Princesses

Keith's sister made these matching skirts for the three little girls while we were in Utah. I don't think I've ever seen so much princess power in one place. The dancing, the coy smiles, the beautiful hair bows, the pink, wow.

Summer Vacation

Most of Keith's family at Temple Square in Salt Lake

Pilot and Index, Beartooth Mountains Montana

Chauncey in Alicia's hat.

Grandma and Grandpa Hinchcliff at Yellowstone

Mt. Rushmore

In July we took our annual pilgrimage to the mountains. We spent an afternoon at Mt. Rushmore, then visited Keith's grandma at her cabin in Cooke City, Mt. My parents came up and joined us for a few days and we visited Yellowstone. After that we drove down to Utah and spent a few days with our siblings and their families. Chauncey was a surprisingly good traveler. We had lots of fun and will probably do it again soon.

The Princess, the Prince, a Dragon, and a Pianist

The kids created this "musical pantomime" for the school talent show on the last day of school. Echo is playing the piano, Alicia is the princess, Thomas is the prince, and Estella is the dragon. In case you can't tell what's going on: The princess is gathering flowers, the dragon and the prince see the beautiful princess. The dragon gets hungry and the prince falls in love. They both run toward the princess who sees them at the last moment and steps out of the way causing them to crash into each other. The dragon and the prince each grab the princess by an elbow and pull her back and forth across the stage until she gets an idea and stops them both. The princess passes out flowers to everyone and they all make friends.

We had a good time putting it together.

Quote of the Week...

"You're running a regular pulmonary clinic there." Pediatrician

Chauncey's breathing started sounding bad over the weekend and by Tuesday he was definitely wheezy, so we took him in and, yes, he was wheezing. (He had also gained 2 1/2 pounds. He is now almost 18 pounds.) We drug the nebulizer out of storage. It was nice to have it in storage for a while. The good news is that Chauncey takes his medicine with a minimum of fuss.

This doctor visit ended up being 2 for the price of 1. Apparently Chauncey holds his head tipped to one side. Once the doctor pointed it out then it seemed obvious. So now we get to do physical therapy as well. The doctor gave us exercises to do and said that if it isn't better by his next well check she'll send us to a physical therapist.

It's amazing the number of things that can go wrong.

But he's still really cute!

Happy Mother's Day

This is the letter Echo wrote for me for Mother's Day. I think she did a good job of capturing the essence of motherhood. I have corrected the spelling.

The important thing about Mom is she is responsible. She makes the best broccoli soup in the whole wide world. She smells like flowers. She is beautiful all the time. I can ask about music. She is always busy with Chauncey. She is very loving. But the most important thing about Mom is she is responsible.

Chessy-isms

"I'm drinky." That would be "thirsty."

"I hurt my three head." She used to call it a "two head" but now that she is three it is a "three head." I wonder how long it will take her to realize that foreheads have nothing to do with age.

Chesson "Clean" Oliver

Recently we have been trying to teach Chesson her middle name which is Colleen. So in the middle of lunch she announced that her name is "Chesson Clean Oliver." The funny part was just how dirty she was at the time. Pictures never capture dirty faces very well, but trust me, she was dirty!