Three At Once

Playing outside

2012-01-17T15:02:00.001-08:00

The weather has been a little odd this year, one day it will be 50 and the next it snows. We have enjoyed letting the boys run around in the warmer weather and letting them play in the snow. On Saturday when it was sunny and relatively warm outside we spent over an hour playing with the boys in the front yard. About 45 minutes into playing Andrew climbed up on the rock in the neighbors yard and said “Daddy take a picture.” Of course Cody was happy to oblige. The boys all took turns having their picture taken. Cody beat me to posting these photos as part of his 365, but I thought I’d put them here as well.

Andrew

Parker

Nicholas

We’ve decided that our next house is going to need to have a hill in it because the boys are obsessed with running up and down the small inclines in our neighbors yards. The best part of the running back in forth is that we can request hugs as they run down the hills.

Even from the side you can see how big his smile is.

Of course running around outside would not be complete without a visit to the irrigation ditch that runs behind the houses on our street. They love throwing rocks into the water and watching them splash.

After all of the running around we loaded the boys into the van, Andrew and Parker were pretty easy to persuade to climb into their car seats. Nicholas however has always been our runner.

You can almost see the wheels turning in his head trying to plot his escape. With all the running around the boys were a little worn out while for shopping. They crashed at naptime without a peep.

Coloring

2012-01-14T15:11:00.001-08:00

The boys have spent time coloring while in their old feeding table and at restaurants, but I hadn’t let them do any coloring on the new table yet. Since I was trying to avoid scrubbing crayon off the table we spent the morning at Ikea picking up some large rolls of paper to mask off the table. The boys also don’t object to getting a lunch of meatballs and mashed potatoes.
While the boys napped I set up the table to contain the mess. They came down the stairs and went right to their seats.

We started with just a blank piece of paper, then moved to a page from their Disney coloring books and of course the paper roll got lots of color on it too.

I wish I could say he drew the Mickey so I wouldn’t have to admit to my sad attempt, but he was just coloring it in.

They were very focused on their work. We are fairly sure the boys are right-handed but were coloring with both. I just seemed to only get shots of them actively coloring with their left.

Coloring is hard work.

Even after Cody came home the boys were still coloring, they stayed at the table for over an hour and asked to color more after dinner and this morning. I’m trying to work up the nerve to introduce finger paints.

What season is it?

2012-01-09T12:53:00.001-08:00

Last Friday it was sunny and nice out and the boys were having a great time playing in the yard.

Less than 24 hours later we finally had the first real snow of the season.

The boys had so much fun and didn’t want to stop playing. Cody was trying to teach them how to throw snowballs.

I love the giggles. They spent nearly an hour running around, throwing snow at both Cody and I and “helping” Cody clean off the van.

Sadly the snow is already melting and will probably be gone in a couple days.

Haircuts

2012-01-06T12:36:00.001-08:00

The boys were way past due for a haircut and I want their hair to be grown out a little for our upcoming vacation. The boys were so well behaved and so talkative.

Look at that shaggy hair.

Parker making a very Cody-esque face.

Since Parker went first and was so good he got a sucker.

I was worried Andrew would try to wrestle the sucker away from Parker, but instead he said “Please have taste of sucker.”

My camera wouldn’t take video but they were so polite to each other sharing the sucker.

With haircuts done we ran a couple of short errands and picked up dinner for Cody. Now begins the day or two of flubbing the boys names. I always forget just how much I end up relying on the boys hair to aid in telling them apart when I don’t get a good look at their faces. It’s a good thing I’m the one that usually helps them get dressed in the morning.

Someday they’ll cooperate for a group photo right? To be fair we had just gotten home from grocery shopping and they were trying to run off energy before I ushered them inside. I can’t believe it’s January in Utah, no snow and we are playing outside.

Boys night out

2012-01-04T12:56:00.001-08:00

If you looked at Cody’s 365 Project you’ve already seen these pictures but if not here they are. Usually one night a week while I’m at work Cody takes the boys out to eat. One of their favorite places is Noodles and Co. They split adult sized mac and cheese and mushroom stroganoff with chicken and Cody eats whatever they don’t eat. Except last night where they didn’t leave him anything (yes I fear the teenage years).
One of the great things about Noodles is they will let you request what type of noodles they make your dish with. We’ve found that the cavatappi noodles are the easiest for the boys to eat.

Another benefit of this location is that they recognize Cody and the kids and will often set up their usual table with high chairs and fill the boys water cups before he finishes ordering. After they finished their pasta the boys requested smoothies and it didn’t take much to talk Cody into walking down to Jamba. Especially because they were perfectly behaved through dinner.
Cody said they waited patiently for their smoothies, I love that moment when their drinks are put on the counter and everyone starts saying “Smoofies please.”

Before they left for dinner the boys found a new way to play with their slide and the couch. Cody decided they were having so much fun he didn’t have the heart to stop them. He did put extra blankets down to pad the drop off the couch, but you can hear just how much fun and how excited they were.

A new year

2012-01-03T12:56:00.001-08:00

I think this year is going to be one of many changes. We kicked off the year by getting a new dining room set, taking the feeding table out and getting booster seats. It’s crazy to think about how fast the boys are growing up. Doesn’t seem that long ago that we got the table and were just starting the boys on solid foods.

They love their booster seats, they all insisted on carrying them out of the store, in the van and putting them on the chairs. They haven’t yet decided which seats they are going to claim, it changes each meal.
Along with moving to a regular table this year we’ll also be potty training and starting pre-school. Cody and I are also each starting a project this year. Cody will be doing a 365 project and sharing his shots here. I’m not quite up to committing to posting a photo everyday so I’m doing a project 52. I take more than one picture a week, but it will be less pressure taking my camera with me everywhere.

Day after Christmas

2011-12-28T14:50:00.001-08:00

Monday was definitely a day for recovering from all of the running around we did on Christmas. Cody had the day off work, so the morning was spent playing with new toys or books in my case. The boys were all for just laying around on the new blankets we were given. At first they were asking for a “snuggly blanklee” then asking to be snuggled.
At some point Parker decided that he was now a baby and needed to be held. He kept repeating “Parker is a baby, goo goo gah gah.” After sleeping 14 hours on Christmas night they were still tired and I think we all enjoyed just relaxing.

Nicholas, Parker, Andrew, everyone picked a blanket to be snuggled in.

Nothing beats a lazy afternoon at home and the super soft blankets didn’t hurt.

Christmas

2011-12-27T15:15:00.001-08:00

I have a feeling this will be the last year we have to wake the boys up on Christmas morning. At 8:45 we woke the boys up and tried to get them excited about going downstairs to open presents. They were all for going back to sleep until we told them about the presents that needed to be opened.

Before:

After-ish:

Their stockings we stuffed with new Hotwheels, a Lightning McQueen cup, some candy and a pack of underwear. Potty training is just around the corner. We didn’t go crazy this year with gifts for the boys, they each received a couple of Thomas or Disney shirts, some books, and a pull back style Thomas engine. My favorite part of their gift opening was when Andrew opened his new engine.

He ripped off just enough paper to figure out what it was, then quickly grabbed the same shaped gifts off the couch from Nicholas’ and Parker’s pile. He distributed the gifts to his brother and insisted they open their engines at the same time so they could all play together.
I should have had the boys open their books before the engines since it was a challenge to get them to open their last gift once they had a new toy. Santa also brought them new giant tonka trucks, which luckily they all laid claim to one of them without fighting.

The boys opened their books last, each opened a new Thomas book (sensing a theme yet?) and a Cars busy book. Amid all the the chaos of new toys and wrapping paper Parker decided to ignore all of the new cars and trucks and just read.

I think he gets it from me.

While the boys played with their new toys Cody and I exchanged gifts. I had given Cody his big gift a few days early, a new phone. He now has the Galaxy Nexus and loves it. He also got some new shirts and bucky balls to add to his desk toy collection. I was given some books, an electric blanket (I’m always freezing) and the game Settlers of Catan which I had been wanting for a long time.
We took a long time opening gifts so we ended up running late getting out of the house. Our first stop was my Dad’s house, then we headed to Cody’s parents for lunch and more presents. The boys are now experts at opening gifts and wanted to help everyone else open theirs.

We stayed for quite a while, well past when nap time should have started and we still had one more stop. We loaded three tired boys into the van and headed to my Uncle Scott’s.
Parker and Nicholas slept for maybe 5 minutes on the drive, Cody and I were both worried they were going to have meltdowns. Luckily the TV was on with kids shows and the boys just sat down and watched tv while we visited. Sadly I only see my uncle about once a year, we really need to get out there more often. While we were there my cousin stopped by who I haven’t seen since I was probably 12 and we met his son.
We stayed for about an hour before the boys looked done for the day. Amazingly they stayed awake on the drive home, we kept them up long enough to let them play with their new toys for about twenty minutes, feed them a quick dinner and they went to bed early.
It’s the first time we’ve ever skipped naptime, luckily the boys took it in stride. Since bedtime was moved up almost 2 hours and they slept 14 hours that night they are definitely not ready to give up naps (and I’m not ready for that either).
We had a great Christmas. The boys had a good day, they are still carrying their flashlights and new engines everywhere with them.

Christmas eve

2011-12-27T14:26:00.001-08:00

I had an alarm set for 8 am on Christmas eve, which is not exactly early but since we were up until almost 2 it felt plenty early. Cody and I got up and ready for the day before waking the boys up. All morning we told them that Grandpa was coming to see them and they were really excited and kept asking to see him. Of course we did the usual mad dash attempt to clear the playroom of the standard toy explosion so everyone could sit down. We had planned on visitors at 11 am, but given that it’s my dad and the family quirk of always being early I was expecting them to arrive closer to 10:50.
The boys were so excited and so talkative. I think this is the first time Grandpa and Jackie have seen and heard all of the boys talking at the same time. We visited for a little while before the boys (and the adults) opened their gifts. This is the first gift giving occasion the boys really got into ripping off the paper and not just wanting to play with the boxes.
The gifts were brought in a bag so the boys had to get through the bag to get to the presents.

Different approaches were tried to open the bag before we helped.

The boys each received a Cars themed talking flashlight. To say they loved them is an understatement. The flashlight cars have gone everywhere with us since then. I love that when Nicholas opened his he yelled “It’s Lightning Queen,” Parker opened Mater and Andrew Finn McMissle.

The also each were given a DVD player with a Mickey Mouse Playhouse and a Thomas DVD. They opened the boxes and had no idea what they were, so we set one up. They were mesmerized.

While the boys were fully absorbed with an episode of Mickey Mouse we visited and exchanged gifts. I was given a donut hole/cake ball maker. Since I’ve recently been making a lot of chocolate and caramel covered marshmallows and other treats I was really excited to make some. Which is how I spent naptime, making chocolate cake balls.
After a quick lunch the boys went down for a nap, I did some baking and we got ready to go to dinner at Cody’s parents. After nap we let the boys sample some cake, no surprise they were fans.

We are working on teaching Andrew to take bites instead of shoving the whole thing in his mouth. I can’t wait to get out the double boiler and chocolate coat and decorate some cake pops.
We had a nice dinner at Cody’s parents and lots of desserts, the boys made sure their new flashlights also got a treat.

We ate, the boys opened the traditional Christmas eve gift of pajamas and played with their cousins until it was time to head home for bed and to wait for Santa.

As soon as we got home the boys went straight to bed, while we had a few more things to do. I wrapped a few last presents and Cody set up lights to take pictures on Christmas morning.

Everyone sets up off camera flashes for Christmas morning right?

I love that we have the lights to do this, our front room has some very uneven lighting with the one window and high ceilings. With everything ready for the morning we went to bed excited to see the boys reaction.

Leading up to Christmas

2011-12-27T12:54:00.001-08:00

Like everyone else in the week leading up to Christmas we were plenty busy. We took the boys to see Zoo Lights for the first time. They loved the lights, but were disappointed that we didn’t see more animals. Santa and his reindeer were at the zoo, we decided to wait to see Santa. I have never waited for so long to see Santa, after waiting for 15 minutes we were trying to decide if we should just bag it and just go see the lights. We decided to stick with it and just hope that the boys wouldn’t be afraid of him.
The wait ended up being about 35 minutes and it was completely worth it. While waiting in line they had paper and markers set up for everyone to write their letter to Santa. The boys each drew a picture of what they wanted to give to Santa. As soon as it was the boys turn we told them to take their letters to Santa. They pretty much charged at him and happily sat on his lap while he took the time to talk to each of them about what they wanted, asked their names and had as much of a conversation as you can have with an excited but reserved 2 year old. There was no camera or photo package for sell, it was just a visit with Santa for the kids.
Cody and I both took our cameras, but as we got to the zoo discovered Cody had left his memory card at home. I gave him mine since he takes better shots than I do. I haven’t seen the pictures yet, but I hope he captured some good ones of the boys visit.
On the 18th we took the boys to the annual family Christmas party with Cody’s extended family. It’s always nice to see the whole family even though I still have a hard time getting all of the names straight. We arrived about 15 minutes early to let the boys run around and run off some energy.
This year we ran a bit behind schedule on getting ready for the holiday, we had to go shopping on December 23rd; at a mall. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Of course it was crowded, but not unmanageable. It might just be me, but it didn’t feel like Christmas without any snow. The upside of no snow is that the boys can play outside without a ton of extra gear. Before heading to the mall the boys spent some time making their Mickeys fly.

The boys decided the back of the van was a slide.

Two days before Christmas, this scene really needs some snow.

It was decided that after all their flying around the yard, on the van and in the trees the Mickeys would need a bath. The boys kept telling us it was bath time for Mickey the entire drive to the mall.
We finished our shopping and after the boys bedtime Cody and I watched Christmas Vacation while wrapping all of the presents. We were up way too late and were very tired the next morning, but we were expecting visitors so had to be up and ready earlier than we normally would.

They like their sleep

2011-12-15T13:58:00.001-08:00

I think the boys are taking after Cody how much they enjoy their sleep and naps. Anyone who knows Cody, knows he isn’t naturally a morning person. When I go in to the boys room to wake them either in the morning or after nap time they make it pretty clear that they are not always ready to get up.
This morning I went in at 8:30 the boys were starting to stir, enough to ask me to not turn the light on. They also kept repeating that it was night night time. Nicholas was saying go night night, good dreams. Instead of turning on the light I opened the blackout curtain just enough to be able to see what I was doing. They objected to any light and really wanted the light out. Sometimes after nap time it can take a half hour or more for the boys to really be awake and ready to do anything but sit or lay down. They will ask to go back to their crib tent, sit on the floor outside of the crib, camp out in front of their room and it takes a lot of encouragement to get them to come downstairs to play.
Yesterday after a two hour nap I woke the boys up and a half hour later they still were not ready to to get going.

And I think it’s time for a haircut. Doesn’t Andrew look thrilled to be up?

Nicholas felt about the same way. Parker was already playing with trains, a big switch from normal. Usually Parker fights getting up harder than anyone else. He has even mastered drinking his morning milk without sitting up. Which doesn’t sound like much of an accomplishment, but he’s drinking from a straw cup.
Maybe they’ll become more morning people if not I think we’ll need multiple alarm clocks.

Nothing is safe on the counters

2011-12-12T12:50:00.001-08:00

This must happen to all parents, you find places the kids can’t reach or get to because they are just too short and suddenly they grow. Last night I ran upstairs to use the bathroom while Cody was in the playroom with the boys. Assuming the boys just followed me up the stairs he didn’t notice what they were up to.
It seems a package of straws in the middle of our counter was not out of their range. I came out of our room greeted with this.

