Amber took about 30 seconds to warm up to Mel--that shows how great Mel is, because Amber usually takes much longer to feel comfortable around new people.
Rose's legs are almost the same length as Mel's! Mel may have a similar hair color to me, but she is a solid eight inches shorter.
It was a windy day, so we went out to test our kite.
After the kite was sufficiently flown (and after it escaped Jay's grasp and flew to the roof of the high school--I barely managed to grab the string in the nick of time), we got some Dairy Queen for the kids and some Garcia's for the grownups and ate in the WINDY Westside park.
It kept getting more and more windy!
Today Mel is already off on her next adventure--a BYU semester in Jerusalem. I have another sister who is at her mother-in-law's funeral today, and another sister who is birthing a baby today. Yet another sister went on a long distance bike ride today. When I look at my extended family, I am a little bit in awe of what everyone is doing. GIRL POWER! The boys are representing strong and proud too, but I don't know what exactly they are doing right now. Probably studying, since they're both still college-ing.
Today my contribution in a family full of strong women was mowing our lawn. BOOM. Take that, lawn! It was the first time I've mowed the entire front yard since we've lived here. Track season is eating up Jeff's Saturdays and he has not been around to mow, so I thought I'd tackle that project for him. Amber keeps upping the intensity of her exploration, and after she took out all of our DVDs and swam in them, rubbing the discs into the tile floor (adios to a movie collection curated over the past decade), I was feeling peeved and tired of everything that was happening inside the house this morning. It turns out mowing the lawn with a self-powered reel mower is:
- a good workout, and
- a great way to dispel peevishness.
In the five years we have inhabited our big white house, I have actually never mowed the lawn. I have pushed the reel mower once or twice, to see what it's like, but I have never actually mowed. Today I revved up the weed-eater and trimmed the border, then revved myself and hacked down the lush rain-fed grass. I'm not sure we've ever even had to mow this early--it has been an exceptionally wet spring. (not to mention the snowpacked winter!) My arms are limp and tired, but the lawn looks pretty good for my inexperienced efforts.
While I trimmed and mowed, Amber accumulated a hefty rap-sheet of mischief. Over the course of about 80 minutes, she:
- ran into the street 3 times
- climbed up onto the garage counter to access the forbidden toolbox
- threw 10-15 rocks across the driveway
- unplugged the weed-eater twice
- rubbed a stick of softened butter all over her mulchy dirty black hands like lotion
As the day progresses, I may uncover more mayhem of the Amber-variety that happened while my back was turned, but that list is enough to be getting on with for now. There's nothing like some good old-fashioned manual labor to lift the spirits. Even Amber with all her wily ways can't un-mow the lawn! Take THAT, toddler! Her revenge? Refusing to nap this afternoon. She stayed in her room for an entire 90 minutes and barely blinked. CHILD!
Jay documented my magnanimous mowing.
It really takes some muscle and speed to crank the blades, and I had to go over the entire lawn at least twice because when I hit bumps at mowing speed, the blade bounced over random tufts of grass. It really felt like glorified vacuuming. I even went back and forth on the stubborn patches.
Jay and Rose gave it a try.
After I was done mowing, Rose showed off her tree-climbing skills, and I took a bunch of pictures because her GRIN amidst those green leaves was perfection.
Pretty tree
Say "tree!"
She gets that expression straight from her father.
Our little tree-hugger.
Bare feet in the fresh mowed grass: my work here is done.
1 comment:
LOVE all the photos of Rose in the tree!
So much beauty!
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