Football!

Friday night we went to a Penns Valley High Football game.  A young man in our ward is the quarter back, defensive end, and the long snapper.  Basically he is the team!  (He also is also a starting forward on the Basketball team and plays P/1B/SS on the baseball team.)  It was way fun!  The weather was wonderful!  Unfortunately they lost, but our wardie did awesome!  We went with our friends which made it way more fun!  Lucas seemed to enjoy it!  He left the game on a sugar high, at one point he was carrying around a bag of pretzel M&M's.  Yeah that's responsible parenting for ya.  Oh well, isn't that one of the reasons to go to sporting events; to eat junk food!

Penns Valley is the Blue and White

A newspaper shot of Sam

Dora

Lately Sesame Street just hasn't been holding Lucas' attention and he gets bored easily with it, not that this is a bad thing.  We started checking out the old Disney movies, "Robin Hood", "The Jungle Book," etc...  We let him watch them in the evening while were making dinner.  He has really been enjoying them.  Last week when we went to the library, Lucas picked Dora the Explorer.  We haven't ever really watched Dora before, but WOW!  Lucas is a Dora addict.  He loves it, he is so captivated by it.  He has watched the same Dora DVD over a dozen times this past week.  He is even to the point where he starts to interact and respond to her questions.  We have also heard him saying, "oh man," at random times, or when he drops something (A phrase said by one of the characters on the show).  I have also heard him said, "oh man", "Swiper, no swiping".  As a matter of fact while I am typing this he is watching Dora.

The begining of potty training

A couple of weeks ago I decided I wasn't going to push Lucas into potty training until he was ready.  I have not been looking forward to this milestone and I didn't want it to be completely miserable for the both of us.  However, we have been trying to teach him the concept by putting him on the toilet in the mornings and at night.  This was less than successful, after a few seconds he would look at us, and say, "mommie broken, it's broken."  To say I was surprised Monday morning when Lucas said, "mommie potty" is an understatement.  I will admit I did not want to put him on the potty, it was early and I had not even put my glasses on yet.  In the end I figured I better, because what if he actually went.  Sure enough he went, and we praised him a lot.  I have never been so excited, which is pretty sad, and goes to show that our world revolves around Lucas and his small successes.  That night Craig put him on the potty and sure enough he went pee and poop.  At this point I figured we should probably follow through and make an effort to potty train Lucas.  So it began, and we are still working on it.  Lucas will go in the morning and at night, when we put him on the potty, but during the day is hit or miss.  If I put him on the potty he will usually go, however, he has yet to tell us he needs to go, which is evident by the pile of wet underwear and jeans on the dyer.  To give Lucas some credit, we have been kind of busy, and though we have been doing the best we can at the moment, we just haven't been able to hunker down at home and get it done.  Will see how it goes.  We are proud though that doesn't seem to have a problem with going poop and pee in the potty, though I worry that he thinks every time he goes potty he has to go poop.  (Editor's Note:  Katie actually took pictures of this momentous occasion, which shows how sad our lives can be sometimes.  Unfortunately the pictures are not rated for public distribution.)

Punxsutawney!

My friend Alyssa and I decided that though we have thought about it and even attempted once to go experience the groundhog festivities, we finally realized that it is not worth it, to wake up at the crack of dawn, trek up a hill, and stand in the cold with our children for hours (it is really cold in February), just to find out that there will be six more weeks of winter!  However, Punxstawney was still something we wanted to see. So on Monday we packed up the kids and headed to Punxstawney.  Other than Groundhog Phil and Gobbler's Knob there is not much to see in Punxstawney, so this was a quick day trip!  It was fun and the weather was pretty good!  We went to Groundhog Phil's burrow and saw him sleeping, he did briefly wake up to eat and Lucas was able to see him.  We drove up to Gobbler's knob took pictures and called it good!  They did have several of these Groundhog statutes around town, they were pretty cute.  Lucas seemed to enjoy it!

 

Fall

The other day I was driving home and I looked around and realized that the leaves where changing and we are in the fall season.  It has been raining so much, and I have been busy I haven't been able to appreciate the fall season.  I haven't even baked one pumpkin thing yet!  Wait, I did make creamy pumpkin soup the other day! But other than that nothing, I have to fix this, and since this week the weather is looking warmer and better, I think Lucas and I will start enjoying the fall!  We're going to need to bake something with pumpkin in it and take a walk to look at the leaves changing colors!  Were also going together as a family to a high school football game and picking our pumpkin this week, what is more fall-ish than that!

Conference Weekend!

