Mornings at the playground

Jacob and Ephraim just LOVE playing outside on ANY playground. Each morning when we take Samuel to school we get to play on the playground for a little while after all the big kids go to school. Jacob used to be SO afraid of going down slides, but this year he has become more fearless. Not only will he go down the slide by himself, he now likes to climb up them!

Ephraim on the other hand has NEVER been afraid of going down the slides. He thinks they are great fun. He also has no problem climbing up the play equipment... as high as it goes! One morning I was helping Jacob climb up a climbing wall to the slide and found Ephraim going down another slide all by himself!

I watched him carefully after that, and now he does pretty well by himself. Check out this sequence of photos that I took of Ephraim totally going down the slide all by himself.

First you climb up the stairs.

Then you have to sit down and back up.

Then you just let go!

Whee! That was so fun!

Let's go again!

At least Ephraim can't climb up the slides... yet!

I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of time outside this summer!
(photos taken May 6)

I Dig our Sandbox!

It was a busy weekend at the Devereaux household, as usual!

First thing in the morning Joe left to go on a long bike ride with his boss, Kevin. They went on a ride with the Bonneville Cycling Club that started near Springville. They rode around the Lakeshore area and went about 56 miles total. Joe said he had a great time going fast and doing a paceline with a bunch of cyclists. He also mentioned that he passed his Grandpa Sabey's place twice!

Next time I will have to see if we can find somebody to watch the kids so I can go too! The boys and I had a good time while daddy was gone. We went grocery shopping, and then Jacob got to hang out with his friend Will for a while. They had a great time in the sandbox, as you can see:

Jacob and will dug a big hole, and then Jacob sat in it. Will started to cover Jacob up and I didn't think Jacob would like being buried in the sand, but he thought it was hilarious. As a matter of fact, he asked will to do it again!

Let's dig another hole!

Ok! I'm ready! Bury me!

Then Will started driving Jacob's excavator around Jacob's head, which he thought was hilarious! I thought it made for a fun photo!

Later that day we went shopping and worked on getting a bunch of stuff done around the house. Sometimes I think we could use two Saturdays just to get all the stuff done that we want to!

Ghost Town Riders Century

This bike ride was held May 2nd, so I am a bit slow posting about it!

"Ghost Town Riders haul _ _ _!"

Joe and I signed up to do the Ghost Town Rider's Century out near Tooele, and we were excited for our first tour of the year. (Nice slogan, huh?) We planned to go either the 50 or 65 mile distance. My Dad signed up to do the ride with us and my Mom came and to watch the boys. Unfortunately the closer we got to the date, the more the weather looked like it was going to be yucky.

My parents drove down Friday evening... in the rain. The weather wasn't feeling very cooperative the next morning either. It was pouring buckets outside and it was very windy. But we got up early and headed to the starting point. I wasn't really sure if we would finish our ride or not. But we got our gear ready and went and signed in.


Actually, many cyclists who signed up for the ride simply showed up to pick up their bag of goodies and commemorative T-shirt and then they left.

That's not how we roll at the Devereaux House! We signed up, so we were going to ride, by golly! (Come hell or high water... or headwinds and huge puddles as the case may be). Here we are just before we left on beginning of our ride.


Are we having fun yet?! Dad decided to give it a try too, so we all took off in the rain. Thank heavens we had our fenders, or else our rear ends would have been pretty wet!

As we set off it was raining, and my feet were soaked within a few miles. My cycling tights were awesome though, and my legs didn't really get wet. Too bad I can't say the same for my hands, feet, face, etc. It was cold and wet and miserable. Joe and I couldn't go nearly as fast as we usually do because the headwind was so bad. My least favorite part was when semi trucks would pass by and the wind blew their spray directly at us. Sometimes the wind was so strong I was afraid it would tip me over.

I was so proud of my Dad. He cycled about 18 miles, even though he was fighting a cold and the yucky weather. I am sure that on our next ride we will all have more fun and do a bit better!

Joe and I made it to the first rest stop and decided to keep going. Eventually the rain stopped, although the wind never did. Somehow every time we turned another direction, the wind shifted. I know I sound like one of those "uphill both ways" stories, but I swear we had a headwind our entire ride!

Here is what the weather looked like just before we made it to the second rest stop for lunch.

By this point we had given up on going 65 miles, but we were halfway done with the 50 mile ride. As we ate lunch the winds shifted from the south/southwest to north/northwest. Yippee! A headwind the rest of the way.

Did I mention that at the second rest stop they had a fire? Yep. It was that cold.

At this point quite a few cyclists gave up and had the support crew take them back to the start. Joe and I decided that we were halfway there and we could finish this ride. So we left after lunch, facing a headwind and going uphill. By the time we got to the last rest stop I was almost ready to quit. I wasn't having any fun... but I decided that I could do it and I kept on. I am glad I did because if I gave up I would have missed the best part of the ride.

The sun came out, the winds died down a little, and we got to go downhill fast! We made it to the end, when most people just gave up and went home.

Joe and I joked that this bike tour will make our next one seem much more enjoyable and easy by comparison. I am proud that we managed to finish even in a deluge. It proves to me that even when things get difficult, I can do it!

Jacob pedals his bicycle

Jacob is getting pretty good at pedaling his bicycle. Last year he mostly scooted around. This year he's got it figured out.



