Unsorted

I have a file on our computer labeled "unsorted pics" in which I stash everything from my camera until I have more time to organize.  Sometimes the file gets pretty hefty.  But every time I open it I realize it's a good snapshot of what's been going on most recently around here.  At the moment, we have:

Hanging Around the House

Sleeping on the Couch

Baby June Bug

Olivia June is our friends' baby.  I get to watch her twice a week while her mama is at work and her dad is at school.  Linc is learning how to be gentle around a newborn; he is allowed to hold her hand, but not hold her (even though he keeps asking to!)  June is delicate and beautiful.  Babies are so easy when you don't have to deal with them at night!  I wear her in a sling while I do dishes, and honestly the chore has never been more fun!

My New Hair Cut  (to enhance curls)

And also... My New Jeans (to enhance... ah... everything)

I have always thought the skinny jean look was not for me.  Only for sticks, you know?  Because the more tapered the ankle, the more obvious my big butt and thighs are.  Plus they are skin tight!  But I've been on the lookout for new jeans since my sparkly butt ones ripped in the knee.  And every time I saw a cute pair on the rack, I'd pull it off and see those tiny tapered bottoms.  So... finally I went for it.  And I like them!  They fit nicely underneath my tall winter boots.  

One Fall Day, We Took A Drive

Along with lots of yellow leaves, we found a construction site in the mountains and a viper show in Park City.  It was a pretty full day.  Linc took a nap as we wound our way up Big Cottonwood Canyon.  Then we bought some chocolate and went home.  

Only a few weeks later...

It Snowed.

On the morning of the season's first snowfall, Lincoln woke me up begging to go on the balcony.  So I searched for winter gear to go over our pajamas, and I watched him shovel and dump for as long as I could stand the cold.  He would have been out there all morning until the snow melted!   I bought him a snowsuit, because from the looks of it he and I will be spending a lot of time in the snow this winter.  

Last but not least, 

Our Neighbors

We've been hanging out with the family downstairs.  This little guy will be turning a year old this weekend.  He is adorable!  And his mommy is quite talented and crafty.  She made this little hooded shirt!



And there you go.  That's us lately.

Vacuum fascination

So... if you know Linc, you know he's obsessed with vacuums.  It started with Roomba.  "Boom Boom Boomba" was one of the first objects he recognized and named regularly.

Then my parents gave us their Dyson, and somehow he realized this was just a new and improved version of his lifelong friend.  He dubbed this one, "danaye." He begs at least once a day to use "danaye."  He vacuums right along with me using his golf bag to roll along the carpet in sweeping strokes, wearing a this-is-serious-business look on his face.  It's his favorite thing to do!   (Pictured below is the second golf bag purchased by  my parents, solely for the California trip, so he wouldn't have to be without his favorite toy.  Yes, he "vacuums" even while swimming.)

I drew a vacuum on a piece of paper one day, along with all the cars and wheels I draw for his entertainment. He was SO excited.  And to my surprise, he can now draw his own!  Here is what he scribbled up this morning:

  To get my attention, he kept pointing at it and crying "Danaye!  Danaye!"  Well done, kiddo!  I'm amazed that at 22 months, he can visualize and recreate his concept of a vacuum:  wheels and a long handle.  As soon as Lincoln is tall enough to maneuver the Dyson, this chore is all his!

I love this face.

Home Again

I forgot to put this picture in my last post about Bear Lake, and I've already re-published that beast twice.  So... we're just going to do a post script, here. 

Tyler and I both knew this would happen.  It happened last year after Yellowstone.  After several days of unfamiliar territory and a totally different routine, you'd think it would be a relief to come back home.  You know, that "ah, home!"  feeling you get, even after the best of trips?  Yeah, well, Lincoln doesn't go there.  His reaction is more like, "WHAT?  This place again?  I thought we'd left for good and started anew in the wilderness!  Why'd you even bring me there if we weren't gonna stay forever?!"  Yep.  Kicking, screaming and an all-out tantrum; behavior that didn't happen even once on vacation. 

We seriously need to move to a 1,000 acre farm. 

Bear Lake 2010

Tyler's family has camped at Bear Lake for 80 summers, ever since his grandmother was a little tike.  Now I am a part of the tradition, as is our son.  Lincoln was born into a heritage of clear waters, rocky sands, campfires and group meals.  Lucky kid.

Bear lake started with a long, leisurely drive.  Speckled with moments of terror, when my father-in-law's truck, pulling TWO trailers, nearly toppled over in the winding canyon.  They made it, though.  Catastrophy skillfully avoided!

Lincoln slept,

and ate.

Upon arrival at our group campsite, we adjusted into typical Bear Lake mode.  Clock and calendar went out the window, and our priorities adjusted to include:

Jet skis, sun, sand and water.

Here's Tyler's parents and mine heading out to explore the lake.  Awesome adventures?  Yes, please!  I was really scared at first, but once I adjusted to the idea of going as fast as a car over the choppy surface of a lake without any helmet or the body of a car to protect me if I fell, I was ok.  When the lake was smooth, I even amped it up to 56 mph!  Of course, I was still gripping the handlebars like death and screaming, while everyone else was doing tricks and turning the jet skis on a dime, cranking out donuts, etc.  My mom is a daredevil on those things!  I always forget she grew up in California, near a lake, so it was like coming home for her.

Evan outdid us all by driving with a broken wrist. 

