Cal's first Moon Lake

It was a hard decision to go to Moon Lake this year I have to admit. Jas was super sweet about it and let me know if I opted out it would be ok. I am so glad I went. Cal had a great time!

Moon Lake has been a familly reunion tradition in Jason's family for decades. This years turn out was not quite the usual for high numbers. I can't imagine what it would be like with everyone there. In the group we had there were easily a dozen kids mostly Cal's age give or take a year or two. Although he was as tall as all of them.

We played with his Aunts and Uncles at camp and loved the hammock so much. Not too far down the road was the beach. It was so beautiful. Cal had no problem walking right into the water and it was freezing!!! He didn't care. Thank goodness someone was always in the water to keep him from taking a walk deeper and deeper cause he would if you let him just go. On land he explored the canoes and had a blast chucking globs of mud at others. Our cousins were so prepared for fun activities one of them was the rock painting. Absolutely GENIUS! And then to top it off they brought wooden snakes to paint too! Cal had a great GREAT time with the paint and rocks. And he did awesome concentrating so hard. I painted the entire rock orange demonstrating the painting technique. Then I gave him the reins and he did fabulous! We had such an awesome time. Thank you to Grandpa Marv who made sure we were well taken care of. Next year will be even better!

Forgot to put these photos with the last blog

Awesome Treehouse Museum

We went to visit our friends at played at the Treehouse Museum. So AWESOME! Cal could have spent the entire visit in the musical room or at the Lego table. So much to see and do there. And then around the corner to the Farr Icecream Parlor we went. What a fantastic afternoon and then a cool evening outside on the lawn. Look what Cal wants Daddy! Someday we will have to get him a similar bike. He loved it. For a moment he tried sitting on the front wheel and holding onto the handlebars. He tried so many different ways but just couldn't figure out how to make it go. So cute!

Sharing Breakfast with the furniture!

Cal has become independent when it comes to his meals. He must have the spoon or else....!!!! BIG MISTAKE - - I let him go at it with a mostly empty yogurt while being mobile. Oh he was so happy but I am still finding crunchy spots on the carpet or orange smears on my freshly painted walls. It was so cute at the time though.

Spitting Fun!

Every kid has to go through this stage I guess. Oh boy! Gotta love the spitting.

End to a Rainy Day

Today we stayed inside due to the rain and 48 degree temp. We had a good time watching Cal's new "Outdoor Elmo's World." As you can see in the pictures Cal was GLUED to the TV. I have to say that is the last Elmo's World I buy. We have got to get him into something else. Mommy is going nutty I can sing every song and finish phrases from it. So I bought "Shark Tales" for tonight. He liked what he saw. He went to bed shortly after. Cute kid!

Jelly Fish Fun!

This was so cool! They had a light that changed colors so the jellyfish did too. So fun!

Summer Fun Has Begun!

Today we met our friends Sarah (holding Cal) and her boys Korbin, Milo, and Emmett at the aquarium. We had a great time getting out of the house. It was so fun to watch Cal participate in this aquarium trip compared to our Vegas one. He wasn't walking two weeks ago when we were there. What a difference it has made to have him upright! He had a blast. He couldn't quite keep up with the other kids but he still had a good time. Here he is watching the penguins. I have to say that was super fun. They are quite the little "show-offs." The exhibits were surprisingly nice. The building looks quite shabby on the outside. These pictures are loading in different order than I thought so you can just piece these together yourself. Look at the cute boys! There is one more but he is almost two months old and being held at the moment. Cal just thinks the world of them, me too. When I go out with them passersby comment how cute my boys are. I just smile and say "thanks." Really they could be brothers they do look pretty similar. Well I am going to load the next three pics. Cal loved the giant frog it was hard to get him to pull away to the next exhibit. He LOVES to climb! They had a small brooke he was peeking through the fence at for a while. Then there is a picture of him outside yesterday with the ball. He knows the word "ball" very well now. And his favorite words lately are "ow" and "Don't!" (but no t on end of don't) Oh yeah, before I forget. His most favorite exhibit was the shallow pool where we were able to lean over and touch the Sting Ray's. We hung out there for at least fifteen minutes. I have never seen a Sting Ray come to the surface and wave before. These ones were coming up half out of the water with their eyes and waving right by the kids. They were like trained Sea World performers. It was so fun! Cal didn't touch them though. He would be splashing in the water (if I hadn't been there he would have jumped right in!) and then the Sting Ray would come by and he would pull back and watch it go by. This kid loves the water. There is a sprinkler on our blow up pool and he sticks his face in it. He LOVES the water! Sounds like its time for swimming lessons for the both of us. Oh boy! Everyone knows how fond I am of that idea.

