Hiking Bell Canyon

Last weekend we went on our first hike of the season. I know, I know - slackers!! All of a sudden I realized that summer was almost over and felt really guilty for not enjoying the beautiful mountains in our backyard a little more. At first I was a little worried about how Lucas would do but as soon as we hit the trail head he was off and running. Luckily I insisted he wear pants and luckily he insisted upon wearing his Spider Man gloves. The hike was pretty steep which required Lucas to get on all fours going up and scooting along on his bum on the way down. He did such a great job on his own and allowed me to help him when truly necessary.
Landon kept pretty quiet while riding on Steve's back and made sure we did not forget about him when we stopped for water breaks using the camel pack. We had to pry the water tube from his mouth each time or he would have kept on sucking until the bladder went dry. About half way into the hike Steve said he felt a little thud on his shoulder and craned his neck around to see that Landon had zonked out. We hope to go hiking again this weekend - time permitting but will for sure do it again before the season ends.

Goofin' Around

It seems like as soon as I have the breakfast mess cleaned up Lucas is asking for a snack. I am not sure if it is just a stage that he is going through or what but I feel like this kid eats all day long!! I try to stick to three regular meals with a morning and afternoon snack but sometimes feel guilty when I tell Lucas that he does not need anything to eat when it is not meal or snack time. We generally keep pretty busy around the McCormack house so I don't think he is eating out of boredom. Is he really that hungry? Of course every time he eats something Landon is right there by his side saying "share...share...pweese" and that is definitely impossible to say no to....even for Lucas.

Monkey See........Monkey Do

Last week we helped our precious Gracie Girl celebrate her 5th Birthday. That seems so old once you see it written down - I think because I equate that age with kindergarten and no longer being a preschooler. She had a party at Cookie Cutters where the girls got up-do's, manicures and dressed like princesses and the boys got tattoos, dyed their hair and dressed like rock stars. Lucas loved his red feux-hawk so much that he skipped bath time for 2 days. I know - yuck. When it came time for Landon to dye his hair I had to draw the line somewhere. He had fun anyway. :)

Summertime Swimming

The past couple of weeks we have kept very busy with our everyday activities plus swimming lessons for Lucas. I couldn't decide whether to put him in classes at a local pool near our house or private lessons. Even though he did not receive constant 1 on 1 with the teacher I was so pleased with our decision to keep doing group lessons at Alta Canyon Rec Center. By the second day of lessons he was putting his face in the water and actually swimming!! I was so thrilled especially since before the lessons he did not like any part of his head to get wet (which is sort of difficult while swimming).

The last day of his swimming lessons the kids had the choice of jumping off the diving boards and Lucas was right on board. He walked out to the end of the board by himself and jumped to his teacher who was waiting in the the water below. Unfortunately the shot above was the last picture I got before the battery in my camera died. What a bummer - but I will never forget how brave he was.

Many of the days after Lucas was done with his lessons we ended up just sticking around and hanging out at the pool for a couple of hours. Two of those days we were joined by our Gracie girl and her older brother Colton. Lucas and Gracie loved playing with Colton at the pool and he was so cute with them as well as with Landon.

The hardest part of swimming lessons was keeping Landon out of the pool for those 45 minutes. At least next year this will not be a problem because he too will be taking lessons. :)

Windy Wyoming

Two weeks ago we made our second trip of the year to Wyoming. The first three days we spent in Cheyenne visiting with Aunt Tonia, Uncle Kent, Shaunelle and her new little baby AJ, cousin Kathy and cousin Destin. We arrived just in time to attend the Cheyenne Frontier Days Parade and Carnival. Lucas loved taking pictures with my camera at the parade and captured most of the floats and trucks that went by and Landon enjoyed polishing off the candy as soon as it was handed to him. He also got to see his first clown and received a token for being such a good sport. Even though the weather was rather blah we still went to the carnival where Lucas rode most of the kiddie rides and even dared to ride the Scrambler with cousin Kathy. While they were on the ride he told her he hoped he didn't fall asleep or throw up. :) Poor Landon was too little to ride anything so I persuaded one of the carney guys to let me go with him and promised to hold on to him. Then it was me who was hoping not to throw up. :)

The next three days we spent with Grandma Janice in Laramie where we also got to spend time with Aunt Terri, Aunt Tina and lots of other extended family members. We always go shopping in historic downtown Laramie and catch up on watching movies while staying at grandmas. The boys took their bikes on vacation with us so they spent a lot of time outside and at the park playing and riding bikes. They also love playing with the dogs in the family. Grandma said her dog Taby goes from room to room whining and looking for the boys when we leave. Very cute but kinda sad.

Steve got into town on Thursday and as always the boys were ecstatic to see daddy - and so was I. We spent the last three nights of vacation at Uncle Roberts. We went swimming Friday and then on Saturday we had a picnic and went hiking in Vedeuwoo which is just outside of Laramie and a couple of miles away from where Steve was finishing up his bike race. Lucas loved climbing & crawling up the rocks, scooting down the rocks on his bum and squeezing through the crevices. The cool thing is I grew up climbing the exact same rocks and they look pretty much the same (except they seemed even bigger when I was younger.) Lucas says every time we go to Wyoming he wants to go back to Heevawho (how he says Vedeuwoo - really pronounced Veedavoo). After hiking we drove the short distance to Happy Jack where Steve was to be finishing his 70 mile bike race - The Laramie Enduro. Sometimes it is hard to tell which rider is Steve and so the number of pictures each year are few and far between - plus he usually flies by us. :) He had a great race and said he felt really good the whole time (8 + hours) but his bike gave him trouble and that slowed him down a bit. I am still just amazed he can sit on a bike for that long and can't wait to do it again next year.

Saturday after the bike race we had to hurry back to town to get showered and ready to head to Grandma Janice's for a birthday barbecue extravaganza. We had a wonderful visit with family but come Sunday we were all ready to head for home. I was surprised when Uncle Robert's downstairs neighbors were not helping us load up the truck come Sunday morning. It is hard to teach two little wild and rambunctious boys not to run and jump around in such a short period of time.