some father-daughter time

One of the things I totally miss about Salt Lake is skating on the Jordan River Parkway. My skates are too big to shove in my suitcase on a regular basis, so since we were driving I stowed my skates in the bumpy rider and made a promise to myself that I was going to use them. So, early Tuesday morning, my Dad and I went to the Jordan River Parkway. He walked and I skated. It was great getting to do two things I enjoy at once!

I was able to go two more times while I was there, for a total of three times in six days. Woohoo, I LOVE SKATING!

Debbie, it was so much fun helping you learn how to stop. I hope you will use your skates now! :)

Emily's Gymnastics Meet

Emily invited us to her first Gymnastics meet tonight. Living so far away, we miss so many family firsts, and so I was thrilled to be able to attend this one. It was so much fun to watch Emily work through her routines, she has really taken to gymnastics and loves it.

Emily ready to go

The theme was super stars, and Emily was the third in line. Notice the girl leading the group has boys underwear on her head...was that supposed to be cute?

Oliver & Daddy watching the meet

Oliver took this picture of Madi & Grammy

Avery came to sit by me to watch Emily

After the meet, she even received a metal...1st place in all our books!

Dinosaurs go Roar!

My sister Michele has a membership to Thanksgiving Point, so today we went to the dinosaur museum. Oliver really enjoyed playing with his cousins and was really amazed by all the big fossils. I heard "look Mommy, look...what's that?" a lot. He wasn't interested in the erosion (water & sand) hands on exhibit, or the dinosaur dig, but he was entertained all the same.

Avery & Oliver playing in the gift shop

hmmm, what is in these buckets?

Layla checking out the big dinosaur fossils

Photogenic Aunt Shell

Daddy & Emily trying to convince Oliver to go through the tunnel

Out comes Daddy

Out comes Emily, Oliver still won't go.

Oliver looking up at the gigantic dinosaur fossils

Clayton standing by a leg, the fossils were enormous; of course, so were the actual dinosaurs! :)

Avery playing at the erosion table

Layla was such a good baby, she loved looking around and when she grew bored, she just slept

Madi riding the baby dinosaur

Oliver riding the baby dinosaur

Oliver wasn't terribly interested in the dinosaur dig, he didn't even get in until I did

and then he just complained about the sand in his shoes

I think if we lived closer, and were able to go more often, Oliver would enjoy the museum just as much as my sister's girls do. For now, I think he likes the Thanksgiving Point farm a lot better.

Little Red Corvette

...oops, I mean Mustang! My sister's girls have the cutest little red battery powered car. Emily is a pro at driving it and she gave Oliver a ride. He wasn't sure what to think about it at first, but warmed up pretty quickly. He even tried driving it after my camera was inside. So cute!

Oliver & Daddy checking out the car

my sister lives on a cul-de-sac, so the kids can drive around the circle a little more safely

look, he even put his arm on the window

how cute are they???

All Oliver, All the Time!

Oliver is content playing by himself only because I can't play with him ALL the time, after all I do have to do somethings around the house. But his optimum situation is what we like to call "all Oliver, all the time". The morning after we arrived, Grammy played blocks with Oliver for about an hour while I got ready; Oliver was in heaven! :)

can't you tell? :)

the block tower they made was taller than he was

Grammy even played trucks, his favorite!

To SLC by car

So Saturday morning we began the very long trek from DFW to SLC. We opted to take the more scenic route, travelling through New Mexico, a bit of Southwestern Colorado and Southern Utah as opposed to the faster route through Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Northern Utah as claimed by Google. From reading my blog, surely you must know that Oliver is not, let me repeat NOT, a car sleeper. We had high hopes that the long drive would be tiring enough that he would drift right off, but it didn't work. Luckily, Oliver was very entertained by the trucks, tractors, cars and transportation vehicle galore. Daddy purchased a new Disney Cars car for Oliver at the first truck stop and Oliver played with it almost the entire ride there. Mommy & Daddy took turns sitting in the back with Oliver and provided entertainment so we didn't really need the portable DVD player; he didn't even watch one entire movie. Surprisingly, he made it the entire trip without one meltdown. Sure, there was a little whining as he became really tired towards the end of both days, but no tears so we couldn't have been more thrilled.

