Tramps and Cousins

Also way back in March, Miles and I made a surprise trip up to the Inland Northwest.  My parents were due back from their mission, and I decided there was no way I was missing their return and that it would be super fun to surprise everybody!  So we did just that.  I pulled Miles out of school for a whole week and it was super.

He was in freakin' heaven being around cousins and all their trampolines.  He got to play on the trampoline at each one of my three siblings' houses who live up there.  Three sets of cousins, three trampolines.  Miles was down with that.

It was so nice to see him having so much fun with his cousins and it made me feel bad for him and our big city life.  No yard, no neighbor friends, no cousins, no trampolines.  But, he's a happy kid, and we make do with what we've got.  And we are thankful for what we've got!

Rodeo Houston

Good golly, Miss Molly, this is old!  Just about everything on here these days is old.  Maybe one day I'll be current, but I'm not making any promises.

I took Miles to the Rodeo this year during his Spring Break.  He loved it, was an amazing, stamina-filled walker, and stuck out like a sore thumb sporting his COLORADO Avalanche shirt.  Tell you what, going to Rodeo really lets me know one thing:  I'm not a Texan.  There are no more words than that.

We went to the pig races and mutton bustin', and I bought him some tickets for rides which he was stoked about.  Overall, a super time.

At the pig races: 

 Patiently waiting, listening to the pigs be introduced with their silly names like "Lindsay Loham."

 Race, piggies!  Race!

 One of his chosen rides.  He looked pretty stressed out when it first got going fast-ish, but came out conqueror and victorious.  He's a real scaredy pants, that Miles.

That's Pirate's Booty all over his face.  Pirate's Booty is always the sign of a special and fun time.

We went back to the actual rodeo with Dave to watch the cowboys ride all sorts of bucking animals and wrestle steers and rope... uh... calfs?  I don't know, but it was really cool and entertaining and I took no pictures.  It happened, either way!

Kindergarten Miles

A snippet of Kindergarten Miles.  This is from November, but I like it too much to leave it out.

Miles from DAM FAM on Vimeo.

Smarty Pants: Geography

This video is oooolllld.  In fact, it's from April 15, 2013.  So Miles was 4 at the time.  We have these apps on our iPad-- Stack the States and Stack the Countries.  Because of these apps, Miles knows where pretty much every country on this green earth belongs, and has known all 50 states for a really long time.  I colored a map and laminated it for a place mat many moons ago and every time he'd eat lunch he'd quiz me on what states shared borders.  You know, like "what shares a border with Tennessee?" and I'd have to tell them all to him.  I got pretty good from all his quizzing.  Then after he learned countries, he always wanted to play the game "Guess what shares a border."  In the car, during meal time... any time, really.  So it would go something like this:  Miles would say, "I'm thinking of a country that shares a border with Turkey."  And then you have to guess it and take a turn.  Fun times, right?

And then he went to Kindergarten and I never saw him anymore.

BUT, school is out and I got my buddy back!!  He's already a million times happier not having to go to "boring Kinder" (that's what he calls it) for 7 hours and 15 minutes each day.  It's going to be a good summer-- I can feel it!

 Anyway, here's a little video from over a year ago, showcasing Miles' unbelievable geography skillz.  Basically, Miles is doing a part of the app where it gives you a country (one continent at a time), and you place it where it goes.  You have three strikes until you are out.  We sat down together with this app the other day and took turns doing each continent (no Antartica).  Miles placed every single country in every continent.  Me?  I was able to do North America, South America, maybe Australia/Oceania and I got three straight strikes in Africa.  So Miles is WAY smarter than me.  Anyway, check it out:

Smarty Pants from DAM FAM on Vimeo.

Talk

This is from way back in March.  But it was so cute and Miles is the best.  He wrote most of this talk-- some of the sentences are straight from his mouth and all the others are his responses to my questions to help him.

See for yourself:

Talk from DAM FAM on Vimeo.

Way to go, Miles.

One Way to Know

If I were to ever experience amnesia, and wake up forgetting where I live, here are a couple reminders that will definitely help me to know, that's right, I live in Houston.

One way to know you live in Houston: 

 when your 5 year old sets up his cars in "traffic."

And check out his bottom left box of this "Order of the Day" paper from school:

That's me and him on the way to school, driving in our car, with someone else's bumper right in front of us.  It's not me tailgating, it's just good 'ol Houston.  I'll have to ask him what all the other boxes are... this is kind of old and I can't remember all of them.  I think the first one is him brushing teeth, the second is definitely him hanging out with an alien, third one is him hugging my leg, fifth one is him on the computer at school-- wearing head phones, in case you were wondering, and the last one.... boy.... he got hit in the mouth and is bleeding and used brown body paint.

And that's me, in the front, all smiles as I risk my and Miles' life each day on Houston roads with the worst drivers I've ever shared the road with.  Cheers!

The Last of Hawaii

I'm super antsy to get this Hawaii stuff done and out of the way.  I've really been itching lately to jot down more everyday life things, like how Miles picks his nose incessantly, or things that made me laugh, or pictures from our phones.

Anyway.

Our last day in Hawaii we had to check out by 10am, but had a red eye flight.  We drove around the island and stopped off at waterfalls and went back to the volcano park since our pass was still good and we never made it everywhere we wanted to go. 

Dave, doing his best to look like a fanny packing tourist.

Thumbs up for flushable toilets.

Me, post NON flushable toilets.  Yum.

Waterfalls:

Back at the volcanoes park we made it down to the ocean:

Awesome lava arch.

Pretty amazing earth we've got here!

We made it home safe and sound to the Olympics and Miles watching as much hockey as possible.

It was the best time ever.