We didn't do too much the weekend before last, because it was conference weekend!  We did have brunch with some friends, it was pretty fun, and we had plenty of yummy muffins!  I bought M&M's for our conference bingo, which has been tradition, but we never got around to getting the cards out and didn't even open up the M&M's till the last session.  Though I still felt like we had plenty of sweets this past weekend!  We watched all four sessions of conference, though I am not sure I could tell you what they said, Lucas was not terrible, he just wanted to be right in your face and talk the entire time.  The only couple of hours that we got to really listen was while he was taking nap.  I am just going to have to read them instead!

Fall Festival!

 This past weekend we took Lucas to the fall festival they have down town!  I was really looking forward to this and was bummed when the weather didn't hold out for us!  It was really cold, but didn't really rain, so I guess that is a plus, and it could have been worse!  Lucas picked out and decorated a pumpkin!  Rode the carousel, loved it, and was quick to find where the places where people we handing out candy! Since the festival he has been obsessed with pumpkins anytime we see pumpkins he is quick to point them out!  Every time we take Craig to work, we drive past bins of pumpkins Lucas is sure to let us know when we pass them!  I am excited to take him to the pumpkin patch this week to pick out our pumpkin for dinner!

 

All dressed up and ready to go, but wait where is the snow!

As were heading into fall I quickly realized that my child doesn't have shoes to wear, not one pair!  It has been raining a lot lately so I have been able to get away with letting him wear his rain boots, but I knew this would last too much longer, but on second thought we are in Pennsylvania, where I feel like it is always raining!  Lucas also doesn't have any snow gear, and I know when it snows (if it snows this year) Lucas is going to want to go play!  So I went to a consignment sale last week, right when they opened, because things can get pretty crazy.  I was on a mission!  And I am happy to report I had great success!  Lucas now has a nice winter coat, snow pants (three pairs to be exact, because I wasn't sure which would fit him best, because size means nothing, every brand varies), gloves, and boots!  I also found him some shoes, two pair of shoes, in really good condition!  Anyway I dressed Lucas all up in his winter gear to make sure it would fit!  He looked like an Eskimo!  I  felt bad dressing him all up and then there wasn't any snow for him to play in!  Oh well! He was a very good sport about it all!  (I don't know why he looks so tired, I must have just taken the picture at the wrong time.)

mmmmmmmm.... Apple Season!

The trip to the Apple Orchard was a prelude to a week of apples!  At the beginning of the week I learned how to can apple pie filling.  It was very yummy pie filling, though my friend uses it for apple crisp, clever idea.  I don't think Craig would mind having apple pie filling in crisp form!  My friend said her husband called it, "liquid gold".  After having a taste I would have to agree, it was darn good!
Later, during the week after our field trip, we load up on apples, and canned applesauce!  Lots of jars of applesauce!  Alyssa and I are now in such a groove when were canning that by the afternoon we had canned my bushel of apples and her bushel of apples!  We now have several jars of applesauce to eat and bake with this year!  I still need to finish out apple season with the making of apple crisp, this might be done a few times before were out of the season.  I think I am going to try caramel apples, which I haven't been a big fan of in the past, but I think Lucas would enjoy it and the apples we get are sooooo good that adding caramel, you just can't you go wrong!

Apple Orchard!

A couple of weeks ago Lucas and I went with playgroup on our annual field trip to the Apple Orchard!  Before we went to the apple orchard, I took Lucas to story time at the library and ironically enough the theme for story time was apples!  It was really neat and made for a very themed day!  Unfortunately, it had been pretty rainy (surprise, surprise!) so it was very muddy.  The rain did hold off briefly, so we could take our wagon trip through the apple orchard.  Lucas didn't want to sit by me, he wanted to sit by his friend, which is the reason why there are no pictures of Lucas on the wagon ride, hold on... now that I think of it there might be one picture.  After the wagon ride they took us on a tour of how they clean the apples and store them, which includes a trip into the refrigerator!  Of course the best part of the whole experience is that they give us a bag of apples and some apple cider!  Which makes this trip pretty fun and yummy!

Annual BBQ!

Our little group that lives in our apartment complex gets together every year in the fall for a BBQ, to eat, have fun, and get to know those that have recently moved in.  This past summer we had quite a few families move in.  So much so, that I had not met everyone previously and we had to recruit our friends to bring there BBQ since one was not going to cut it.   We weren't sure we were going to have good weather, but luckily it ended up being a nice day!  We had a good time!  As of next year we will have been living here the longest, so the planning of this event is being passed to us.  I don't know if that is a good or bad thing, I guess will find out this time next year!

