Water!

Add water to the words that Lucas knows! Every Friday we go to a playgroup, they usually go to a different park every Friday or some other fun activity. Today we went to this park that has a river, sandbox, and playground. Lucas spent most of the time roaming around and doing is own thing, he would not stay in one spot for more than a second, though the sandbox and slide did keep his attention for a little while. Lucas eventually discovered the river, I was able to catch him a few times before he got to it, but he kept going back and at one point I didn't get to him before he reached the edge of the water (when I say river, I mean it is a river that doesn't really have a currant, is shallow, and Lucas can wade his feet in it without get really wet, so maybe it is more like a stream). When I came up to him he kept saying, "water, water, water, water" clear as day, it was really, stinkin cute, and after that can you really pull him away, no, so Lucas spent some time wading in the water and picking up the rocks that were in the water. Here is a picture of Lucas eating his lunch on one of the park benches. Peanut-butter and jelly sandwhich yummy!

The Slide

Lucas can go down the slide by himself and he loves it! We have a playground by our house, we usually make a trip to the park on a daily basis. For the past several days we have been working on going down the slide and the other day Lucas climb the stairs, sat down and went for it; he had this look of fear with excitement all at once, and it must have been pretty fun, because he was eager to go again. He is getting pretty good at it, the other day he practically flew down the slide landing on the ground at the bottom. I have been trying to get a video of him doing this, but it is turning out to be more difficult than I thought it was going to be, hopefully I can get it figure out and post a video of him going down the slide.

Let the Canning begin!

With supervision, from a friend, I have been learning how to can. Last year we canned pears and applesauce! This year I canned my first jar of tomatoes. That is right literally one jar of tomatoes. We have a garden, the other day Craig brought in a bunch of tomatoes, I had no idea what to do with those tomatoes, and I didn't want them to go to waste. My friend wanted to can peaches, so on the day she canned peaches, we canned the tomatoes. We were able to get two jars, but one did not survive, so we ended up with one beautiful jar of tomatoes.

Back to School!

Summer is quickly coming to an end! Though I am getting so excited for fall! And all of the yummy things I can make with pumpkin and apples!
Craig started school on Monday. Though Craig is pretty much done with classes and is only taking a seminar class that is one day a week. He is however, a TA this semester, he teaches a lab one day a week, has TA hours one day during the week and here comes the kicker, he will also be working with the observational telescope that is on campus for the students taking the class. This will be every night for a couple of hours. I will be occupying my time at nights Craigless with reading, netflixs, and projects, the first one being refinishing a dresser. Craig will also continue to work out at Swift doing research.

Facing Forward!

When I went to put Lucas carseat back in the car, because we had taken it out the night before, I installed it facing forward. We decided to do this because Lucas was loosening the shoulder straps when he hit the button with his legs. Later that day we headed towards the car and Lucas started to get this distraught look on his face, however, much to his surprise the carseat had been adjusted, when I strapped him in he didn't make a sound or struggle to get loose. He seemed to enjoy himself and was quite content with the adjustment. Plus it was fun to be able to see him, through the mirror.

Dress up!

Usually while I am getting ready Lucas will roam around the bedroom, exploring and playing. Lately he has been getting into the dirty laundry, which he will drag around the bedroom or try to put it on his head or throw it around his shoulders. Today he got hold of my bottoms and manage to get them over his head and started pulling his head through one of the legs, his head got stuck and he had one eye peeking out of the leg bottom it was funny. Lucas wasn't expecting this and started to get frustrated, so we untangled him and he went on his way, back to the dirty laundry. The other day I had my clothes laying out on the bed. When I went to get them, Lucas had one of the shoulder straps of the bra around his neck, one cup in the front and the other on hanging down his back, it was hilarious. Yes, I did take a picture, several in fact, however I am not about to post my unders on a public website, so I guess your going to have to use your imagination.

Outside!

Lucas loves going outside! He will bring me his shoes or head to the door if you even mention going outside. Recently he will bring me his shoes without even mentioning outside. It has gotten to the point where if I start putting on my shoes, walk towards the door, or even sit on the second stair (which is usually where we put his shoes on) Lucas thinks were going outside and will head to the door. Were so glad that Lucas is catching on to things and is developing, unfortunately we are not always going outside and this can be a problem.

NIne teeth in counting!

On Saturday (21st of August) on our way to D.C, while Lucas is crying, because he is sick of being in his carseat, we discovered a tooth. Lucas is getting his first molar, the bottom right. Yeah!

Climbing

For the past week or so Lucas has learned to climb up onto things. At first it was the couch, which wasn't a problem, he would get a snack and then climb up onto the couch, get comfortable and eat his snack, it was pretty cute. Now, were climbing on everything onto the bed, where mom had laid out her clothes, which are now on the floor, or on Lucas head. Climbing the chairs, so we can get onto the table. So you think pushing in the chairs would solve that problem, you would be wrong. The other day Craig and I watched as Lucas climb the chair (that was pushed in) from under the table and then wiggle his way so he is standing on the chair, it was impressive, but annoying.

Really!?!