Tribute to my husband

I just have to get this out. As I was just emailing Jas I had a lot of gratitude bubble up. So here is my outlet. Today Calvin had his first experience with his blow up pool and sprinkler in the yard. The expressions on his face, squeals of delight, and looks of confusion from the sputtering sprinkler were so priceless. He had Aspen and I laughing so hard at times it was hard to breath. I have the blessing of waking up each day, walking into Cal's room and pulling him into my arms to say good morning. As summer has come along my thought early each morning is "what will today bring?" "What will we do for your first time ever today?" And it's not that we plan to do "firsts" every day. We happen to be in the moment and I realize its his first. And there I am sharing it with him. I am so grateful it brings me to tears. Thank you Jason for providing me this opportunity to share my days with Cal. Thank you for all of your hard work, long hours, early mornings, long periods of time on orders. These days are irreplaceable and I catch myself on days like today trying to grasp the hours and hold on. But they just slip away so quickly. He gets so big each day. So much stronger and independent. It is amazing to watch how he learns so speedily. Last Saturday night I took him to the park. It was his first time back since he has been walking(as of a week ago). He takes off up the playground stairs gets on the slide feet first belly down all by himself. Then at the end he gets up and climbs the slide to come back down again. We did this for over an hour. But that hour went by so quickly and while we walked home I felt I left my baby at the park and brought home a toddler. I knew this day would come. But it came so fast. I am just so very, very grateful I was able to be there with him through it all. Thank you to my hard working husband. I know he misses his family so much and he wishes he could be here for these small moments. We love our daddy! And to end on a less sappy note here is last night's laughs. Cal was gigglin so hard, come to find out he was bending over and Ruby was giving him french kisses and he thought it was the best thing ever. He was laughing so hard and I was too. I finally put an end to the show once I got a hold of myself. Oh he is just the light of my life! How did I ever think I life was good before him? Life is so beautiful, especially now that its summer!

Prairie Dog Exhibit Cal loved!

This I think was one of Cal's favorites at the zoo. Of course he loved it, Daddy was too that's what was so great. I could have watched those little creatures for a while. They are quite comical.

He is such a little GOOBER!

The stroller was in the kitchen. I was doing dishes. I heard him giggling and found him here in the stroller bottom but head first. It took him a while to figure out how to turn around. Silly BOY!

Calvin's 1st Birthday cakes. Anyone want to borrow Elmo cake pan for a cake? It will be in my cupboard for a while.

Here is Cal eating his birthday cake. I blogged about it but the pics wouldn't load that night.

Look at this smarty pants. He found my keys and apparently he watches and remembers because he was pretty determined to get those keys to stay on the doorknob. Now that it is warm outside I have been trying to spend at least a full hour out in the sun with him. Coming back inside the house can be a bit of a trial. Bribery is becoming a necessary tool. But now he goes to the door with or without my keys and stays there until I finally give in to going out.

How cool is that! They were right there by the window. He enjoyed the zoo. Mostly because we were outside. Some guy gave us free tickets for the train. He was so overwhelmed by everything to see. Honestly I think his favorite part was the Discovery portion of the zoo. They have a hut you can go in and it has skylights you can poke your head through. The skylight is in the middle of a prairie dog exhibit so your head is right next to them. He loved it. Cal would bark at them. Oh if I haven't told you already we are convinced we have a Dr. Doolittle. He speaks jibberish to us and speaks fluent dog. He even barks at the birds. Or when he hears someone outside our home he goes to the door and barks. Yeah I laugh constantly with this boy. Although he does scream like a girl. We found out that he can be terrified. Not that we didn't think that he was old enough but we have just never been in a situation that has scared him. Until the zoo. They have a life-size replica of an elephant and it makes elephant noises. It scared him soooooo bad. I thought a little girl had been seriously injured. No, it was our baby boy. Jason couldn't go closer than ten feet or else he screamed so hard. He woke up 5 times two night after with the same scream. Nightmares?

This is when I realized he needed a hair cut. I cut it later that night. EINSTEIN HAIR!

So our little guy has had a rough weekend, but can you tell? It's amazing how happy kids can be even when they aren't feeling well. I think he just had a 24 hour bug. We stayed home from church today just to be on the safe side.

Yesterday I left Cal with Mom while I went up to SLC to do a bride early in the morning. I was not even half way through with her hair when Mom called saying Cal had thrown up four times. I fed him some sweet potatoes after he woke up from his nap at Mom's. He seemed to feel so much better so I thought it was a good idea to get him full of some food. OH BOY WHAT A MISTAKE!! I picked him up and all of our bags, blankets, etc. to go and he puked on EVERYTHING!! Including Mom's white living room carpet. Orange Sweet Potatoes! Oh and my new white blouse. So we were in the clear later that evening so Cassady and I took him out in the stroller. As we neared home he started to grumble. I now know why. Minutes after walking in the door we stripped his pants off of him to cool him down, it was so warm out. He was standing at the window when he relieved himself and Cass and I laughed because we could have swore he said a slow " Oh yeah.." I went to do the dishes and Cass summoned me quickly back to the living room. It had gone out the diaper, down his legs ALL over the carpet, and get this, down my heater vent. Not just on but DOWN IT. I had to take it apart and reach inside. It was SUCH A MESS!!! Cass just kept laughing and took a picture. You wait until its you Tweed. Although I was laughing pretty hard myself. Cal knew he had done something yucky. He had this worried look on his face. Poor guy. After that was cleaned up I got to clean up the pee Ruby left me in the bathroom. She was in there all morning while I was gone, but STILL.... So I screaming "UNCLE!" I am so done, please no more. He seems good today. Our good friend gave us a pair of shoes for him that are too big. He insists on wearing them. He tries to put them on by himself. So on they go and they stay, but walking is a little harder. He cracks me up all day. I wish I could just videotape our whole day sometimes. Especially in the car. He is so freaking funny. He has some of the best dance moves and he has the pursed lips and slight head bob down pat. LOVE LOVE LOVE this age!

Happy 1st Birthday Calvin!!

Why haven't I been blogging? Well let me tell you I don't know how anyone has more than one kid and stays involved in anything. It is insane being a mom. But I LOVE IT!!!!! This now one year old baby is my life and I wouldn't change it for anything. He keeps me running constantly. Cal is now practicing standing with no support. That just started this weekend. He was super cute eating his Elmo cake I made him. My goal was to let him be as messy as my nephew Alex was when he ate his blue Cookie Monster cake. That was almost fifteen years ago, but I remember that evening I thought it was the cutest thing ever!