Of course they had no trouble opening the package and spreading the straws out all over the floor. At this point the straws were not going to be usable again, so we let the boys play for a while. Nicholas kept gathering the straws to put them back in the bag only to have Andrew take the full bag and dump them back on the ground.
It quickly became a game of gathering handfuls of straws and making it ‘snow straws’ looks like a good time.

I guess it’s time for me to stop leaving stuff on the counter unless it’s okay for the boys to open, play with, or destroy. Who knew a package of straws could be so much fun?

Random Wednesday fun

2011-12-07T14:33:00.001-08:00

Like most mornings the boys spent an hour or so playing with trains and cars just like they do almost everyday. During snack time I asked the boys if they would like a smoothie. They love smoothies, we can’t go by a Jamba Juice without the boys asking for a ‘smoofie’ in fact we don’t even say smoothie around the boys unless we plan on getting them one. Of course they were really excited for a smoothie.
While I was throwing fruit into the magic bullet, Parker pulled one of the boys couches into the kitchen to wait for their snack. After handing out smoothie cups, everyone got comfortable. I love that they have no sense of personal space with each other at this age. I hope they are still willing to share a couch like this when they are older.

While enjoying the drinks the boys decided to do some reading. We spent over about 45 minutes sitting on the kitchen floor talking and reading. Depending on the book that the boys are looking through, they either talk non-stop or times like this they stop and study the page before saying anything.

We ended up looking through a stack of books before the boys finished their drinks and were ready to play with trains again. It’s wonderful that the boys will sit down and unwind after running around like crazy little men. It also gives me a break from toddler chasing.

Triplet family Christmas party

2011-12-06T14:59:00.001-08:00

Last Saturday night we took the boys to what I’m hoping is the first annual triplet family Christmas party. There ended up being about 150 people that were able to make the party. It was the definition of organized chaos, toddlers everywhere in a room with six exits. Next year I think I’ll block off doors to reduce the amount of chasing involved.
We had dinner and tried to socialize while keeping an eye on the boys. It was funny to see all of the parents doing the 3 head counting routine that we are so familiar with. In some cases counting 4, 5, 6, or 7 heads depending on which family. I love having a chance to visit with the other parents of multiples, nothing bonds you as immediately as having experienced a triplet pregnancy and caring for three newborns/toddlers at the same time.
The kids played with or near each other while waiting for Santa to arrive. Once Santa made it to the chair set up for him everyone waiting for their family name to be called. Santa handed out gifts to all of the kids.

I’m happy to say this year the boys didn’t cry when meeting Santa. We’ve been reading a lot of stories about Christmas and Santa to try and introduce the idea. Thanks to this yard decoration the boys are convinced that Santa drives a train.

Their visit with Santa was very short, they didn’t tell him what they wanted for Christmas. I think they were just trying to figure him out.

Despite the overwhelming excitement of finally meeting Santa they were much more excited about the new toys. The boys each got a toy car, they have been playing with them non stop. Every time they pick up their car they say “thank you Santa.” They are going to love Christmas day this year, now if we can just get them to leave the tree alone.

So much to say

2011-12-05T14:39:00.001-08:00

It seems like every day the boys are picking up new words or phrases and saying them to us at the most unexpected times. I’m constantly amazed at how much they remember and repeat back to us. They talk constantly in the van pointing out everything we pass. The love pointing out the capital and telling us that it is on capital hill, describing every truck we pass on the freeway be it a flatbed, semi, dump, cement, or pulling a trailer.
By far the most adorable though is when the boys start talking amongst themselves. They count things we pass up to 10, I will sometimes take a different route to the freeway just to have them count the six sets of railroad tracks we drive over. They all say the alphabet, but start on different letters. Lately Nicholas has been repeating the words to Twinkle Twinkle over and over again. He misses a few words and likes to stretch out the last words. Cody took video of it last night, but it isn’t edited yet.
We spend a lot of time quietly giggling about comments the boys make when we are out and about. Last night at dinner a waitress walked by with a piece of a cake. Andrew shouted out “happy birthday.” I need to make a point to write down what they say so I don’t forget.
In addition to the boys making comments they have also started spending more time reading to us. They usually tell us the stories in an odd mix of what they see in the pictures and what they have memorized from us reading it.

The boys are still picking out their shirts each morning which explains why some days the boys are wearing shirts from different holidays. The boys all love the orange Halloween shirts with Mickey Mouse on them, everyday they ask for the orange shirts. Since we don’t let the boys wear the same shirt on the same day, it’s usually whoever gets dressed first that gets the preferred shirt. Nicholas was the lucky toddler yesterday.

In case any one was wondering about the crib climbing, we decided to get crib tents. It was getting to the point where Parker was climbing into Andrew and Nicholas’ cribs to take their lovies. After a couple of days Andrew learned how to climb across the cribs as well and Nicholas fell out of his crib once. He wasn’t hurt, but it scared him enough that he didn’t try to climb out again. I didn’t think it would take long before he tried again, so the tents were assembled the next day.
They love their crib tents, they ask to get in their tents and ask us to “zip up” as soon as they are inside.

They were no where near ready to transition to toddler beds and I think when we do switch it will bring an end to naps. I’ve been around the boys on days where they didn’t nap, it wasn’t fun for anyone. When Parker started climbing naptime was falling apart, I’d be luck to get them to sleep for an hour, with the tents we are back to 2 hour naps every day.

Thanksgiving weekend

2011-11-29T15:37:00.001-08:00

We had a nice Thanksgiving, we had dinner with Cody’s family. The boys tried a little bit of everything and of course really enjoyed the chocolate layer dessert. They played with their cousins and while we visited with everyone. Unfortunately the boys ended up being off schedule due to having an early nap. This meant they were overtired and super cranky at bedtime. Luckily it only takes about one day to get everyone back on schedule.
Friday I had planned on running errands while Cody was at work. Cody had planned on going to buy a new office chair and assemble his new desk. Instead he was met with this:

He joked about someone getting a early Black Friday deal with a 100% off crowbar coupon. They left the crowbar, but took his computer and and monitor. So instead of going shopping for office items, he spent the morning filing a police report and dealing with the insurance. It’s nice that everything that was taken will be covered by the insurance, but still unsettling to have the office broken into.
Friday night we all went to the Apple store to replace the missing computer equipment. We stopped at Old Navy and managed to get a great deal on some new shirts for the boys. I think we now own almost every long sleeved shirt color they carry. As usual we did a lap around the mall stopping to enjoy the Christmas decorations.
Saturday with Cody’s office dealt with (as much as could be done) we headed for Ikea to get some a much needed office chair for the office and a few other small items. The boys as usual enjoyed some meatballs with lingonberry jam. After naptime the boys and I headed out to pick up our newest family member.
We adopted our Elf on the shelf, which after much debating the boys have named him Melvin. It’s a good elf name plus it’s adorable to hear the boys say Melvin. The boys don’t quite understand Santa and that the elf will be reporting back to him every night. The boys are enjoying heading down stairs every morning to find Melvin. So far our elf has chosen to position himself well out of their reach (smart elf).

Parker normally just points him out and says “That’s an elf” now they are in the habit of calling him Melvin. Last night during dinner Cody said Andrew just kept saying Melvin and giggling as he hung from the light. This morning our elf was playing with the blinds.

Every time Parker goes into the dining room he makes a point to tell Melvin to get back on the light. I can’t wait to see all of the fun places Melvin will surprise the boys in. Hopefully having an elf will help us all get into the holiday spirit, now we just need some snow.

This week I’m hoping to get the tree up and we are planning on taking the boys downtown to see the lights.

Monkey see, monkey do; in a good way

2011-11-22T09:05:00.001-08:00

The other night Cody was comparing the ISO of his cameras while shooting video, of course the boys were interested in what he was doing and joining in. They definitely take after Cody in their interest in gadgets, they love everything with a screen and buttons.

Of course after Nicholas had a turn taking pictures everyone else wanted one.

I love just how hard Andrew is focusing on the screen.

Parker was the only one to take picture of more than the ground, he even got a few decent shots of me.

Looks like we’ll be getting the boys cameras in the near future, but they will be much more child friendly and much less fragile.

Enjoying the winter

2011-11-21T16:04:00.001-08:00

It snowed last Friday, but it had all melted by Saturday. Luckily we already got the boys new coats for the season, I can’t believe how much they have grown. I bought last years coats thinking I had bought them big enough to fit for two years. If you saw the coats from last year you’d laugh. I was so excited to find each of the boys a coat in their color, in the same size at the same store.
On Sunday while I was at work Cody took the boys out for a pre-nap walk to burn off some energy. I can’t get over how adorable they are in the new coats and the hats we bought at Disney World. They love their Mickey hats.

They ran around the neighborhood for about an hour.

This is becoming such a fun age, the boys are talking so much more now and seem to only have one speed. They want to run everywhere all the time.

They sure look like they are having a great time though.

I can’t wait until we have some snow that stays one the ground for more than a day so we can let the boys play in it. Last year they didn’t really get into the snow, this year they have loved stomping around in what little snow we’ve had and trying to throw snowballs.

On a somewhat related note (you know cold weather, snow,) the holidays are coming up and my master address list was on my old hard drive. When we built new computers I didn’t get the file and I know some people have moved and I don’t have their current addresses. That being said, if I probably should have your address or I’ve sent you holiday cards in the past please email me, text me, send me a message on facebook or DM me on twitter so I have your current address.

Disneyland Monorail

2011-11-18T08:06:00.001-08:00

While we were at Disneyland the boys noticed the monorail as soon as we walked towards the parks. Everyday when we saw the monorail they would happily tell us it was the monorail train and which color it was. Eventually we rode the red train and the boys loved it.
We had already planned on buying a toy monorail to put around our Christmas tree. I figured we would get the Disneyworld monorail, but we found a Disneyland monorail in red; the same one we rode with the boys. Last week Cody set it up to show the boys. I’m glad their love of trains extends to monorails too.

I don’t think we’ll be able to set it up around the tree this year, there is no way the boys would leave it alone with out being supervised. I love that Parker was tasting the styrofoam, when I asked Cody he said he wasn’t eating it and you can hear him tell us that it’s yucky.

Chicken dip dip

2011-11-13T22:04:00.001-08:00

I’m always trying to add some variety to the dinners I make for the boys. We’ve learned that the boys will eat just about anything they can dip. Bread, chips, fries; you know all the healthy stuff. Tonight the plan was to just feed them chicken and mixed veggies. Vegetables are easy and the boys will normally eat them on their own, but chicken can be a tough sell.
Tonight I thought we’d try to take advantage of their love of dip. I cubed the chicken after it was cooked and broke out the toothpicks. It looked like I was serving a plate of h’orderves. With cheese sauce, BBQ sauce, honey mustard and ketchup set out with on the table the boys inhaled their chicken and kept asking for more. In total they ate 1.5 breasts by themselves. When I had to tell the boys to eat their veggies if they wanted more chicken, I knew it was a hit. We will definitely be serving this again.

The cheese dip won’t be repeated, the honey mustard was very popular as was the ketchup. I was impressed that after showing them once they put all of the used toothpicks on their plates. I was expecting toothpicks to end up everywhere and surprisingly not one even ended up on the table.
A little video from dinner, I’m loving how easy it is to take video with my camera and upload it.

It looks like it’s time for crib tents

2011-11-13T21:13:00.001-08:00

Yesterday as naptime was ending I heard someone yelling “Nick’s crib” over and over again. I went into the room to find that Parker was in Nicholas’ crib and Nicholas was not happy about having a visitor. I asked Parker if that was his crib and ran out of the room to grab my camera to get a picture to show Cody. Instead I made it back in the room to get a video.

Today during naptime Parker was once again in Nicholas’ crib and they even opened the bedroom door. It’s only a matter of time before Parker switches to climbing to another crib to climbing down or teaching his brothers. Which means we’ll have crib tents up by the end of the week.

So much energy before bed

2011-11-11T20:56:00.001-08:00

Tonight after dinner I let the boys run off some energy. I wish I knew where all of their energy comes from so I could tap into it. After dinner pre-bedtime activities include running in circles, emptying toy bins, driving cars, going up and down the stairs a dozen times. Sure looks like they are having fun though. At the end it’s Andrew that falls down and of course I say Parker because it’s the first name that came to mind.

The running went on for about 20 minutes. Then they started to wind down enough to play with their trains and cars. The boys have a ton of wooden Thomas engines (Thank you ebay) and we always have purchased them in multiples of three letting the boys each pick one of the new engines. This is why you will hear them associate each engine with a sibling (or themselves). It makes a great game to keep them entertained when we are out to eat and waiting for our food. I’m always impressed by the fact that not only can they name all of the engines, but also remember whose is whose.

Eventually they wore themselves out a bit, we can tell when they are ready for bed or naptime because the find a way to keep playing while laying on the ground.

Then all I have to do is get them to come upstairs to change, the secret weapon is the iPad. Every night before they go to bed we run an app called Nighty Night where they get to turn off the lights for all of the animals on a farm and tell them goodnight. They more or less demand it.
The time it takes to get upstairs and changed into pajamas is enough to recharge their batteries. Look how tired Andrew and Parker seem.

They were jumping up and down and doing something truly terrifying; climbing their crib rails. We’ve known for a long time the boys are more than tall enough to climb out of their cribs, but no one has actually climbed out or into a neighboring crib. I took one picture and put the camera down because I in no way want to encourage this activity.

What you can’t see is his leg is actually over the rail. The boys have all been sitting the rails at some point waiting for a diaper change. I worry about someone getting hurt falling out, but I know given what good climbers they are they could pretty easily get in and out on their own. We are not ready for toddler beds. I have a feeling in the next week or two we’ll be purchasing crib tents, since no one is ready for the boys to have free access to everything in their room (and the whole house at night).

New books

2011-11-10T15:48:00.001-08:00

Every week when I take the boys to Costco for our 8 (yes 8) gallons of milk and a few other staples. I always spend a good amount of time looking through all of the books to see if they have anything new. We’ve been lucky to find a fair number of Thomas, Cars, Mickey Mouse and Dr. Seuss books. The boys have all gotten into books lately and have stopped trying to eat them. We recently started to transitioned from board books to regular books.
Yesterday I picked up a 3-pack of Thomas books. What could be better than they’re favorite character and it comes in a 3-pack. The whole drive home they were asking for me to open the new Thomas books, I told them I would open the books after we were home and the groceries were put away. They asked non-stop for the books while I was bringing everything in.
I asked them to sit on the couch to read and handed out books.

They spent a half hour reading to themselves, to each other and to me. Nicholas was being very talkative, if you listen closely Parker is trying to tell me about Thomas going up the road. Of course there is also a tiny tantrum over a book trade.

When I left the playroom to make lunch the boys followed me into the kitchen to continue telling me about the books.

Andrew

Parker

Nicholas

I guess seeing me always with a book was bound to rub off on them eventually. We spend a lot of time each day reading, I can’t count how many times I hear “read more stories” from the boys. Now that they are talking more it’s fun to hear them read the story to me or try to interpret the pictures to tell me what is going on.

