”

I don’t have the heart to tell him I think it is a slug that is eating the carrot.

Here Lindsay is working the system (me) to get 2 otter pops at once. Then I wasn’t pushing them up fast enough for her.  Nah, she’s not spoiled or anything.

Finally content with her pushed up pops.

Stumpy is now laying on his side, protruding halfway out of the ground and acting as a diving board for the kids. We’ll probably leave him like this for a month or so, no sense rushing into things. 

Plus, Jon and I have a small wager going to see how long it will take one of the kids to poke their eye out with the exposed roots. 

In the market for a twirly skirt? You can’t go wrong with this pattern: http://www.oliverands.com/downloads/Oliver+SLazyDaysSkirt.pdf

They were pretty simple and fun to make. I made a bunch during our “Earthfake,” again rationalizing that if we were stranded without any assistance I would need to know how to make my own clothing. 

Lindsay refuses to wear her skirt unless we bribe or distract her. Who knew a 16 month old could have such an opinion about her clothes?

After the third skirt even Megan was tiring of them. “Mom? Can this be the last one?”

Will she hate me later for taking these pictures? Probably. But so worth it.

Camping with a 16 month old who is afraid of sleeping bags (we discovered), loves the fire, and didn’t sleep a wink led us to give her 2 Kit Kat bars and a 64 oz soda on the long drive home. 

The highlight for Garrett and Megan was the roasting of the marshmallows.

They also liked it when we found this little amphitheater and they took turns giving us performances.

Megan was really feeling it here. 

So you think you can dance?

We also tried out a supposed 1 mile hike that ended up being more like 3 miles. The waterfall at the end was great. The whining, not so great.

All in all, a successful 2009 Cole family camping trip.

What do these things mean to you?

• Drinking powdered milk
• Eating all the food out of our freezer
• No electronics
• Stores and gas stations out of commission
• Making my own taco seasoning

This past week our ward was experiencing an earthquake drill (referred to by a friend of Jon’s as the “earthfake”).  We were checking our ward’s communication abilities (were you contacted by home teachers? etc.) and also our ability to survive with the food on hand in our homes and live without technology.  Jon and I kind of cheated on that last part since we told ourselves, “We have a generator. We would hook it up so we could watch this movie.” And in reality, if there was an earthquake, I really wouldn’t care about checking Facebook or my blog.  I hope I would have other things to worry about like, “Is my family alive!?”

I believe the earthfake is ongoing but I am officially calling it over for the Cole family as we are going camping and I do not want to pack up my wheat grinder and 10 pounds of wheat for our dinner. 

What I learned:

• We need more variety in our food storage
• My kids are better at following rules than me (I sneaked on to the computer various times, only to be caught by Garrett who would say “Aren’t we having that blackout? Why are you on the computer?”)
• Our 72 hour kits were way outdated…we’re talking baby clothes for Garrett (who’s now 6 years old)
• I like going to the store

We have resorted to duct taping Lindsay’s diaper closed since she rips it off every chance she can get. She has even figured out how to undo the snaps on the bottom of her onesies.  I fear she will find a way to get through even this seemingly impenetrable barrier. Help!

I love it when I find random notes that I have written strewn about the house. They usually make no sense, like: “Lace-ups!” or “grapevine” or “toadstool in bowl.” (Actual notes on scrap paper surrounding my computer.)

I found this note on the kitchen floor:

What does this random grouping mean?

????

Perhaps I will never know.

Although the more I think about it,  I think this was a list of things I was going to draw on some story cubes.

In theory my children will roll the story cubes like dice, and then tell a story about the pictures. This is until the fighting begins, which it will.

As always, I got this idea from someone else (look here). Her drawings were better than mine, but it was still a fun project.

Garrett came stumbling into the family room at approximately 10:30 pm where I was finishing up a sewing project and Jon was flipping channels on television.

“I can’t stop throwing up!” he whimpered.

That’s when we noticed the clumps of vomit in his matted down hair and on his pajamas.

“I threw up three times,” he moaned. I recalled the coughing sounds I had heard coming from his room earlier that evening.

Jon and I slowly crept to his room to survey the damage. Megan was still sleeping soundly on the bottom bunk even though she had received a bed full of Garrett’s ….you know….and it was still dripping from the top bunk down to her bed.  I’ll spare you most of the gory details, but let’s just say that we had to disassemble both the top and bottom bunk to clean everything up. 

Our payment for completion of such a horrific clean-up experience?

1. 10 loads of laundry, including quilts and various stuffed animals.
2. Jon was able to share in Garrett’s misery as he is now afflicted with the same stomach bug.
3. I was lucky enough to be the lone installer of the 550 square feet of sod we ordered and had delivered bright and early at 7:30 a.m. It takes a long time to lay down the sod when you can only manage to put two rolls of it in your wheelbarrow at a time and you’re working on about 4 hours of sleep from the night before. 
4. Had to cancel the babysitter and the fun double date we were looking forward to.

By the way, Garrett’s sleeping on the floor tonight, just in case.

Here’s a portion of the sod that I put in…beginning to feel sick….can’t post the rest of the pics…I think I’m getting it now….gotta go (literally).