It was an early week....

This past week Travis participated in a baseball camp held out our local high school.  He had so much fun!  I think part of the reason he had so much fun was because two of his friends from his baseball team were also there.  The only part we didn't like was that it started at 7 am.  That's right, STARTED at 7. School doesn't even start that early!  That meant we all had to be awake and moving by 6:30 and out the door by 6:45. Do you know how hard it is to wake up somebody out of a nice deep sleep?  We even set his alarm for 6 but he was like a zombie. He went right back to sleep.  I had to say, "I am getting in the shower, you need to get up when I get out." Which turned into, "Ok, I am out now.  You need to get up."  Good thing for him he can roll out of bed, get dressed and be out the door fairly quickly once his little eyes to open up!  Once we got out there the weather was nice and cool. However, by the time it came to get him around 10 it was already warming up quite a bit.  They went through a LOT of water.  

 Yesterday we got there a little early to pick him up. Connor and I hung out in the dugout. Thank goodness for technology.  There was nothing for him to do out there, except climb a dirt mountain (which he did the day before...and he came home a giant dirtball!) and just be hot. hot. hot. 

 Here is the crew. It is nice to see them all becoming such good friends.  They are all great kids too!

 Goofy pose....

Travis wanted to do the camp another week because his friends are doing it again.  I said, let's take a break.  We have a lot going on this week and I already rearranged things from this past week so that he could do the camp. When I reminded him that he could sleep in instead he didn't argue with me!  I think we will do another baseball camp the week following next, at least that one is indoors.  It starts at 8. Sounds like a plan to me!

What?!

I love digital cameras. I don't mind letting the kids take a picture here and there, if they turn out bad you can just press the delete button. I usually just leave the camera on the counter so I can grab it quickly for those Kodak moments. Sometimes I find that my camera has been high-jacked by a certain 9 year old in the family. Here is what I found today.

 Petey with his new dino toys.

 Travis' attempts at getting a self portrait.

 Why is he taking a picture of what is under his bed? I have been looking and looking to see if there might be something that should not be there!  Suit case, sleeping bag, remote control toy, Raiders bag... looks ok to me.

Am I the only one with this issue, do all kids take the camera and take random pictures?? Surely I am not alone!

Conversation

Wow.  Some days I wish Connor had a volume control button on his voice.  I never had these "embarrassing" moments with Travis, I think it was due to his language delay. Connor has no such problem. I would always read and hear about kids saying comments at the wrong times and in the wrong places. I always laughed but I never really understood being in those shoes. Until now.  Here is what happened this morning.  After dropping Travis off at baseball camp I decided to get a coffee from Dunkin Donuts.  Connor wanted to go inside and then sit outside to enjoy his donut.  After settling in to our tall chairs at a tall table here is what transpired.

C: Mom, are donuts healthy for you?
M: Well, not really but as long as they are a once-in-awhile treat they are ok. You don't want to eat one every day, or a whole bunch at once, that would not be healthy.  You don't eat them very often so this is ok.
C: Right mom, I don't want to get diarrhea.  If you eat one donut, then you poop it out, then you can have another donut because the other one is gone, right?
(Me, giggling, trying not to fall out of my chair with laughter!)
M: Yes, I guess so,
Then, out walks a mom with two kids. The little boy is carrying a box with probably a dozen donuts in it.  At first Connor starts to say he wants a big box of donuts like that. Then.....
C: Mom look at all of their donuts!! They are going to have A LOT OF DIARRHEA!!

Aye...

So there you have it. I now am one of "those" moms who now has "those" types of stories!  Gotta love it!!  What else can you do??!!

PS- We then had a conversation about using quiet voices and not talking about these things in public because it can hurt people's feelings.  He sure keeps me on my toes, that's for sure.  I can only imagine our future conversations... lol

Sleepover

Last night Daryle and Travis got to something pretty cool. Season Ticket holders got a chance to have a sleepover at Chase Field!  Now before you think "Why didn't Lisa and Connor go?" I will tell you why.  First of all I think Connor is too young to stay up until 1 am. He is no fun when he is over-tired. Can you say, "Meltdown??"  Secondly, sleeping on the field with 400 of my nearest and dearest didn't really sound like "fun" to me.  Right now the two boys are sleeping away. It is 11 am.  I will let them sleep one more hour before I start waking them up.  I have been nosing around at the pictures Daryle took and they sure had a wonderful time!