Last couple days of Disneyland

2011-11-09T15:29:00.001-08:00

On Wednesday morning we were worn out and decided to take it easy. We headed for Disneyland to enjoy the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay at the Haunted Mansion, ride the Winnie the Pooh ride again and finally take the boys to Pirates Lair at Tom Sawyer’s Island.
It was another low photo taking day, but Cody did take a fair amount of video. The boys had a lot of fun running all over the island, climbing through caves and finding the pirate treasure.

Turning this wheel raised and lowered a sunken treasure chest, the boys ran in a circle turning the wheel alternating between giggling about it and being very focused on keeping up with each other.
They also had a couple of bridges that we went back and forth over.

We also made time to enjoy Jungle Cruise and a Cody and the boys shared a couple of Dole floats, a magical combination of pineapple soft serve in a cup of pineapple juice. This was the only day it was almost too warm, of course we were also chasing the boys around a sunny island.
With everyone being tired we headed back to the hotel for naps early. In the room Nicholas and Andrew showed just how much they are willing to share. They still are attached to their towels and have them at nap and bedtime. I had packed a dozen towels for the trip, at nap time the boys were only able to find two not in their beds. So Andrew happily handed the corner of his towel to Nicholas while waiting for us to change them before naps.

Parker had a towel all to himself and was acting silly.

We finished out the day at Disneyland spending more time in Tomorrowland. The goal was to make it an early night so that we could again make it to Disney California Adventure early for a fastpass for World of Color.
Thursday we were up and out so early we considered visiting Downtown Disney just to pass time. Instead we waited in line, took a few pictures and easily made it to collect our blue pass for the show.

If you can’t read the shirts, Nicholas has Ctrl + C on it. Andrew and Parker have Ctrl + V. We are embracing our inner geek.

While at DCA we had a few attractions on the list to see. I wanted to visit the Imagineering Blue Sky Cellar in hopes of seeing a preview of what would be coming to Cars Land, sadly it was a display about the changes to entrance of the park. Tower of Terror and Disney Junior Live on Stage was also on the must do list. Tower is always fun, the line was almost non-existent so Cody and I were both able to ride before the Disney Junior show.
The Disney Junior show was cute, but like most shows at Disney the volume seems to be turned up as high as possible. Nicholas is more sensitive to the loudness. He started saying loud and crying so Cody had to take him out of the show halfway through. Andrew and Parker sat through the full show clapping along with everyone else.
The last stop before changing parks was just for the boys, meeting full sized Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater. I thought their little heads were going to explode. They just kept saying ‘touch Lightning, touch Mater’ and couldn’t believe we let them touch the cars. It was really hard to get a picture of them because they wouldn’t look away from the cars for anything.

We can’t wait for Cars Land to open next year, we plan to visit again next fall. I hope the boys are still interested in Cars next year. Given their obsession with everything with wheels I’m not worried.
We headed for Disneyland but stopped for a Mickey bar for Cody which of course he shared. This was the boys first Mickey bar.

Note Andrew not so patiently waiting for another bite, can’t really blame him as chocolate was involved.

At Disneyland we headed for Fantasy and Tomorrowland for some Star Tours fast passes and for lunch. The lines were short for most rides so we decided to see how the boys would do on the Mad Tea Party.

They are fans and kept requesting to spin more and faster. I’m going to take it as a sign that I’m getting older because I was not up to spinning more and certainly not faster. Teacups survived we took the boys to an attraction they had been eyeing all week, Autopia. A chance for the boys to drive their own cars (on a track, thank goodness).
I took Nicholas with me, he did all of the steering while I pushed the pedal. Cody took Andrew and Parker. I had read before hand that if you have two kids too young to ride alone you can ask a cast member to allow you to ride again with the other child steering. After our first time around the track Cody passed Andrew to me so he could give Parker a chance to drive.

While I was waiting with the boys, Andrew tripped over his own feet, bit his lip and started bleeding. Along with the bleeding (it was a small cut) he also let out a scream. You know that scream that makes your eardrums feel like they are going to implode? It brought a few other guests and a cast member over to us. The cast member, Stephen, wanted to make sure he was okay and offered to let him drive again. I told him it wasn’t necessary, but as he asked Andrew directly if he wanted to drive I couldn’t exactly say no.
As soon as Andrew got behind the wheel the tears were gone.

Nicholas spent much of the ride calling Andrew a crazy driver.

After lunch and naptime it was back to DCA for World of Color, but this time we arrived two hours before the start of the show to ensure we got a really good spot. In preparation for the long wait we had drinks, popcorn and other snacks plus a secret weapon. Lightning McQueen light up toys.

Yes Parker is kissing his Lightning McQueen, the toys were a hit. They still fight to keep those toys in hand at all times.

We had a great viewing spot, we had earplugs for the boys and all enjoyed the show.

Friday morning we enjoyed early entry to Toontown in hopes of meeting some characters, riding Roger Rabbit and Gadget’s Go Coaster. Last year it was raining so all of the characters were in Mickey’s house and we were able to meet them all one after another. On our way to Toontown we ran into Henry Work of Touringplans he spotted us while riding the teacups. He has just about the coolest job ever. We use the crowd calendar at Touringplans.com to pick our vacation dates to help ensure short wait times and it has never steered us wrong. We’ve met Henry a couple times on previous trips, he called out from the ride recognizing Cody. Then came to say hi briefly. As he was working he couldn’t visit for long.
In Toontown the characters were not yet available so we rode Gadget’s Go Coaster a couple times and hoped that Rodger Rabbit would resolve the technical difficulties it was experiencing. After riding the coaster Cody discovered that it wasn’t meant for tall people. The coaster has some water jets meant to shoot over the riders, Cody took a direct shot to head from one of the jets.
Rodger Rabbit still wasn’t open so we joined the line to meet Mickey again.

Rodger Rabbit had opened while we were waiting for Mickey, but by the time we made it out of Mickey’s house it had broken down again. Maybe we’ll get to ride it next year.
The boys had already seen Henry riding the tea cups and were asking to ride them again. We were the only ones in line to ride it.

They still enjoyed it, with lots and lots of spinning.

We went on a few more attractions before naptime and picked up some fastpasses for after naptime. Friday night there was a Halloween party in the park which meant it would be closing early without an additional ticket. We went back to Disneyland briefly to use our fastpasses, it was the most crowded we had seen all week. We knew the party had sold out, but didn’t expect for it to get so crowded so quickly.
As soon as the crowds started to get bad we said goodbye to Disneyland and headed to DCA. We spent sometime on the pier riding the carousel, the Golden Zepher and California Screamin’ on our way out we saw Turtle Talk again and checked out ElecTRONica.
After exiting the park we did some shopping. During the week we had already picked out the souvenirs for us, the boys and some friends. So it was more of a picking up the items then shopping. Sadly Disney still doesn’t have any tall sized clothing and all of their boys shirts only have 2 designs/colors in each style, so no one got a t-shirt. Saturday morning was more of the same, buying the last few things we wanted before loading back into the van for the 12 hour drive home. The drive home was uneventful, we stopped in Saint George for a couple hours of sleep and made it home just after dawn.

I can’t wait to go back next year. The boys should be tall enough to ride almost every attraction in the parks and be better able to tell us what they want to do.

Disneyland Day 2

2011-11-07T14:30:00.001-08:00

Like our last Disney trip to California we alternate the park we start the morning in, so day 2 was DCA. We knew we had to arrive at least 45 minutes before opening to get in line for World of Color fastpasses. We made it a bit early and just enjoyed people watching and the perfect weather. For our entire vacation it was sunny and in the 70s, much better than last years 5 days of rain.
They opened the turnstiles at 9:30 and like everyone else we headed for the fastpass line. After securing our blue section passes we decided to head for the new Little Mermaid ride. Unfortunately the ride was not yet open due to a technical difficulty. So we headed for Grizzly Peak to let the boys play at the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail.

It is a no stroller area so the boys had the time to run off a lot of energy in the suspension and rope bridges, go down some slide and run through a tunnel made from a fallen ‘tree.’

They ran in and out and around for about a half hour. Once they started asking to be carried we headed back to the strollers to find out if Little Mermaid was open. Luckily it was. I thought it was a great attraction. The boys were not so sure until we got past the first two scenes and into the under the sea scene. We ended up riding Little Mermaid 4 more times on the trip. The animatronics were amazing, the level of detail was crazy. I wanted to keep riding it just so I could see everything.
We then headed for Paradise Pier to ride some adult rides. Mainly because we both wanted to ride California Screamin’ thanks to the single rider line we it was a walk on for both of us.

Cody as he shot by us on the ‘fast train’

After walking around the pier the boys started requesting to see “Crush turtle talk” which when the boys are all saying ‘Crush please’ we can’t say no. So of course we went to see Turtle Talk again.

This was the last picture we took for the day. We headed over to Disneyland to enjoy a couple of attractions before naptime. After naps we went back to DCA and saw Turtle Talk again then went to get in line for World of Color. We should have skipped Turtle Talk and joined the line much earlier.
The spot we found was partial obscured by a tree and right by a speaker. It was so loud it scared Nicholas and I had forgotten to throw the earplugs in the diaper bag. Cody spent most of the show trying to calm Nicholas down while I was holding Parker. After the show we decided we would see it again and arrive much earlier to get a good spot and have ear plugs with a new toy for the boys to pass the time while waiting.
I love World of Color, the music the movie clips, and just the thinking about all of the technology that goes into making the show work. By the time the show ended and we made our way out among the masses it was time for dinner and bedtime.

Disneyland day one continues

2011-11-03T15:28:00.001-07:00

I was able to get the pictures off of Cody’s camera and he took some additional photos from our first day. While Disney has Photopass photographers we haven’t had great luck with them. The one time we bought the CD of pictures a good number of them were out of focus. It’s easy enough to hand our camera to the photographer for some family shots.

We of course posed some shots of the boys in front of the castle, love the Halloweentime decorations and the fall colors.

While we were taking this picture a couple came up to me and asked if they boys were triplets, when I said yes. They told me they had triplet boys that were 2 and a half as well. Of course I asked if they brought them to Disneyland, they laughed and no they left them at home.
Nicholas doesn’t look thrilled for the first half of this day due to a reaction to sunscreen (sigh) he broke out in hives and had running eyes and nose for quite a while. Despite looking a little miserable he didn’t act unhappy. Since it has been over a week since we returned I’m so happy I have pictures to help me remember what we did. We rode many rides multiple times. The boys were big fans of the ‘honey train’ and anything thing that spun. The honey train is the Winnie the Pooh ride.
Normally we try to limit the amount of sugar and junk food the boys eat, as we were on vacation that went out the window. On just the first day they shared a churro and a giant cookie with Cody.

Disneyland close early on Monday night so we had planned on ending our night at Disney’s California Adventure (DCA). On the way out of the park we had a chance to meet Mickey Mouse. Nicholas was by far the most into Mickey and Parker the least. Last year they were terrified of the characters, so I was just happy no one was crying.

We also stopped to meet Pluto, it didn’t go as well as Mickey.

Andrew was afraid, Parker was okay and Nicholas was undecided.

Since we didn’t get to DCA until it was getting dark we planned on just visiting Disney Animation. The boys enjoyed all of the screens last year and were just as enthralled this year. We spent time watching the screens and looking at the Toy Story zoetrope while waiting for Turtle Talk with Crush.
I was really hoping that the boys were not be afraid of Crush and was very happy to see how much they loved the show.

It was hilarious watching the boys reactions to Crush. They were clapping and giggling along with everyone else. At one point Crush swam at the screen and crashed into the ‘glass’ Nicholas looked at me and whispered “That’s really fast.” I was laughing so hard because it was just so matter of fact and the first time he’d every said that to us.

It was dark and dinner time when we made it out of the park. We had a quick meal at Millies before going back to the room for some much needed sleep.

First day in Disneyland

2011-11-02T14:05:00.001-07:00

We were up bright and early Monday morning for our first day at Disneyland. After finally unloading my memory card it looks like I did take a picture on the first day.

Boys were clearly more interested in the Disneyland entrance that looking at the camera.

Our first attraction was the Disneyland Railroad. The boys were excited that we were riding a train and that it was a steam train like Thomas. We rode the full way around the park so we wouldn’t miss that first walk down Main Street USA. Cody took many more photos than I did, so I only have a few from that first day.
The first morning we decided to see how we would do without a stroller, so with just kinder kords we took on the parks. The boys did wonderfully and ended up walking 3 miles with us that morning. I think they enjoyed the freedom, the only downside is with the kords on I can’t access anything in the diaper bag.
We headed straight up Main Street and through the castle. The boys were so excited to see the castle that we’d been telling them about for weeks. We had been planning and looking forward to getting a picture of the boys in ears, holding hands, walking to the castle. We had a hard time getting the boys to hold hands and get the bridge relatively clear of everyone else. We sort of got the shot, but after they ran to the top of the drawbridge I let them run back to Cody. At this point we had attracted a crowd and the boys happily ran back to Cody (sadly not holding hands). Our second attraction was another train ride. The crowd levels were pretty low so we have a very short wait for the Casey Jr Circus Train.

I was shocked that the boys kept their ears on for most of the day and through out the week kept asking for their “Mickey hats.” After the train I’d have to look at pictures to remember what we did after that. I know at some point we rode the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, because the boys were chanting ‘Nemo fun’ for a long time. In the week we were there the boys really started talking more and in full sentences, especially Nicholas.
Through the course of the week we walked a total of 46.3 miles, so a lot of things are a little fuzzy. Thank goodness we took pictures.
Each day at around 1:30 we headed back to the room for a nap. On our way out we stopped to get some pictures and enjoy the atmosphere of Main Street.

Can I say how much I love the ‘This One, That One, The Other One’ shirts? Yes it gets attention, but it’s usually responded to with a smile.
I’m sad to say the only other pictures I took with my camera were on the last day. I’ll have to wait for Cody’s pictures to post an more. I took a lot fewer photos than I should have. Between pushing a stroller, managing the boys and not having a dedicated camera bag (this is going on my Christmas list) I didn’t pull my camera out of the diaper bag much. Luckily Cody did take more pictures than me and usually captures better images. For our next trip I’m going to make an effort to take at least some shots each day.

Back from vacation

2011-11-02T12:18:00.001-07:00

At 3 am on the 23rd we packed up the boys for the 12 hour drive to Disneyland. I’m so glad we decided to drive through the dark, the boys slept until around 8 am. We drove non-stop until Saint George, stopping for gas and Starbucks for Cody. In Vegas the boys were awake so we picked up some breakfast and milk.

The rest of the drive the boys dozed on and off. Since I admittedly am not a good night time driver Cody did the vast majority of the driving I did take a turn driving once we got to California so Cody could take a short nap. Once we got past the long boring part of driving California ended Cody went back to driving. As he put it Utah drivers can be incompetent, but California drivers are crazy. I was not up to trying to drive with the cars around me speeding and cutting across 4 lanes of traffic without signaling. We arrived at our hotel at around 2 pm. We got an awesome room on the ground floor, we liked the location so much next trip I’m going to request that we get the same one.
We had 5 day park tickets so the plan was to spend the first day at Downtown Disney instead of visiting a park. We spent about 4 hours wandering through the shops, I found a hat that I love and the boys enjoyed a chocolate dipped rice cereal Mickey.

While Cody was in the store getting the boys the treats we watched the cast members making candied apples. The boys were interested in seeing the chocolate dipping. It was funny when the cast members noticed the boys. They all stopped working to wave to the boys, while mouthing the standard “Are they triplets'?” The boys happily waved back and really enjoyed the treats (They only ate the ears, it was a big treat).
We didn’t buy much of anything while we were walking around, but we planned a lot of purchases we’d be making later in the week. I had been saving gift cards I’d earned at work in hopes of getting a new watch, sadly the selection was lacking. A fun shop that the boys didn’t want to leave was Ridemakerz, it’s like Build-a-Bear for boys. You get to build and customize a car, including all of the cars characters. This definitely made the must come back and purchase list. They had so many options and fun things to choose from I have a feeling this store is going to be a very expensive stop when the boys get older.
The hotel we stay at has a Millies Restaurant in the parking lot and the kids meals all $.99 for staying at the hotel. We ate dinner there every night. We called it an early night so we could get a good start the next morning and because we were exhausted from our lack of sleep the night before.

Triplet family Halloween party

2011-10-19T14:30:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday we went to the first of what we hope becomes an annual party with the other triplet families in the area. I’m still not sure just how many families were able to make it, but I think the expected head count was around 100 people. It was a pot luck style gathering. Everyone brought something to share, I took the easy way out and volunteered to bring all of the utensils. That and I volunteered Cody to take photos.
Cody brought his studio lights and seamless white background to take a family shot for everyone that was able to make it. It think he only missed one or two families that had to leave early with their younger kids. After eating we had a trick or treating line set up. It was chaos, complete chaos, but in a good way.
The boys didn’t really understand the whole trick or treating thing at first, they were just excited to get to carry their buckets. Then they figured out that people were giving them candy. They enjoyed some candy that night. I tried to take all of the suckers away before they could get too sticky. Even without any suckers no one lacked in the sugar department.
I didn’t take any pictures the whole night due to Cody being in another room and trying to wrangle the boys, but after everyone else had packed up we (with help) were able to get a few shots of the boys in their costumes.
The plan with this years costumes was to find ones they can use as dress up items in the coming year. I think we did pretty good.

Nicholas was a train engineer, Parker the police officer and Andrew a cowboy. They were pretty good about keeping their hats on all night. The hat with Andrew’s costume had no hope of fitting his head, but it worked hanging on his back. They were laughing very hard while Cody was taking pictures due to another mom playing with pom poms behind his head. Before the laughing started we did get a full range of toddler emotions.

I promise Nicholas is not making a hand gesture, this is his excited pose. Parker was just just not interested and Andrew was just plain happy.

The next big family gathering will be for Christmas and I can’t wait. It such a wonderful group of people and we’ve (especially the moms) have formed a strong bond.

First attempt at the pumpkin patch

2011-10-16T22:42:00.001-07:00

Thursday night we took the boys to the local patch to get some photos and look for some pumpkins. We didn’t stay long since we forgot the mosquito repellant and Cody was getting eaten alive. We were able to get one family shot before letting the boys run.

And run the boys did. This was so much easier last year when the boys were walking and fairly confident in their ability, but no one was running, especially not as fast as the boys can run now. In an effort to slow the boys down a little we asked them to hold hands.

It works sort of. The boys will line up, yell “1, 2, 3, go!” and take off running for about 20 feet. The stops only last about 3 seconds. At least its super cute.
We looked at a few pumpkins, very few.

Within 10 minutes the mosquitos were swarming, you could see clouds of them following people. We made a dash for the car. We’ll try again this week.

Museum of Ancient Life

2011-10-16T22:20:00.001-07:00

In all of our visits to Thanksgiving point we’ve only visited the gardens and the farm, but today we went to the museum for the first time. We had so much fun. We met two other mom friends and their triplets to tour the exhibits. The first room was the Notion of Motion.

I could have spent all day in this room! The boys loved it as well. It was a room of full of moving balls and hands on experiments. On this table the center circle spins rapidly causing the balls and weights you roll over it to spin off crazily or stall and spin with it. You’ll notice in some of the pictures the boys are carrying their new Mickey Mouse plushes. Cody got them each a Mickey, in their colors. They are replacing their beloved towels as a lovey, the boys have insisted on taking them downstairs in the morning, cry for them if they are not returned for naptime or bedtime. We’ve also let them take them in the car. They seem very content to have a pal to carry with them.
Anyway motion stuff. They had spinning discs that of course looked different when spinning versus stationary. I would have loved to read all of the explanations of the experiments, but I was too busy watching the boys.

The small balls were supposed to spin around the edges of one display, exactly like the coin donation spinners, the boys just wanted to toss the balls to make a ‘basket.’

The were really really into throwing the balls and retrieving them below.

The spinning table was a big hit with everyone, I even managed to get all 9 kids in one shot.

We played in the sand and water table set up, it is meant to let you simulate a flash flood that traps dinosaurs that later become fossils. It was really hard to get the boys to look at me they were having to much fun playing. The best part of this area is the area for shorter kids is in the center of an oval table and it only has one exit. Perfect for keeping the boys together.

We had a chance to help build a dinosaur. The boys mostly kept pulling the legs off while the older kids were trying to put them back on.

At this point the kids were all getting to the just about done stage, so we set up for a group photo. It is so hard to wrangle 9 kids 4 and under for a picture. I had no chance of getting everyone to look at me, but they were all sort of sitting still.

After the group shot there was just one more area to visit. The quarry, it is where kids get to use brushes to discover fossils. For the most part it just meant playing in the sand.

The boys had a lot of fun and were so tired when we left. I had to ply them with fruit snacks and chocolate milk to keep them awake on the drive home. If they fall asleep in the car for even a minute it means skipping naptime. So I do everything I can do to keep them awake.
We’ll be going back, especially as the weather gets colder and we are less able to play outside. I want to take Cody with us next time so we can spend more time playing with all of the motion displays.

Mom’s night out in Park City

2011-10-13T14:47:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I was able to join 7 other moms for a night at the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City. It was so much fun and I hope we get to do it again. We met on main street for dinner for pizza and pasta then headed back to the lodge. Roxane was nice enough to volunteer to do gel nails for everyone.
We all picked out our colors, while laughing and talking.

We stayed up past 3 am and I don’t think everyone slept very long. This is an amazing group of women.

I know I laughed until I was crying for hours. I hope we get to do it again.
The next morning we went shopping at the outlets, thanks to a buy one get one free sale I think everyone’s kids got new pajamas. This was my first night away from the boys since they came home from the hospital, it was wonderful to have a night off. It was also great to get home and get hugs from excited to see me kiddos.

We are enjoying fall

2011-10-13T14:24:00.001-07:00

To take full advantage of the cooler weather the boys and I have been out and about almost everyday. We’ve been so busy I keep planning on posting a blog, but by the time I get around to it it’s old news. So a quick update in pictures.

Two weeks ago we went to the zoo. A friend and fellow triplet mom said she was going to the zoo and wanted to know if anyone wanted to meet her. So we ended up with 6 moms and 19 kids (6 sets of triplets and one big sister).

The boys enjoyed a special treat, a corn dog. It’s so funny watching the different way they each eat the same food.

Four days later I took the boys to Thanksgiving Point Farm. The enjoyed seeing the animals, but I think their favorite part is still the soil to market interactive play area.

This is the first time the boys have really understood the planting of ‘seed’ or picking fruit/veggies off the trees.

We also went for a horse drawn wagon ride, it took half of the ride for the boys to accept that we were not bringing the choo choo wagon with us.

Baby goats were all kinds of exciting.

We’ve also spent time at the local park, in the yard and at Gateway. I don’t mind the snow, but I sure am enjoying the fall weather.

Where has the week gone

2011-09-22T16:06:00.001-07:00

In the last week the boys have been to the Children’s Museum, Gateway, Trolley Square, the state fair, Thanksgiving Point Farm, a ride on Frontrunner and TRAX and the Park City Outlets. Plus many hours spent on multiple playgrounds and we still have a visit to the zoo planned for Saturday.
Safe to say we are taking full advantage of the cooler (and gorgeous) weather. I hope we have a nice long fall so we can keep enjoying spending the days out and about.
Of all of the outings I only took pictures at the farm and Cody took pictures at the fair. We are used to the Children’s Museum being very crowded and hard to manage the boys at. Much to our surprise it wasn’t crowded possibly due to the scattered showers earlier in the day. I’m not sure if it was the lack of crowd or the boys being a bit older, but it was much easier to keep track of everyone. Since we had expected chaos we didn’t even bring a camera, next time we’ll be prepared.
We had only a brief visit to Trolley Square, it’s sad how empty it is now. Cody and I both remember the really cool kite store that has been closed many years. We only went to pick up some Utah specific treats for some friends from out of the country. We went without strollers so it was also a good way to let the boys get some energy out before nap. After nap time I took the boys to a playground while Cody had a photo shoot for a family friend.
Sunday was a normal work day for me. As soon as I got home we headed for the fair. The boys got to enjoy a funnel cake, a hot dog, a bite of Cody’s corn dog, some kettle corn. We skipped the rides except for the big slide. Sadly since it was the last day of the fair almost all of the animals were gone. The only animals left were 3 cows.
Monday the boys had a play date bright and early at the Farm with a friend of mine and her little girl. Everyone had a chance to pet a calf.

The boys favorite part was probably the market to store interactive area.

They all ran to the door of the fake truck and asked me for the keys. The truck has a conveyer belt that transports the produce cards from one end to baskets on the other side. The boys loved it.

Parker

They took turns riding on the toy tractors.

Nicholas

Of course the favorite toy as always is our choo choo wagon. My friends little girl even helped out.

The boys were none to sure about her helping push.

We also saw the pigs, but again the boys were much more interested in the wagon.

Nicholas didn’t believe me when I told him he wasn’t going to be able to pull his brothers up the ramp. He was trying so hard.

They were wearing their ”This One, That One, The Other One” shirts (ordered from here) which I find hilarious and it makes it easy to tell who is who if you know their birth order. Which can be easier than remembering which shoes belong to which child.

Tuesday we kind of took it easy, only went grocery shopping. Something the boys still enjoy because they usually get a treat of some kind. This time was no different and they enjoyed their cookie.
Wednesday is still dad’s night out. Cody took the boys on an adventure. They rode Frontrunner downtown to TRAX and out to eat at Noodles and for a smoothie. I was at work, but Cody said the boys were so happy and loved the ride.
This morning we headed for the Park City outlets to get Cody some new shirts. Of course I also did some shopping for the boys. I was able to find some tall shirts for Cody (thank you Eddie Bauer). The boys of course did well with new pants, adjustable waistband jeans are a wonderful invention. I also picked up some new sneakers for them. They have trashed their current pair and it was time to move up to the next size. Since we are into size 9 it’s getting easier to find shoes that lace instead of velcro. Once we get out of toddler sizes it should be less of a search to find lace up shoes. I’m just hoping they don’t grow so fast that they can’t wear out this pair before we have to buy again.
I have no idea what the plans are for tonight, but hopefully we’ll get out to enjoy the nice weather. Tomorrow is Cody’s down Friday, so I’m sure we’ll find something exciting to do.
Saturday the boys and I are going to the zoo with my dad. We haven’t been to the zoo in a while due to the dinosaur display. The last time the boys saw life sized animated dinosaurs there was lots of screaming. Now that the dinosaurs are gone we should be able to enjoy the non-extinct animal displays without tears.

Camping weekend (quite a few pictures)

2011-09-12T09:29:00.001-07:00

After Cody got home from work on Thursday we loaded up the van and headed out to take the boys camping for the first time. Cody’s boss who is an avid camper/hunter/outdoorsman recommended a few local camp sites. The first night we went to Lodgepole campground in Heber Valley. We arrived as the sun was setting and were rushed to get the tent up. We attempted to sit by the fire pit for a little while before bed time, but the boys just wanted to play with lanterns and flashlights. This resulted in one broken lantern (the base of a plastic one) and more than a few skinned knees. We didn’t take any pictures that night. It was a rough night, the campground while nicely maintained is right along side a highway and nothing blocks the sounds of the road. All night we heard semi trucks going by. I don’t think anyone had a good night of sleep.
We were up early and in good spirits having already decided that we would find another camp site somewhere else for the night.

The only picture we took of the first campsite from outside.

We packed up early, we were up and out by 9:30 to grab some breakfast as the boys wanted nothing to do with the cereal bars I gave them. We headed for the second campground that was recommended at Smith and Morehouse. The new campground was beautiful and we found the perfect spot. It was at the end of the loop with a fence about 30 feet into the trees and a stream about 50 feet behind us. The fence kept the boys from running too far and the stream had a hill behind it so the boys couldn’t approach it without us knowing.

The second site.

The boys loved climbing around the trees and just plain running everywhere.

The boys had only slept for about 20 minutes on the drive to the campground so we let them run for about an hour and a half and attempted to put them down for a nap. Nap was a complete fail. We fought them for over a half hour and gave up. We got everyone dressed for a short walk.
About a half mile from the campsite is the Smith and Morehouse reservoir. Absolutely gorgeous.

On the walk we made another attempt to have the boys hold hands while walking. Something we’ve been trying to get the boys to do for a very long time. This time they were all over it.

Parker and Andrew walking while Nicholas stopped running away so he could join them.

As cute as this is from behind, I can’t help but smile at this.

They were not just smiling, but they were giggling uncontrollably the entire time. The were so excited and wouldn’t walk at all unless they were all together holding hands. Every once in a while they would stop and yell “1, 2, 3, go!” before running again.
After our walk we tried to get the boys to eat. Meals while camping were overall a disaster. The boys would not sit still long enough to eat anything substantial. They each at a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before they refused to sit down any longer. They spent hours running up and down the driveway to the campground.
I had planned to roast hotdogs, made tinfoil dinners and hd everything to make s’mores. The boys would have none of it. They were much more interested in seeing, touching and climbing on everything. They did each try a roasted marshmallow.

Of course I had to basically corner them to eat some, but they seemed to enjoy it. Then it was back to drumming on logs.

The boys were running out of steam by 7:30, which given the amount of running around and lack of nap we had already planned on an early bedtime. By 8 they were done. The boys slept in their peapods inside the tent and after putting them in their beds they crashed without a fight and slept for 13 hours. After the boys were down for the night, Cody and I relaxed for the first time on the trip. We enjoyed our tinfoil dinners and took in the peace and quiet.
Cody also took advantage of the time to get out his tripod and get take some shots. A favorite without the boys in it.

For the camera people, 30 second exposure, light painted with a flashlight . The moon was almost full and it was an amazing sight right behind the tent.

The boys slept so well, I was able to get up before them. The plan was to have a hot breakfast, pack up and head to the reservoir to look around.

I missed it but Cody watched an eagle fishing, the eagle didn’t catch a fish but he said it was cool to watch it skim the water in the attempt. We walked/ran along the reservoir and across the dam.

Parker has a tendency to lag behind. He likes to stop and look at everything. I was trying to get a picture of the boys with Cody and he was determined to stay about 50 feet behind his brothers. In an attempt to get him to catch up for a photo I asked Parker to give Nicholas a hug. It sort of worked.

Parker and Nicholas ran to hug each other, I love the big smile on Nicholas face when going in for the hug. Andrew was trying to get in on it as well, but wasn’t fast enough.

The boys cooperated for a couple of posed group shots before we headed back to the van.

On the way back to the van in an attempt to keep the boys together we requested more hand holding. The boys happily went along with it.

My favorite picture from the weekend.

We loaded up and headed home, we had a lot of fun and will be back. It was fun letting the boys experience camping for the first time, but it was very stressful. I remember camping being much more relaxing, like most activities adding three 2 years olds ups the stress level. Next year we plan to go back to the same site, hopefully by then the boys we’ll be a little easier to entertain or at least willing to sit still for more than 3 minutes.

Unplanned jammies day

2011-09-06T14:12:00.001-07:00

The boys have never objected to clothes or really cared much about what they wear. Every day we still let them choose what they want to wear. Unless there is a Thomas the Train shirt or a Cars shirt they don’t care what they end up in. This morning I went to change the boys out of their new jammies and Andrew had a meltdown. Last night we let the boys where their new Cars jammies and they didn’t want to take them off.

Nicholas also decided that his Thomas hat was required to complete the outfit.

This was the best group shot I got, the whole time asking them to look at me and generally making a fool of myself to get their attention. This is pretty much willful ignoring of me.
After each bum change I asked they were ready to get dressed for the day. Not a chance, they held tight to their ‘Queen’ pants until I put them back on. I resorted to bribery.

New Cars shirts! I bought them yesterday and I’m kind of wishing I would have bought a larger size, but these are 4t and they didn’t have 5t. They should still fit for our Disneyland trip next month.
We took down our last child gate over the weekend so the boys have free run of the house. They spent much of the morning running up and down the stairs just because they could. Everyone was willing to sit down together briefly, very briefly for a picture. They still however refused to look at me.

Then it was back to being little monkeys.

Leo is in there too, the most tolerant cat ever.

The boys are now sleeping, all that running must have worn them out. Time for me to clean up all of the toys or toddler debris as I call it.

Living planet Aquarium

2011-09-02T22:06:00.001-07:00

Thursday I renewed my membership to the aquarium since it is such a nice place to take the boys when it’s really hot out or in the winter. I was worried that it might be crowded, but much to my surprise it was fairly deserted. We spent about three hours looking at all of the fish, crabs, penguins, frogs, and snakes.

Nicholas, Andrew, Parker

The aquarium is pretty low light, so I had a hard time getting good pictures. That and I didn’t buckle the boys into their wagon until they stopped listening to me. For the first couple hours we’d look at a tank or display then I asked the boys to sit in their wagon, much to my surprise they listened. Everyone when back to their seats and waited for me to pull them to the next stop.
I picked out the boys outfits that day to make it easier to keep track of everyone, the boys didn’t mind. If their Cars shirts are clean they refuse to wear anything else.

The large coral reef tank was probably the favorite, Parker stood there for about 15 minutes pointing out the different colored fish and the ‘fish tunnels.’ Nicholas isn’t this much shorter than Parker, he was standing strangely on the ledge. We did a quick lap through the aquarium before heading to the new exhibit on animal super heroes. We watched them feed the archer fish and mud skippers. The boys (and I) got a kick out of watching the fish spit streams of water to knock their food out of the fake trees.
On a second lap around we stopped to play at the kids play area. I let the boys climb and run a little bit. For a half hour we were the only people in the area.

I loved that they kept looking at each other through the fish tanks and saying hi while waving. Andrew would also climb up to see Parker from above before telling him hello.
Thanks to the lack of crowd the boys had a lot of time to enjoy the shark tank. They became very excited every time the sea turtle would swim by.

After a half hour of letting them run around they decided to stop listening to me. They had listened and stayed with me for almost 2 hours so I wasn’t going to complain. I had to put my camera away because it was just too much to carry the diaper bag, pull the wagon and manage the camera. I did snap a quick shot with my phone to send to Cody.

The boys know they are penguins, but Parker decided that we’d call them fast water birds. It constantly amazes me how quickly the boys pick up new concepts. I know I didn’t say anything about birds, just calling them penguins.
After one quick run through the gift shop we were all ready to head home for nap time. We had such a good time I think we’ll go back next week hopefully with a few friends and their kiddos.

Where did the week go?

2011-08-31T14:59:00.001-07:00

It feels like the last week has flown by. We’ve been staying busy running errands and shopping. We are planning to take the boys camping for the first time and in the process of getting everything we think we’ll need. I’ve been camping quite a few times as a kid and as a teenager, Cody has only been camping once with my family a few years ago.
We bought a tent last year, a giant vinyl three bedroom one and never opened it. Cody’s boss is big on camping and convinced him that we needed a quality tent. So, he offered to pitch in (no pun intended) a little if we bought a Springbar tent. After looking at the Springbar tents we decided to go with one that has room for all of us and plenty of room to grow. It’s the kind of tent that should last for a very long time. Lucky for us we hadn’t even opened the other tent we bought (yes we are slackers) so we were able to return it thanks to Costco’s return policy.
In the last couple days we’ve also picked up the basics, camp stove, sleeping bags, lanterns. We still need to pick up a few more items like camp chairs, an air mattress, and some cookware. I’m really excited to go camping. We are going to try just going for an overnight this weekend and then try for a two night stay next week. I hope the boys will enjoy camping. I’m looking forward to having a couple days unplugged, hiking and letting the boys run around.
With all the running around I haven’t been taking as many photos as I should and we are finding it’s almost impossible to take pictures while wrangling free range toddlers. Safe to say that a lot of pictures will be taken while camping though, it’s much easier to take some photos when we are both there to manage.
I did snap a quick shot of the boys and Cody enjoying some ipad time. They love the ipad and ask for Thomas or Queen (Lightning McQueen) whenever they see it. Sorry it’s a poor quality cell phone shot, but still entertaining.

This is how they always react to the iPad, chanting 'touch, touch, touch’ the entire time.

Seven Canyons Fountain

2011-08-23T07:34:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Cody took the boys to play in the fountain at a local park. It’s called a fountain but it’s more of a splash and wading area. Unlike the splash pads we’ve visited, Cody said the boys had no hesitation before jumping in the water to play. They ran in and out of the water splashed constantly and even had a splash fight.

The Kindorkords were a life saver again. I think it’s time to teach the boys red light/green light or how to freeze, anything to stop the bolting away. Lately we not only have to watch the boys for running off but also for the look of planning to run. They had so much fun Cody is planning on taking them again tonight.

It’s too bad I missed out on the trip, so I’m hoping we can go again this weekend. Somehow I think the boys won’t mind.

Twins and a half

2011-08-19T15:08:00.001-07:00

Last night we took the boys to the local splash pad and playground to try and cool off and let them run off some energy. They took less time to warm up to playing in the water than last time. Parker especially was all over the splashing and running through the water.

Once again they spent most of their time playing in the smaller fountains and stuck close to each other. Cody even got in on the fun.

While the boys were walking through the water ‘tunnel’ I was asked if the boys were twins and a half. That’s one I’ve never heard, still not as good as triptuplets. I told him they are triplets, for some reason he became defensive telling me that’s what he meant and that either way we were outnumbered. Then he moved to another bench about 30 feet away.

The different fountains turn off and change in water pressure on some cycle I haven’t figured out yet. The boys tend to avoid the fountains that are shooting taller than their heads and take full advantage of the middle height ones.

An hour in we had our first allergic reaction of the day. We’ve known for a while now the boys are allergic to one of the ingredients in some types sunblock. We’ve found two (so far) that don’t result in hives, runny noses and eyes swelling shut. Since we used a non-reactive brand I don’t know if he reacted to sunblock in the water or if he brushed up against another kid. It makes me wonder if we’ll be able to take the boys to public pools in the future. If sunblock in the water is enough to cause a reaction we’ll either have to hope they grow out of it or Benadryl everyone before we go. Nicholas had a lesser reaction a little later. Good news is the hives faded after a half hour being out of the water.

Overall Andrew was much less excited about playing in the water, but he found one fountain he liked. He spent a good ten minutes stepping on, stomping around and kicking the jet of water.

After everyone was thoroughly soaked we moved to the playground to let the boys dry out a bit. I put the camera away since the playground is just a little to old for the boys so I was helping them climb. After running and climbing everywhere the boys inhaled dinner and crashed at bedtime.

Just sticking with the routine

2011-08-17T14:26:00.001-07:00

We have been home bodies the last week or so. I’ve been getting over a sinus infection and beyond taking some drives up the canyon not much has been going on. Well not much other than the usual chaos and activity that goes with having three two year olds.
The boys are becoming little chatter boxes. We still cannot always tell what they are saying, but they understand each other. It’s fun to see them talking to each other, pointing things out and asking for things. We did make one change with the boys last week, we decided to stop dressing them in their colors. Each day we let the boys pick out what they want to wear. Well they choose the shirt and we pair it with the matching pants.
It has made for some very confusing days. Some days the boys will request what outfit they want to wear. My personal favorite was when Nicholas asked for the ‘adorable turtle shirt.’ How can you say no to that?
Since I’ve always bought clothes in sets of 3 coordinating outfits and when possible in the colors, it means we have adjusted to one child always wearing the same outfit making it easy to identify them even when we don’t have a chance to see his face clearly. Safe to say we’ve flubbed names a couple times. In the last week we’ve had days where Andrew and Nicholas are wearing red (Parker’s color) and Parker in green. Only once have they chosen to wear clothing in their color which makes me think it was a good time to move away from the color system.
I’m sure we’ll still dress them by color when we spend time with friends and family who don’t get to spend as much time with the boys as we do, at least until the boys are old enough to clearly identify themselves. Right now when someone asks the boys their names. Andrew and Parker both point to Nicholas and say Nick. They have only ever volunteered his name.

More hiking

2011-08-08T22:55:00.001-07:00

Since the boys had so much fun at City Creek we decided to try another trail on Saturday. We had a bit of a late start so we just went up to Mueller Park. It’s a fairly easy trail with a steady incline, the trail is closed after a mile and a half due to construction of a pipeline. That was fine with us since we had no plan to climb all the way to the top.
We climbed for just over a mile, this trail was a little bit trickier than City Creek. It has a steeper climb and the trail narrows in some places down to about 2 feet wide. In some places the edge of the trail drops off steeply into trees or water. It made me pretty nervous and we held the boys hands in those areas. The boys tripped a fair number of times on rocks or just uneven ground, but I’ve watched them trip on smooth level ground. No one was hurt and they were much more upset about the dirt on their hands than falling. Because we were watching and helping the boys navigate the path the only pictures I took were when we got to the top of our climb.

I’m so glad at least Cody will look at the camera.

Don’t they look super excited to be here?

The way down was a challenge and nerve wracking. The path has a large number of rocks on it and we were worried the boys would fall hurt themselves. Cody walked in front keeping the boys from running and I walked behind telling them almost constantly to walk and help them up when someone tripped. Once we made it back to the parking area we help the boys climb down to the edge of the creek where they had a great time splashing and stomping in the water. We made it home for a quick lunch and not surprisingly they took a nice long nap.
We decided to stay with the hiking theme for the day and headed up to Snowbird. We walked around for a while and then took the tram up to the top. Parker and Nicholas really enjoyed looking out the windows on the ride. Andrew cried the entire time. I felt bad for the other people on the tram, nothing worse than being trapped in an enclosed space with a screaming toddler.
At the top we walked around for a while took some pictures and tried to cheer Andrew up. He eventually calmed down, right up until we had to get back in the tram to head down. This time I held him, we grabbed the ‘emergency towel’ from the diaper bag (yes the boys still love their towels) and tried to keep him quiet. After a few minutes of fussing I gave him my sunglasses to wear and he was fine. I wish we’d have tried that on the way up. It was another quick meal and the boys fell asleep without a single peep. I love when they fall asleep with out fussing, it makes me feel like we’ve done something right.

Kangaroo Zoo

2011-08-08T13:46:00.001-07:00

It keeping with the busy weekend theme we seem to have each weekend. Friday night Cody met me in the driveway with the boys already loaded up to go to Kangaroo Zoo. It was our first time to take the boys to any bounce house playground other than Wild Child. Wild Child is quite a bit smaller, but that means it can be managed by just one parent. Kangaroo Zoo definitely is not a one parent place.
I was a little worried about how big some of the inflatables are and the climbing. It turns out I had no reason to be concerned. The boys quickly warmed up to even the largest of the slides. It was hard to take pictures while we were there due to the the dimness of the lights and the boys running non-stop. Please excuse the blurriness of some pictures the boys were moving fast.

After looking through all of the pictures I took it looks like I ended up with a lot of pictures of the boys climbing. Probably because it was the only time they were in one place for more than 20 seconds.

It took a few tries for the boys to get the hang of climbing and using the handhelds. As soon as they got it though there was stopping them. One slide I wasn’t so sure about because of just how big it is, it’s three stories tall and fairly steep. At first I was worried that they would get to the top and not want to come down. Since parents can’t go on the inflatables we’d be in trouble if someone decided not to come down on his own. Luckily they were fearless.

Parker had a little trouble climbing up the first time. Cody and I stood at the bottom cheering him on. Since he was leading the charge if he had slipped it would have looked like bowling with toddlers. Taking pictures of the boys coming down the slide provided to be a big challenge. With the covers over the slide it was extra dark and the boy flew down the slide. We also couldn’t see them from the bottom so we had no idea what side the boys would be coming down. I got lucky once and caught Andrew on the way down with Parker waiting and watching from the top.

After about two hours of not stop running we took a short break at the kid sized tables.

Which quickly became chair stacking.

Can I just ask where my little toddlers went, they are looking so much older.

They were done after about another half hour of playing. There is a frozen yogurt place next door where the boys enjoyed some chocolate, vanilla and raspberry pomegranate yogurt while watching Spongebob. Since the place is so large I don’t know when we’ll be back because there are too many other things we’d like to do as a family and the boys are at least a year away from being given free reign there.

City Creek Canyon

2011-08-08T11:04:00.001-07:00

We have been keeping busy and hopefully getting the boys ready for a lot of walking on our next Disney trip. Thursday after Cody got home we loaded up the boys for a drive up City Creek Canyon. It was completely not what we were expecting, but we still had a great time. I expected a parking area and a trail to walk up, instead it was a long slow drive up the canyon on a fairly narrow road. At the top we did get out and followed the trail up to the creek crossing. The trail was only about 3/4 of a mile up to the creek. We didn’t feel like wading through the water so we turned around.

On the way up the boys pointed out all the trees, rocks, bugs and logs and flowers. Along the trail we came across some recently cut logs that the boys decided were the most exciting thing up there. We drummed on them, we climbed on them and of course posed for some pictures.

On the way back down the hill Nicholas and Parker ran ahead with Cody. Andrew hung back a little to look at the flowers and eventually decided to take a rest on a rock on the middle of the trail. He sat down an immediately started waving and saying bye bye to Daddy and his brothers.

The boys had such a good time walking the trails I’m sure we’ll be back and looking for other trails to take the boys on.

The back of their heads

2011-08-04T13:49:00.001-07:00

Looking through pictures of the boys I find that Cody and I have both taken a lot of pictures of the back of the boys heads as they run from us. Whenever we let the boys run free the first thing they do is run away at full speed. We’ve tried to get pictures of them running towards us, but as soon as you get in front of them they stop and either turn around and go the other way or split in three separate directions.
Cody took the boys up the canyon to run around a little in the slightly cooler air. You can see that unless distracted by something really cool like throwing rocks at a tree they just keep going. Cody was using his super zoom lens so it’s hard to tell just how far ahead they were running.

Picnic at Wheeler Farm

2011-08-02T15:44:00.001-07:00

This afternoon the boys and I met some of my friends from the local triplet mom’s group at Wheeler Farm to see the animals and have a picnic lunch. The boys walked with the Kinderkords until lunch time. They were a bit overwhelmed by the geese who were just a little to up close and personal. I wasn’t able to take pictures until we stopped thankfully in the shade. I can’t wait for fall, the 90 degree heat and 50% humidity is just to much for me. As soon as I disconnected the kords the boys ran in three separate directions.

Nicholas was about 20 feet behind me.

We stopped to see the goats, chickens, pigs, a calf and some bunnies. The boys were not over excited by the bunnies. After only a couple minutes Nicholas stated waving and saying bye bye bunnies and pulling me away. I think as a whole the boys were more interested in watching the other kids than the animals. In total we had 5 moms with their triplets age 3 and under, so we blended in really well as usual.
Lunch time was a nice rest in the shade. I was the only one whose kids sat in the wagon to eat, they weren’t buckled in and were happy to eat their sandwiches and some fruit.

After lunch all of the kids ran to play at the nearby playground, sadly it was a little to old for most of the kids. The big slide which the boys normally would love could only be reached by climbing up a ladder. There was still plenty of exploring to do.

The tunnel was a hit with my boys and Angie’s kiddos.

Eventually Andrew grew bored with the playground and decided to play with the wagon instead. I was impressed that he went straight for our wagon and left all of the others alone. He ended up pulling Nicholas around for about 10 minutes.

By 1:30 we had a fair number of cranky kids ready for naps. We quickly set up for a group shot.

I love spending time with the other MoMs, it’s a great way to pick up tips and compare notes. As an added bonus almost no one asks questions beyond are they all triplets. If the heat keeps up I think the next get together will be at a splash pad or we’ll set up a bunch of little pools in a back yard.

New park

2011-07-31T21:19:00.001-07:00

We found a new park to take the boys to play at. It’s huge with a big playground, paved paths, trails through trees and a small amphitheater. We’ve been there a couple times before when the boys were still to young to really enjoy the playground and the space to run. Cody took the boys today while I was at work. He took a fair number of pictures and video that he’s working on editing and one video with his phone.
In the two hours at the park they only saw one other person. Safe to say the boys had no trouble falling asleep at nap time.

One on one time

2011-07-31T21:10:00.001-07:00

It was probably way past time that we started doing this, but Friday we officially started a setting up one on one time activities with the boys. Up to this point the only one on one time we’ve had has been at Dr. appointments of which there have been few with just one child.
So with Cody’s down Friday we decided that everyone was going to get some alone time with Dad and next down Friday everyone would get alone time with Mom. With the use of a random.org Parker was chosen to have the first outing with Dad. They went to get an oil change. Not the most exciting adventure, but they had a good time eating a powdered donut. Sadly I only have camera phone pictures.

Apparently he was excited and a little apprehensive about the car being lifted off the ground. While they were getting the oil changed I took Nicholas and Andrew to pick up some groceries. I was able to use a shopping cart and still use the basket of the cart.

While Target has shopping carts that two boys can ride in, I remembered why I don’t normally get groceries here. The selection isn’t what I’m used to and the aisles are much to narrow for me to take the choo choo wagon through.
After this first round of errands everyone met at home for lunch and nap time. Round two was Nicholas going to the pet store for cat food. Andrew and Parker went with me to the pharmacy and for a few items I couldn’t get at Target.
Round three was Andrew going out to dinner at Rumbi for a rice bowl while the rest of us ate dinner at home.

We learned that we probably should have started doing this much earlier. There was a lot of fussing, screaming and asking for Mommy/Daddy and brothers. As soon as Cody left with Parker I had a half hour of “Where Daddy go?” and “Where Parker?” A scene that was repeated each time.
It was fun to take the boys out and give them a little more individual attention. I have to admit it was nice to not get stopped constantly to be asked if the boys were triplets and all the other questions that go along with it. The boys were really well behaved for both of us and quickly got over missing the other parent or sibling(s) when confronted with donuts, cookies or sweet potato fries. It was a big reality check for just how busy we usually are with all three boys compared to what it’s like with just one or two at a time. I can’t wait for my turn to take the boys out solo. I’m sure we’ll run some equally exciting errands.

Splash pad fun

2011-07-23T14:48:00.001-07:00

Before nap time today we took the boys to check out the new local splash pad. With Cody there to give them an example of what to do they actually got wet and had fun doing it. First they got a good look at where the water comes from.

Got their hands wet.

Then they got into the fun of splashing.

After about an hour the boys announced “all done” and “bye bye water.”

Home just in time for lunch and naps. We also looked at the playground behind the splash pad. It looks great, I really like that it has canopies over it so it won’t get so hot. We’ll certainly be back to play.

Wheeler Farm

2011-07-22T13:57:00.001-07:00

When we can we like to take the boys out to do something outside or somewhere they can run around after Cody gets home from work. It give them a chance to run off some energy and with any luck see something new. Last night we headed out to Wheeler Farm, the boys haven’t been to the farm since March. On that visit they stayed in their wagon almost the whole time. If I let them out of the wagon they fought over who got to pull the wagon. No wagon this time.

I used my phone to track how much walking or running around while we were there. I walked just over 2 miles so the boys probably did closer to 2.25 since they run back and forth everywhere. As soon as we arrived we spotted some roosters and geese. Nicholas wasn’t a huge fan of the geese at first. He was okay with them as long as they were on the other side of the fence. Andrew and Parker were happy to look at the geese while holding hands. So cute!

Andrew reached out for Nicholas’ hand but he wasn’t interested.

We stopped to see the flowers, very briefly stopped.

Nicholas was first to discover the playhouse. Safe to say he was excited about it.

Even with animals and open fields to run through the boys favorite part by far was all of the old tractors. They all climbed on and ‘drove’ them. As a sign as just how far the assigned color brainwashing is, in one field there was a red, blue and green(mostly) tractor. The boys went to the wagon of their color immediately. At least they didn’t fight.

After these tractors we took the boys to see the goats, rabbits and the cows. Of course opposite of the rabbits were more tractors. It was no contest as to what the boys wanted to see.

We left as the mosquitoes came out, with three tired little boys. I’m sure we’ll be back again soon for more exploring.

Riverdale splash pad

2011-07-21T15:01:00.001-07:00

Yesterday the boys and I met some extended family at the splash pad and park in Riverdale. The boys enjoyed the playgrounds, but they spent most of the time hanging out with the family. The boys, especially Nicholas, immediately warmed up to my cousin Susan. They even ran from me to go hold her hands.
The boys again made it seem like we don’t feed them as they spent most of the time eating. Eating from the plates I made for them, eating food off of the other adults plates and diving into the fruit containers. They got to enjoy their first capri sun juice pouches. Eat a bunch of cookies and try other new foods.

I didn’t take the camera while the boys were playing on the playground, but I did try to get a couple pictures at the splash pad. The boys wanted nothing to do with the water. I don’t know if it was because it was crowded and they didn’t have a chance to ease their way in or just not wanting to get wet.

There was a lot of standing around the edge of the splash area watching the other kids playing. If they were not standing and watching they were running around the fence chasing each other. You can almost sense their lack of excitement at being at the splash pad.

After our attempt at playing in the water we went back to the tables for round two of the eating.

We did get all of the kids together for one big group picture. It’s crazy to think that all of these kids are the grandchildren of my second cousins. Making them fourth cousins I think and of course not one of them looking at the camera.

I had fun catching up with my family. The boys seemed to enjoy it as well. I think my secret is out on how I manage three two year olds. The boys were as mellow and easy going as they usually are. I don’t mean they were complete angels, they did run away from me a couple times and well acted like two year olds. I think we are going to try taking the boys to a different splash pad this week, with luck we can get the boys to play in the water instead of just near it.

Still alive and kicking

2011-07-15T14:55:00.001-07:00

I’m getting behind on blogging. It has been a busy week with some family drama. The drama threw off our normal day to day schedule. Really threw a wrench into Cody and my sleeping schedule (I guess we are too old to stay up to 2 am on a week night). Luckily the boys schedule wasn’t disrupted.

The boys are talking much more than previously, it’s as if they suddenly decided to speak up. Cody asked the boys what they wanted to do for the night while I was at work. Andrew told him, “bicycle ride.” They love going on bike rides. It’s been wonderful for Cody to be able to take all three on his bike.

Two ride in the trailer and they take turns sitting in the bike seat.

Wednesday night Cody took the boys out to eat at Noodles downtown. While driving the Trax train turned down the street, the boys insisted that he “catch train.”

We’ve had some changes around here too. The boys have been introduced to Hot Wheels. Cody bought them each a Lightning McQueen car and an assortment of normal cars. We quickly learned that we’ll need three of each car or at least similarly colored ones. Their new cars have been driven on every surface in the house the boys can reach.

Another introduction this week was using the potty. Originally I didn’t want to get potty chairs, because, well, I didn’t want to wash out potty chairs. Not having a bathroom on the main floor though it’s the only option to let all three sit on the potty at the same time and not leave the other two running wild through the house unsupervised.

We’re not pushing potty training, just introducing the concept. We’ve been sitting the boys on the potty a couple times a day (first thing in the morning, after nap, before bed) and if they go we clap and cheer. If they don’t we thank them for trying. So far Parker has gone almost every time. I think he gets it, but we need to work on him telling us when he needs to go. With luck Andrew and Nicholas will catch up with Parker in using the potty. Someday we’ll be done with diapers and that will be a very exciting day.

More 4th of July pictures

2011-07-08T13:47:00.001-07:00

Cody gave the okay to include pictures of him here. I wasn’t in any pictures, hiding behind the camera to avoid becoming involved in the water fights. Well most of them at least. The boys really got a kick out of shooting the water guns at their dad. I promise he’s laughing in this picture.

I still can’t believe Cody could fit himself into the fish pool.

The small pools were filled with warm water from the house, so they felt like bath water. The boys were pretty happy just sitting in them and playing with the ducks and other water toys. Our niece decided that she preferred the warm water and stayed in the little pool for most of the afternoon. Or at least until she found out how much fun the slide is on someone’s lap.

The boys (for the most part) could climb up the slide on their own. I can’t believe how big they are now and how good they are at climbing.

I’m glad the boys warmed up to the water toys. I’m sure this won’t be the last time this summer everyone gets together to play.

4th of July

2011-07-07T15:41:00.001-07:00

For the holiday weekend we stayed busy. Cody had a 4 day weekend so we took advantage of him being home. On Friday we took boys to the children’s museum and were very disappointed in the new Play exhibit. It was sort of lame and dangerous for small kids. The idea is to make games life sized, so they had giant pool table balls and 5 ft tall dominos. Sounds cool, but the pool balls were heavy solid fiberglass that could have crushed a toddler. The dominos were being used to build a tunnel that older kids were knocking down as younger children walked through. It was pretty crowded, but the boys enjoyed playing with the legos and stacking toys.
Saturday I took the boys out to give Cody some time to work on a project. We went shopping to pick up some snacks and to a recreation site. We sat at picnic tables for lunch and walked around a little before heading to a playground. I found a wonderful playground for the boys, 5 slides, no drop offs and in the shade. The boys climbed and slid down slides until it was time to leave for nap time.
After nap we met Cody’s sister and family for dinner then went to the park to play and feed the ducks. It’s great to see the boys playing with their cousins. Luckily Cody’s sister brought bread for the ducks (something I didn’t even think about). Next time I’ll bring plenty for everyone since the kids had so much fun throwing the bread. The walk from one end of the park and back was a long walk and the boys were exhausted by the time we got back to the van.
Cody and I both took pictures and some video at the park, but I haven’t looked through them yet.
Sunday I worked (as usual) which is always fun. After work we set up the kiddie pool and water tables to let the boys play and hopefully get them a little more used to playing in the pool outside to prepare them for the 4th. For the holiday the plan was to head to Cody’s parents house to let the kids play in the pools and on the water slide.
The boys were a little timid at first but eventually warmed up to playing with the water.

The slide was pretty hit and miss. Parker was the only one who could or would climb to the top and go down by himself. Nicholas climbed up on his own once and didn’t really enjoy going down. The boys eventually learned that the slide can be a lot of fun riding on daddy’s lap.

Grandma bought a bunch of squirters for the boys to play with. They love squirting all of the adults.

I have some entertaining pictures of the boys shooting water at Cody and their aunt, but as a rule I don’t post pictures of other peoples families or in their swimsuits online. In addition to all of the squirt guns and the pools there were also a ton of rubber duckies. Parker was hilarious with the ducks. Many comments were made about putting his ducks in a row.

After about 3 hours of swimming, splashing, squirting and some water fights. We had a nice dinner outside where the kids loaded up on cookies and rice crispy treats.
The kids tossed pop-its and we all settled down to watch some fireworks. I was worried that the boys were be terrified and at first they were none to happy about the noise. By the time we were done they were whoa’ing and wow’ing each fountain. Hopefully next year they will be ready for sparklers.
We got home really late and the boys crashed, so did we. I’m glad the fireworks went over well since we have another firework holiday coming up in a couple weeks.

Time to get the boys their own hats

2011-07-02T14:59:00.001-07:00

In the last couple weeks the boys have started showing interest in wearing hats. They have their train conductor hats and an assortment of winter hats. Cody recently bought a new hat for himself and given the boys excitement over it. I think we need to go get them some little Utes caps.

Dads is just a little to big for them right now.

More water table fun

2011-06-30T14:39:00.001-07:00

Monday night while I was at work Cody filled up the water table and let the boys cool themselves off. Of course the boys had a great time sloshing water all over their shirts, pants and each other. We’ve also decided that the sand and water table is going to be just the water and water table for the time being. The boys fling the sand everywhere and carry it to the other water table.

Cody used a 5 gallon bucket to fill the tables this time instead of the hose, so the game quickly became filling the bucket up from the tables.

After plenty of time playing in the water the boys got to run around in the front yard. Over the weekend a neighbor had a birthday party and had lots of helium balloons left over, so the boys each got a balloon. They love balloons.

Being super dad, Cody let the boys run out all of their energy. Fed them dinner and even had them bathed and in bed on time.

Impromptu photo shoot

2011-06-29T12:35:00.001-07:00

Since Cody added another seat to his bike he has been taking the boys out to the park or just on a ride almost every night while I’m at work. Last night he took them out to the Legacy Parkway trail and stopped for some pictures in one of the parking lots.

It looks like it was a beautiful sunset and that the boys were having fun.

Our not so little anymore climbers.

Safe to say some of this are going to be framed and added to our photo wall.

Hugs!

2011-06-28T13:41:00.001-07:00

We have found the best way to get the boys to come to us. It’s pretty simple we just get down on their level and ask for hugs. They come running every time.

There’s one.

There’s two.

All three.

I’m really enjoying this age. I’m sure time will fly by and before we know it the boys won’t want to run to hug us.

Reading time

2011-06-27T15:44:00.001-07:00

Usually a couple times a day the boys will sit down together to ‘read’ some books. They love pointing out everything to me and each other.

This went on for about a half hour.

North Shore Aquatic Center

2011-06-24T14:53:00.001-07:00

This afternoon I met an old friend at the North Shore splash pad and pool for some fun in the sun. We had a lot of fun, I’m so lucky that the boys are well behaved and for the most part listen to me.

After spreading out our towels we headed for the pool. The boys sure show their personalities at the pool. Parker was the first to head in, Andrew a little behind him and carefully watching everything. Nicholas stepped in the water up to his ankles twice and that was it.

Parker and Andrew

The both showed some interest in the slide, but it was crowded and the didn’t get to fully inspect it. Despite trying to see it from all angles. Maybe next time.

