Nature pics

Back of Timp.

One of the views of Timp on the Alpine loop.

View of the mountains from the Alpine loop.

I think this is a dianthus. I liked the picture that Joe took using the macro feature on our camera.

Another look at the dianthus.

Wasp shot using macro.

Another macro shot.

Water under the bridge.

Monk's hood flower.

Beetle at the park near the swings. It is the biggest beetle I have seen in Utah. I am trying to find the name of this beetle, so if you are a beetle expert, please let me know. :)

Vaca with Jeff and Michelle part 2

Saturday was a lot of fun. We went up past Sundance and went to Cascade Springs. We wanted a short hike that would be easy to do with strollers. This hike has some nice cascade pools that are tiered. We left and it started to rain on us. We were afraid that it would be rainy up where we were going. It turned out to be a beautiful day.
Here is Joseph hiking up a mountain on his own. We were unloading our cars and he started to explore the area.

Here is a family picture next to one of the pools. There were brown trout inside. It rained on us a little, but it was so nice and cool.

Jeff and Michelle and Nathan. I like this because Nathan looks like he is thinking, "Seriously...another picture." It was just so nice up there.

Another picture of our family on a bridge that goes over the spring. It wells up a little ways up from where we are and is a natural spring that you can drink from. At dawn or dusk you can usaully see wild life around. I have only ever seen deer, but I don't think I would want to see a bear or mountain lion.

Joseph was fascinated by the stream. He loved to listen to the sound of it crashing on the rocks as it flowed down.

After our brief hike, we went to the upper parking lot of Cascade Springs for a short lunch. Here is my little boy eating his sandwich on a rock. What a cutie!!

Here is Nathan driving the car! He honked the horn a couple of times and startled himself. Joseph was running around the cars acting like a dinosaur.

Michelle carrying both Samuel and Nathan. Nathan finally smiled for me as I was taking a picture. Of course, this only lasted a moment before Samuel started to cry. He was so sleepy at this point.

Joe and I on the Alpine loop. We drove it after our hike. There were some nice views of Timp and the other mountains that are behind it. There were also some scary drop offs along the drive, but all in all, it was just so nice outside. I am glad that we went.

Joe and Jeff went to a soccer game and Michelle and I enjoyed a girl's night in. We watched a movie and talked. It was fun.

Vacation with Jeff and Michelle

Jeff and Michelle came over last week for a short visit with us. It was so much fun to have them here. Joe took a couple of vacation days so we could do lots with them. Thursday I didn't have my camera, so Id didn't take any pictures of what we did. On Thursday we went to BYU and had lunch at the Cougar Eat. Michelle loves L&T so she wanted a wrap. We then went to the BYU Museum of Art and looked at the Dan Steinhelber (sp?) exhibit which is the garbage art exhibit. It was nice to walk through again. There is a security guard who has seen me with the boys on a number of different occasions, so he commented on the regularity on which we have been to the Walter Wick and Dan Steinhelber exhibits. They are really great exhibits. Thursday night we played games at our house. It was a lot of fun. I didn't fair so well on any of the games. I did come in second in the Great Dalmuti after 2 rounds, but we then played Mill Bornes.

I will post what we did on Friday. This is in backwards order, starting with how we ended our evening on Friday. Friday was a busy day. On Friday night, we came to our house to play games. They played the Great Dalmuti and Mill Bornes. I ended up going to bed because I could hardly function by 10:30 at night (when I finally got Samuel to sleep). J.P. was there. He is a friend of ours since he and Jeff and my brother Ernest were roommates. He cheered Joe and Jeff's soccer team, Chunky Salsa, when they were on the same team. Thor, Joe and Jeff's cousin, was also there. Uncle David couldn't make it. My brother Ziggy also came over to play. All in all, it was fun to have so many people over to play.
Here is a picture of the group playing the Great Dalmuti. In this picture, Ryan was the Dalmuti.

Before games at our house, we went to the park to play frisbee golf. Joe won with a 3, Joe and Ziggy both had 4 and I had 6. I was close this time. I don't like hole 3. The water hazard always freaks me out, so I end up with 3 over par every time. We then took some time for the boys to play on the playsets. Joseph was climbing up and down the slide. He is getting braver.

Here are Michelle and Nathan on the playset. Nathan looks so excited. He loved being outside. He kept trying to eat the grass and anything else that came his way.

Here we are on the frisbee golf course. No one landed in the water hazard on pole 3. They came close, but missed it. We did have quite a few shots that made it into the trees.

Before we went to play frisbee golf, we went to the BYU games center to bowl. Here is Joseph with his bowling ball. It was a close game. I came in last and my little boy Joseph came in first. He bowled a 131. He got a strike and I missed videotaping it. He held out his little arms and said yes as he ran back. Michelle had a 129, Jeff a 127, Joe a 107 and me a 106. I might have mixed Jeff and Michelle's scores, but I can't remember.

Joe with Nathan. Nathan has discovered the joys of his nostrils. He missed in this picture. Waht a cute and happy little boy!

Jeff and Nathan. I can't get Nathan to look at me in pictures.

Michelle and Nathan. She is trying to get him to look at me with the camera. It didn't work. I am glad they were here. It was fun.