Here was Travis. He packed his own bags. He did a good job. Too bad his dad didn't do as good.... Daryle forgot his pillow!

Playing catch right on the field where the pros usually are.

Looks like somebody got pretty comfy.

Ok, ok. So this part would have been totally worth it... .swimming in the pool out by the bleachers!  The schedule said they would take 35 people at a time for 20 min at a time. I guess Travis and his friend waited until after 10 to swim so there was nobody waiting in line to swim.  They got to swim for longer than 20 minutes. Good for them!

After swim time was snack time. Cold Stone Creamery, my favorite!

This was the morning wake up call. At 6 am  they started opening up the roof.  We have seen this many times before. But laying on the field, looking up and being awakened by this must have been pretty awesome!

Travis got in a morning run around the bases.

 Checking out the dugout. He looks pretty at home there!

I did get a little bit of information out of them before they passed out cold!  They had a really great time.  I think in a few years Daryle can take both boys. It's kind of like camping.  We don't camp so this is as close as it's going to get .... for now anyway!

Has It Really Been 3 years??

On Sunday we marked our 3 year anniversary of going to court to adopt Connor. We also refer to it as Gotcha Day.  I kind of have a hard time celebrating on May 27 because we had to return back to the USA after court and wait out our "10 days" (reality... 10 actual days plus a few...) until we had him in our possession.  The thing that complicates it is that we were lucky enough to pick up Connor on his actual birthday. Since Travis had a clear cut birthday and Gotcha Day (plus with Travis we actually got him on the same day after we had court) we felt bad having Connor's birthday and Gotcha Day being the same day. So, we try to celebrate our court day as Gotcha Day since that is the day the judge granted our permission to adopt him. I don't know why, but we felt that Connor might feel "jipped" out of an extra celebration day at some point. Geesh, the things we worry about!  Anyway, this year we had a good time just having some family time together.  We went to a place called Amazing Jake's.  It was a lot of fun.  They have food, arcade games, mini golf, bowling, laser tag, go carts, bumper cars, etc. You name it, it is probably there!  Even though it was all on a small scale, it was perfect for our boys. Connor got his first chance to do miniature golf... he loved it. I see us playing more in the future! Having him be just about 4 has opened many doors for us to do family things since he is old enough to do so much more. Plus he has the patience to wait in lines. And he doesn't run away from us anymore!

He even had pretty good form.  Connor and I were the only ones to get a hole in one too.  You can say we bonded over that!

Even though we had to wait in line for about 30 minutes to ride the go carts  the boys didn't mind. Since neither one of them are big enough to drive they had to be the passengers. Daryle and I got to be the drivers. Daryle and Travis scoped out the cars while we waited in line. They decided the yellow car was much faster than the others.  And it was. They passed us several times!  Connor and I didn't mind one bit.  We still went fast enough for our hair to blow in the wind, so all was good!

Travis and Daryle are so happy they got the yellow car!

Connor and I got the pretty blue car. We were just happy to be racing around!

Wow, I am not sure about the lighting here... but Daryle sure looks gray...!  It's ok, this is still a great picture of my boys!

Believe it or not, but it is hard to get both kids to look at the camera and smile at the same time, all the while trying to keep them from making bunny ears or throwing up some type of  hand signal of some sort.  Daryle was lucky, he got this one on one shot!

Connor LOVES his ice cream. Here he is showing it off.

Connor is such a sweet boy. He has his rambunctious moments, but don't most boys?? The other 95% of the time he is pure angel. He is curious, articulate, imaginative, funny, caring, insightful, and in general he is a lot of fun to be around.  I remember thinking we turned a corner when Travis turned 4. I can already see those positive changes happening in Connor.  I am so very glad we listened to the angels when they told us there was another child out there for our family.  He was indeed intended to be in our family all along. We can't imagine our lives without him, that's for sure!