Stalling

Lucas has recently learned the concept of stalling!  He applies this knowledge when were getting ready for bed or nap time.  What typically happens is we get him already for bed/nap time, and right before or as were laying him down, he says, "book", you read him a quick book, the same book we having been reading him for the past week, next it is "drink" we quickly get him something to drink, then he wants me to sing the Winnie the Pooh song, lately singing it just once is not enough, so after two songs, we close the door while he is still trying to tell us what else he wants!  Bed time/ nap time is getting longer and longer!

Not the diaper!

The past week Lucas has started to take his diaper off (again)!  I will go get Lucas after his nap, and he will be standing in his crib without pants and no diaper, but of course his shirt is still on!  The other day I caught him standing in front of the T.V. with no diaper, just hanging out!  Luckily we have not had any accidents, but I can't help but ask myself where he comes up with this stuff?  And of course the question I am constantly asking myself "seriously?"  If this continues I might have to pull out the duck tape!

One year older!

We celebrated Craig's Birthday this past week, he is now one year older (next stop is the big 30!).  Unfortunately, Craig's birthday always seems to land on the day when so much is going on!  He did get two cakes, on two different days, and steak for dinner, however.  We tried cakes in the Crockpot, this was somewhat successful.  We are so grateful for Craig and all that he does!!!  We love him!  Hope he had a wonderful birthday!

An eventful Saturday!

Besides fixing the car last Saturday, we also took Lucas to the Patton Township Safety Fair.  Lucas was able to put out a fire with a hose, which he throughly enjoyed (probably because he loves water)!  He took a little ride in the lift of a fire truck, bounced in a couple of bounce houses, and had a sucker.  He was almost blown away when a helicopter was trying to land.   All in all a successful event for Lucas.

 

After that we headed down to the insect fair on campus.  Though we didn't try the chocolate covered crickets, Lucas did touch a tarantula, a walking stick, and a beetle!  He thought this was a riot and didn't even hesitate.  We also spent time in a tent with Monarch Butterflies!

Car Fixed?

This past Saturday Craig found himself once again under the car, trying to fix the hole in the exhaust!  After several hours of hard labor, success (we hope)!  The car doesn't roar to a start every morning, thankfully, especially at 5:30 in the morning.  Thanks Craig!

Who would have thought?

Since we have been home from vacation, Lucas has been really whiny!  I mean really, really whiny!  And for almost two weeks Lucas has been coughing!  At first I thought he might have allergies and was just trying to clear his throat, like his dad does.  I talked to a nurse who told us that if it didn't clear up within the next couple of days they would like to see him.  We put him on a cough suppressant, but unfortunately it just got worse and then his nose started to run.  So yesterday I took him to the doctor, expecting them to say it looks like he has a cold, there is nothing we can do, put a humidifier in his room.  Not exactly the answer we got.  Instead we took a trip down stairs to get an x-ray, and then went back upstairs for the doctor to tell us that he most likely has pneumonia.  For those of you that are thinking to yourself, 'wait a minute we saw and hung out with Lucas yesterday or the day before that or the day before that', don't be alarmed I looked it up and supposedly it is not contagious and he is now on some strong antibiotics.  So if you see Lucas it is not necessary for you to grab your children and run in the opposite direction unless you feel it is necessary!  By the way it was a great start to the week when the weekend had already been very busy!  You know those weekends that you think did we even have a weekend? Oh well.

Wow, Awesome!

I just thought that I needed to document this moment, not to say that Craig doesn't help out around the house because he does, but Craig has this uncanny ability to ask me if I need help at the moment I'm just finishing whatever it is I'm doing.  Today though, he asked me much earlier and I could actually put him to work.  Craig took out the trash and Lucas carried the recycling container, (he looked so cute and so proud carrying the recycle basket) it was awesome!  Lucas was happy because he was helping, I was happy because Craig was helping, I don't know if Craig was happy but it was a very happy blissful moment.

Colors!?!

Just this past week Lucas came up to us pointed to his shirt and said, "orange" which was in fact the color of the shirt he was wearing, and then he preceded to tell us that his pants were blue, denim is blue right?  We were so excited!  Quizzed him a couple of times through out the day about the color of his shirt and pants, praised him like crazy, he lives off of praise!  However, the next day I start asking him what color his shirt was, or what color the bus was, or the block, etc.  He got all of them wrong or he reverted back to associating them with the color of Sesame Street Characters.  I suspect he is just giving me a hard time, but honestly who knows, maybe it was a one time thing.  I guess time will tell!  Maybe next time I will be sneaky in how I ask him.

It's raining, It's pouring, The old man is snoring!

It has been raining constantly since last Saturday evening.  That is one thing that I don't like about Pennsylvania, the fact that it rains and rains and rains for days.  Not to mentioned that overcasts skies that we had several days before it actually started to rain.  What a bummer!  It was not until late Wednesday night that the rain finally stopped.  Here is hoping for some sunshine!

The Garden

Our poor little garden has struggled this season with the heat and then all of the rain.  I have had to plant my herbs twice and some of it still didn't make it.  Only half of my cilantro survived, but I believe this was partially due to Lucas and his shovel.  But our tomatoes survived!  When we arrived back home though, our garden needed some serious weeding and we caught the neighbor kids picking our unripe tomatoes, little stinkers!  Some still survived and there were several ripe tomatoes that needed to be picked.  So for the last week we have been eating very yummy tomatoes.

For the first time this year I planted basil.  Wow, this stuff grows like a weed!  I have made two batches of pesto, along with a few dishes that have called for fresh basil and it is still growing!  I have really enjoyed having all of this basil and experimenting with it!  I will definitely be growing this again next year!

Poor Little Car

This has not been the year for our little Camry.  The heater when out at the beginning of the year, so that needed to be fixed.  Surprisingly enough you can't fix it until it is warm enough outside, so needless to say it didn't get fixed till late winter.  Then summer came and we soon realized our A/C was out and you have to have a working A/C when you have a little person and humidity, plus it was really, really hot this year.  A more minor repair was our gas door broke and you had to manually open it, that was tricky, but an easy fix.  When I went home in July, Craig was driving along and one of the tires blew so we had to get new tires.  Our newest incident is our poor tale pipe has a gaping hole.  I apologize to our neighborhood who has been woken up to the noise of our car starting at 5:30 in the morning.  Sorry!  We attempted to fix it, but this morning I started up the car and could hear the muffler again, looking on the bright side of things at least it is not at loud as it was, before we tried to fix it.  Even with all that we have had to fix this past year, it has all worked out because Craig has been able to fix a lot of it on his own, which has saved us a lot (good thing I have a mechanically inclined husband).  So with this newest incident, I am sure it will work out, Craig already has a plan.  All things considered it is a good car and the things that have been wrong is all wear and tear, nothing too serious.  So in the end 'Go Us' and 'Go Little Car' you can make it!

Peaches!

With the fall comes canning.  I have been looking forward to canning this year, because I have been wanting to try to can peaches.  I love fresh peaches so much better than store bought canned peaches.  So image how excited I was when I found out that I had not missed peach season when I got back into town.  I feel so productive when I am canning, I am building up my food storage.  That is right I have thirteen jars of peaches sitting in the office just waiting till one of these days when it is really cold and dreary and I want a peach to brighten the wintry day.  I will be tasting some pretty sweet success!

So it begins.....again

Yes, it is here again that time of year when I have to coordinate our activities on Saturday depending on what time the "game" is.  When I know what I will be wearing every Saturday for the next few months.  When I stock up on Brats and chips, and apple beer (yes! the apple beer that we stocked up on when we were back west, boxed up, had examined at the airport, weren't sure it was going to make it, but it did! Success!).  Bring on the football!  When football officially started on Saturday we were ready.  Lucas was dressed from head to toe in BYU paraphernalia, carrying his BYU bookstore bag across the parking lot to the football party.  Poor child being indoctrinated into this ritual that is BYU Football at such a young age.  He even knows how to say "Go Cougars" and "touch down".  Of course you can't celebrate this monumental moment without friends.  Till next Saturday and the Saturday after that and the Saturday after that and so forth.

Watching the game at the James' with the Van O's.

Grange Fair

It is that time of year again.  One of the biggest events in Centre County, the Grange Fair.  This is a pretty important event, school is delayed due to this fair, people would kill their grandma to get a tenting spot at the Grange Fair.  It is that serious!

I like taking Lucas to see all of the animals, it has been fun to see how he reacts to the animals over the past few years.  This time around he was so excited, I think the rabbits were his favorite part, he would name the animals as he saw them and make the appropriate animal noises.  It was pretty cute!  We went with several of Lucas' friends, had some ice cream from an enormous ice cream sunday, and watched the Bald Eagle Band.  Lucas seemed to enjoy himself.  Lucas was able to walk part of the way with me and he was good to not wander off.  It was a very enjoyable day.  It is always an experience when going to the Grange Fair.
 

