First Hair Cut

Recently we gave Austin his first haircut. I noticed during our trip to Utah that he had some"wings" hanging over his ears. I never had to think about cutting his sisters' hair this young, for obvious reasons, so he seemed young, but I didn't want him looking "scruffy". So we let him look at the clippers, while turned on, which fascinated him. He kept fairly still, for a 14-month-old, while Jason shaved just the bottom. Of course it helped that Victoria fed him fruit snacks the whole time! All in all, it wasn't bad and I'm definitely glad we used the clipppers as I did not want to give him a bowl cut!

Zion

We just returned from a family reunion to the Zion Ponderosa Ranch Resort in Utah, near Zion National Park, with my extended family. It was a whirlwind of a trip with flying to SLC late Wednesday evening, driving 6 hours to Zion on Friday, then back to SLC on Tuesday and an early flight home on Wednesday again, but it was worth it! We enjoyed every minute of it, but missed Grandma and Grandpa and others who couldn't come. Here are some highlights.

Playing with cousins in SLC

Visiting my aunt Karen on my dad's side

Bryce Canyon Museum

BFF's

Bryce Canyon hike on the way to Zion

Driving with beautiful scenery

Mmmm, sand!

Our hike to Slippery Rock

Swinging

Victoria's first tooth came out!

My tall, "cozy" cousins

Dancing and dressing up

Our huge "cabin"

Looking for lizards

Beatles Rock Band

Kite flying

Animals

My Mom's children and grandchildren

Extremely friendly squirrels

The Narrows

And of course, the BYU bookstore. Go Cougs!

Walking and Talking

Austin loves to walk anywhere and everywhere and with whatever "walking accessory" he can find. He uses his walker (the one inside and the one outside)

the baby doll stroller

even the baby doll high chair

or just on his own.

He will go outside any chance he gets, as that is his favorite place to walk. Yesterday, he walked halfway around the block! He will grab his sandals and bring them to me so I can put them on him to go outside, usually saying "Aht, aht!" or "Uh, uh!"

Which brings me to his "talking". Now, when Victoria was Austin's age, she was saying water bottle, banana, doggie, baby, mommy, daddy.... Of course she was the first, and female, and happens to be very talented in the verbal area. Austin communicates very well, but most everything sounds more like a grunt. He'll say "Uh, uh!" for me to take his sippy and put it on the table, or "Ah, ah!" for me to give him a banana. Of course these are all combined with the motions of reaching for what he wants, so I don't usually have to guess, I always know. He does say "woo, woo" when he sees or hears a dog. He also jibber-jabbers to himself as he plays with things, so at least he's got something going on!

11 Years!

Jason and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary yesterday. It's amazing how fast these 11 years have gone by! We are definitely out of the newly-wed stage, though I don't feel like one of those "old married" couples. Luckily, we had Jason's parents visiting this week and they graciously watched the kids a couple times so we could celebrate by going to the temple on Wednesday and out for a bite to eat and on Friday we got a couple's massage, which was divine! On our actual anniversary Jason and his dad worked on putting our new swing set together, but it worked out well since we had already celebrated.

Other activities we enjoyed while Gramms and Abuelo were here were:

-going to the library

-visiting the botanical gardens and conservatory

-Victoria got to go roller skating with her summer playground program

-attending the theater to see High School Musical on stage

-going to Ann Arbor to see where Jason goes to school and eat at the famous Zingermann's Deli

-visiting the Henry Ford Estate

-enjoying a free jazz concert around the corner from our house in the JC Penny parking lot, where Victoria and Karissa put on a lovely dance concert for everyone

We all enjoyed our time with Gramms and Abuelo!