Lucas has learned how to lift up the seat on the toliet. We are in the process of getting latches for the toliet, but have not put them on yet, so for the time being we have a carseat on the toliet in the upstairs bathroom. The other day I was in the shower and I heard a crash, I peeked out the shower curtain, Lucas had pushed the carseat off of the toliet, has his bath toys in hand and is up to his elbows in toliet water, playing. Fortunately I had cleaned the toliet the day before, but still the toliet really!

Ag Progress Days

Last week we went to the Ag Progress Days the University puts it together. There are lots of tractors, farm machines, and other agricultural related booths set up. We went because it was free and something to do and we thought there would be animals. There were some animals; Llama's, cows, and horses; huge, massive horses. There was this carriage with six horses hooked up to it, it looked pretty cool. Lucas seemed to enjoy it.

Oops!

Yesterday, we stayed after church, because I had a meeting. Craig and I gave Lucas a couple of apples, two to be exact because he has to have one for each hand. Lucas is constantly on the move and it has become difficult to keep track of him. We don't usually stress too much about it when were at church because people know who he is and he is easy to find. On this particular Sunday he took off without either Craig or I noticing. When Craig realized he wasn't in the room, he went looking for him. Craig came back several minutes later with Lucas. Craig explained that he went down the hall and could not find Lucas, at the same time someone opened the door to the chapel, and Craig just happened to glance in and he sees our child on the other side of the chapel munching on his apples. Now this would not have been embrassing if it wasn't for the fact that the other ward was having sacrement meeting in the chapel. Were not sure how Lucas got into the chapel, we think he wandered in when someone opened the door. Craig was able to retrieve our child without causing a scene. I doubt anyone noticed.

Zoo!

Kim's flight was out of Baltimore and we were taking her, so we decided since we were going to be heading to Baltimore we would make a day of it and stop in Washington D.C and go to the zoo. This was so much fun!!! Though it was very hot!!! The zoo is huge, we spent a little over three hours there and we didn't see everything. Lucas did very well, he was always alert and watching everyone and everything. We saw tigers, lions, panda's, birds, butterflies, very big fish, gorillas, an elephant, snakes, and other strange creatures. Out of all of the animals we saw Lucas's favorite animal was.... drum roll please... the Flamingos. He loved them! He just stared and stared at them. Those bright pink, funny looking birds. They were all clumped together in a big group, squawking, and moving around. I don't know why, but he was very fascinated with them. We had a very enjoyable time! We will have to make another trip!

Fast asleep!

It must have been pretty exhausting and hard work for Lucas to have company here, and to always be going after Eevee. During Kim's stay one of the nights I was talking on the phone to my mom, and Lucas wanted to sit on my lap so I put him on my lap and surprisingly enough Lucas just sat there on my lap and pretty soon he started to dooze off. I cut the conversation short and took Lucas downstairs, by the time we made it downstairs Lucas was fast asleep. We decided to put him to bed so we took him back upstairs to get him ready for bed, he slept through the whole process, and we wrapped him up and put him to bed, and he was still fast asleep when we closed the door. I don't think that will ever happen again.

Kim's visit!

My sister Kim and her daughter, Eevee came to visit for a few days. It was nice to have Kim here, and to let Lucas play with Eevee. There were times when Lucas would just do his own thing and leave Eevee alone, but most of the time was spent trying to keep Lucas from malling Eevee. He was constantly in her space, giving her hugs, kisses, touching her, babbling at her, and of course wrestling with her, which Eevee did not appreciate. I don't know if Eevee will ever be able to one-up Lucas, but hopefully next time they meet Eevee will be walking, which will even the playing field, if not at least Eevee will be able to run.

One year older!

A couple of weeks ago I celebrated another birthday. I am now one year older, but I don't feel any wiser. I can say that I had a very pleasant, nice birthday. Kim my sister and her daughter were here and that made it fun. Craig even bought me black licorice. He must really love me because he hates black licorice. I was also told that I could finally get a Kitchen Aid (mixer), yeah! Thanks to all who called, texted, sent cards, and sang to me it was gratefully appreciated. I felt very loved and special on my special day.

Scout Camp/Swimming/Lucas Talking

The following week after we got back home, Craig went to Scout Camp, which is about 20 minutes from our house. It doesn't take very long to get to a forest here, we are in the middle of no-where sorrounded by trees, lots of trees! While Craig was at Scout Camp, Lucas and I decided to play, alot! We went swimming up at Whipple Dam with some friends. It took Lucas sometime to get use to the water, as first he wanted to just play in the sand, but by the end her would sit at the edge of the water, shovel in hand, digging in the sand. He enjoyed taking a shovel full of sand dumping it on his head, his head was full of sand by the end.

Later in the week we went with our friends down to Ephrata. On Friday's they have this huge farmer's market, where they sell pretty much everything, from fresh produce, pastries, candy, meat, to jewlery, bags, shoes, clothes. We had fun strolling around with three little people and two strollers. We also went to the Hershey Outlets and made a stop at the Children's place to get some clothes for Lucas for next summer.
By the end of the week Luas and I were pretty exhausted and as it turned out Craig was pretty exhausted too! We had a pretty lazy, uneventful Saturday! Though exhausted, Craig seemed to have enjoyed Scout Camp. With the help of some other scout leaders, Craig won the Scoutmaster dutch oven contest for his peach cobbler, and yes his Peach Cobbler is really, really good!