What Neighbors

We have lived here for three years now and in that three years in the apartment next to us we have had three different families living there and it has been empty for several months between those families.  Craig and I are beginning to think that there is something going on.  The management claims that there is a waiting list despite there always being empty units.  The apartment at the end of the building moved out after the apartment next to us, but it has been filled already.  Kind of strange.  Maybe we're horrible neighbors.  Our washer and dryer are pretty loud,  the floor moves when the washer is going.  It is kind of like having a mini earthquake every time we run the washer (I'm not joking either.  You can stand in the upstairs opposite corner of the apartment and feel the floor shaking slightly).  Don't get me wrong,  I am not complaining.  It is nice have no neighbors, but now that I have mentioned this I am sure will have neighbors move in and it won't be pleasant.  Here's hoping that won't be the case.  All of our neighbors in the past have been really nice.

New skills and joys

Lucas is still obsessed with cars, if you ask him what movie he would like to watch nine times out of ten it will be, Cars.  He can say "Lighting McQueen" and "Mater".  He loves playing with his Lego versions of the Cars characters.  He also has little car figurines of the characters and plays with them non stop.  The other day I even discovered some of his toys in one of my reusable shopping bags while we were at the farmers market.  He is quick to point out the cars on the road, especially school buses!


Lucas knows his colors if you coordinate them with a Sesame Street character.  For example if we see a school bus and I say, "Lucas what Sesame character is the school bus?"  He is quick to respond, "Big Bird."  We have also done this with objects of solid colors, green, yellow, red, and blue.  If you say which color is cookie monster he will grab the blue object.  I love Sesame Street so educational!


Lucas has also learned how to open doors, it was a sad day when we figured out he can do this.  He now has access to the office, the food storage upstairs (where he quickly discovered the fruit snacks) and the bathroom downstairs (where I found him the other day with about half a roll of toilet paper on the floor).  Right now as I am writing this I can hear him upstairs and I am pretty sure he is in the extra bedroom where the food storage is, probably looking for the fruit snacks.  This problem will quickly be resolved as I picked up some child proof door knob things.  The only problem with this solution is I have yet to master opening a door with those things on the handle.....

Oh, how I detest that phrase!

This is the conversation we having been having with Lucas numerous times the past couple of weeks!

Lucas, "I can do it!"

Mom, "Okay, Lucas do it."

Lucas, "NO! I can do it!"

Mom, "Lucas, how about mommy helps you."

Lucas, "NO!  I do it!"

These conversations usually end with me helping him, and all the while he is screaming at me, "I do it, I do it."  Though, there have been a couple of times that he has let me help him do it together.

The second most common conversation with Lucas:

Mom, "Lucas you stinky do we need to change your diaper?"

Lucas, "no, daddy do it!"

- not that I am complaining on this, I do not mind in the least when he makes this request.

Daddy, "Lucas let go get ready for bed"

Lucas, "no, mommy do it!"

-This is the one where I draw the line, I am the one that has just spent the entire day meeting his needs, and this is the one thing that Daddy does (not to say this is the only thing). 

Lucas is definitely coming into his own and developing his opinion.  If you ask him what he would like for breakfast he will tell you, "cheerios, with milk, and a banana."

The other morning I was putting a show on for Lucas and he was quick to tell me he didn't want to watch that show he wanted "train", i.e. "Thomas the Tank Engine".  This I cannot seem to figure out, he gets all excited when I put it on, but it doesn't seem to keep his attention for very long.  We continue to pick movies out at the library and he insists on getting a Thomas movie though he never really watches it.

Lucas seems to want to go the opposite direction that we need to go and he lets us know by saying, "no, that way!"  I don't think he cares where it leads,  as long as it is not the way we are going.


Another common phrase for Lucas has been, "Mine" or "hey that's mine!"  Which has lead to teaching Lucas the concept of sharing.  This is a bit hit and miss, but we will continue to teach it!

The littlest tasks that used to seem to trivial now seem to take forever!

Bryce Wedding!

At the end of our vacation came the much anticipated and primary purpose of coming out west, my brother's wedding.  It was a very long day, but it thankfully didn't rain, though it looked like it might and it did in some of the surrounding areas.  Mid-afternoon came and it was hot, really hot!  But it was beautiful!  We are so happy for him and wish him all of the happiness in the world!  Lucas looked really handsome in his black slacks, white shirt, suspenders, and gray tie.  His dad didn't look too bad either!  It was a wonderful experience!  Very much worth the trip out there!

Lucas in the great outdoors

Craig's family happened to leave for Youth Conference the day he arrived in Utah (one day later than planned and including a no expense payed stay in the Denver airport overnight, thanks Southwest!), so we drove up to camp to see them.  Lucas had a lot of fun seeing all the kids and running around free.  Just look at him, doesn't he look like he belongs in the great outdoors?

