An Oliver, Daddy & Mommy adventure

A month or so ago, my favorite Mom's group Metroplex Baby & Kids published a list called DFW on a Budget. All items on the list cost $5/person or less; boy is this a great resource! The All Aboard category had several trains, some of which we had never heard. I've wanted to take Oliver over to Ft. Worth to ride the Forest Park Miniature Train ever since I read about it, but with being so close to the end of my pregnancy, I didn't want to chance a drive over there during the week by ourselves. So this morning, we all got ready and headed out on a surprise adventure.

Oliver was so excited when we left the house. I told him we were going on a surprise adventure when he first awoke, and he could barely stand not knowing where we were going. At one point I thought he might even cry, but all turned out well.

He had lots of guesses of where we might go. This video we are talking about going...just see how excited he is.

Here we are approaching the train depot. This is the first moment Oliver knew we were going on a train.

All aboard, and tickets please. All the right things were said and here are Oliver & Daddy ready for the train to go.

Here we are all happy to set out on our adventure.

The train has started and Oliver is in heaven!

The train is this tiny little open air thing that actually gets up some speed and so there was a nice breeze flowing through. The tracks run along the Trinity River away from the main road through a nicely forested area. It crosses six bridges and crosses under even more. We saw a ton of freight trains and Oliver nicknamed Ft. Worth Train Central. It was beautiful and the ride was so peaceful! We had a fantastic time!

On Saturdays, the Forest Park Miniature Railroad operates two trains. Here is the other train as we passed it. All aboard!

After you go to the end of the track, you turn around and stop at the second depot where you can purchase a snack: Popcorn and drinks for only $1 each. Oh, and did I mention the fare is totally reasonable? Only $3 for adults and $2.50 for children 1-12. A 40 minute ride with popcorn and a drink for only $10.50, sign me up! :)

Yumm, popcorn!

Oliver & the train engineer after our ride.

I think this is the sweetest picture I have taken in a long time. I love seeing these two snuggling, but secretly I wish it was with me! I totally miss holding my lil' guy! But I must follow doctor's orders, I certainly don't want this baby coming too early.

In Clayton's mind, a trip to Ft. Worth = barbecue. So we tried out Angelo's, a really old, well reviewed barbecue restaurant. This is really a meat joint. So Oliver ate potato chips, a piece of bread and M&M's. Talk about healthy! My sliced beef sandwich was pretty good, but the sides were kind of lacking in my opinion. Oh, and they had stuffed and mounted trophys all over the dining room. Kind of makes you feel like your food is watching you eat. Good thing there weren't any cows! :)

44 month photo shoot

Oliver and I like to have our own little monthly photo shoots. Today Oliver gave me different emotions and I thought these were too cute not to share. The object of the photo shoot is to get one great picture to put on my monthly magnet for my refrigerator. I'm thinking of using one of the emotions this month instead of the typical smile. This first one is my favorite.

Lincoln Logs

Oliver received these Lincoln Logs for his third birthday. For sometime now he has been building things with our direction, like the big building behind him in the picture below. This afternoon we were getting ready to go outside and while I was putting on sunscreen he built this small building all by himself. Talk about a proud moment!

Any excuse for chocolate cake

While we were shopping this weekend, Oliver asked for a piece of chocolate cake. When I asked him whose birthday it was, he quickly came up with his beloved stuffed animals names: Bunny & Piggy. Who am I to deny Bunny & Piggy a proper birthday celebration? We didn't have hats or gifts, but we did have cake.

Here we are singing to them shortly after breakfast this morning

This is the best shot I could get of Oliver with Bunny & Piggy

All the others turned out something like this. This is Oliver's idea of a happy face. I think he looks like he is in pain. I hope he outgrows this stage soon. I miss his un-posed completely adorable smiles in pictures!

Oliver's Top 5 favorite things about our trip

I asked Oliver what his favorite things were about the trip, and lucky for me he listed five. Here they are in random order (only because I can't remember the order in which he said them):

1. Counting Shrimp Tails with Gramps
2. Digging in the dirt with his cousins at Grammy's & Aunt Shell's houses
3. Talking with Grammy
4. Seeing turquoise tractors
5. Eating at Cafe Rio

I'm so glad Oliver and Clayton love going to Salt Lake just as much as I do! See below for pictures of our last day:

I'm actually surprised he didn't list this as one of his favorites as he did this all three days. Clayton and Oliver would stack up all the hotel pillows and Oliver would count and then jump. He loved it. This video starts after the count down has begun, so let me start: one, two...

after a jump

look at that cutie pie!

We had a very yummy lunch at Cafe Rio with Uncle Jerone, Aunt Debbie & Preston. Thanks so much for suggesting it!

So cute of Preston and Debbie!