Craig was able to come home for a couple of days during Scout Camp. The day he came home, Craig went and sat on the couch. Lucas went to the couch looked up at Craig and said, "Hi Dada". It was the cutest thing ever.

Lucas has been doing a little bit of talking lately. A few days after we got home from our trip Craig was trying to tell Lucas he couldn't play with the curtains. Lucas backed up against the sliding door, looked at Craig and said, "What?" We have also been hearing, "What's this?" and "That?" numerous times during the day. Lucas continues to do our favorite things which is when he babbles and then stops and laughs to himself, like he has just told a funny joke.

The End!

After having been across the Wasatch Front, seeing and doing everything we possibly could in the short time we had, we headed back home! It was a long experience in itself, three separate flights all of which were delayed and we didn't get in till after midnight, made for a very long day! We will now be spending the rest of the summer home!

Swimming!

Made a trip to the Roy Aquatic center, which is a swimming area with pools, slides, and kid area. Lucas had lots of fun, was able to go down the slide with his dad. He liked walking around in the shallow areas of the pool, and splashing water. We had lots of fun in the sun!

Wedding!

Here are pictures from Craig's brothers' wedding Kyle and his bride Shelina. They were married in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. We have never been to this temple so it was neat to see the inside of this temple, it was beautiful. The reception was in a backyard which was a really pretty setting for a summer wedding.
Lucas and Elise were the etertainment for part of the night. Elise has a backpack leash, she was wearing and Lucas would grab hold of the end of the leash, it looked like he was walking Elise. Most of the time Elise was actually dragging Lucas along, Lucas was having a hard time keeping up.
I thought Lucas looked quite handsome in his black shirt and pants, suspenders and pink tie. I have to admit I was a pretty proud mom and wife, I thought our little family look pretty good matching each other, which gave us an opportunity to take another family picture. It was a very busy day, but very nice and enjoyable.

Pictures

We went to the park wtih Craig's family to take pictures. Lately we have been looking through all of our pictures and we have noticed that we have very few pictures of our little family. It was nice to go to the park get some pictures taken. Elise, Lucas cousin would try to hold Lucas hand, Lucas would not cooperate long enough for us to get a decent picture. Here are other pictures taken at the park. We also had a picnic with the Swenson clan, and this is a picture of Grandpa Boyd grilling while he is wearing his awsome apron made by Lucas.

BYU!

We took a trip down to Provo one of the days that we were in Utah. We walked around campus, had lunch at the creamery and of course had ice-cream. My personal favorite is Coconut Joy. It tastes like an Almond Joy, but better, because it's ice-cream. Lucas loved it, too! He also liked the fries and hamburger. Not the most nutritious lunch we have every given him, but we were on vacation so we splurged. To end our little excursion, we had to take pictures of father and son at the cougar and the BYU sign. After we took the pictures of Craig and Lucas next to the cougar, Lucas starting touching the cougar, they turned out to be really cute pictures, it almost looks like he is shaking the cougars paw. Fun trip!

The Tree House!/Barbecue

Due to the limited time we had in Utah and being the planner that I am, I had the things that we wanted to do scheduled out, so that we would be sure to do them. One of these things was going to the Tree House. It is in Ogden across the street from the temple. The Tree House has been around for a long time, I remember going when I was a kid when it was in the Ogden Mall. Lucas is still small and there aren't a whole lot of places you can take him to play and explore. I thought that it would be fun to take him and let him wander around and explore and if you go on certain days days, during certain times you get a discount. We took him the Monday after we got into town. It was a complete success!!! He loved it, they had so many things you could do and play with. They also had story time, which I didn't think he would sit still for, but he sat on his daddy's lap and listened so intently. He had lots and lots of fun, he played with musical toys, chess pieces that were just about as big as him, rode a bull and horse, and did many other things. We will definitely be going again when were back in Utah.

We stopped at my house after the Tree House had a barbecue. We had steak, which Craig (of course) cooked and they were wonderful. Lucas also played in the kiddie pool with Eevee and that was pretty entertaining. Lucas liked to dumped the water out of the kiddie pool and onto the deck, he also liked splashing and getting in the pool and then trying to figure out how to get out.

Back to Utah!

The second week of July we headed back to Utah, for Craig's brothers wedding. Craig was able to come with us and we were able to fly out of State College which was really nice. Flying out of State College is an experience. It is a tiny airport and you have to walk out to the plane and walk up the stairs. Our flights went well and we arrived in Salt Lake City . Lucas did pretty well on the flights. During our layovers he loved pushing the stroller around and walking on the moving walkway that was along the gates. Lucas just started walking the Sunday before we left so we didn't tell our folks, his grandparents. When we arrived at the airport we took the elevator and had Lucas walk off, it was pretty cute.