The Smith Family Adventures

Being the only girl in a house with five people was bound to catch up to me eventually. I have three little boys and I wouldn’t have it any different. Little boys love their mamas and they are just so much fun.

But….I am beginning to feel all the testosterone floating around in the air. All the stuff that annoyed me about my brothers is starting to crop up now that I have a five and three year old. Constant wrestling. Wanting to talk about bodily functions. Fascination with peeing outside. Or peeing in the same toilet at the same time. Not wanting to wear clothes. Making everything…I mean everything….a weapon. Constant noise. Constant movement.

The list goes on and on. Sometimes I love it. Sometimes I just wish I could have a nice quiet tea party with some dolls or stuffed animals. A nice quiet tea party without having to pretend any of the guests are “bad guys” or are eating each other’s babies. (Because that is what happens at tea parties at our house). Sometimes I just want nice imaginary tea and cookies thank you very much.

Exhibit A:

You may think this is the letter “Y.” But no. It is his bow. The arrows are imaginary. He cannot let it go even in sleep.

I find so much joy in my boys. I find joy in their play. Even in their fascination with peeing.

But man. I’m in desperate need of some girl time.

My mom gifted us a four game mini plan for the Hillsboro Hops last Christmas. We chose the “early plan” which had two games in June and a game on each of Nathan and my birthdays because Nathan’s family usually visits in August and we didn’t want it to conflict. Luck would have it that this year, they came to visit in June instead so it still conflicted, but it’s alright…it all worked out.

Anyway, tonight was one of the games on our mini plan, and with the boys having high fevers yesterday we were worried we might not be able to go. The fevers disappeared, though, and despite having somewhat sunken eyes and a bit of a cough, the boys really perked up in the late afternoon today. We decided to head to the hops game for as long as we could make it…one inning…four…seven…whatever we could get.

Tonight was Star Wars night with the Hops and the boys had a blast taking some pictures with some people they recognized. They’ve never watched the movies, but know many of the characters from books.

They boys had a blast and did not want to leave.

We forced them out of the ballpark, though, after 6 innings because it was already 9pm (2 hours past bedtime) and we want them to get some rest before hanging out with their cousins tomorrow!

The Hops games always provide a good family fun evening!

About a week ago Caleb and I both felt like we had colds. A few days later, Simon came down with a fever. Yesterday, Elias had a fever of 102.7 and Simon had a bad cough and almost completely lost his voice. What do you do when you have a bunch of sickies? Stay home and rest!

Unfortunately, we are missing fun family time with cousins, but the boys needed the rest. I couldn’t believe I got them both laying down at the same time for more than five minutes. I put a movie on so I could get them to sit still. Usually they move around a lot even while watching movies, but yesterday they must really have felt awful!

After lunch they perked up a bit, but with fevers, I still wanted them doing some quiet. I pulled something out of my closet I had been saving for just such a time. They were both very excited to be scientists. Geologists to be more specific!

At quiet time Elias said he wanted to lay down, which I don’t think has ever happened before. I came back to check on him after feeding Caleb and look what I found:

Then I went to check on the other boys:

This was the first time ever that all three boys had been asleep at the same time (during the day). I knew if I tried to sleep too I would jinx it so instead I just lay on the bed and rested and thought about how lucky I was. (Not that I want them to be sick….but it did have one positive side effect).

Today the boys were still sick so we had another rest day. Toward the end of the afternoon they really started acting more themselves so hopefully we’ll be back on track tomorrow for some fun with family!

Yesterday on the real Father’s Day we had another great time. We went to church and then came home for a very brief lunch, and headed out again.

We met my parents and my brother’s family at Horning’s Hidout. My grandpa took my brothers and me there when we were little, but I hadn’t been for at least 20 years. We were in for some good ol’ fashioned trout fishing.

When we arrived the boys saw Ama and Baba across a grassy field and immediately wanted to run over to them. Simon took a major spill and wiped out in front of some other people. He was fine, but one of the nice ladies gave him some sparklers to use for fun later for taking such a hard fall.

Trout fishing started out a bit slow, but we had some good family times anyway.

Eventually we got a bite on Simon’s pole. Once it was hooked he reeled it in. We talk about fishing a lot at family gatherings, and I had talked to the boys about what was going to happen, but I don’t think it really sunk in for Simon because he seemed pretty shocked when the flapping fish came out of the water. He gave it a disgusted look and said, “I don’t want that!”

Elias was a bit disappointed that he didn’t get to catch the first fish, but went on to catch three of his own.

In all we caught four rainbow trout and one golden trout. The boys agreed to show off some of their catch if they didn’t have to actually touch the fish.

Here are all the best dads and sons around!

After finishing up at the lake we went to my parents’ house to hang out and have dinner together. It was a very fun evening.

Tonight Nathan cooked up some of the trout for our dinner. I have to admit (for fish) it was pretty tasty. I was adamant that the boys eat some trout. Fishing is a sport, but I don’t want my boys to ever be wasteful about taking life from any of God’s creation. Fishing is fun, but if they catch it, they eat it!

Both boys eat pretty much zero meat normally and were not enthused that I was requiring them to eat some trout, but Elias ended up eating more bites than I required of him, and Simon ate a ton of the fish…perhaps even more than I did! Here they are giving a thumbs up after eating their catch: