When the daddy's away, the kids will play

So Nate is off in Phoenix taking the bar exam and we are here alone for a few days. We got a really good monsoon storm this afternoon and it rained really heavy for about an hour and then continued to rain for a few more hours. It was nice. The kids decided to go play outside, which was really nice because they never do that. It's just too hot and we have no shade. After a little while, I discovered that they looked like this... (and yes, they are both losing their pants.)
And here is the reason why. According to Natalie's imagination, its a big pile of chocolate.

After they were good and muddy, I made them strip down so I could spray them off with the hose. I thought they would hate that. But despite the cooler temperatures due to the rain, the hose water still came out warm. So they thought it was pretty fun to be sprayed off by mom. Even Kelton didn't cry when I sprayed off his head and face. (This kid cries if he gets any water on his face while taking a bath.)

I realized that I haven't posted any pictures in a while and I just moved pictures from the camera to the computer, so here's a few favorites. Some are not super recent, but they are all from July.

I love how it looks like he is doing the dishes. Ha! He's just playing with the bubbles.

I absolutely love this little face...

And this one too. This is one of my favorite faces. It's really hard to get it on camera because it doesn't last long. I think most babies make this face and it is just sooo cute.

Here's Damon all ready for church in his cute tie.

And it's starting... Seconds after the first picture, the tie headed straight for the mouth.

These pictures are from one of the first monsoon rains. It was sprinkling and I knew Kelton had gone outside. I went to check on him, and this is what I found.

He's not asleep--just enjoying the rain. Because he is only two and a half, I'm sure he doesn't remember the last monsoon season, so he doesn't really remember rain. I remember Natalie reacting about the same way when she was this age. I love the picture below. It's like he's looking into the sky trying to figure out where its all coming from.

We recently got back from Snowflake. We went for the 24th of July celebration. We took our camera, but it never made it out of the car, so I don't have any pictures. We had a lot of fun though. We got to see the town's production of Beauty and the Beast, staring my neice Delsy as Belle. We took Natalie with us and she had a lot of fun. She wasn't too happy when the Beast ripped Belle's dress (it was supposed to happen) and said, "Grandma, he ripped the dress you made!" Nate's mom made all of Delsy's dresses for the play and Natalie knew that. So she wasn't too keen on the Beast messing up Grandma's hard work.

Nate got to play in the golf tournament with my dad and brother, Rob. They won most of their entry fee back plus got some tomatoes and cucumbers and matching shirts. Aren't they cute?

The highlight of our trip was our fun visit to the Summit Hospital ER in Show Low. After having my whole body hurt for a few days (and thinking I was just getting sick) I woke up on Thursday morning with everything hurting, I was freezing, despite all the blankets piled on me, and I was shaking violently and could not stop. That's when I realized that for the second time in my life, I had a kidney infection. So off to the hospital we went and spent all morning and part of the afternoon there. All just to get some antibiotics. Gotta love the ER. So I didn't feel too great for the first part of our trip, but I am feeling better now. Thank goodness for being born into a time with modern medicine.

And while I am rambling on... Damon rolled over for the first time today. I put him down for a nap on his tummy (and am no longer ashamed to admit it--I've found that despite what they tell you, most people but their babies on their tummies) and when I went in to get him after he woke up, he was staring up at me, on his back. Also, his crazy long hair got a trim today. It looks a lot better.