Why can't we be friends

Eevee is just a few months younger than Lucas.  I was excited for Lucas to have time to spend with his cousin, as Eevee is at Grandma's house a lot.  Within moments of there first interaction it quickly became clear, that this was not going to be the case.  They did not get along at all!  They were constantly on each other, at one point I caught Eevee holding Lucas by the collar slamming him up against the kitchen cabinets.  This isn't to say that Lucas didn't antagonize Eevee as well.  We were, after all, in Eevee's territory, and she saw Lucas as an invader.  Not to say that there weren't a few small moments of peace.  Toward the end of our visit, when we were getting ready to head to Craig's parent's house.  Lucas looked at Craig and said, "daddy no more, no more."  Craig's reply was, "no more what Lucas, no more grapes, no more drink?"  Lucas, "no more Eevee, no more."

Happy Birthday Eevee!

Lucas' cousin Eevee turned two while we were in Utah.  We were able to celebrate with them, which was really fun!  It was a backyard BBQ, which was thankfully covered because it rained.  However, this did not stop Eevee, Gage (Lucas' other cousin), and Lucas from playing, it just made it more fun!  Lucas needed his clothes changed by the ended he was dripping wet!

Colter Bay!

Towards the end of July Lucas and I headed back west to visit the family.  The day after we arrived we packed up and headed up to Colter Bay, which is a camping area next to Jackson Lake, in the Grand Tetons.  We spent four days there hanging with the family.  It was wonderful to be in the great outdoors (yes, I live in rural Pennsylvania, surrounded by mother nature, but it is not the same thing), to see the majestic mountains and evergreen trees.  It was gorgeous!

Looking down at the lake while on a hike

 My extended family has gotten into kayaking, so we went kayaking with them.  Honestly, at first I wasn't interested in participating in this activity, but they needed someone to get the kayak down to the day spot, and I was available.  It was a lot of fun, and surprisingly really works the upper body.  Lucas was also able to get a little kayak ride in.  He appeared to somewhat enjoy it.  Thanks Aunt Kenzie!

Lucas is coming from behind!

We forgot to mention this when it happened, but Lucas was recently weighed and measured.  Guess what?  Lucas is about 50% weight wise, but wait for it...wait for it.... he is 60% on height, he has grown about two inches in the last 5 months.  Way to go Lucas!  He might have gotten some height genes after all.  I guess will just have to wait and see. (I know this doesn't seem impressive, but he has been averaging in the 20 to 40 percent for height, so this is a little bit of a jump.)

Arts Festivals

This past week the Arts festivals were going on for State College and Boalsburg.  For those of you who don't know, this is a huge event.  I think I remember hearing on the news that over 127,000 people attended these festivals.  On Wednesday we went to Kids Day at the art festival in downtown State College.  It was packed, there were several booths of kids selling their art and crafts.  We went over to a park nearby ate our lunch, and walked around.  They had several different activities going on.  Lucas was able to sit in a fire engine and a police car (hopefully that is the only time that occurs.)  Every year there is this guy who creates something out of sand, it is pretty neat to watch him.  Lucas seemed to enjoy it and we had a lot of fun!

The next morning we walked over to the Boalsburg Arts Festival.  This one seem to have more kid friendly things to do, we even went back with Craig the next day.  Lucas jumped in the bounce house, or more often than not found one of the walls close to the door and hung on for dear life, while every one around him bounced.  They had a tent with several different interactive scientific activities to do.  When we went back with Craig, he seemed to enjoy this more than Lucas did.  Lucas' favorite part was the animals, you could pay a dollar for a ice-cream cone full of feed then you went into the pen they had set up and fed the animals.  They had turtles, bunnies, calf, pigs, goats, and an alpaca.  The first time we did it these animals were basically mauling Lucas to get to the food.  I thought this would freak Lucas out, but surprisingly it didn't.  He loved it and more than enjoyed feeding the animals.  He also loved following them around and petting them.  It was by the far the funnest thing we did at the festivals.  We also so the Storm Trooper again!  I told my friend, that the first time we saw him was at Memorial Day, and our first thought was, "What?"  The Storm Trooper must have over heard me, because he said, "I get that a lot."  At least he wasn't as out of place as last time.

Weeding

A while back we decided to weed for our FHE activity.  Lucas was so helpful, at one point he was wearing the gardening gloves and dragging this very long weed it was pretty cute.  He helped us put the weeds in the bag, and better yet kept himself pretty entertained while Craig and I did the brunt of the work.  Right before we headed outside to weed, Lucas rediscovered his galoshes, so Lucas weeded while wearing his galoshes.  This is a picture of Lucas carrying two bags full of weeds to the dumpster.  We are so lucky to have such a great helper and who thinks weeding is so much fun.

