Prelude to a Post

The Great Weekend Adventure

Warning: Contains Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease, High Fevers, and Sore Throats. Read at your own risk! We were going to start our weekend out by going camping with some people from the ward but Brig got sick and so we ended up not being able to go. Grant was crushed! He had been looking forward to going so much. So we decided to set up our 12' by 10' six man tent in our living room and "camp". We could barely move from the dining room to the living room but we got the tent up. We cooked hot dogs on the stove and had indoor S'mores. The kids watched a movie in the tent and fell asleep during it. Cam and Grant slept in the tent and Audrey and Claire slept in the kids room. Little sleep was had and 6:30 a.m. came early. We had promised Grant we would take him fishing so we loaded up and headed off to Punderson State Park for a day at the beach and fishing. Brig was immediately magnetized to the water and never left it except for an occasional sandy cracker snack attack. We caught an enormous "panfish" that measured about 4 inches--fought like the devil. We watched a Division of Wildlife Officer ticket a Canadian guy who wouldn't stay within the buoys to swim. Among other things we had some annoying kids whose dad was out kayaking on the lake take our shovels and sand toys to play with. He would get mad when Brig went to play with the stuff! Audrey basically ended up babysitting 5 or 6 kids it seemed. Brig and Claire had a ball and got sand everywhere you could imagine. Grant enjoyed fishing and we tried to have patience as we untangled line caught in the weeds from stray casts. We got home and decided since we hadn't done enough already we'd go shopping to get Cam some new church clothes. We stopped at probably 6 different stores and the volume level increased with each stop. Claire was true to form in Bath and Body Works and screamed the whole time for dad. Had it not been for the loud music in the store it would have been quite a scene. We then got home scolded them soundly and put them to bed--Not before Grant had a sore throat and Claire felt like she was going to throw up! Grant and Claire ended up with blazing fevers and Tyrannasaurus sized tonsils. Audrey slept with Claire in her bed and discovered a new definition of bunk-bed back. We ended our weekend taking the kids on a walk to get the sickies out of the house. As we left the house, ominous black clouds were gathering fast. It didn't take long and we were in a deluge of Ohio rain, running with Claire in the double stroller Grant riding his bike and Audrey carrying the trike. Ahh, memories. We had dinner, popped popcorn and watched part of good ol' Swiss Family Robinson. Motrin is going down like water around here...each of our kids has their dispenser cup of it. Good Night Nurse! The Beck Family

Saturday in a Nutshell

Saturdays are always a mixed day of fun, tears, dirt, sticky faces, driving and a myriad of other things. Today was just one of those Saturdays again. Cam went to help a family move in the ward and then we planned to head to the Akron Zoo, then back to feed the missionaries dinner. Grant is a total addict when it comes to Saturday Morning Cartoons, so it does not matter if your bladder is going to explode or if your sleep bugs are out of your eyes yet or not. Grant is on his "spot" on the couch at dark-thirty(with CRANKY Claire) at his side for cartoons. After that it's pancakes for breakfast. Dad leaves for the move and all heck breaks loose. Mom tries to pack for the day, take a shower, put out fires, change too many diapers and keep the kids out of the candy cupboard, and their fingers out of slammed doors(Brig got the finger slam today) Our day was over and it wasn't even 11:00 yet. Cam gets home and we are off to the Zoo. We went to the Akron Zoo because we have a pass to the Cleveland Zoo and we can get in for free at the Akron one so we thought we would give it a try. The drive was nice. Brig was sooo funny. He kept pretend sleeping! I have never seen a kid that young do it. He would close his eyes like he was sleeping and then open them to see if we were looking at him. He did this for about 5 minutes and then was OUT. Claire was soon to follow-she is a perma-tired girl. What would a trip to anywhere farther than 30 minutes be without a trip to a eatery of some sort? Poor Cam was beside himself with hunger so we stopped at the Golden Arches and got two large fries. (Not just for Cam mind you, he did share one of them with the fam) We made it to the Zoo finally, they were having a bike race and every road we wanted to turn on was blocked for the race. At least the officers were nice and told us how to get there. We were excited because they had a jelly fish exhibit that was cool. The kids had a fun time. Grant got to feel a star fish which he loved, and Claire was not going to give up her marker at the coloring table for anything. She was rather snobby about it too!! Brig was loving running around getting in peoples way and just being cute. At one point we all sat on a bench for lunch. Brig was next to me and I think I put a little too much jam on his sandwich. It was all over him and all over me. Some drops of jam landed on my shorts so I stared flicking them off , I felt so bad for Cam, I didn't realize that I was flicking them onto HIS shorts!(He was now standing trying to help clean Brig up) OOPS!!! It was pretty funny! The highlight for Brig was a worm. He would pick it up and throw it up and let it drop to the sidewalk. He did it again and again and thought it was too funny. We had a good time but we would not go back again. On our way there we passed a Krispy Kreme shop and you know what that means. We had to stop on the way back. Claire was having so much fun eating her donut in the car while her hair was flying all over. She sure does have fun.

Dream Home and more!

In our many travels throughout Ohio, we came across a home that we have claimed as our "Dream Home". We plan on purchasing it at some point in our delusional lives. We love how it has such a HUGE yard and is perched on a little hill. The old architecture is pretty cool too. Brig is King of the Hill around here it seems. He thinks he can eat whatever he wants whenever he wants. T-R-O-U-B-L-E!