Nicholas from where he spent his time, at the edge of the water.

Parker went up to his waist in the water, the deepest of everyone. The pool only goes up to 1.6 feet.

This is the most water Nicholas was willing to get involved in, all of the boys spent a while playing with this little fountain. The smallest fountain available.

I’m glad the boys had fun. At least there were no major meltdowns. On the 4th we are going to play with an inflatable water slide with the family. I’m hoping I can get them to go down that slide.

Portrait session

2011-06-22T12:53:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday Cody had a portrait session with some friends and their kids. He had just over an hour in a park with them. For having less time than he’d like, I think he got some great shots. The only downside was because they were short on time they didn’t have a chance to play with the boys. Natalie (the mom) is a regular babysitter for us and usually a couple of the kids come with her. The boys love to play with them. He took some traditional family shots. Of course he also ended up with a fair number of outtakes, it’s apparently really hard to get 5 people to smile look at or near the camera all at the same time.

Some fun shots of the kids.

She’s such a cutie.

He also was able to do individual shots of the kids, but ran out of time to take picture of the parents. He’d like another chance to get pictures of the just two of them.

I can’t believe how grown up he looks now (I’m starting to feel old).

Cody had a good time and said he learned a lot and can’t wait to do more photo sessions. Now that he’s done his first photos of non-family members he’s given me the okay to schedule some shoots for him. I’m really excited to see him taking photos because he enjoys it so much.

First play date at our house

2011-06-21T14:46:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we invited Kristina and her girls over to play. I was excited to see Carlee’s reaction to all of the trains at our house. She’s a Thomas fan. It was cute that she decided that all of the blue engines were Thomas and all the green Percy. The boys kept saying “No, Edward” or “No, Gordon” when she called them Thomas. It looks like we need to spend more time on learning to share, the boys were not to happy about their favorite engines being played with.
They all played with the trains, trucks and cars in the play room.

Of course the girls favorite ‘toy’ was Leo. At first they were a little apprehensive about him. He’s a big cat and they’d never met him. It didn’t take long for the girls to shower him with attention.

Luckily Leo is a very tolerant kitty.

We also played outside for a little while and Kristina watched everyone while I made lunch.

It was fun to have them over. I’m really looking forward to when the boys start playing with each other and other kids instead of just near them. I’m still trying to set up a play date each week. Next week Roxy and her kiddos will be coming over. Since they know all the trains name it’ll be fun to watch.

Still busy

2011-06-15T13:28:00.001-07:00

It seems like we’ve been going non stop for almost a week now. Last Friday was the monthly girls night out with the local triplet moms. We went to on mom’s house and watched a movie and just chatted. It’s so much fun to spend time with the other moms, it’s great to spend time with people who know exactly some of the challenges and the joys I’ve experienced.
Saturday we spent the morning at home and headed for Ikea after nap time to get some shelves for the playroom. I love walking around Ikea, it gives me lots of ideas and makes me wish I had any talent in decorating. We really need to make a list of what we could use and take a camera with us to the store. We ended up only buying the shelves we went for, which is a first.
Sunday I had my normal shift at work. As soon as I got home we headed out to a park and out to dinner. The boys did great at the playground. It was a much larger one than we usually go to and crowded. Everyone took turns and even went down the big slide. They loved the merry-go-round and I’m sure we’ll be back. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, somewhere we haven’t gone since the boys were still in infant carriers.
The food was great and there was a lot of it. The boys were hilarious with the bread, they serve a dark brown bread that the boys kept calling chocolate. They were asking for chocolate bread through the whole meal. The boy tried corn dogs for the second time and they were a hit. After each bite Nicholas’ eye would go wide and he had a big grin.
Monday the boys had a play date with Roxy’s kids (also triplets). The boys officially have a more active social life than me. I’m trying to set up at least one play date a week if not more. Hopefully it will help the boys get over the shyness they have around people. Of course at some point we’ll have to explain that not all kids come in sets of three.
Sadly I forgot to take my camera so I didn’t get any pictures of the cuteness. Roxy’s kids are about 4 months older than the boys. Her kiddos are also Thomas the Train fans so everyone played with trains and cars. We also spent a little time outside playing and watched some Thomas on TV. I can’t wait to have them come over to play at our house. I think they’ll love all the trains we have to play with.
As we were getting ready to leave I asked Andrew to give Parker a hug, they both ignored me. Roxy’s Reese listened though and gave Parker a hug and a kiss. Reese is such a little doll, it was adorable. It still throws me off seeing kids the boys age because the boys are usually bigger than the other kids. Reese is a petite little girl about 8 lbs lighter and 5 inches shorter than Parker making him look huge next to her. I look forward to more play dates in the future.

A nice long walk

2011-06-11T13:59:00.001-07:00

Thursday night we took the boys out to Gateway and decided to go without strollers or Kinderkords. The boys did really well, but we need to work on them staying with us. We ended up walking 1.5 miles (I was tracking it with my phone), ensuring the boys would be ready for bedtime. When we got there the boys had to go see the trolley trains and we had to walk by the cookie store. Cody commented that maybe they won’t remember. I’m learning that there are few things the boys forget, especially when it comes to cookies.

They enjoyed a peanut butter and chocolate and a double chocolate cookie. Fueled up on sugar it was time to run.

There is a great area of the mall that has only one exit that the boys can use. It is a great place to let them run around a bit and let Cody drink his coffee. While there we didn’t go in any stores other than for cookies or coffee, we are not ready to let them loose in a store. They can do plenty of damage to displays even when in a stroller.

The boys are still not ready to get to close to the dancing fountains, but they do enjoy the smaller fountains and trying to get away with climbing on the rocks.

We did find one area with some large steps not surrounded by water and the boys spent about 20 minutes just climbing up and down. They were having so much fun. Who knew a couple stairs could be so entertaining.

No visit is complete without saying hello to the giant bears outside of Build a Bear. We didn’t go in, at least not as a group. Parker broke away from the pack and made it inside, he has mastered grabbing a new toy as quickly as he is made to put one back. That’s what we get for going without strollers when all of the stores have their doors propped open.

By the time we got back to the car the boys were ready to be home. We watched for trains and trolleys the whole way home.

Love that we have a neighborhood park

2011-06-10T16:55:00.001-07:00

The weather has been wonderful in the last week and we’ve enjoyed letting the boys run off energy. On nights I’m at work Cody often heads for the park down the street. The boys run up and down the hills, play on the playground and just have a wonderful time. Cody took all of the picture in black and white, I love the effect.

I can’t believe just last year we’d have to help the boys up the stairs and set them down the slide. Now they do it all by themselves.

That’s Nicholas going up the stairs and Andrew coming down the slide, note the ever present tongue sticking out. It’s going to be a fun summer.

Flash back Friday

2011-06-09T21:43:00.001-07:00

A picture of the boys from last October at our neighborhood park.

Nicholas, Parker, Andrew

Same park last Sunday.

Andrew, Nicholas, Parker

I find it amazing just how fast they grow and that putting wood chips on seats is just as entertaining.

Play date at Wild Child

2011-06-08T22:41:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I met a friend and her girls at Wild Child for a play date. We lucked out and had the place to ourselves the whole time we were there. The boys are big enough now to do almost everything by themselves. The only thing they can’t quite do is climb onto the obstacle course. All six kiddos ran around and had a great time. I wasn’t able to take a bunch of pictures because I was in the bouncers with the boys or breaking up toy disputes.
The boys discovered the drinking fountains for the first time. Luckily they are not tall enough to attempt to get their mouths to the spout, but they did do some splashing.

It didn’t take long for Nicholas and Parker to work together. Parker would press the button and Nicholas would divert the stream splashing them both. It took a fair amount of work to get the boys to go back to play in the bouncers. I couldn’t get the boys to hold still and look at me, but Kristina had a secret weapon. A camera with a light on the front.

The boys love cameras. I wonder where that comes from. A room full of toys and all the boys want to do is look at a camera.

I didn’t think to get a group picture, after two and a half hours though everyone was tired and ready to go home. I’m sure we’ll be back. After they start their punch card deal back up. Stung a little paying full price this time. With kids being this happy though we can’t not go back.

Water and sand tables

2011-06-07T14:02:00.001-07:00

With the weather being nice for a few days we (Cody) set up the water and sand tables the boys got for their birthday. At first they were not sure what to do with them, but it didn’t take long for the splashing, digging and getting messy to start.

Andrew, Nicholas, Parker

Sand was shoveled.

Water was poured.

Of course there was splashing.

After an hour or so of playing the boys were soaked and filthy.

It’s a good thing they love bath time. This adventure also confirmed that the boys are allergic to the sunscreen we’ve been using. We found a sensitive skin version that doesn’t have the same active ingredients, so far no reactions.

More flower pictures

2011-06-06T14:12:00.001-07:00

Some additional pictures from our backyard turned out to be a great way to explain how to tell the boys apart from each other.

Andrew has a slightly narrower face than Parker. His cheeks are a little less full and he’s the one that usually has the most mischievous smile.

Parker has a longer face and much fuller cheeks than his brothers. He also has a larger gap between his front teeth.

Nicholas overall is smaller than his brothers, just under an inch shorter and still about 3 pounds lighter. So his cheeks are less full and has the narrowest face. When he catches up in size to his brothers I think he’s going to look more like Andrew.

Healthy again (lots and lots of pictures)

2011-06-03T16:22:00.001-07:00

After a month of coughing the boys are healthy again. It took 3 weeks to get the boys doctor to prescribe antibiotics and their cold to turn into pneumonia. After a week of medication and being stuck in the house we were excited to go outside a play yesterday.
First activity in the back yard was to play with the dirt Cody just used to fill in one of our curbed areas. They made him so proud playing in the dirt.

After getting a bit dirty they moved onto playing with their bubble mowers. Cody took one of his soft boxes outside and took pictures of the boys as they walked past.

Parker and Nicholas

Andrew

The boys were is such great moods we all had fun playing. It was easy to get a smile from everyone, but not as easy to get anyone to hold still in front of the light to get a picture. I tossed some flowers in front of the light in an attempt to get the boys to hold still for just a moment.

It didn’t take long for the boys to become interested in the flowers so we moved the picture taking to them. So much cuteness. Of course the boys being boys smelling and picking the flowers quickly turning into a flower fight. It was mainly everyone pelting Daddy with flowers while he took pictures.

Gathering ammo.

I got in on the flower fight as well, but only to sprinkle flowers on the boys to get some smiles. It worked really really well. We also took individual pictures. I’ll save those for another post.

Normally I’d feel bad about stripping all of the flowers off of the tree, but it’s growing through the fence and we are going to be cutting it back anyway. The plant carnage.

I’m so happy that everyone is feeling better now. The weather seems to have finally decided that it is summer and I can’t wait to take the boys out to play.

Day out with Thomas

2011-05-28T20:49:00.001-07:00

Thursday we took the boys to see Thomas, well at least a full sized version of him. We’ve been looking forward to this for months. Cody left work a couple hours early so we could make the drive up to the rail station. The boys have been fighting a cold for a few weeks now, so they were subdued. I could rant about the issue we’ve been having with our former pediatrician, but I’ll spare you.
We arrived about an hour early to look around. There were multiple tents set up for storytellers, train tables, temporary tattoos, Sir Topham Hatt and of course a large gift shop. The boys were cranky, really cranky.

We spent a fair amount of time looking through the gift shop. We bought the boys each a conductor’s hat, something we’ve been looking to purchase for a while and a poster to hang in the play room. The boys were terrified of Topham Hatt, but spent some time playing with all the train sets.

Despite the crankiness everyone was pretty happy to board the train. They had decorated the cars with banners and pictures of different engines. The conductor went down the aisles giving all of the kids a junior conductor certificate. During the ride they played a short story that encouraged everyone to participate. The boys were pretty excited and a bit surprised to hear Thomas coming over the speakers.

It was a 30 minute train ride afterwards we walked through the hay lined path and over to wait in line to have our picture taken with Thomas.

There was no way the boys would stand alone for a picture, face the camera and stay together. Cody and I took turns posing for pictures.

In the pictures with me I’m the only one smiling, Parker and Nicholas are crying. They were so done for the day. We plan on going next year, where hopefully no one is sick. We already have the hats.

Milk and crackers

2011-05-26T12:41:00.001-07:00

The boys have long been fans of graham crackers, but recently they saw Cody eating his dipped in milk. Of course they had to try it.

It was an instant favorite.

Now they always ask for milk with their crackers at least from me. From Cody they have refused to eat them without being given milk as well. They are such characters.

Memory Grove

2011-05-23T15:01:00.001-07:00

Saturday was a nice break from the rain, so we took the boys to Memory Grove to let them run off some energy. I took my camera to attempt to get some pictures. It was such a nice day and it was great to see people out enjoying the spring weather. We also saw at least a dozen people doing photo shoots. A few families, brides, kids and lots of couples. Next time go Cody plans to take some lighting gear for portraits.
It was hard to get the boys to hold still for pictures with so many hills and stairs to climb.

Taking pictures quickly became a game of trying to get in front of the boys and catch them on their way to the next spot to play.

We did find a log bench that the boys sat on long enough for us to take a group picture. Parker was way too interested in the people walking by to look at the camera.

The boys favorite thing to do ended up being climbing up a hill and running down it. I was so nervous that someone would fall at the bottom.

We had a great time walking around. It was adorable watching the boys follow Daddy.

When Cody got too far ahead of them, usually because they stopped to look at a dog, he would crouch down and ask for hugs. The boys would go running, they love their Daddy.

Wild Children

2011-05-19T21:02:00.001-07:00

Tonight we went to Wild Child to let the boys run off some energy. I think we’ve reached just about the perfect age for this place or at least they are not to young for everything. The boys really have the hang of the bouncers now. They ran, jumped and slid down everything. I’ve noticed especially lately that the boys have something in common with their uncle. They stick their tongues out when concentrating.

Shot was just a little to late, but it’s hard to catch running jumping kids.

Wild Child has three bouncers: the toddler one, the moon bounce with attached slide and the obstacle course. The toddler bouncer is great for the boys to run around and be crazy.

The moon bounce isn’t great for pictures due to the netting, but the slide is always a hit. For the first time all of the boys were putting themselves down the slide. Last time Andrew wouldn’t go down without one of us. They are also going down sitting up instead of of on their stomachs feet first. It is still more fun to go with Mom or Dad though.

Finally there is the obstacle course where Nicholas is determined to give me a heart attack. To get into the course you have to climb a foam/plastic ladder. Normally the boys wait to be lifted to the top. Nicholas just went for it and can do it by himself. It’s 5 ft high climb up.

Once in the obstacle course, it’s down a slide through some barriers and over or under a couple tubes of air.

As usual we left with the boys a bit tired and we all had a great time.

I took a lot of pictures of the boys playing on the non-inflatable toys, but I’ll save those for tomorrow.

Mini photo shoot

2011-05-19T13:54:00.001-07:00

Last night (while I was at work) Cody set up his soft boxes and took some shots of the boys. Soft boxes give a nice soft even light. Cody was tickling the boys if they didn’t want to smile on their own. Apparently Nicholas saw the camera and gave him what he called a cheesy smile.

I think it’s a great smile, note the death grip on Thomas and Spencer and Trevor. His favorite engines.

Parker who was definitely being tickled was trying to protect his tummy from further tickling.

Andrew was full on cracking up.