And Lincoln?  Well, Lincoln was in heaven.  He's an outdoor, water baby in every fiber of his little baby-boy being.  He played in the water, played in the sand, played in the grass.  He was a busy little explorer.

He had both sets of grandparents there on Saturday. 

Obsessed with wheels, Lincoln was pointing them out everywhere, 

even scouring Home Living and Family Circle magazines for those rare car ads.  An excited "OOOOOH!" erupted when he spotted one.

His favorite toys involve wheels, too, of course.

I thought my tummy would get some sun.

Instead I burnt my legs. 

I forgot to reapply sunscreen in the midst of all my picture-taking.  As usual, I was snap-happy.

(Yes, Lincoln's fingernails looked like this the whole time.)













My mom took some of my favorite photos, though, while I was out jet skiing.  Bill (father-in-law) was playing with Abby with his typical boyish energy.  Love it!

Tyler's mom has had many birthdays up at Bear Lake; that's what you get when you're born in July in this family.  This weekend was one of those for her.  I really like my mother-in-law.  She's easygoing and knows how to balance her life to protect her happiness.  Dollmaking, running, eating healthy, and loving her family are a few things that characterise this woman.  I'm learning a lot from her.  :-)

Thanks to Bill and Lori for letting us sleep in their trailer this year.  We even brought Lincoln's crib mattress and put it on the floor so he would feel at home as possible.  And aside from me getting embarrassingly cranky about getting interrupted while putting the baby to sleep, this situation worked out pretty well.  Maybe next year we'll bring a tent, though, so Tyler's parents don't have to sleep out in their truck! 

What would camping be without a huge fire?  This family knows how to build a good one, too.  It gets cold up there at night, so we all huddle around to get warm and eat smores or bratwurst.  I didn't want to bother everyone with my flash, so I didn't take many pictures around the campfire, except of course of Katie, who is really fun to photograph.  Mainly because she's so adorable. 

Every year there is a craft, and I was so happy to bleach shirts again.  I wish I had taken more photos of other people's shirts, because they were all so awesome!  Tyler's pregnant cousin Alyssa even made a "bun in the oven" shirt.  I loved how into it the teenagers were. 

Here's mine:

I made an octopus in Evan's honor.  It's his favorite animal.

Katie's looked cooler.  I'm going to have to get more practice in the octopus-drawing department. 

When I first met Tyler, I quickly realized that Bear Lake shaped his summer.  He has never missed a trip his entire life.  And I can understand why.

I wouldn't want to miss this much fun, either! 

Already looking forward to next year.

Nouns and Verbs

I'm reading a library book (nonfiction! yay for me!) right now in which a health care provider attends a patient-relations seminar and participates in a fun group activity.  Each person writest down a list of as many verbs and nouns that describes her/himself.  Then the lists are passed randomly around.  You look at the jumble of words that embody a mystery person, then write a paragraph about what you think he/she is like. 

I decided to write my own list for fun, but of course there isn't anyone else to switch lists with, and now you'd know this is mine anyway.  I enjoyed it, though, because typically when you describe a person you use mainly adjectives.  I kept thinking of things like, "soft, quiet," then crossing them out and reminding myself "NOUNS! VERBS!"  I filled a small notebook page while Lincoln was eating lunch, only stopping twice to refill his drink and to wipe him off.  In those few minutes I came up with:

dress

words

think

book

smile

banana

cookie

eyes

curls

run

walk

move

sew

water

wine

face

wash

beans

water

bath

curve

window

touch

love

compliment

care

lounge (smiling as I wrote this, not admitting even to myself whether I meant the the thing or the action)

book

paper

hair

eat

baby

rock

squeeze

agree

outline

contrast

honey

salt

listen

emulate

worry

breathe

pray

Several times I caught myself beginning to write a word the second time, but there are two I didn't even realize I had already written. 

Book. 

Water.

 Which is funny because one day when I was pregnant I spent 6 straight hours in the tub, reading Jane Eyre.  Every month when my Parenting Magazine comes in the mail, my first thought is, I better take a bath tonight so I can read this!  Book and water: my repeats. 

Once upon a thunderstorm

Hello.  I thought I'd take a minute out of my busy, beautiful, perfect summer day to describe Lincoln's first thunderstorm.  He's 19 months, so of course he has caught a glimpse of lightning once or twice, but always from behind a window, inside, where it's dry, and warm, and a lot less exciting.  Usually Lincoln and I are out exlploring the city in the afternoon, with our best friend the Stroller.  But yesterday I was cooking and baking stuff for our camping trip this weekend.  Eventually we were tired of the indoors and decided to breathe some fresh air on the balcony.  And then....

The sky rumbled.  And turned gray.  The green leaves darkened as they tossed in the wind.  First one drop fell, then a thousand.

At first Lincoln looked worried and confused.  I smiled and reached out to the rain drops, knowing he takes his cue from me in unfamiliar circumstances. 

One smile is all it took.  A whole thunderstorm of joy ensued, complete with dancing and spinning, laughing and splashing, gaping at the flashy zig zags in the sky, and constant falling across the slippery balcony floor.  We. Loved. It. 

It felt so good to cool off.  Shiver, even!  Of course what's a summer afternoon without getting just a little dirty?

And doing a few pushups? 

But after all the fun, I had to get my baby into the bathtub.  I guess that's just the kind of mom I am-- comfortable with dirt, but also quick to the cleanup.

I don't think he minds.  Not one bit!