Our New Hobby

So, our family decided to take up a new hobby with it getting close to summer. We wanted it to be something outdoors. In one of my parenting books I came across a blurb about "Letterboxing." There was a website link in the book to check out. It sounded so fun that I thought my family just HAD to try it.
Letterboxing 101- It's kind of like treasure hunting. You are following directions (you get them from the website) to find a Letterbox. A letterbox is a small container (like a rubbermaid food container) that has been hidden somewhere like a park, historical place, or occasionally a building. You follow the directions to locate the box. When you find the box you open in up and will find a log book and a rubber stamp inside it. You take your own stamp (that you bring with you along with your own log book, stamp pad, pen, and maybe a small momento to leave for the next quester) and stamp it in the logbook of the box. Then you sign in with your Trail Name (Our name is The Goober Dudes....don't ask..lol). You take the stamp in the box and stamp your own log book and record any info you want to about your quest for the letterbox, etc.
Anyway, our family did this for the first time this last Saturday and we're hooked! We met up with our friends at a park where there were two letterboxes hidden. We chose the PERFECT first letterboxes. The directions were so easy that the kids were excited about finding the letterboxes for their first times. When we found the first one, Audrey and her friend Jacob were so excited that they rolled the rock hiding the box down the hill and Jacob's dad Aaron had to chase it down. Pretty funny. After replacing the box we hunted for the second one. Again the kids were excited because the directions were very easy and very short. They had a ton of fun. I can't wait to try more letterboxes!!! After locating the letterboxes we let the kids play at the park and had a picnic before heading home for naps. Letterboxes are hidden EVERYWHERE. In almost all the states, in foreign countries, in fact I think I counted 30 letterboxes hidden in JUST Weber and Davis counties here in Utah. So Fun!!!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Audrey, Marissa and the neighbor girl Rosa were all outside playing "Ring Around the Rosie" this afternoon. However, this is what their version sounded like:
Ring Around the Rosie
Hacking up the Posies
Ashes, Ashes, We all fall down.

I just laughed myself silly at it all. My first impression was of someone spitting out rose petals.

What Would YOU Do?

Have you ever read the children's story "Fanny's Dream"? If you haven't, let me summarize. Fanny is a young woman in Wyoming who decides that the story of Cinderella is true. She decides that she wants to go to the ball at the mayor's house and marry someone important. She prepares herself then goes out to wait for her fairy godmother. Needless to say her fairy godmother doesn't show up that night, but her admirerer, Heber Jensen, does. He asks her to marry him and help complete HIS dreams. After an hour of deliberating, she shakes Heber awake and says "yes." So Fanny marries Heber and starts her life with him. Years later Fanny goes out into the garden to get a watermelon, and who should appear but her fairy godmother! The fairy godmother tells her there is still time to make her dreams come true and that she'll fix everything. Fanny, however has realized that the life she HAS is the life she wants and tells the fairy godmother she'd rather not go to the ball. So, my question to you is this: If you had the chance to redo it all, would you? I ask you, as the fairy godmother asked Fanny: "Do you want to go to the ball, or not?"

Little Miss Riss

Marissa is going to be 3 this month. I can't believe it! She has grown up so fast and has especially matured in the last couple months. She is evolving from a toddler into a preschooler. Marissa is....well Marissa. She can drive me crazy and to the point of frustration and tears, then melt my heart with a snuggle and a kiss. Marissa loves to play with baby dolls. She takes very good care of them, and I often hear her repeating things I've said to her to them. Marissa is very stubborn and strong willed. I suppose I'll be grateful of that trait as she gets older, but right now it drives me batty. Marissa is an AWFUL sleeper, well ok, I need to preface that statement. She has never been a GREAT sleeper, but she used to sleep most of the night and then go back to sleep in her own bed without a fuss, that is until last summer. Last summer Marissa broke her arm. Two weeks after getting her cast off she fell down the stairs and had to get stiches in her forehead. A couple months after getting the stiches out she got an awful respiratory virus that had us giving her breathing treatments with a nebulizer every 4 hours. I guess I can't blame her for being a bad sleeper now, after all that. She IS getting better. I pray for the day that her sleeping through the night is the norm and not the exception. Marissa is a quirky little girl. I love her a ton. She has taught me so much about being a mother especially about patience, perseverance, and unconditional love. One day, I'm sure I'll look back on her toddlerhood and smile. I might even MISS those days. I love my Little Miss Riss!!