Anything Daddy does I can do...

The other morning we were all hanging out in the bathroom while Craig was getting ready for the day.  It was shaving day, for Craig, so Craig started to put the shaving cream on his face to shave.  Lucas saw this and decided he wanted to start shaving.  So this is a picture of Lucas with shaving cream on his cheeks.  No he did not get to use a razor.

Movie

Lucas went to his first movie in July (not counting the time when he was about three months old and we took him to the 9:30 showing of Star Trek, where he ate and then fell asleep.  As a side note - I couldn't feel my arm half way through the movie from not wanting to move him and wake him up. Not one of our best ideas.)

We had two free tickets to see Cars 2, plus kids 3 and under are free, so we all got to go see the movie for free.  Lucas has been a little obsessed with cars lately, so he was more than excited when the cars started to appear on the screen.  I had been collecting the Cars snacks  (graham crackers, shaped like the cars, marshmallows, and fruit snacks), so Lucas would have them to take to the theater with him.  Lucas really enjoyed it, he wanted to sit on Craig's or my lap the whole time, but he did sit and watch the movie.  He was quick to point out the cars, the water, and at one point during the show when the cars crashed into each other Lucas said, "Uh-oh, Mommy look, uh-oh."  Luckily the movie theater was loud enough, I don't think anyone heard, Lucas' commentary.  All in all it was a success!

Pancakes

A while back, Lucas and I had conversation that went something like this:

Katie:  "Lucas would you like some Cheerios for breakfast?" (This is pretty much what we have every morning for breakfast, because this is usually want Lucas wants).
Lucas: "Pancakes"

I couldn't quite understand what he was saying, but after a few minutes of trying to figure out I finally got it.

Katie: "Lucas, do you want pancakes for breakfast?"
Lucas:  "Don't want cheerios, pancakes."

This is one of the few times Lucas has made a request like this, so how could I not make pancakes for breakfast.

Humidity

I love the spring and summer.  Lucas and I pretty much spend our days outside soaking up the sun and playing.  However, this past couple of weeks it has been too hot to go outside.  I am sticky all of the time from the humidity.  Poor Lucas, his head is soaking wet by the time we get home from picking Craig up at work.  We went swimming yesterday and that was a nice break, but today it is hot and driving home from the grocery store I could see the humidity hanging in the air.  There is a plus side, I will be leaving this all behind in a week, I know it will be hot in Utah, but I am sure looking forward to that dry heat, my hair not looking like a frizzy wavy mess and my clothes not clinging to me.

EDIT:  In addition to all of the heat and humidity, our A/C died over the hottest weekend of the year.  We set new records for temperature that broke previous ones from the 1930s.  It was 102F outside and the heat index with the humidity was over 112F.  It got up over 90F in our apartment.  Unfortunately we were hosting some youth for a regional youth conference at our house on one of those nights.  We felt bad for them.  Thankfully we have some wonderful new ward members who loaned us a portable window A/C unit that we put in Lucas' bedroom.  So while we had 93F+ in our bedroom during the night, Lucas slept in a comfortable 78F room.  The A/C did get fixed on Monday morning, but by then the temperature had dropped to the mid-70s (of course).

Family visit

We are so glad that my family came to visit.  We had a ton of fun.  Lucas loved it.  He really enjoyed playing with Aunt Kenzie and Grandma and Grandpa.  Though he calls grandma and grandpa by the same name (it is a variation of 'grandpa'), they both enjoyed seeing him.  We went swimming up at Green Wood Furnace, watched the fire works, Lucas helped Aunt Kenzie and Grandma husk corn.  It was fun, and came and went way too fast.  No worries, we will be seeing them in about two weeks, actually less than that (I'm writing this weeks late).  I keep telling Lucas were going to fly on an airplane to see them and he seems to think that will be fun, maybe not the plane ride, but the visit will be fun!  We look forward to see everyone.

New York City, Part 2

The next day was spent in Midtown Manhattan.  Once again we hit all the touristy spots (of which I didn't take many pictures for some reason.  Probably because I already took pictures of them all when we went to New York before).  We walked from Juilliard down Broadway to Times Square.  Then walked to the New York city Library, down to the Empire State building, back up to the Rockefeller Center, across the street to St. Patrick's Cathedral, picked up a hot dog from a street vendor, made our way to Grand Central Station, across Manhattan to the United Nations building, up to Dylan's Candy Bar on our way to Central Park, cut through Central Park on our way to Levain Bakery (the real reason for Katie going to New York), back down to Times Square where we ate dinner at Ben's Delicatessen (awesome pastrami!) and finally picked up cheesecake to go at Juniors before sprinting back to the car so we didn't get charged extra.  Whew, what an exhausting day.  Previously when Katie and I had gone to New York, we did a similar walking route and I think the tally was somewhere around 15 miles of walking.