Completely unrelated, Cody and the boys went on for a walk before dinner on Tuesday night. About a block from our house the boys decided to take a break on the neighbors stairs. Sadly Cody didn’t have his camera with him, but did snap a picture with his phone. No trace of baby left in them, just little boys.

Andrew, Nicholas, Parker

I guess the home owner pulled into the driveway while the boys were hanging out. Luckily he recognized Cody from the walks last year with the stroller.

Slides?

2011-05-18T13:27:00.001-07:00

Since the boys were given three water tables for their birthday, we decided to return one of them and get a car set. While the boys love playing with the cars and sending them down all of the ramps they found a new way to play. Cody had given the boys some Disney character magnets to play with the night before and they found a to combine them.

I love the giggling.

Bubbles

2011-05-13T13:18:00.001-07:00

With the nice weather we decided it was time to break out the bubbles for the boys. We found no spill bubble bucket with three wands. It was great to not have any fights over the new toy. First Cody demonstrated how to blow bubbles.

The boys tried, but were not successful in blowing their own bubbles. I was just impressed they didn’t immediately just try to chew on the wands.

Not being able to blow their own bubbles didn’t upset anyone. It’s much more fun to play with the bubbles that Dad blows. No bubbles in this picture, but I really wish I knew what Nicholas was explaining to Parker.

Soon we had bubbles everywhere. With the fence in the bubbles tend to get stuck in the back yard swirling around. It looks like a big washing machine. I think those pictures are on Cody’s camera. You can tell they were excited though.

In addition to the traditional bubbles, I found some bubbles that don’t pop when touched. After about twenty minutes the lawn was covered with bubbles. The boys and I had bubbles stuck in our hair and on our arms as well. Eventually the thrill of playing with bubbles wore off and we attempted some group photos.

The best one of the 15 taken. Two kiddos looking in the general direction of the camera.

It is so nice to just relax in the yard, but Cody had to be reminded why we don’t lay down on the ground/floor when the boys are around.

At first Nicholas was happy to just lay next to Cody on the grass. It didn’t last long. Get Daddy!

The boys each got a shoulder ride, sadly my memory card was full and I only got picture of Nicholas on his turn.

The water tables have been assembled. I can’t wait to let the boys play with them.

I love having a fence

2011-05-11T11:55:00.001-07:00

I'm way behind on blogging, but it has been a busy week. Trying to catch up.

When it’s not raining or snowing (in May? Really?) we have been enjoying getting to run around in our yard. There is so much to do and we haven’t even set up the water and sand tables yet. We climb up and down the stairs over and over and over again.

The boys love the garden tools we picked up for them, lucky for us it was a three pack. Like most toys that come in sets the boys decide who’s is who’s and stick to it. Nicholas has the rake, Andrew the shovel and Parker the hoe. I just realized Andrew and Nicholas picked the toys in ‘their’ colors. Guess the brainwashing sets in early.
Since the tables are not yet set up our time is spent running around kicking and chasing balls and each other.

For the most part the boys are not willing to pose for the camera, at least not as a group. Sometimes I can get one to hold still for me. Andrew was especially cooperative.

Parker not so much, but I’m sneaky.

Nicholas I couldn’t get to hold still or look at me.

After all that running the boys will sit down briefly before round two starts.

The best part of the back yard is still when Daddy gets home.

Discovery Gateway

2011-04-28T15:32:00.001-07:00

After the boys well child check last week we took them to the children’s museum for some fun. It was packed, but we still had a good time. Because it was so crowded we ushered the boys in to the area gated off for kids 3 and under. The boys favorite part is the large metal slide.

The run up and down it, roll toys down the smooth slide and the bumpy side. This time Andrew wasn’t content with just sending toys down the slide. Instead he rode the pink horse down it it a turtle costume (of course).

Sadly we did have a run in with another child while playing. Normally I’m a little on edge with dozens of kids running around while I’m trying to keep an eye on just my kids. The museum provides the added challenge of most of those kids not being supervised. At one point Nicholas was trying to play with a toy and another boy grabbed him by the shirt and pushed him to the ground. I was watching Andrew and Parker so Cody stepped in. The child’s mother was sitting about two feet away. Cody asked her simply “is that your kid?” Her response was to snap “he’s autistic, there’s nothing I can do.” She then picked up her child and stomped away. I was in shock.
He didn’t accuse, yell or do anything other than try to force her to intervene. Since I have no idea what it’s like to have a child on the spectrum I don’t know what the suggested response is, but I would assume that no matter what you should stop a behavior that includes possibly injuring another child. It would be like me responding to the boys breaking something with “they’re triplets, I’m outnumbered, there’s nothing I can do.”
Anyway, moving on. The boys also enjoyed playing with the water tables.

We moved them from the table when they started filling up cups of water to drink. Nicholas was there too. When we take the boys we take turns watching two or one of them at a time using hand signals and a lot of counting heads. I just didn’t seem to get any pictures of him downstairs.
Normally we spend most of our time on the lower level which we always thought had all of the little kids stuff, but due to the crowd we spent more time upstairs. There is a helicopter up on the balcony that the boys are always excited to see until they get close and remember how loud it gets. They were a little afraid of it.

We tried to get a group shot, but they boys were not okay with sitting in the helicopter.

That’s both Andrew and Parker crying.

Upstairs we found that they had giant blocks to build with and magnetic toys too. Not to mention stools for climbing on.

Since we have a membership it never bothers me if we only stay for an hour or two before leaving. Eventually I hope to find a regular time to go that isn’t quite so busy. The boys don’t seem to mind the other kids as long as there is still something for them to climb on or play with.

Shopping without a stroller or wagon

2011-04-26T13:43:00.001-07:00

On Saturday I had to run some final errands for the boys birthday party including a trip to Costco to get some ice cream. Since I was just going into the store to get one item I didn’t want to load the choo choo wagon or a stroller. For the first time I piled everyone into a shopping cart.

They had a great time in the cart. Andrew and Parker were giggling at each other and occasionally turning around to talk to Nicholas. Who I’m happy to say stayed sitting down in the cart the whole time. As we wandered through the store another customer was trying out a bike. The boys all clapped and cheered for the guy as he rode down the aisle. The rider got a big kick out of it as well.
I couldn’t put anything in the cart with Nicholas so I don’t think this will work for regular shopping, but worked wonderfully for a quick trip.

Happy Birthday boys

2011-04-24T22:15:00.001-07:00

I can’t believe the boys are two already. The boys have grown and changed so much in the last year. They went from crawling to walking (and running), bottles to sippies, talking, using utensils to eat everything. Beyond everything they’ve learned and can do now, I think it’s a little crazy that they are now 50% heavier than last year and have each grown half a foot.

For their birthday I ordered the boys some Thomas shirts in their colors with names printed on them. I ordered them a bit large so they can wear them for a while. I wasn’t able to get a good group picture because the boys were all over the place with their cousins. We’ll be doing a photo shoot with the boys later this week and I’ll get them back in the shirts for it. The boys were spoiled this year with toys for the backyard. We are very prepared for having our fence up.

The boys were more into unwrapping gifts than they have been previously. They really liked tearing the paper.

The boys received a picnic table, a sand and water table, and two water tables from their grandparents. They also got some Thomas phones, books and little people. Cody and I gave the boys tricycles.

Like last year I made each of the boys a mini cake. We sang happy birthday and let the boys attempt to blow out their candles. The plan was to put a cake down in front of each of them and let them go crazy for about 10 minutes. The boys were not interested in attacking the cakes until we gave them forks.

Waiting for forks.

Digging in.

I’m not sure how much made it in their mouths, but the seemed to be enjoying themselves.

It was a long and wonderful day. I’m looking forward to this next year, the boys are at such a fun age. They are curious about everything and are starting to show their imaginations while they play. It’s an amazing thing to watch.

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T20:38:00.001-07:00

We had a very busy day (just like always), the bunny didn’t make much of a visit to our house this year. The boys each got an egg containing a miniature Thomas and Friends engine. After some playing with the new trains and trying to keep the boys from spreading toys everywhere we headed out for brunch with the family.

The boys even posed for a few seconds in their chairs. I love their Easter outfits, such little gentleman.

After a wonderful meal we headed outside, luckily the weather cooperated and we had an egg hunt. Everyone had 5 real eggs to find and 3 plastic jelly bean filled eggs. I walked Parker around to find his yellow eggs, Cody had Andrew looking for orange eggs and Nicholas was with grandpa finding the green eggs. I don’t have Cody’s pictures yet, but the boys had a blast.

It took some work, but the boys did figure out how to open the plastic eggs. Jelly beans were everywhere.

Nicholas was so into opening the plastic eggs he managed to rip a real egg in half. He was less than impressed with the yolk center instead of a jelly bean.

It was wonderful to get some sunshine and let the boys run around. Of course everyone took a lot of pictures, even Nicholas got in on the camera action.

After the egg hunt we went home for a nice long nap and for the boys birthday party.

Two year check up

2011-04-22T14:07:00.001-07:00

This morning we took the boys to their check up appointment and it was all good news. While I knew the boys had grown taller since all of their winter pants looked like floods. They had a big growth spurt and jumped about 25% on the charts for height, but weight was steady percentage wise.

Andrew and Parker are both 28 lbs 12 oz and 36 inches tall. Both growing about 3 inches in the last 6 months. I was surprised that their weights were exactly the same. For some reason I thought Andrew weighed more. Nicholas is now 25 lbs 8 oz and 35 inches. Still just a little bit smaller, but he also grew 3 inches. Everyone gained just about 3 lbs from the last check up, so at least they’re consistent.
Their doctor was happy with their development both in motor skills (they were climbing whatever they could reach in the room) and speech. Now we get to go a whole year without another visit assuming no one gets sick.

I can’t believe that my babies are going to be two and no longer babies. They have turned into little boys.

What a week

2011-04-21T16:42:00.001-07:00

It’s been a long and challenging week. On Saturday I started feeling not so great and by Sunday my sinuses were shot, throat sore and all that jazz. The boys were still coughing a little and had runny noses. To add to the fun of the week Monday morning Cody woke me up to let me know that if I wanted a hot shower I’d need to do it then since the pilot light on the water heater had gone out and wouldn’t re-light.
Turns out it was a fairly simple fix, but the part we needed was only available from Whirlpool. We didn’t find out that the local hardware store didn’t have the right part until Monday night. Tuesday Cody called and ordered the part. So it wasn’t until this morning we had hot water again. I will never take hot water for granted again. I spent the week warming water on the stove and took some of the coldest showers ever.
With everyone recovering, we had a fairly lazy week. A couple pj days and just playing at the house. Luckily the boys are so obsessed with their new train table they are fine playing at home. We have reached a point of all trains all the time. The good news is the boys no longer kick and scream and have to be dragged away from the train table. They will put their engines in the table drawer and say bye-bye.

For the most part the boys will drive the trains on the table, but they also have found they will roll on the window sill.

After a couple hours the boys can get over stimulated with their trains and we put them away and try to get the boys to play with another toy in the vast collection they have. Given all the options of course they decide to use a toy in a completely new and different way.

At one point all three were lined up riding the basketball hoop like a horse, but I wasn’t fast enough with the camera. We’ll be adding even more sand to the base tonight.

We are busy getting ready for the boys birthday party and well baby check up. Going to be a busy and exciting weekend.

Better than trains

2011-04-18T15:37:00.001-07:00

The only thing that has gotten the boys excited and distracted from playing with their trains is bath time. They love their baths. Maybe it’s because Cody ends up at wet as they are.

At some point in every bath the camera has to go away due to splashing. That and well bath time needs to be a little productive.

Supporting the train obsession

2011-04-17T12:16:00.001-07:00

With the boys birthday coming up and their continued obsession trains we decided it was time to get a train set. For the last week the boys have been lining up blocks and pushing them around the room calling them choo choos. So we started looking online for a used wooden Thomas and friends set. We found a great one today at a reasonable price. Cody picked it up during nap time and we couldn’t wait until next weekend to let them play.
We set it up, built a track and let them find it.

At first they were in awe. It’s probably wrong of us but I can’t help but giggle at the mild frustration Parker displays when a car tips over. It was pretty sad when Nick completely lost it over the derailment. After about a half hour we managed to limit the number of engines each kid was holding to prevent derailment. The spent the whole afternoon playing with the trains. We had to drag them away to feed them dinner. At least until Cody mentioned bath time. I guess the only thing that trumps trains is bath time.

Bye Bye trees

2011-04-15T20:16:00.001-07:00

We are having a fence installed in the next week. I’m super excited to finally have a safe area for the boys to run around. Currently our back yard has a ditch running behind it with water in it. It makes me very nervous to let the boys play back there right now.
With the fence going in a bunch of trees had to be trimmed out and a couple removed completely. The boys watched the trees being removed and spent the three hours it took for the trees to come down waving and saying “bye bye trees” It was cute and I’m sure they will love having a yard all to themselves.

We’ve had some issues with the neighbor kids being very bossy and bullying the boys. It makes me crazy, the parents of the kids go back in the house as soon as they see us outside. They assume we are there so we are watching the kids. The kids are 4 and 3 years old and normally being supervised by an older sibling who I think is 11. Keeping track of three toddlers is hard enough, 5 is a bit to much for me.
The fence means I can play with my kiddos without having to watch for them for being pushed down or having their cars stolen. It means by the end of the summer we’ll have a water table and maybe even a playground. Today was the first day of what I hope is finally spring, yesterday it snowed. Fingers crossed for nice weather for the boys birthday next week.

Group shot attempts

2011-04-14T13:33:00.001-07:00

With my new camera I’ve been taking at least a few pictures everyday. On Monday afternoon the boys had just finished a group time out. After letting them go they stayed on the step so I tried to get a group photo of the boys. It didn’t go so well.

They found touching the ground from the step hilarious.

Top two fails:

I’ll keep trying.

Three At Once

Playing outside

Coloring

What season is it?

Haircuts

Boys night out

A new year

Day after Christmas

Christmas

Christmas eve

Leading up to Christmas

They like their sleep

Nothing is safe on the counters

Random Wednesday fun

Triplet family Christmas party

So much to say

Thanksgiving weekend

Monkey see, monkey do; in a good way

Enjoying the winter

Disneyland Monorail

Chicken dip dip

It looks like it’s time for crib tents

So much energy before bed

New books

Last couple days of Disneyland

Disneyland Day 2

Disneyland day one continues

First day in Disneyland

Back from vacation

Triplet family Halloween party

First attempt at the pumpkin patch

Museum of Ancient Life

Mom’s night out in Park City

We are enjoying fall

Where has the week gone

Camping weekend (quite a few pictures)

Unplanned jammies day

Living planet Aquarium

Where did the week go?

Seven Canyons Fountain

Twins and a half

Just sticking with the routine

More hiking

Kangaroo Zoo

City Creek Canyon

More video from July

The back of their heads

Picnic at Wheeler Farm

New park

One on one time

Splash pad fun

Wheeler Farm

Riverdale splash pad

Still alive and kicking

More 4th of July pictures

4th of July

Time to get the boys their own hats

More water table fun

Impromptu photo shoot

Hugs!

Reading time

North Shore Aquatic Center

Portrait session

First play date at our house

Still busy

A nice long walk

Love that we have a neighborhood park

Flash back Friday

Play date at Wild Child

Water and sand tables

More flower pictures

Healthy again (lots and lots of pictures)

Day out with Thomas

Milk and crackers

Memory Grove

Wild Children

Mini photo shoot

Slides?

Bubbles

I love having a fence