More Laurenisms and the Gateway..

Before I get to into this post, I just want to say to Kari Congradulations!! (Chad's little sister) She is a mommy for the first time and I couldn't be more happy for her. And I love that Lincoln came right before Mother's day.

Now for my funny little Lauren. Ok, Chad's little brother is in the Army. He is in Alabama(I think) learning how to be a helicoper pilot. When he is all done, he will fly the Blackhawk helicopters.

Here is a picture of him during his flight school that I stole off of his facebook page. (I hope he doesn't mind). Anyway, all of this goes along with my story. Everytime we are in Wal-Mart, or the Mall, or wherever and we see someone in an Army uniform, Lauren always gets excited. And since she is our little social bug, she has to talk to said Army person. This is usually how the conversations go:

LAUREN: Hey, are you in the Army?
G.I JOE (OR JANE AS THE CASE MY BE): Yes I am.
LAUREN: My Uncle Ryan is in the Army. He flys helicopters.
G.I PERSON: Wow really, that is great.
LAUREN: Yes. Do you know my Uncle Ryan?

Ok, I totaly get that you proboly have to be listening to her while the words are coming out of her mouth to get the extent of just how cute it is. No matter how many times she has this conversation with various Army people, she always ends up sounding so stinkin' cute. So innocent and small the world is for a four year old.

BACKSTORY #2: Lauren is such a sweet girl and so smart that I sometimes forget that she is only four years old and I really expect her to act older then her age. Most of the time she does, but when it comes to books and her sippy cup, she acts all of ther four years of age. I was down the hall putting makeup on in the bathroom when I hear Evan scream and then proceed to cry. I run down the hall to see Evan's big tears and Lauren's mad face.

ME: Lauren? What happened?
LARUEN: I don't know (her favorite answer)
ME: Yes you do. Why is Evan crying?
LAUREN: Well, I don't know, but I guess (long pause) I would say that he was trying to take "someone's" sippy cup away, and then "someone" pulled his hair. Because it is not his, it is "someone" ealses sippy cup.

I then tryed my hardest not to laugh while I put "someone" in time out.

Now for the gateway. I wanted to get out of the house so bad. I wanted to go see Kari, but I had the kids and I couldn't find anyone to watch them. I instead convinced Chad that he needed to take his wife to Salt Lake if he wanted his wife to stay happy tonight. So he did, and it was fun. We went to Barnes and Noble, I really can not NOT go there when we are at the Gateway. We went to the Apple store. Chad can not NOT go there when we are at the Gateway. We went into the sporting goods store and while we were there, we let Lauren and Evan play in the camping equipment display while we took picures untill a store clerk told us that photography wasn't allowed in the store. Oh well, I think we got some cute pictures anyway.



We were almost done and on our way out when the music for the fountian show thingy came on and Lauren wanted to see it. It is no Balagio, but hey, she is four. Lauren's eyes light up as she watched the water shoot up from the ground. She kept saying that it was "magical".



It seriously takes no money in this entire world to put that kind of smile on a little girls face, it only takes your time. And isn't that smile well worth all of my time? Evan loved it too, but Evan is such a water baby.


So that was our day at the Gateway. I started with a couple of Laurenisms and I am going to end with one, since it happened just today. Before we left, Lauren wanted to throw a penny into the water and make a wish. She held that penny so tight in her little fist and consintrated for a long time on her wish. It had to be a good one. I guess. She didn't want that penny to go to waste.


When she finally hucked that peice of copper into the water, I decided to ask what her wish was. Her answer? She said "I want to be just like you." It made me cry. See guys! That is what "Mother's day" is all about!