Back Again

Here is a sweet picture of Grammy and Davy at the airport before we had to leave Utah. We had such a good time and felt our vacation went way too fast (as it always does!). Davy was quite the center of attention during our visit, and rightly so! We are happy to be home, though, especially now that Collin is home as well. Davy was a real sport on the plane ride. It's a long time to be cooped up--thank goodness for Cheerios!

On Saturday morning, while playing basketball at the Church, Collin came down wrong from a rebound and sprained his ankle. It swelled up a bit and makes him limp around, but luckily isn't broken or too painful. I have to admit that, after I was sad that he was hurting, I felt a little annoyed that he "ruined" some of our weekend plans by getting injured. Oh well. We had fun doing what we did--a Deloitte Parents Network picnic on Boston Common and just hanging out around the house.

Davy's new favorite game is trying to stand up--holding our hands, or leaning on furniture. He thinks he is something pretty cool when he is standing up!

Weekend with Dad

Collin came out to Utah from where he is working in Pennsylvania to join us for the weekend. We were able to sneak him in and out without anyone else really knowing he was here, so we got him all to ourselves! Davy loved having dad around. We enjoyed the nice weather in the yard and on a little walk, and just hanging out around the house.




Davy's still not crawling, but he is getting up on his hands and knees more and more. And he adores practicing standing and "walking" with help. I'm going to relish every minute of his relative immobility, though, while he is content to just sit in one place and not get into trouble!

Battle Creek Hike

This morning we took a field trip (for homeschool . . .) out to Pleasant Grove to a purportedly easy hike to a waterfall. We brought the stroller, thinking that an easy hike would be stroller-friendly. We weren't two minutes into the hike when we realized that the hike was neither paved nor all that easy, so we put the stroller back in the car and strapped the baby in the sling for the ride to the top. The first part of the hike was just a dry river bed and dying trees. The stream had been rerouted under ground in canals beneath us and the boys were getting ery bored and whiney with their lot in life. We could hear water in the distance, and knew we were headed to a waterfall, but it wasn't until we reached the point where the stream was above ground that the boys became interested. What a spiritual lesson, acutally--that 'living water' gives vitality and excitement to what could otherwise be a dreary experience.

Yeah! We made it to the top (well, bottom) of the waterfall! We did hike to the top, actually, but I thought the coolest part was at the base of the fall where all the spray was making a little mist and the roar of the water was the loudest.

After the hike Mom treated us to Purple Turtle milkshakes and deep-fat-fried vegetables. It was Davy's first experience with fast food, and I had very mixed feelings about polluting his pure little body. He had no such hesitation, though! He loved the sweet potato fries and ate at least four (in little pieces, of course). Here he is looking around, as if to say, "Hey, remember me? The cute, hungry baby . . ."

"Ooh, a fry! That looks good. I'll take that from here, thank you!"

"Mmmm, good."

"You goin' to finish that? How about that milk shake?"

Home Repairs

This isn't as cute or tasteful a post as Rachel puts up everyday, but I thought I'd share nonetheless.

First, this is a sign outside of an ice cream shop in Belmont. We thought it was pretty funny.


And here are some before-and-after pics of our laundry room overhaul. Unfortunately, I don't have ones of Rachel's improvements in the kitchen, but she painted the inside of our kitchen cabinets the same blue color as you see here.

Lil' cowboy

We had a gorgeous day today, so we decided to spend part of the afternoon at the neighborhood park. Davy at the park:





My mom's been putting us to work to earn our keep (just kidding). Davy was a true sport while I mowed the lawn--he even started doing his little singing/babbling while hanging out with me and all the noise.