Happy Gotcha Day Connor!  We love you so very, very much!

Introducing Petey

Well, it is official.  We now have another member of the family. Petey Hawes has joined the family!

 It's kind of funny how these things happen. Just like with my boys, this adoption of Petey was also meant to be.  Originally Daryle and I said we would not get another dog until July, after we returned from our vacation to California.  We didn't want to have a new dog and then ask somebody to watch the dog while we were gone.  Well, that all changed last Saturday. Daryle was on duty out at the little league game.  He was talking to one of our friends when a friend of that lady came over and started talking about a rescue dog she had been fostering that was ready to join a family.  She was really trying to get her friend to take the dog, but she said she already had two dogs and didn't really want another one.  Daryle's ears perked up a bit. He explained to the lady that we wanted to wait until we got back from our trip.  Her response was, "That is fine, I can watch him for you when you go on your trip! No problem!!"  Daryle came home and told me about him and what she said about watching him.  It turns out she lives quite close to us, walking distance in fact.  She brought him over on Sunday so we could check him out in our surroundings and see how it went. Well, I knew from the moment he set foot in our house that he was meant to be in our family!

 Immediately he felt right at home too. He is a 5 month old American Bulldog.  He is so calm, sweet and gentle.  He is great with the boys. The boys are great with him.  After his Sunday visit we told her YES we love him. Can we get him on Thursday? I knew that was the last day of school so then after that we would be home with him.  He is working on being house broken. Hopefully by the end of our summer break he will be.  For a puppy he is amazingly calm. He has his "busy" times of the day but so far my boys have been right there to help entertain him. 

 Here is Petey giving Connor some puppy love.

 I thought this was funny. Daryle was trying to get a picture of Petey on his phone. Connor wanted to lay by him and of course Travis had to be in the middle of it all!

 Now, it is like Petey has always been here with us.  Travis has somebody else to "boss" around. I think it is giving Connor a break!  haha  In the past, we never, ever let Rock get on the furniture. Well, Petey has his own agenda I guess.  Here he is with Travis, just hanging out on the couch.

I guess it's ok. The couch is old.  I draw the line on any other furniture though.  Who can say no to a boy and his dog???  Just look at the love!

Funny Connor comments:

Connor: Dad, Petey has to stay inside so he doesn't get dirty. He can't get any more brown spots.

(I guess he thinks the brown spots are dirt!!!)

Connor: Dad!  Petey pooped in our backyard!

Dad: Well then, go clean up the poop.

Connor: I can't dad. I am not an adult.

(hahahaha!!!)

This is going to be a great summer!

Bye-Bye Baseball, Hello Swimming Season!

On Saturday we had our end-of-the-season little league party with the team.  It always seems like the season comes and goes so quickly. It is so fun to watch how the boys improve in such a short amount of time.  We had an awesome team this year. Lots of parental support, no "crazy" people (well, if you don't count us, haha!), and the boys all WANTED to be there. Nobody was forced to play ball. The season was so much fun.  We had the team party at the clubhouse where one of our teammates lives.  It was a great set up.  Of course my boys ran straight for the pool the minute we got there!

 Finally I got Connor to sit down and eat. Of course he chose the cupcake! He has such a sweet tooth, it is crazy.  He didn't want a hot dog or a hamburger, he wasn't hungry for that.  Oh, but offer him a cupcake and he is good to go!

 After that he inhaled about half of a watermelon. Seriously.  He kept eating and eating. I had to cut.him.off!

 Here is Coach Daryle aka Dad giving Travis his trophy. He made the comment about him being like a pig pen out there. No matter what Travis believes he MUST come home with a filthy uniform.  Playing catcher helped him out with this. He no longer needs to slide into home on a walk just to get dirty!

 Proud Coach!

Only a few days left of school.  I can't wait!  Next week we can just sit back and relax.  I am looking forward to a break around here.  A break and unstructured time is just what the doctor ordered. 

If you know me on Facebook then you know our other "news".  Be on the lookout for some excitement in the Hawes household next week!  (hint: woof, woof!)