Summer Fun

It's been pretty hot here. At times it's a little too hot out for my taste, but Dallin still wants to go out and play. The other day I sent him out in the backyard with a little plastic honey bear bottle full of water. I showed him how you could "draw" with the water on the concrete patio, then left him to his own creativity.  I think he mostly got the water on himself.

I was inside doing dishes with a clear view of him playing. When he ran out of water every few minutes, he would come press his face up against the glass door.

 Then he would knock and start signing "water."

 He kept knocking until I came to fill his water.

I finally got smart and gave him another bigger bottle: an empty syrup bottle.

He watered the grass for me.

 But then he just watered himself.

He had a blast and it was an easy, free summer activity that watered my grass, kept Dallin occupied and let me do the dishes. Everyone wins!

Father's Day

Who is that handsome man standing in my front yard?

 Why, it's Mckay wearing the new suit he got for Father's Day!

 Since Mckay got me a new dress for Mother's Day, I figured he should have something new to wear to church as well. It fits his slim figure very nicely.

 For dinner, I made Ribs covered in the most delicious rub.

 And for dessert we had lemon bars made with fresh California lemons straight from my parents backyard.

Mckay got to celebrate by going to Sunday School at church for the first time in over 18 months. He is no longer working in the nursery at church. While he will really miss being with those little kids each week, it is kind of nice to be able to sit with him again. The trade off is that his new calling in church is in the Boy Scout program, so he's gone on Wednesday nights each week.

I loved the Father's Day card that Dallin made at church for Mckay. This card had a spot for the children to write why they love their Dads. Since Dallin doesn't really talk or understand a lot of things yet, anything he makes is done mostly by the nursery workers. The card says, "I love my Daddy because he... throws me." It made me laugh. I know Dallin didn't suggest that, and I'm not sure who "helped" him write it, but Dallin does love it when Mckay throws him in the air. Every child should be so lucky to have a Dad who throws them.

The Park and the Beach

We went to San Francisco on Saturday and stopped by the Golden Gate Park. There was an awesome slide there and Dallin went down many times. First with aunt Katie.

 And finally with me.

Mckay successfully climbed to the top of the structure!

 Mckay and Dallin in a spinning seat.

Dallin wanted to bury Connor in the sand.

 I don't think Connor would have appreciated it.

While we were in San Francisco, we also went to Ghirardelli Square for some huge ice cream sundaes, and then down Lombard street directly afterwards. Maybe not the best combination.

(photo source: wikipedia)

On Tuesday we joined my uncles Mark and Brian for lunch at Togo's.

 Dallin loves Mark.

Then we went to the beach near my where we parents lived 25 years ago. We drove by the first house I lived in. At the beach, we were jealous of this sweet ride.

Connor was scared of the waves.

Every time they came towards him, he grabbed onto grandma very tightly and looked away.

Dallin stood cautiously by the waves.

 I don't think he was scared, just not a huge fan of the cold water.

 He preferred playing in the sand.

He buried our feet in the sand.

Connor was much happier once he was safely on dry ground.

 You may be wondering where Joseph was this whole time. He was building this:

I think a big wave washed it away 5 minutes later.

The Mission and Aquarium

On Monday we visited the Mission San Juan Bautista.

 Mckay and Joseph forgot to consult each other on wardrobe that day and they both wore orange shirts with khaki shorts.

I couldn't keep them apart all day.

It was really neat looking around the mission, seeing the gardens, architecture, and the giant pot where they cooked the children.

 Totally kidding. I'm actually not sure what the pot was for (possibly candle making?), but Dallin liked being inside it.

The chapel was really old and cool looking. Of course, no building named after John the Baptist would be complete without a painting of the baptism, a water basin, and a dove suspended over head on a chain and pulleys.

From there, we went to Monterey and got lunch at Louie Linguini's. The fried artichoke hearts were amazing.

 Even Mckay ate them. He said, "You can make anything delicious by deep frying it and serving it with a chipotle ranch sauce."

Dallin would pick off the fried batter and eat the artichokes straight. He definitely has some California blood in him.

