boys will be boys

Adam has been on break this last week and it has be so wonderful!! 

i love having Adam home {and getting to sleep in, holla!!} and Elijah loves any moment he gets to be around dad and try to be just like him. 

this last Tuesday Adam had the idea to take us shooting with our friends Dallin & Emily. 

i was extremely extremely nervous of the idea of bringing Elijah along. 

if i thought i was feeling lots of anxiety last time, getting ready for this trip was even worse.

i just had horrible images in my mind of Elijah running away from us unexpectedly right when someone pulls the trigger and getting shot in the head. 

what made it worse was when we realized that 1. Elijah isn't very good at listening when we would say, "stop!" and 2. even he was good at listening to us, he couldn't really hear us because of those cute, oversized earmuffs he had on to protect his ears. 

so yeah, i was kind of freaking out. 

surprisingly, Elijah did very very well and stayed close to us the whole time. 

we talked to him on the way out there that he was supposed to stay by mom and dad and listen to us because it was very dangerous. 

when i would ask him to repeat it back to me he would say,

"ZaZa floor with mom. Danggberous." 

pretty good! 

it was one of those moments where i realized maybe i don't always give Eli enough credit. 

when he wants to be, he is actually really really good at obeying the rules. 

it's just that most of the time, he doesn't really want to ;)

but he he did really well at standing by us with his arms folded as Adam and Dallin shot at the clay pigeons and he knew he wasn't allowed to touch the guns.  

he even kept those ear muffs on most of the time because i think he saw how crazy our faces looked every time he took them off and realized we weren't kidding around. 

even with all of our nagging and extremely cautious hovering, Eli LOVED it!! 

[and let's just say if i wasn't convinced of the innate gender characteristics of boys vs. girls, i am definitely convinced now!]

he got soooooo excited when we would get ready to shoot and yell, "Again, Dad!!" 

and he is still talking about it days later.

"Mama shoot gun. Dada shoot gun. Erimy (Emily) shoot gun. Dawwin (Dallin) shoot gun. Zaza shoot wid Dad."

[also, Emily and Dallin are his new favorite people. he asks to see them every day. it was definitely a bonding experience for him, ha.]

all in all, i think it was a very successful we-are-pretty-awesome-parents kind of day. 

i mean, it says so all over this picture. 

oh, those boys.... 

keeps this girly girl on her toes that's for sure!

HAPPY FRIDAY!