Tidbits

Yesterday was quite the day. Joseph was playing when he stopped and looked at me with tears in his eyes. He said, "my ear hurts inside." I checked him all day for a fever and took him to the doctor. His fever got to 101. He has the starts of an ear infection because of all the allergy and snot he has had. He slept in our bed last night which meant no sleep for me and Joe. Samuel also decided to wake up at 1 a.m. I am tired today. Right now the house is a mess, so I need to stop blogging and get up and clean...so not motivated to do it.

Here are the Rankin boy cousins. Jeff and Michelle came to our home one night last week. The boys played together. They met us at the dinosaur museum.

Here is Amy. We had fun on her last night here with us. Thanks for coming and visiting us. It was fun to have you!

I thought this was a cool pic that Joe took. He had to chase after Joseph and could hardly look at the displays. Joseph was running to his favorite activities at the museum.

Joseph with his Aunts. They look too young to be Aunts. He loved having Amy here with us. Everyday she wasn't around he asked when she would be back.

Great Aunt Kim met us at the museum with Joe's cousins. She is great in more than one way! She has a family pass, so we were able to get in for half price. That is awesome. Joseph had fun running around with Matthew. Of course, he did complain that cousin Matthew was taking away his sand at the sand table.

Joseph at the dimetridon display. Joe had to stop him and take the picture because Joesph was running to the water and sand table. I love the expression in this shot.

Amy with Samuel. He looks happy. Look at all the drool. He goes through bibs like there is no tomorrow.

Joseph before we entered the museum. He was acting like a dinosaur.

Joseph sporting some sunglasses. I like the cool pose that he struck for the shot. It looks like he has complex eyes. What a cutie!

Joseph styling in his sunglasses and rainboots. He likes to put them on and walk around the house.

One night as I was getting Samuel to bed, Joseph entertained himself by making a city on a mountain. He took over 30 minutes creating this masterpiece. I felt bad that I had to clean it up. What a creative little boy! He has done this a couple of times since then.

Ugly Dimetridon

So, I bought this dimetridon for Joseph at D.I. Here is the story. Quite a few months ago, Joseph and I were perusing the toy aisle at D.I. He loves dinosaurs, so naturally, when he saw this ugly thing, he wanted it. He told me he didn't have a dimetridon. It was only 25 cents, so I thought I could buy it and replace it with a nicer one later on. A couple of months ago, I was cleaning out toys to give away on freecycle. We have been clearing out things in preparation for a move. Well, I snuck this dimetridon into one of my freecycle lots. Gone and done. Yes!

Well, a couple of weeks ago, my little boy with the great memory started to talk about his dimetridon. He told me that he thought he lost it because he couldn't remember where it was. I felt kind of bad. So Joe's sister needed to go to D.I. to look for skirts and bonnets. I took her to the D.I. in American Fork. As is tradition, Joseph wanted to go to the toy section. What do you think we found there...ugly dimetridon. Joseph was so excited. I ended up re-buying it for him for 50 cents this time. Go figure. I think that it is the exact same one that he had before because it looks just like it. I guess the person that I gave it to with freecycle wanted to get rid of it as well. So Joseph's toy came back to him in the end. :)

Momentous moment for Samuel

Samuel finally did it!! He rolled over for the first time and I have a short video of it. Joe is on the other computer, so I will post it later. He got stuck for a bit, but he finally did it!

You can tell from the video that Samuel is oh so excited for this milestone.

Quick stories

Here is Joseph on the way to Lagoon with his "I dig dirt" shirt. He loves it a lot and wanted to wear it even though it was hot outside. We have had Amy, Joe's sister, here for a few days with us. She came to Utah for EFY. Well, one day she was getting him a bowl or something to that effect and Joseph said, "Your butt looks like Alison, you talk like Alison, but you are not Alison." Alison is Joe's other sister who lives out here. We laughed when we heard that. I guess that he would know because that is his eye level at the moment.

At church on Sunday he saw a man holding a little girl in his arms. He had her face under a blanket. He said, "Look mommy, he is feeding her milk."

Pictures of my 3 boys. How cute are they!! Joseph is wearing his beach shirt. That is what he calls it. Samuel is wearing a "King of the Jungle" outfit. Joe is just handsome!

Samuel was very tired of being on his belly by this point. I thought it was a cute picture. I will have to try again when Samuel isn't crying because he hates being on his belly. Once again, look at how handsome all my boys are... :)

My 2 little boys together. I tried to get Samuel to smile for the pictures, but he didn't want to. Oh well, he will learn soon enough that he can smile really big.

Here is Samuel with his drool. He is an excellent drooler and ends up getting everything he wears wet. I either put on 5 or 6 different bibs in a day or 4 or 5 outfits. Either way, he drools and gnaws all the time. Maybe there is a tooth hidden there in his mouth somewhere.

Samuel is getting better at sitting up by himself. I still put something behind him so he won't hurt himself if he throws himself back. He likes to play with toys and he investigates everything that is around him. On a side note, he cries inconsolably when his Grandma Nunez comes to visit him. I think that he has a little stranger anxiety and because she was gone to Texas for so long, he doesn't remember her.