Weekend Update... June 01, 2008

Chris and I got out and did fun things before we were parents, but we do an even greater variety of things now that we have Noah to share them with and they all seem brand new and fun because we are seeing them for the first time through his eyes.  It's one of the reasons I love being a parent the most.  This weekend we took Noah to ride the new commuter rail train "Front Runner" from Layton to Ogden and back.  I thought the ride was so pretty; it was way more scenic than I had thought it would be.

It brought back memories of the train trip Linda and I took with my Dad and my Grandpa when we were seven years old.  On that trip we started in Salt Lake, went up to Seattle, Washington, down the coast through California, over past the Grand Canyon (not that we could see it from the train), and back up to Salt Lake again.  It was quite the trip.  I have a lot of fond memories from that trip.  I can remember making friends with other little girls on the train, reading my Pippi Longstocking books, having my Dad try to teach me to recognize different birds from the way they looked while flying,  and how grown up it felt to have our "party" called on the loud speaker when it was our time to go to the dining car for dinner.  I felt like such a big girl.  My favorite part was what we saw from the train.  It seemed a different world.  Trains go places that you normally don't see.  They cut across fields far away from the highway or any other commonly traveled roads.  They pass by the backsides of buildings not meant to be seen.  It's an unusual, interesting, and beautiful view - I think.

Anyway, Noah has been loving trains lately and in keeping with my "fun list" for the summer, we took him for a ride on Front Runner.  It seemed like Noah thought waiting at the train stop was just as much fun as actually riding the train.  He loved looking at the train tracks.  He was saying the cutest, funniest things and was unknowingly entertaining all the people around us who were also waiting for the train.

When we got to Ogden, we went on a little walk down 25th street, got some cookies and Cheetos, then got back on the train and rode back home.

A couple Noah stories from this weekend:

Tonight before bed as we were getting him ready he crawled on top of his bed like he does when he says his bedtime prayer and on his own he said, "Heavenly Father, give me a huggy." like he really wanted Heavenly Father to be there and hug him.  How sweet is that?  If we can only teach him that Heavenly Father can be as close as he will allow Him to be.

Today Daddy got asked to pass the sacrament and Noah spent the whole sacrament time standing on our bench next to me watching every move Daddy made.  It was so priceless for me to watch Chris beam at Noah from across the chapel while he was waiting for everyone else to be ready to walk to the front.  When they all assembled at the front after the passing of the bread Noah clapped his hands and said, "Yay!" like his Daddy had just finished performing. It was a little embarrassing, but too cute to spend any time worrying about.  I think Noah actually learned a whole lot from watching his Dad pass the sacrament today.  I let him stand and really enjoy watching.  Sure he was a little loud, boisterous, and really wiggly as he watched, he's loud, boisterous, and wiggly as he does everything, but he learned so much from the experience that I tried not to care about the two ladies who kept giving me dirty looks.

It made me laugh today when Noah got some "action" in Nursery.  I was substituting.  There was a sturdy little Polynesian girl visiting and since she was pretty active and Noah was pretty active, they got along pretty well aside from a few "incidents".  Near the end of class Noah was punching her and so I stopped him and told him to tell her sorry and give her a hug.  They turned face to face, Noah reached out to hug her, she was all for that and threw her arms around him too.  After a second she pulled away, still keeping her arms around his neck, closed her eyes and totally puckered up!  Noah pulled back for a second, a little bewildered and then laid one on her.  Then they ran off to continue screaming and banging on chairs together.  The funniest part of the whole thing was just the way that he pulled back before he kissed her; it was as if I could hear his thoughts, "She wants me to kiss her?!  What the heck.  Ok.  Smack."  He's so affectionate.  It's a nice part of his rambunctious personality.  He may climb all over me like a jungle gym, but it's just because he's two and he wants to be close to me.  At least when he climbs on me I normally get a hug too.

Saturday morning Mason and Kimmie came over and swam with Noah in his pool while Chris planted 11 bushes and Linda and I relaxed in lawn chairs, watched the kids, and held baby Andrew.  I love spring days with perfect weather.