The one thing that we did that Katie and I had never done before was go to the top of the Rockefeller Tower, where I took these panoramas:

Looking North from "Top of the Rock".  Click HERE for high resolution.

Looking South from "Top of the Rock".  Click HERE for high resolution.

New York City

After our adventures in Maine, we continued on to New York City. We spent two days in the city, one in the financial district and one in Midtown Manhattan, both times driving into the city, parking and then walking everywhere. It was a fun and exhausting two days in the city. Lucas, however, thought it was great.....especially the pigeons.

We saw all the standard tourist stuff in the financial district including Wall Street, Trinity Church, St. Paul's Chapel, and Ground Zero. Ground Zero is currently closed off entirely in preparation for the opening of the 9/11 memorial that will be opening on 9/11/11. We did see the progress being made on the new World Trade Center tower.

One cool thing that we saw, that I didn't even know existed, was the Federal Hall across the street from the New York Stock Exchange. New York City was the Capitol of the United States for ~1.5 years from mid-1788 to 1790, and is the site of George Washington's inauguration.

For lunch we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and ate at Grimaldi's Pizzeria. The walk across the bridge was long and hot, but the pizza was completely worth it. It probably has something to do with how hungry I was, but Grimaldi's is among some of the best pizza I've ever eaten. Even Lucas had a good time.

After more wandering around, we made our way up to Little Italy for dinner. We ending up picking Ristorante Da Gennaro and had a good time, although I don't think anything could top the pizza we'd already had for lunch.

Leaving Maine....

After our second night in Bar Harbor, we headed south along the coast toward New York City. We found a little park in Camden, ME where we could eat lunch. The park sat on the city harbor, which made for another scenic panorama (I'm really getting into taking these panoramic shots, so hopefully you like them).

Camden, ME harbor.  Click HERE for high resolution.

After our lunch trip, we continued on to Kennebunkport, ME to visit an Air Force site that Katie's dad comes to often in conjunction with his work. As we passed Kennebunkport pulled over on the side of the road to gawk at the city's most famous resident (or at least there home): George H. W. Bush. Notice the Texan flag flying next to the American flag. The house sits out on a peninsula with a series of other houses/building along the rest of the peninsula, culminating with the Secret Service house.

As we continued on south, we had to make one more stop and try some local clam chowder at Shea's Riverside Restaurant. They claim to have the best clam chowder in the area, which was backed up by Steve's personal recommendation. I have to say, it was pretty good.

Bar Harbor, ME

(Craig, again)

The furthest extent of our vacation took us to Bar Harbor, ME. The city name, using the local accent, is pronounced as "Bah Ha-bah". Every time I heard a local say the name of the city I was reminded of that scene from Jaws when Chief Brody jokingly practices his "islander" accent:

Ellen Brody: You see the kids?
Brody: They must be in the back yard.
Ellen Brody: In Amity, you say "yahd".
Brody: They're in the "yahd", not too "fah" from the "cah".

Bar Harbor is just outside the gates of Acadia National Park, which itself is entirely contained on an island, just off the coast of the mainland. It is a touristy city, but nice. During the evening we took a walk down into the town and down to the actual harbor. Lucas got to stand in the water while myself, McKenzie and Steve skipped stones.

Everywhere you look (including in the pictures, if you look carefully enough) the water is covered in multi-colored markers indicating crab and lobster traps. As such, the main menu item of every restaurant in town is crab or lobster. Not wanting to be left out, we made sure and stop at a local lobster pound a pick up a couple of the monsters. Lucas just liked the ketchup.

We spent most of the day driving around Acadia National Park. There is a single "sand" beach in the park that is popular for swimming for both tourists and locals. We didn't swim, but Lucas enjoyed chasing and being chased by the waves. The beach isn't actually made of sand, but rather various minerals and very finely crushed shells. The cove keeps away the Atlantic Ocean waves that would normally pull the sand back out to sea.

The best part of the park (in my opinion) was the drive to the top of Mount Cadillac. Sitting in the center of the park, it provides a great panorama view of the island. It also has the distinction of being the highest point in the U.S. along the eastern shore. This means that it is literally the first point in the US to see the light of the sun. Pretty neat.

Looking Down on the town of Bar Harbor, ME.  Click HERE for high resolution.

Complete panorama from Mount Cadillac.  Click HERE for high resolution.