And here is one tired little guy. Our flight was a late one to begin with, but after a delayed take off, we didn't land until about 12:30 AM. Considering Oliver had skipped his normal two hour nap three days in a row, and had some seriously hard nights sleeping in the same bed with me, Oliver did exceptionally well on the plane. I could tell from the beginning of the flight he was very tired. I tried to do everything I could to encourage sleep. Finally when there was about 45 minutes left, he told me he wanted to be in his crib to go to sleep. He then wanted to be held. I held him for about 10 minutes and he was falling asleep and then the flight attendant made me put him in his own seat. The fact that I could hold him until he was two, and then once he was three I couldn't anymore will never make sense to me; Seems like it should be my choice. Anyway, he was tired enough that I just held him tight to my side and before long, he was fast asleep. I was truly amazed that this little guy stayed asleep through the remainder of the flight, continued to sleep while we waited at baggage claim and on the shuttle bus to the Parking Spot and even slept through the transfer from me to his Daddy so I could install the car seat. He finally woke briefly as we tried to put him in his car seat and then quickly went back to sleep and slept through all the hubbub of coming home, getting in PJ's and being placed in his bed. He didn't wake up until 10:30 the next morning. I absolutely loved holding him while he slept and I'm so happy Clayton captured this for me to always remember! :)

That was my last trip to SLC before the baby arrives in June. Thanks to all our family for helping make this a great trip!

Not much has changed...

Not much has changed between these two over the past 3 1/2 years. Of course now Gramps isn't the only one telling stories! :)

The minute I saw these two playing like this, I was reminded of the picture above from when Oliver was only 24 days old. I'm so glad my camera was nearby so Clayton could capture the memory.

Happy Mother's Day!

After spending the morning with my Mom, we headed out for a yummy lunch at Mi Ranchito and then for a drive up Little Cottonwood Canyon with the sole purpose of Oliver taking a nap (ya right). It was a beautiful drive, but no nap was had. We went back to my parents later in the afternoon where we were able to see my sister's family and my brother's family and then have dinner with my parents. It was a great Mother's Day!

I think Oliver's face in this picture looks as if he was surprised to reach down and find my 33 week pregnant belly. Of course he isn't, but nine months really is a long time to wait for a 3 year old. He asked me recently if we missed June. It must seem like I have been pregnant forever to him! :)

I was really surprised to see skiers at Alta on this beautiful Mother's Day. But they obviously still have the snow for it. It was absolutely gorgeous up there but a little too cold for short sleeves and a skirt.

As we were driving back down the canyon, Oliver wanted to stop and get some rocks. We pulled off the road at a trail head and walked in a little bit for some rocks and some pictures.

Me and my two boys

So cute of Daddy & Oliver

Somehow I'm betting that all children who are the owners of parents with digital cameras get tired of smiling for pictures. This is on about the 30th picture. He didn't have any smiles left! :)

And this is the Oliver fake smile we got for our family picture that we took at the end. Maybe we should aim to do a family one first next time.

Thank goodness for Photoshop. I am by no means very adept at using Photoshop, and as a result I won't be blowing it up because it is not perfect, but it looks okay at this size. :)

A little further up the trail Daddy & Oliver found a stream. We tried to get Oliver to touch it to see how cold it was but he was not at all interested.

This is part one of a two part video of Oliver and Gramps counting Gramps shrimp tails. Oliver is at that stage where he loves to replay things. This video is actually the third time they went through this together and Oliver took a lot longer to get to the end this time, so I had to break the video in two. Anyway, if you want to watch I thought this was a cute video of Oliver and Gramps at dinner.

part two of the video above

And finally, here is Oliver's first ice cream from an Ice Cream Truck. And my lil' chocolate monster LOVED it! :)

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom!

I feel so fortunate to be able to spend Mother's Day with my Mom! I had planned to go the weekend before, but I came down with a chest cold just a couple of days before I was supposed to go and unfortunately had to cancel my flight. But going this weekend was even better because not only was I able to spend Mother's Day with my Mom, I was able to bring my family with me.

My mom had been sick since I went to see her a few weeks ago. She unfortunately had a set back with a blood clot in her lung and then pneumonia on top of that. Her stay in hospital along with an inability to hold food down for a while left her in a very weakened state. But she finally was able to go home and that along with receiving fluid nutrients, working on eating more, and also working with a physical therapist has made her feel much better. Being in the hospital is not a fun experience for anyone! She had been home from the hospital for a week when this was taken and I think she looks so good! Some other good news is her Oncologist says the chemotherapy has continued to shrink her tumors even since they last checked a couple of months ago, so after she regained her strength, she was able to start up her treatments again this past Tuesday. Our entire family is so grateful for the miracle granted to us to have the Chemotherapy actually work!

My mom said she had a wonderful Mother's Day. She was able to see and spend time with each of her four children and twelve (almost lucky thirteen) grandchildren. Happy Mother's Day Mom! I love you and feel so grateful to have you as my mother! Thanks for being a great example of motherhood!

I loved this video of Oliver wishing my mom Happy Mother's Day!

Oliver was a very willing participant in helping Grammy with her Mother's Day gift. I thought this picture was so cute of him looking at a picture of himself. :)

Grammy was so nice to let Oliver actually open her gift...he loved showing her everything!

Three generations

And finally, I'll leave you with some of Oliver's photos for the day. He actually did quite well on the photo of my me and my Dad.