Recent Snapshots from Saturday

We did a triathlon on Saturday! We started out at the local library for the Big Rigamarole Truck display. They had fire, police and garbage trucks on display which the kids enjoyed seeing. After that we decided to head to Patterson Fruit Farm where we found some lunch and some delicious doughnuts. They had some trails so we went on a little walk and saw a few ponds and an apple orchard. It was a nice break and it was good to be outdoors. Audrey then went with the missionaries and we had a "backyard blowout" as the kids called it--basically a no holds barred water fight. It was a day. Today, Sunday, was good. Happy Father's day to all the great fathers in our lives!

Beck Kid Pictures

A friend took these pictures of the kids. Enjoy!

Oh boy-this is awkward

Cam just got home from picking up some new hair clippers. He came up to show me what he got. We were just hanging out in our room with the window and door to the deck open minding our own business. The only problem is our door to our deck looks right into our neighboors bathroom-right to their toilet to be exact which faces the window. Sooo Cam is talking to me and he looks out the door and says-"oh boy this is awkward, someone is sitting on the toilet!" Hello! do ya think you can CLOSE THE WINDOW WHEN NATURE CALLS!! Apparently they don't really care if their neighbors can see then or not. Maybe they figure as long as we are not on a first name basis it isn't as embarassing to have someone watch you take care of business? One of the many reasons to live on lots of land-you can walk around nude if so desired and you don't have to worry about the neighbors:)

Cuyahoga Valley

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A day with the family

We went down to one of our favorite spots in "The Ohio" again yesterday-Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We went on a hike this time and really had fun. We were worried about the weather, it was supposed to be 90+ degrees and high humidity. We got down there and it was definitely HOT!!! We brought our kid carrier backpack and a small backpack that Grant or Claire could carry. FYI if you ever go on a hike with Claire these are the kinds of things you will find in her pack.(We had no idea what was in there until we got down there.)So here were the items in her pack 1. An empty baby carrot package. 2. One of Grant's "crock" shoes. 3. One of Brigs Sunday shoes.
4. Our mini crocodile Dentist game. 5. 2 bottles of water. She was so happy she had packed it all herself and she wanted to carry it too. So after we emptied her pack of all her unnecessary items (she wouldn't let us take the crocodile Dentist game out.) We headed on our way to the trail. The scenery was amazing it was truly magical. There were very few spots where the sun came through the trees so mostly shade the whole time. EVERYTHING was covered with bright green moss-trees,rocks,everything. It was such a feast for the eyes. We had a map they provide at the head of the trail so we were following it to the "Ice Cave" Luckily we ran into some people and asked them if they had been to the ice cave they said they were just heading there. We were going the exact wrong way!! We hiked a little farther and then turned around to go to the ice cave. We knew we were there because cool air was oozing out of the cave. It was amazing to be by it. I guess it is like 50 degrees all year round at the cave. They had cool rock formations you could hike through. They reminded me of the Narrows in Utah. The kids really had a great time. We will be going back in the near future!!

Why did we switch the kids rooms?

So life is so GREAT with kids!! Can you catch the sarcasim in that one?! The past 2 mornings Claire and Grant have been up at 5:40!! Hi, that is like an HOUR before our alarm goes off. The first night was an amazing lightning/thunder storm that woke them up and they couldn't get back to sleep. It was kind of nice in a sick and twisted way though, becuase Claire was SOOOO tired most of the day she didn't have enough energy to be CRANKY! So last night we get our window units in-for those of you with Central Air it is a room A/C unit in your window. So we got ours in our room and had the door closed all night to keep the cool in. We had the monitor in Brigs room so we could listen for him(he never wakes up in the middle of the night anyway) So at 5:40 this morning Grant comes in our room because Claire has been screaming FOREVER!!! and we didn't get her. HELLO! We couldn't HEAR A THING! So they were up again bright and early with the birds. One of the most frustrating things is I was going to hang a blanket on their curtain rod to block out some of the light but they think it is sooooo fun to take their rod off and use it as a sword or whatever! So here is the SUN @ too early in the morning to wake them up. We switched kids rooms. Grant and Claire have a bunk bed (that used to be Cam's) and we couldn't fit a window unit it the window behind the bunk bed so we took the beds down, and put them in Brig's room and put Brig in their room so we could fit window units in both of their rooms. Does any of this make sense? Anyway not an hour after doing all this switching, my friend called and asked what we were up to and I told her we switched the kids rooms but could not remember why we did I KNEW we did it for a reason but just couldn't seem to figure that reason out at the time! It's just like trying to cut a sandwich in 3rds-it takes a minute!!Whatever:) I really do love my kids(especially when they are SLEEPING

We're back in business

So for all 3 people who have checked my blog in the last month and a half and noticed we have not done much with it here we are again. Blogging is annoying because I feel like it's a baby I have to take care of all the time. As you have noticed my "baby" would be way dead by now! Anyway. We have a lot to catch up on so I will do my best. Claire turned 3 and no-she is not potty trained!!! She dosen't really care either. She will tell us if she has stinks on occasion but that is about it. Brig on the other hand might be out of diapers before Claire. The other day he scrunched up his nose and said "stinks" and about 30 seconds later was doing his business in his pants! Way to go Brig!!! Cam made it back from Minnesota and he had a great time. He learned tons and ate even more!!! He had a week off after he got back so we did lots of fun stuff with him off of school. We went to the Botanical Gardens which was really really cool the kids all had a great time and we did too. We also went down to Cuyahoga Valley National park and did some dutch oven cooking, we also went to the CASE farm and did more dutch oven cooking! We had a great week with Cam off but we are glad to have him back in school so we can stay caught up on "life" like the wash and a cleaner house.