Of baseball and hiking and book reviews

So we are done with Itty Bitty Baseball, hooray! The boys had fun and it was a good venture into playing with new kids and listening to a coach (or not) but it was a struggle too. They are a bit young yet, we'll try again later. The last day they had a bunch of games and then time to play with a parachute and meet Lenny the Lion (I have no clue who he's the mascot for?) How many 3 year olds can you trap in a parachute? And how long can you keep them there?
Davis high-fiving Lenny
Lenny with the kids
Bringing home the loot, balloons and "baseball" gum--their prize for finishing the class. Carter pulled the sucker off of his balloon and so when we opened the door it flew away. We sat and waved goodbye to the balloon "up up a sky". Then they started scheming. Carter said, "I know, we'll get a helicopter and fly up up up and get the 'alloon." Davis followed with, "or a space ship . . .or a rocket." They talked about it for hours. And here is Carter's official shot--sorry for the pic of a pic, lazy me didn't want to get the scanner out. I don't want to post the team pic (don't have permission from the other parents) but I can tell you that is hillarious. Watching them take it was funny enough, now I have physical evidence.
Davis (even though it says Carter-I wonder if they would replace it or if I should just keep it and laugh).

And here's some clips from one of their games. It's probably not as funny to any one else but I was laughing. My fav is when Davis runs off third base to field Carter's hit. Or them fighting over who gets to catch the ball. Anywho . . .

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We finally made the trip up the canyon and seriously I was in heaven. I just love the outdoors. The little nip in the air, the smell of pine and camp fires, the sound of rushing water, ahhh. I had wanted to hike around but the boys just wanted to throw rocks in the water, so that's what we did.

They love being outside as well, something about boys and hiking--dirt and bugs, hooray! They kept begging to go camping while we were out so we've got plans in the works. This weekend will just be too busy (Memorial Day) so we are going to get a little fire pit for the backyard and set the tent up out there too. Kind of a trial run. Then once school is out we'll go spend the night up the canyon (hopefully a few times). We live so close to such amazing beauty, might as well enjoy it!

So that was Friday. Saturday the boys and I had some fun playing at my parent's house. Pizza and chilling--good times.

Sunday we drove up to the trail for Stewart Falls. Turns out between Lowell and I we know 3 trails, Stewart Falls, Timpanogos, and the little trails near Tibble Fork. Any help/suggestions for other trails to explore would be appreciated!! We only went a little ways up the trail, kind of trial again. I think they can handle it but we'll need to start sooner and pack a snack and such.

Boys and the mountain.
Davis being "strong like the mountain". He was cracking me up the whole hike. We passed Lowell and he said, "Bye dad, see ya later, the monster's gonna getcha". Then Lowell tooted and he said, "Daddy, no poop in your pants, you poo poo in the potty!" They both loved climbing and again, I was in heaven!

In other news, I have been obsessing over the Lost finale. I sure enjoyed this whole season but it has left me with a lot to think about and a long time to do so. Ugh.

I finished reading Gone with the Wind and did enjoy it minus the ending. I know I am probably childish in enjoying a happy ending and there is some greater meaning to how it did end, like the South didn't recover from the war and ended up tired and bitter but after 1000 pages of heart break I was tired and bitter. I was really looking for the light at the end of the tunnel and was disappointed when I didn't find it. I needed 2 more chapters, Scarlett goes home to Tara and regroups, then Rhett returns and they reconcile and have a bunch of babies. The End. See, wouldn't that be better? I quite enjoyed the historical nature of the story and have a completely different view of the Civil War now (Dang Yankees, I HATE them!). I did love love Rhett until the end as well, his conversations with Scarlett were my favorite part of the book. But yes, there was just so so much sadness. And I liked and cared about the characters a great deal in the first half of the book, but by the end my feelings for them were waning. Everyone became so hardened and different from their beginnings--again I am sure this has a greater meaning as well but it just made me sad. I turned to some Ben and Jerry's and New Moon (granted not a great place to get cheered up with the Twilight series but that is where I am in my continual reading of them and it did work). I did enjoy reading a few famous lines in their full context though, like "You need to be kissed and by someone who knows how" and "God is my witness, I will never go hungry again". I watched half of the movie yesterday and have been enjoying that. I found it followed the book more closely than more modern movies do and was entertained by the grand drama that such a film was to make at that time (especially the fake soldiers by the train tracks when Melly is having the baby). Clark Gable is great as Rhett, my fav character for sure.

I am now reading Angels and Demons again to get ready for the movie. It has been a few years since I read it and I have been enjoying it. Lowell read it all last week and I have until Wednesday night to finish--that's when we have a sitter (thanks Hill!) to watch the kids while we go see the movie. Better get to it!