Signs of Fall

We've had absolutely perfect weather for the last few weeks, but it's been getting cooler at night and darker earlier, so some of the trees are beginning to change.  I think fall is on the way!  I'm excited to experience a true autumn finally - apple and pumpkin picking, leaves changing, corn mazes...  These maple trees are at the entrance to our subdivision and just beautiful.  (Owen's on Daddy's shoulders, which is why he's sucking his thumb!)

Cuddlebug (just not at the office)

Today, Granna and Grandad headed back to Texas.  I think Owen is going through a phase where he is drawn to and prefers the male role models in his life.  He took to Grandad instantly and became his best bud/shadow over the course of their stay.  Notice the thumb-sucking whenever he was in Grandad's arms.  Lots of book reading and "gucks"!  We had a great time!

While the grandparents were in Yellowstone, we visited Daddy's workplace on Open House day.  I think Owen was interested in all the cords and cubbies for about 5 minutes.  Then he decided that running up and down and around the halls was more fun than the office.  He's perceptive, no?

Kindermusik

Last week, we tried out Kindermusik.  It's about 45 minutes of singing and dancing and stories.  With Owen always bopping to music, I couldn't imagine him not liking this class.  It took him a while to warm up, but once he realized that I wasn't dropping him off and he could be as goofy as he wanted to be, he was fine. 

Storytime - he liked this because the blanket had fringe!  Because of that, he sucked his thumb through most of the story.  (He's in the burgundy striped shirt.)

We played peek-a-boo with scarves.  He really liked this part!

Besides throwing his sticks and running out the door (there was a playground visible at the end of the hallway), he did pretty well.  I think we'll see if he's got some musical talent by the end of the year.  :)

21 months

Just a quick note to celebrate 1.75 years with Owen!  It's been more and more fun.  


New words include:
"key", "shish" - fish, "shoos" - juice, "bak" - bike, "eh-he-he" - horse, "bawk" - all birds (complete with wing motion), "at" - cat


New activities include:

• closing his bedroom door with a "buh-bye" and wave, opening it, and repeating
• crashing cars together and going "bpssh" (crash sound)
• sneaking his lovey pillow out of his crib and dragging it around everywhere until it's secreted away again
• watching his shadow move as he wiggles around
• flipping upside down over legs propped up on ottomans

This week, Granna and Grandad are staying with us, so here are some highlights so far.  The flipping I mentioned.  He loves to be upside down.

At the end of the zoo.  He was not in the mood to sit still, so this was the best we could get!

He wasn't feeling well today, so we let him carry his lovey around for a while.  He stayed on Grandad's lap for a long time (for him).

Where the Buffalo Roam

Although, I guess, bison is considered more correct now...  We finally made it up to Yellowstone!  We were waiting for the summer crowds to die down, but we visited the most popular stops anyway, I think.  The weather was awesome, and we had a good time.  Next time, we'll hopefully do some of the lesser known hotspots and maybe put Owen on a leash...?  :) 

DAY 1

Aforementioned bison.   (I had a delicious bison tenderloin for dinner that night.  Is that wrong?)

Stinky Sulphur Cauldron

Our cabin at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel.

The hotel and Owen's favorite part of the hotel, the ramps:

Lake Yellowstone.  (Side note:  They were having a "natural fire" across the lake, which you can see in the upper right corner of this picture.  Apparently, it was up to 1100 acres, and we could smell smoke at our cabin by the time we were packing up on Sunday morning.  All of the signs said they had it under control, but I was kind of glad to be packing up when we did.)

Historic yellow tour bus or "guck!"

Chipmunk.  They were everywhere.  Love them!

Deer we nearly stumbled upon on our walk back to our cabin from dinner.  It was surprisingly not startled by Owen's running and shouting.  (We trained him to clear the forest of bears by being loud.)

DAY 2
Old Faithful.  Owen was very gregarious and might have a future as a park greeter.  The older crowd loved him!  He stopped to wave and wait on several different groups on our way to the visitor's center.

Giddy with anticipation, waiting for Old Faithful to blow, which it did, right on time.

Hike to the top and view back down to the Old Faithful complex

Boardwalk through the Upper Geyser Basin

He fell asleep early on in the hike.  So when he awoke in the middle of the boardwalks and was whining, we let him out to stretch his legs.  Needless to say, the last part of the boardwalk became a very long and slow walk, sometimes in the wrong direction!

Not even sure he noticed all of the interesting colors, steam, and bubbles around him, since he was so absorbed in running his hand along these benches.

Morning Glory Pool.  The bluer the water, the hotter it is.  Stay out of this one!

We finally wrangled him into the backpack for the walk back to the car.

The inside of the Old Faithful Inn.  Hard to make it out here, but it's all wood, curvy and straight.  Reminded us of something out of Tolkien.

DAY 3
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River.  Gorgeous.  However, the out-and-back trail we selected basically followed the road, so we kept seeing the same people at the viewpoints because they were getting in and out of their cars.  At the end, they got to get in their car and proceed on out, whereas we had to turn around and hike back to our car at the beginning.  Oh well, lesson learned.  The scenery was worth it!

Brink of the Lower Falls.  Hard to tell, but this is a 308-foot waterfall.  Powerful!

That's Owen just to the right of the crowd on the observation deck.

The view from the trail, looking back at the Lower Falls.  

Boys will be boys

And that means being outside and getting dirty.  Owen really enjoys a good slide now. Unfortunately, he's barefoot on this one because he found a killer mud puddle that rendered his shoes pretty useless for the rest of the day.  (His friend, Carson, nearly lost his shoe in the muck.  It was that kind of mud.)

Speaking of Carson, here are the two boys sharing a nice picnic lunch.  This is shortly before the food ended up in the yard for the dog from a combination of wind and rambunctiousness.

Don't they look mischievous here?

The other day we had the sprinkler going, and Owen (again) is like a magnet for puddles.  Since it was bath night, we let him have at it.  I'll spare you the video, but let's just say this was good, clean fun for probably half an hour (could have been more, I'm sure!).  And yes, that's grass on his face.

Finally, I took Owen to the Eastern Idaho State Fair today.  I think he had fun!

Owen enjoyed checking out the Junior Rodeo Championships.  He was actually watching them and oohing and ahhing right along with the crowd.  We saw girls calf roping and boys riding steers.  Yeehaw!  I think the boys were ages 9-12.  Amazing to see them getting bucked around, falling on the ground, and getting up to do cartwheels.  Just took a move to Idaho to get these Texans to a rodeo.  Ha!

Owen preferred his Lil Crunchies to a delicious, loaded baked potato.  Could be a problem that we live in Idaho and he doesn't like potatoes...?

What can you say about a three-horned goat?  Weird...

They had some of the cleanest cows I've ever seen at the fair.  I actually found myself telling Owen, "pretty cow".  Never thought I'd say that phrase!  :)

 With all the animals in the petting zoo, this is what excited him the most.

Had to get in a picture with the Texas Longhorn!  Hook 'em!

P.S.  My garden is still producing!  Now we're overrun with tomatoes and zucchini and a few raspberries.  This is in addition to the parsley and basil that are thriving outside.  I've made lots of zucchini bread, sauteed zucchini, and donated tomatoes in exchange for a jar or two of a friend's salsa.  I think we'll have to kick it up a notch and do some veggie/tomato soup, tomato sauce/paste, and maybe learn how to can some tomatoes, too.