Happenings in the Honeycutt home

Ooops. Another month went by. Seems to be happening a lot lately. We haven't been super busy tho. I'm looking forward to the cooler temperatures coming in the fall! Despite the heat we've been really trying to get out of the house at least once a day. Aly goes pretty crazy with me for 12 hours if we don't. Sometimes all we do is walk to the mailbox and back, but it gets the job done. She's getting so smart! She repeats all the words we say and can run, jump, dance, twirl, almost do a sommersault, shout, whisper, sing. She still uses a little bit of sign language, and any song with actions is a major hit. She recently inherited a play kitchen from a family in our ward that was giving it to DI, but stopped at our house first. She loves it! She brings me plates with tomatoes and fish on them all day. All the play food and she picks tomatoes and fish?? She also thinks "washing the dishes" in her sink is very fun. Next step, loading the dishwasher. She's grown out of most of her 18 month clothes and into her 2T clothes, except pants cuz she's so skinny! Probably cuz she only eats dinner, usually. Oh and lunch isn't too big of a fight somedays. It's just a small meal. She loves to dress herself, but it's usually a pair of pants, and a dress, and a shirt, and a coat, and a tutu....and why won't Mommy put on another dress?? She loves to color and drink from a straw. She is getting good at helping put on her seatbelt in the car. She is pretty good about getting anything I ask her to find, shoes, diapers, Mommy's cell phone...etc. But sometimes she gets distracted. Whenever we leave the house, she grabs everything in the living room she can possibly carry and tries to bring it with us. Hence our car is usually a mess. Also apparently we only do our hair right before we leave the house because as soon as I finish with her hair she runs to the door and grabs her shoes while yelling "bye bye!!" But she's very good at sitting still while I do her ponytails or play with the curling iron. Veggietales on Youtube helps too. She's getting pretty good at throwing a ball, but she's much better at fetching it. She gives everyone high fives/knuckles/elbows (in that order) everywhere we go. And yesterday at the grocery store everyone we passed got a "HI!!" "BYE!!" And of course yesterday much have been old person shopping day cuz they were all grandmas/grandpas and they all said it back. She also makes this really loud shrieking noise, just cuz it's fun, and all the other kids in the store think it's fun too. So all the while I'm pushing the cart, she's making this noise, other kids start making this noise, and all the other moms go "SHHH" and look at me like I'm the weird one. At least she's not crying!! :) All in all our days are pretty full of fun, and a few time-outs too.
New with me is my job! I will be teaching preschool at a daycare starting next Wednesday. I'm a little nervous about commanding all those 4 year olds attention, but I think I can handle it. I've found some great blogs that have tons of theme ideas with crafts and songs and all sorts of shenanigans. So I'll be teaching in the morning, then "baby-sitting" in the afternoon til their moms come. Aly gets to come with me, but she'll be in a different room. I think it will be good for her too. She'll be doing a mini pre-school and get more experience with kids her own age. And we're looking forward to potty-training starting in January!
Loren has been keeping busy with his two jobs and then any computer work on the side that comes his way. He works hard for our family, but we sure do miss him! Weekends are savored time.
Speaking of, last weekend we decided to be spontaneous and finally take that Yellowstone trip we'd been pushing back all summer. We loaded up Friday afternoon and went. It was raining so hard by the time we got to Island Park. We were hydro-planing and you couldn't see in front of the car. But I didn't think it was safe to pull over either, so we just kept going! Loren even recorded a final video of us, just in case. ;) By the time we reached our campsite in the middle of the park it had slowed to a trickle and within 10 minutes the rain had stopped. We got a little fire going, pitched the tent, ate some much NEEDED food, and went to bed. Alysha had a rough night as she had a cold. She coughed ALL NIGHT LONG. So Loren and I didn't get much sleep either. But we woke in the morning excited about what we could see that day. We headed first to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It was a great hike down to the lower falls. So pretty! But the hike back up was pretty awful. It was all steep switchbacks. One lady passed me and said to her husband, "Maybe we shouldn't keep going. Nobody going up looks very happy." By the time we got back up, Aly just stood there dazing in the middle of the trail. It was pretty hilarious. Loren had to walk back and pick her up and carry her the rest of the way to the car. Then we went to the Artist's Paintpots. I love all the bubbly mud. I think it's so cool! And it was so crazy on Saturday that we almost got splattered with it! Then we stopped a Beryl Spring for a few minutes and headed to Old Faithful. I must have forgotten how long it takes in between eruptions because I didn't think we had to wait very long. 1 1/2 hours later I was kinda perturbed, but it went off eventually and was pretty sweet :). Loren hadn't seen it before and Aly got a good nap in the stroller so it was good. We got ice cream and it was 4 in the afternoon and I was starting to feel the effects of (not really) sleeping on the ground all night. So decided we'd save the other 3 things we wanted to see until the next visit which will probably be in a couple weeks and we headed for home. Over all Aly was really good in the car for so long. And it was a great mini vacation for us! And much needed alone time with Loren/Daddy.