This afternoon we drove up to Lehi to visit my best friend from elementary school (and all growing up--we are both horse-crazy, were born on the same day in the same hospital, have the same middle name, were married like a week apart, the list goes on of reasons to be friends . . . ;) ). She's expecting her first baby, a little girl (to whom Davy is now betrothed), in just a few days. I wanted to see her and her new house. And very luckily she now lives a few blocks away from the ranch her family owns and where my horse Tess lives. I had to give Tess up when we moved to Boston, but I got to see her again today and introduce Davy to her. Davy even wore (one of) his cowboy outfit in honor of the occasion. They were both a little shy at first, but seemed fine with eachother after a little while. Tess even tried to nibble Davy's toes with affection. (Don't worry--he still has ten toes!) Davy loved Tess's halter and soft coat. He especially loved getting to sit on her warm back. The second he was up he started grinning away, and smiled the whole time he was up there. I'm sad the only picture I got of him on Tess's back is blurry, but at least he'll be able to say he has been riding since he was nine months old!

We're in Utah!

Great-grandmother Kimball brought over this old-fashioned little boy outfit for Davy to wear on Sunday. Abba (grandpa) and uncles were worried that the collar would make him look like a girl. In this picture it seems as though Davy is agreeing with the general male opinion. "I can't believe my mom is making me wear this--and in public, too!" I think it makes him look pretty cute, though, like a Victorian baby or something.

Uncle Luke was trying to climb up the light post and Davy started cracking up. I love those glowing eyes. And you can almost see his one tooth poking through his gums.

Davy is enjoying exploring the new toys at the grandparents' house. And all the attention from aunts and uncles is great for both of us! I even got to take a full nap today while Davy was entertained.

It's not all giggles and toys, though. Sometimes the craziness has been just too much and Davy has had to tell us that he needs a few minutes of alone time with mom. I'm so glad I caught this expression! Too sad!

Just hanging out, doing stretches with Uncle Jonathan (who, by the way, is currently ranked number one in Utah for tennis 12 and under. Wahoo!).

We sure miss Collin (already!), but it's fun to talk with him on the phone. Today when he called Davy started whining a bit while I was talking. I asked Collin to say hello to Davy and just talk to him for a minute. I held up the phone to Davy's ear. He started to reach for it (to put in his mouth, presumably) but paused as soon as he heard his name and Daddy's voice. He stayed really still while Collin talked and started to smile as he recognized who was speaking. It was pretty sweet.

Longfellow and Labor Day

Davy's kind of a mama's boy right now. He actually is doing just fine with other people (no big scenes of stranger danger yet) when they want to hold him (unless they get in his personal space too much--then he objects) or when I leave him with a friend during my class on Tuesdays. And he loves his daddy. Still, he does show his preference for me when he's hungry or tired or just needs a snuggle. I have to say, as much as I love being adored by Collin, it's pretty neat to have a baby's love.


On Saturday we had lots of other things going on (Collin played both basketball and volleyball, then we had a baptism to attend in the afternoon), so we couldn't go out to the Adams homestead in Quincy like we'd planned. So we stuck a little closer to home, and visited the Longfellow estate. We'd been to the place in winter time, when the garden was brown and the house was closed. I have to say, it was worth the visit to the home in summer. Our tour guide was incredible--she truly brought the place to life and recited several of his poems with dramatic effect throughout the tour. She was so enthusiastic it was contagious. Even Davy was entertained and well behaved. One of the coolest things about the Longfellow house as far as historic homes go is that all the furnishings and artwork and books are original and intact.



The LDS chapel across from the Longfellow house was burned pretty badly in May. It's still looking pretty dreary, but there is work going on to repair the damages.


On Labor Day we joined a group of friends at Beaver Brook Reservation Park for a lovely picnic. The Ladies and babies hung out and chatted while the boys (children and husbands) played a game of touch football. Collin ran over the kid who had dubbed himself "coach and referee" and was blowing a whistle incessantly. He didn't do it on purpose, of course. But it was still pretty funny (as no one was hurt).




Collin was so proud of Davy's outfit on Monday. He picked out for the baby just what he would have worn. Pretty cute!