March of the Elephants

Ian and Dave watching for elephants.

Here they come!

There they go--

A few days ago the circus came to town. We decided to go downtown to the Gateway to see the elephant walk. Dave called us at the last minute from work and said he would meet us there. We arrived early along with all the other stroller pushing, baby sling wearing mom's and staked out a great spot to view the action. We waited in great anticipation to see the circus parade; especially Bello the elephant who was having a birthday! We waited for about 25 minutes and then we saw the parade coming. I myself have never been to the circus so I was very excited to see what it was all about. As they came closer we could see a man riding on top of the first elephant. Then about seven huge and impressive elephants marched by to which Ian's only response was, "Mommy, they stink!" This whole march took approximately 45 seconds--it was impressive (the elephants even held each others tails) but it seemed almost comical that it was so short lived. We all just kind of sat there after the elephants had past looking at each other and wondering if that was really it.

The Cake

This post is for my sister Mindy. She is a certified Wilton Cake decorating instructor--which means she can make a cake look amazing. Ian requested a Ninja Turtle cake for his birthday, and if Mindy lived closer she would have been put in charge-but since she doesn't I was left with the job of making a red velvet (Ian's favorite) cake look like a mask wearing, sword toting green fighting machine. After a few phone calls to Aunt Mindy here is the result-

Raphael the "Red Ninja Turtle"

Ian is 4!

Last week was Ian's 4th birthday! I can't believe he is growing up so fast. For his birthday we took him and his friend Ben to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. It was so much fun! They had a great museum with robotic dinosaurs that might give Ben nightmares (we explained they ran on batteries). They had a great playground, an educational center, and about every dinosaur in life like recreation that you could imagine.

Ian and Ben about to be eaten by a sharp toothed dino.

Ian and Ben riding a croc.

Ian and Ben in front of the Stegosaurus.

Ian and Ben having a discussion about dinos.

Osha bars

You know those bars in every car above the window? My husband and I call them osha bars because when you grab onto them you're usually careening around a sharp corner and you might be tempted to cry out "Oh sh**" Anyway last night we were on our way home from the in-law's and Dave was driving. We went to turn onto our street and Dave slowed the car way down while I reached up to grab the osha bar. Ian asked "Daddy why are you slowing down?" Dave said, "Because every time we go around this corner your mom grabs the osha bar." Ian replied, "The ocean bar, what is the ocean bar?" Dave gave a brief explanation minus the use of any profanity. We continued to our house and as we pulled into the drive way I reached up to grab the bar again to which Ian said, "Daddy, Mommy is grabbing the river bar!" Osha, ocean, river its all the same in the mind of a 3 year old. What a funny kid!

Fun at the Fair

Today we went to the state fair. It was so much fun. They had all sorts of things for Ian to do, and I had forgotten what fun it is for kids to see all the farm animals. They had a pretend farm set up were Ian was the farmer. He fed the chickens and collected eggs, picked apples, planted a garden, then harvested the garden, fed and milked a cow, went to market and got paid for his hard work, and then we went to the store were he bought some cheetoes with his hard earned money. We went to the animal barns and saw goats, cows, and sheep. Ian is fearless around animals. In the goat barn there were some baby goats that were very cute. Ian scratched their little heads and would have taken one home if I had let him. When we saw the sheep he put his cheek right against the sheep's back to see how soft he was. We also went for pony rides. It was just like a merry-go-round, but with real horses. Ian's horse was named Red. It was a very fun day--maybe we'll try the rodeo next year.

Food Critic

Okay, now how can you be picky when your food choices consist of mashed up veggies, mashed up fruit, and mashed up dinner? Ian would eat just about anything. Miles on the other hand has some very strong opinions about what goes in his mouth. Orange veggies are okay, green veggies sometimes, baby cereal-yum, any stage 3 baby food is gag city, mashed potatoes elicit whining and tears, and baked potatoes equal stomach convulsions and trowing up all over mommy. In the above picture Miles is spitting at me in response to the stage 3 chicken and rice dinner I just tried to put in his mouth. Maybe with his sensitive palette he will grow up to be a master chef or a food critic or just plain hungry who knows.

Peaches--Yummy Peaches

Here are the last of the old pics--These are some peaches on the tree in our backyard. We didn't get many this year due to Dave's late and aggressive pruning (he cut away about half of the tree), but the peaches we did get were huge! They have been so yummy! The last peach pie is waiting in the fridge for dessert tonight.

Miles Hair Cut

More pics from the SLR--Here is Miles new hair do--we cut it about 2 weeks ago. What a handsome boy. The bruise on his nose is from an unfortunate tumble down the stairs. He will be 10 months in a few days and I can't believe how fast this past year has gone. He is still just a little bit of a thing weighing in at a whoping 16.3 lbs. I am looking forward to fattening him up with ice cream when he turns 1 and can eat dairy.

Trekking in the Motherland

I just figured out how to use Dave's new SLR camera. Here are some older pictures -- These are from a backpacking trip Dave and I took to the Tetons at the end of July.

Here I am on our backpacking trip in July. This picture is from the top of Death Canyon where we camped the first night. It rained most of the day, but the rain kept the temperatures down which was greatly appreciated considering we were hauling what felt like 50 lbs. packs (probably more like 20 lbs.). You can see the Grand Teton in the clouds behind me.

This is day 2 we had hiked about 13 miles at this point. This picture is at the end of the Death Canyon Shelf. The Tetons are to the west--just behind me. You can see the trail winding down below me. This was a fabulous lunch spot-we lounged here for awhile before hiking into Alaska Basin.

This was my first backpacking trip since the kids. It was glorious! It was so beautiful. There is just something about being in the backcountry in the Tetons that rejuvenates me. All of the black toenail were worth it. We are going to try to go at least every other year from now on.

Time to Play

At lunch today I was reading an article from the Ensign. It was about learning to laugh and play with your children. In the article there was a story about a man that played in the sandbox with his children--he would build roads, drive the trucks, and even make the truck noises. Now Ian and I have done this before, but as I looked up from the article I noticed Ian was outside digging in the sand. If it wasn't for this article I would have probably mopped the floor or something, but I grabbed some old yogurt and cool whip containers and out I went to build sand castles. We did have fun and Ian enjoyed destroying the sand castles by sitting on them.

First Day of Pre-School

Yesterday was Ian's first day of pre-school. He was so excited to go and "play." He had a great time and was most excited about the Spiderman toys and the castle. He also came home singing "5 Little Monkey's Jumping on the Bed" about 50 times. Each time he would change the words 5 Little Ian's, 5 Little Miles', 5 Little Spiderman's, etc. Last year we did Joy School with some neighbor friends-it was fun, but I am looking forward to no school at my house! I think Ian will enjoy the consistency of the having school at the same place with the same teacher.

Cantalope Shakes

Last week we found cantalope on sell 2/$1.00. My kids, my husband, and myself love cantalope-so we loaded up. We ate a cantalope a night for dinner for a few days. Then we thought we would try shakes. After lunch one day Ian and I chopped up a melon added ice cream blended and MMMMMM.... They were delicious!