End of Summer Busy-ness... September 02, 2008

Here are some of the good times we've been having lately:

We went to the dinosaur park in Ogden for one last play day with Aunt Linda, Mason, Kim, and Andrew before Linda started teaching school again (she's teaching 4th grade this year!!!) and Mason started 1st grade at the same school that his mommy is working at.  This was Noah's first time to the park, but Mason and Kimmie have gone tons so they had a great time showing him all around.  Mason wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up and is obsessed with dinosaurs.  He has a "dino squad" at school where he enlists other kids to play dinosaurs with him during recess.  How adorable is that?  One of my favorite moments of the day was near the end when we got to talk to a volunteer at the museum part who was working on cleaning a dinosaur bone like a scientist.  He went out of his way to talk to us and explain a lot about what he was doing.  Mason could've listened to him for hours.

(Here's Nobo wearing what he decided was his "school bus" shirt.  It's one of his favorite shirts to wear now; that and his pirate shirt.)

Grandma and Grandpa Parker wanted to go fishing with all their grandkids, so we all spent the day together at Tony Grove.  We had such a great time!  Grandpa took turns taking everyone out on his canoe and caught many, many fish.  While Noah was out with him he got to real in his very first fish ever.  I was kind of sad to miss that, but who better for Noah to catch his first fish with than Grandpa?  All the kids played the afternoon away in the water, and the adults had a lazy time sitting around talking, eating a picnic lunch, and way too many treats.

We went out to dinner to Lamb's Cafe in Salt Lake with Erin and her parents and had a really nice time.  One of my favorite things about being a parent is watching other people be charmed by Noah.  At the end of the night we sent Noah over with a dollar to put in the tip jar of this nice man who had been playing the piano the whole time during dinner.  I love that Noah is brave enough to walk over by himself, with some prodding, to do that.  The man talked to Noah and then took his little finger in his hand and helped Noah play some notes while he played a song at the same time.  At the end of their "duet" the musician told us that had made his whole night.  Isn't that sweet?

We spent Labor Day with Heather (Noah's birthmom) and her boyfriend Mike and his two kids Alyssa and Kaylee.  We had planned to go up in the canyon for a picnic, but it was a major downpour that day.  Who knew that fall was officially coming right on September first this year?  It is definitely here.  Anyway, so we went to the Bean Life Science Museum, a.k.a. what Chris and I called the "dead head museum" in our BYU days, then to the Brick Oven for lunch, and then to a park to play.  It was so great to see them again, especially Heather.  Noah and Heather are both so photogenic that I can't resist taking a gazillion pictures whenever they are together.

There were some houses bordering the park that had horses and Noah totally loved getting to see them!  He's such a big boy...he climbed all the way up on this fence by himself.  I love the padded diaper bum that you can see so well in this one, and it won't be too long before I won't get any more pictures of it on my baby, so I better take advantage of it now - it's so cute!

Chris has had this whole week off...it's been so luxurious!  Have I mentioned before how much I love his job and all the time off he gets in the summer?  It's great!  Tonight Noah and he had a little Father-son moment out on our back porch sharing some bottles of Coke.  They are my two most favorite people in the world.  I don't know how it's fair that one person could be as blessed as I am to know and love them so much.