Adventures of the Week

It's 8:42 a.m., and I'm sitting in my garage (but not in my garage recliner because it's inconveniently wedged against Scotty's motorcycle, and moving it to a "sittable" location would require some effort on my part. Meanwhile, there is a perfectly good camp chair set up) watching my girls color on the sidewalk. Zoe is drawing a colorful heart, and Eva is drawing a pig. Daisy is sitting next to me trying to gain access to my phone.

As long as my girls stay busy, I have some time to catch up on what's been going on around here for the past week or so.

Last weekend we went camping. We've gone camping over Father's Day weekend for the past four years (1, 2, & 3). It gets a little easier every year as far as managing children. Last summer I bought a new tent, and it has been worth the investment. It's a pop-up tent, so we have it set up in five minutes, and it has lighting inside.

On Saturday morning, we got out early to hike to Donut Falls before the crowds. The canyon was crazy busy!

We had a really great time in the mountains, though. I came home feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world (that feeling went away quickly, but it was nice while it lasted).

What I woke up to

That's two and a half successful camping trips so far this summer with hopefully more to come (the "half" was in May when we camped in my in-laws' backyard).

This week we had another batch of baby birds hatch in one of our birdhouses. I think they might be sparrows, but I haven't seen the parents to confirm. They are much smaller and uglier than the starlings, if you can believe it!

We got our state-issued masks in the mail the other day. They are quite random - various shapes, sizes, and colors.

One looks like a jock strap.

Classy

You can't really tell from the photo, but the elastic is green. So I'm imagining it as some sort of school-colors athletic protector. Maybe from Kearns High.

My girls have their dance performances this week. 

Eva in "Cruella de Vil"

Dance classes have been outside on a tennis court since resuming in May. They are having two classes perform at a time on the tennis court with socially distant seating for the parents. The dancers have to have their temperature checked first, and the marley floor has been taped down to the court and is sanitized between dances. 

Strange times!

Fortunately, Zoe and Daisy's classes ended up scheduled back to back, so there's one less trip to the dance studio. They will be dancing tonight. Eva danced last night. The performances span three days. We lucked out and don't have anyone scheduled on Saturday. I'm happy about this as I'm very protective of my Saturdays. 

Earlier this week, my niece, who recently came home from working as a photographer at Disneyland, did a photo shoot of my girls in their dance costumes. It was a lot of fun...

...other than dealing with grumpy Eva who refused to wear shoes or get in any photos. 

Zoe, on the other hand, worked the camera and came up with all her own poses. She has always been the most photographed child. Every year I compile Chatbooks for my kids for Christmas, and Zoe's is always twice as thick as everyone else's. 

Zoe's dance is to "Walk the Dinosaur," so she wanted to have a dirty face like a cave woman. I had her take some photos with a clean face first, and then I let her put "dirt" on her face. I've never seen anything more perfectly "Zoe." 

A few years ago, when The Good Dinosaur came out, Scotty and I both concluded that Spot was Zoe. 

We basically paid to watch our child on the big screen (except that we got to see the movie for free, so never mind, but you know what I mean). 

In other Zoe-related news, Zoe had to have a small filling done this week. 

She really does take her poop everywhere. And it doesn't help that she calls it "my turd." 

"Mom, where's my turd?" "I can't forget my turd!"

And when she talks about her turd in public, people don't understand her because she can't pronounce her R's, so then, as people try to clarify what she is saying, I end up having to explain to them that she is talking about her turd. 

And like I told the pioneer, Zoe got the poop as a reward for participating in the school fundraiser. Imagine my surprise when I picked her up that day, and kids were pouring out of the school carrying plush turds. Not all the kids got poop emojis (most got silly faces), but the ones who did were sure excited about them!

Thus, the turd has gone everywhere with us ever since, and heaven help us when the turd gets misplaced because Zoe is inconsolable. 

Well, it seems it's time for me to return to responsible parenthood. Deep breaths.