Joe took this movie Tues., Apr. 21st while I was at work. I don't know if you can tell, but at the end Jacob tells Daddy to look at Ephraim because our little daredevil man had started to wander off into the street and Daddy had to go get him!

At Schoolo they have Coolo Toolos

I have been meaning to post this since the end of March, but never got it typed up... so here it is!

Jacob is such a character!

He talks exceptionally well for a two year old (almost three!), and he has for quite some time. I have been amazed at all the words that he picks up on and uses. You definitely have to watch what you say around him unless you want it repeated back to you!

So apparently Jacob has become a bit bored with speaking plain English. To be silly he has started to put an extra "oh" on any world that end in -ool. So instead of cool, he says coolo (pronounced cool-oh). Instead of tools, he says tool0s. Funny, huh?

No matter what word I give him that ends in -ool, he will change the ending to his liking. So one day I was trying to see just how good he is at this game. So I asked him to say "At school they have cool tools". Without batting an eye he says "At schoolo they have coolo toolos". What a smarty pants!

I even tried to mix him up by doing "at school by the pool they have cool tools", but he got that one right too!

Trouble is His First, Middle, and Last Name

Have you ever had one of those evenings where is seems like your child is determined to run amok no matter how hard you try to keep him out of trouble? Tonight was one of those nights... and it was my first Thursday evening at home, since I don't work at UVU anymore.

This afternoon Ephraim woke up from his nap just as I was getting dinner ready. Jacob was outside helping Joe paint our sun-faded wooden playhouse, so I figured that I could easily finish getting dinner ready while Ephraim played inside the house. I would only have my little one-year-old boy to watch, which shouldn't be too hard, right?

Think again!!

I was in the kitchen cooking hamburger, when Ephraim walked in carrying the plastic bag that the diapers come in... but it was empty. I took the bag away from him and then went to his room to see what happened to the diapers. When I got to Ephraim's room I found the missing diapers scattered all over the place. It was like a bomb had gone off in there...Oh what fun!

So I got the diapers all cleaned up quickly and headed back to the kitchen. There I found Ephraim holding the water bottle that Joe had set down after riding his bicycle home from work. Of course he was holding the water bottle upside down, with the spout open, laughing as the water splashed on the floor! He thought it was great fun to stomp his little feet in the water that was now all over my kitchen floor.

So I took the water bottle away from him, and got a towel to clean up. I checked on dinner and then Jacob came inside. Of course Jacob had paint all over his work clothes, his hands and face from helping daddy paint. So I immediately went to strip him down so he wouldn't get paint anywhere else.

As I was cleaning the paint off Jacob in the kitchen sink, I realized the I didn't know where Ephraim had gone. I went down the hall and found him in the bathroom. Apparently he figured out how to lift up the lid on the toilet and was plunging bath toys in and out of the toilet water, having a great time.

At this point I didn't know whether to laugh hysterically or have a good cry. I couldn't believe that Ephraim had done all of these things within a half hour! I quickly got him away from the toilet and started cleaning up Ephraim and the water he had splashed all over the bathroom. I got everything cleaned up and then had to divert Ephraim from playing with the full-length mirror in my bedroom on his way out.

I am amazed that I managed to get dinner ready without burning anything, and with both children still intact. We all survived the rest of the evening too, which is somewhat amazing considering the fact that Ephraim figured out that he could climb up the ladder and get onto Jacob's bed. I found him up there later that evening, running back and forth across the bed, laughing as he flopped down on the pillows. I swear that kid has absolutely no fear (or sense of self-preservation!).

Forget the terrible twos. We haven't had any problems with that at our house. If anything we are suffering from the overly-adventurous ones!

He'll grow out of it.... right?

p.s. We have since taken the ladder off Jacob's bed so Ephraim can't get up there any more!

Day in the Park

Today was a gorgeous day! So the boys and I decided to head to the Lindon Park for a little while. I decided to take my camera and practice on the boys. I have to say they move awfully fast!

But they sure are cute!

Ephraim is absolutely fearless! He LOVES to climb up the play structures, and isn't afraid of going down the slide at all! As a matter of fact, he will back up so that he can go down the slide backwards on his tummy!

What a fearless little guy! Jacob used to be afraid of going down the slide, but now he is loving it too! We are going to have tons of fun at the park this year!

Tiptoe through the Tulips

Our yard is abloom with glorious color and it makes me SO happy!

I just love tulips! They have to be the perfect flower. You plant the bulbs once, and then they come up every year. Now that is my kind of yard work!

Tripod Tub Time

Over the weekend we bought a new tripod, courtesy of Grandpa Devereaux (Thanks!!). Joe and I were both excited to get one so that we will be able to take our own family photos if we need to, and I will be able to do a better job of taking photos for others.

This morning the boys were being so cute in the tub, and I was trying to take some photos. Joe got out the tripod and set it up in the bathroom at the boys level. Here are some of the fun photos that we got this morning.

Jacob was being so cute and cooperative! Hopefully it goes this well at our next family photo session!
Trying to get both of the boys looking nice is still going to be a challenge though!

For some reason Ephraim got upset, but I thought the pictures of him being sad were actually darn cute.

Besides, he wasn't sad for very long!

What a cute pair of boys we have, don't you think!

Spaghetti Head

Thursday before work I made spaghetti for dinner. I ended up eating with just Joe before I left, so he fed the boys while I was at work.

Apparently Jacob was really into the spaghetti that evening. Check out this messy face!

Yummy!

He may be messy, but at least he was enjoying his food!