We hoped to travel to Gallup, NM our first night, but only made it to Albuquerque instead. We stayed at a little hotel I used Google to find with good reviews and even though it was old, it was clean and suited us just fine. Another big surprise was that Oliver gave us absolutely no guff about the sleeping situation. He laid down beside me in our queen bed and Daddy in his and went fast asleep. He woke once during the night with a start, but was easily settled down and went back to sleep. At 6:00 am, as soon as the first ray of sun shined through the curtains, a sleeping Daddy and Mommy awoke to the cutest words ever: "the sun is shining, it's morning!" How could we resist that??? So Daddy and Oliver played a little while Mommy got ready and then we were off for our second days drive. We made it to Sandy around 8:45pm on Sunday. Oliver was incredibly excited to see his grandparents and played with them outside while I got his things unpacked and the room he would be staying in settled.

Here are some pictures from our drive:

Oliver was our navigator

We saw lots of dry mountains and bushes

There were lots of cheesy grins

lots of playing with cars

lots of trains

and lots of seat belt wearing, even Oliver's cars had to stay safe! :)

We are very proud of Oliver and how he did on this trip. The drive is LONG, but all in all my verdict is that it is not too bad and we will probably do it again.

Apparently I am Aunt Shell today...

Oliver started out the day by referring to me as Aunt Shell (my sister). His imagination is in full force lately and here is a video of him talking me through it. I kept the entire thing because I love his laugh after he speaks gibberish! :)

Oliver had his two and one-half year appointment today. All is well. He is tall (37.5 inches -- 90th%), has a large head (50.5 cm 90th%) and skinny (26.6 lbs 25th%), but we already knew that. The doctor was really impressed with his vocabulary and his ability to speak in full sentences, instead of 2-3 word sentences. I must confess that I was a tiny bit worried that the baby signing may have delayed him since he didn't really start speaking any great number of words until he was 21 months; now any inkling of worry that I may have had is gone. I will definitely be using baby signs with baby number two whenever it is that he or she decides to come along.

Construction Work

Oliver loves, loves, loves all types of transportation vehicles. Lately, he has really enjoyed building tollways (freeways for all intensive purposes). Today he built his tollway on his car table and told me it was under construction. Check out the tractors and trucks all working on the blocks. Pretty cute!

Close-up with his "tollway worker truck", that is the name of this one

I loved this action shot of him licking the frozen yogurt bar I made...despite despising most cold things, he actually liked it!

My unofficial Mother's Day

Sunday was not my day (no fault of Oliver or Clayton), so I am pretending that Saturday was Mother's Day. It was perfect. We started our day by going to the trail where Clayton ran, Oliver rode in the stroller and I skated. Afterward, we played at the park and then grabbed some lunch at Sonic before coming home. Oliver had a nice nap and then we went out for dinner at La Hacienda Ranch after he woke up. They had some out of control coin operated horses outside for riding that Oliver loved, but had I known they were so wild, he would not have ridden them. It was a great day but without pictures. So here are some we took of Oliver on Sunday (the day after Mother's Day), right before we got ready for bed.

He is still my same baby!

As Oliver grows older, it seems to be more and more difficult to see the baby he was inside the big boy his is becoming. Until I see this:

These pictures were taken almost exactly two years apart at seven months and at 30 months, but he looks almost exactly the same...even the same position. I love this little guy so much!

too much hair = much too hot

So, where there was hair before...

...there is no more (or at least much less). Thanks Aunt Tricia!

What's up your sleeve Oliver?

I was able to capture one of those unplanned, hilarious moments, when my little guy took one of my expressions literally this evening. But before you see it, here is the story leading up to it.

First, sleep does not come easily for Oliver. As he gets older, he gets stronger and is able to resist sleep even more. Lately, we have added laps around our house to our nightly routine. We run around the entire house five times yelling and giggling trying to get all of his excess energy out. Near the end of our laps tonight, without thinking, I jumped up on an ottoman and jumped off. Oliver has always had a healthy fear of heights. Translation: he would do anything with Mommy or Daddy's help, but was nervous to do things on his own. I was so surprised when he jumped up and tried it too. His jump really made me nervous; it's this one legged jump and I am afraid he is going to break something. So I got something to break his fall and let him practice a few times. I grabbed the camera to document the moment.

This video was supposed to be about Oliver losing his healthy fear of heights, but it turned into something much funnier. Okay, watch the video, trust me...it's funny!

Happy Cinco de Mayo Birthday Gramps!

Oliver thought that Gramps should have a cake with candle and fire on top for his birthday. So, even though my Dad is 1400 miles away, we made the cake (really they were the Sneaky Chef brownies) and a candle too. Gramps was on the phone while Oliver sang to him. And now, he gets to see it too. Here you go Gramps, happy Cinco de Mayo birthday to you! We love you!

After some prodding, Oliver sang the ABC's for Gramps. This was a much different version than we usually get. Normally it is with a big deep voice like he is using at the beginning. I think he was just rushing through it because he wanted the brownie! :)

This wink is for you Gramps!