Then we moved on to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

 Dallin was mesmerized by all the tanks of sea creatures.

Connor had a pretty good time sitting the stroller and eating his shoes.

 Mom and Joseph dueling with dolphin flippers.

 There is a room with a domed clear glass wall and ceiling. A huge amount of water is dumped on it and you watch it fall down the sides.

Dallin had to be holding onto someone every time the water came crashing down. He was fascinated by it, but also just a little scared of it. 

Getting ready for the splash.

We admired the giant octopus. I'm sure it could have eaten all of us.

There was a pool where you could touch the sea life.

We chatted with the aquarium worker by the touch pool for a minute while Dallin continued playing in the water. After a minute we noticed that Dallin had collected all the nearby abalone shells and nested them inside each other, from biggest to smallest.

 

I don't know if I've mentioned before, but he LOVES anything that nests, stacks or fits inside another thing.

 He is so smart. And tidy.

California

We went to California for a week to visit family. The main reason for going was that my brother Joseph just returned from a 2 year mission in Micronesia. It was so great to see him again. Dallin loved playing with him.

Dallin and Connor did really well on the airplane. Sometimes we forget how great our kids are. When you're flying for 6+ hours, it's easy to get irritated at each little thing your child does, but they were both very well behaved on the flight there and back. We would hear other babies screaming around us (like the one that screamed for an hour straight before we even took off), and then I'd look at Dallin covered in stickers and quietly coloring, or Connor happily chewing on a straw, napkin, plastic cup or anything he could reach, and I would just smile and feel grateful for my good kids.

The sudden elevation changes during take off and landing were a little rough for Dallin, but as long as you were holding his hand and talking to him, he did alright.

By the time we landed and got to my parents house, it was almost 9pm pacific time. That is midnight for our Indiana bodies. But Dallin and Connor were both so excited to see people and play, they did not want to sleep. They were still up happily playing til 11pm (2am in Indiana!!), but Mckay and I were exhausted so we forced them to bed. Dallin was the first one up the next morning at 6:30am. He wondered why Grandma and Grandpa weren't awake and ready to play with him. So he took some toys to the back door and played by Rocky, the dog.

Dallin and Connor loved playing with their cousin Scott. I think Connor was excited to be bigger than someone and he liked climbing on top of Scott.

 Sometimes Dallin and Connor would both come at Scott at the same time. Good thing I was there to protect him.

It looks like they're plotting together on the best way to get Scott.

 Dallin was in heaven the whole week because he had so many people to play with. He got to see his cousin Lucas.

Dallin and Lucas were born just a few months apart and used to live right next to each other. I'm sure they missed being best buddies. We went to my sister's house and Dallin played in the pool with Lucas.

It was a cool day so Lucas had already left the pool but Dallin wanted to stay in there all day.

Connor was not happy when I put him in the water.

 But he was happy whenever grandma held him.

My parents live close to a park so we took the kids there one day.

Dallin was on this tire swing with another little girl while her mom was pushing them. Dallin liked it at first, but when he got sick of it, he just let go of the chains and flew off the tire. Luckily, it was a soft landing and he wasn't really hurt, just startled.

Connor sat happily in the grass for a long time. I realized after a while what was entertaining him: he was eating the grass.

 It made him so happy!

 Dallin LOVES pancakes. He's eaten at least one (usually 2) each day for the last month. When my dad heard how much Dallin loved pancakes, he made some delicious buttermilk pancakes for him.

 Dallin also loves watching/helping people cook, so he was in heaven.

 The end result: yummy!

Connor learned how to crawl on this trip.

He doesn't quite have a perfect hands-and-knees-back-and-forth crawl yet, but he can really move around.

 At my parents house, there is a landing/loft area at the top of the stairs. When the kids played up there, we had the baby gate up for safety.

 Connor tried to get past it.

 At first he thought it was pretty funny...

 but then he just felt stuck.

Dallin did a similar thing last time we visited my parents house.

More pictures to come, including the places we went. We didn't just sit at my parents house the whole time.