Michael's first camping trip

At Tibble Fork Resevoir in AF canyon.

Happy Michael.

Aunt Kimberly and cousin Nathan.

Happy Christopher.

Brothers.

Splashing.

Crawling. (He bear-crawls all the time.)

Excited to go fishing. They caught 2 fish this time and 2 fish at 6am. (Only the dads went in the morning.)

On the resevoir with a momma duck and 3 ducklings.

He loves people watching.

Look! Aunt Kimberly and Cousin Nathan are coming! Michael loves waving to everyone. And cars going by.

Smiley.

Trying to get him to look up at me...

Blah to you mom!

Cute anyways.

Nathan is 7 months old and Michael is almost 13 months old. They are the same height when Nathan stands on his tip toes, with an 8 lb weight difference.

Michael loves Nathan and was soft with him. (only inadvertant bonking when dropping/swinging toys and squishing when using him to balance himself.)

Cute smile Nathan! Too bad Michael was watching someone else.

Ok, now Michael is smiling and Nathan isn't. And I wasn't zoomed in...

The baby ducks came close.

At the campsite. We camped in the wilderness area (not in a campground) of Alpine Loop on the AF side.

Mmmmm...dirt. Yummy.

Roasting marshmellows.

The next morning. His legs look so long! He slept well execept for screaming at 11pm for no reason. Maybe his arm was asleep? I don't like it when that happens. I didn't sleep well because we were sleeping together.

Hitting the bushes.

Happy to be camping. Both boys enjoyed throwing rocks in the stream.

Rob and his brother built a dam for fun. They both fell in and Rob lost his flipflop. Scott took the dam apart before we left, so as to leave everything the way it was before.

Michael's first hair cut & other pics

My sister Gabrielle did the boys' hair in little mowhawks (fauxhawks?) while she was babysitting, which showed me how long Michael's hair was (you can't even see) and that I wanted to cut it.

After. He looks bald again. :(

I trimmed around the ears and the top, but he kept moving, so I got the clippers out (which he had no problems with!) and put the # 2 on, when I should have done the #3. Hopefully it grows back before Rob's brother's wedding, the end of August.

Being silly with daddy. sitting in his school backback (it zips around the top like a can.)

Should we go hiking with it? ;)

"Helping" pull weeds.

Playing catch with daddy.

If he ends up playing football, this picture will come in handy.

Michael loves our parakeet, Simon. Our friends the Lants gave him to us when they moved into an apt that didn't allow pets. I think we've had him for 3 years.

Cute smile.

Michael's first birthday!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Loftus for this cute shirt!

We went to see the hot air balloons. They didn't lift off because of weather in higher wind paths. Michael woke up at 5:15am screaming and mad that he was awake. We weren't planning on waking up until 5:45. Oh well. The coke bottle was cool. As was the pig.

And of course Smokey the bear.

Michael loves the bike we gave him for his birthday. (And the cute outfit and toys from both sets of Grandparents.)

I kept trying to get a picture with Michael's hands on the handle bar, but he was too excited; everytime he saw the camera, he grinned & waved his arms.

He can sort of walk behind it too. He has started cruising the furniture, but never letting go.

He is 24 lbs, 11 oz. and 29.5 inches long. His head is still in the 2%, but the fact that the soft spot is gone is ok because that is normal at age 12-15 months. If we see weird shapes or ridges, then we need more x-rays, but he should be fine now.

Opening presents. Rob and Chrisotpher had to show him how.

Next to his birthday cake. He stuck his finger in it right before I took this picture. He thinks he's so clever.

Trying his cake.

Hmmmm....pretty good...

Oh, it's squishy.

Really squishy.

I don't think he took another bit after he realized it was so squishy.

I should have done all green frosting or something so you could see it on his tummy & face. You can tell he loved it!

Talking to Uncle Scott on the phone. Everytime I told him someone texted Happy Birthday, or when they called, Michael got a big smile on his face.

June

This is what I woke up to the morning of our 6th anniversary. We went to dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe, the dollar theater to see Percy Jackson:The Lightening Thief, and tried to go to the temple (our tradition), but it was closed for maintenance.

Rob's birthday. He wanted a German Chocolate cake & Calzones.

Not pictured: For Father's Day I tried to make homemade hotdog buns to go with the brats I bought. I should have taken a picture-they were huge! And I made a yummy strawberry jello dessert.

This picture, taken in October/November is one of my favorites! It was Rob's wallpaper for a while & Michael loved to look at it. I need to get it framed.

Lately I've been making green smoothies. Christopher's doctor said he needs green veggies. I figure this cup has about a cup of spinach in it. I just make the smoothies like a normally would, but I fill it lightly full (not packed down) of spinach first. Christopher & Michael love them. I like them, Rob tolerates them, so we have them for an afternoon snack. (pictured with scrambled eggs & apple muffins)

Our strawberries have started coming in. The first batch (pictured) were picked at by birds, but now the birds are leaving them alone. (because the cherries are starting to get ripe?) The strawberry plants were Rob's parent's present to him for his birthday last year. We get 5 or so a day.

It's fun to be five

Fun thing #1: Christopher and Rob made this cool bike ramp. Look how high Christopher can go! Rob says he is a natural.

picture #1.

Picture #2. He had so much fun. He felt so grown up.

Fun thing #2: What are Rob and Christopher eating on their crackers? (hint: we all loved it (though Rob only liked it), but we don't have it very often. May have been Christopher's first time eating it.)

This fish that they caught! Christopher didn't want to touch it. Rob cleaned & cooked it and we all enjoyed it. Rob went fishing with the 11 yr old scouts. Christopher went too and had a blast. They caught 3 fish. We got one of them. After seen how much the three of us liked it (he didn't like it so much), he wished he had bought a season pass instead of a day pass because he enjoys fishing and we enjoy eating fish.

Fun thing #3: your parents let you go outside by yourself when it is pouring down rain. Christopher is standing in our flower garden that is flooded. The rain gutter on our house decided to plug up during a down pour, resulting in flooded & pounded flowers.

Singing in the rain. (or atleast smiling)

Fun thing #4: Mom lets you pull baby brother around the house in a wagon. (note: it is a toy wagon, so michael's big bum barely fits.) He loves it, you can tell.

Happy brothers, entertaining eachother.

The view from the kitchen upstairs. I looked down to see why they were laughing. I don't know how Christopher puts Michael in there. There is only a 7lbs difference.