Choo Choo, Allstar is Two!

Our sweet boy turned 2 last week!  He seems so grown up.  He is a little sponge right now, soaking up all the information he can.  He's talking a lot more now in the last 2 weeks than ever; repeating every word we say and filing that away in his memory.  There is still a lot more he will grow and learn and it is so fun to watch him discover the world.  Man, we love this kid more than ever.

He is way into trains right now, so we took him on the Trax Train to the Gateway.  He loved it!  We got in the very front, so he could look out the front window and at the driver.  He was here the whole way downtown.  On the way home he was a little tired of it, and ate his snacks while watching a little.

We watched the water fountains and ate a caramel apple. I didn't want him to play in them and get wet since it was cold outside, but by the end how can we say no to playing!  So Spencer took him out to stomp around a little so he didn't get too wet.

 Waiting for the train to come take us home.  Ladybug loves to be in this front pack, just chillin'.

 STRETCHING...he randomly does this.  

I think he picked this up after he watched my sister and I stretching and working out.

 Here comes the train!  It was funny, he got scared and watched it approach from behind my legs!

 BIRTHDAY BOY!!  We had pancakes and O.J. for BK, both of which he loves.

 Extra bubbles in his bath, lucky boy.

 Mr. Potato head to take to church

.

 Lots of toys from his Grandparents!  We have collected the Little People stuff and now have quite the stash! We requested a Sleeping Bag and Backpack for camping and hiking!  So excited to use those.

 I made the train cake for him, using my mini loaf pans and my awesome decorating skills! ha ha.  I forgot to get my final before picture since I just finished the decorating right before people got there.  So, the kids had already picked off the cookie wheels, marshmallows and life savers!   All the kids played with the new and current toys after their sugar intake.

 After a long night it was time to put the toys away and find a place for them!  I found that little Pottery Barn red sofa at the DI for $8!  Just took the cover off and threw it in the wash.  Super great deal.

It was a fun birthday for this little man.  We love him so much!

All about Allstar

Here is some of what Allstar has been up to, for the months of May, June & July...There were so many picts to choose from, here is just a little bit to show you how he's growing.

He loves to swing.  We got this little swing set from KSL, and it has been so awesome to have!

 He climbs into his stroller; loves to take walks.

 Still loves to "clean"!

 Mr. Self Sufficient.  I opened the Honey Greek Yogurt [the best!] and let him go to town for a bit.  It was so cute I just let him at it for a while.  He was so excited to kept going and going!

 He loves playgrounds.  We are lucky to have this toddler-friendly one at the Elementary school in our backyard.  He now always climbs until he is at the biggest slide and goes down himself.

 This is obviously him letting us know he wants out.  He never successfully learned how to climb out, thankfully.

 at the Sandy Library, which we frequent a couple times a week!  He LOVES books.

 He learned how to give kisses around 15 months old.  SOooo Cute!

 and I made the mistake of letting him climb up on the table a couple times, an action I had to quickly stop! But he's just so cute isn't he!

 He learned how to open the caps on pens and markers. Here he got a highlighter to his face before I really noticed!  Let the drawing games begin.

 We haven't given Allstar many sugary foods yet, we want to establish a good eating habit, which we are very proud of!  We have started giving him more sweets though, so he's not the only one left out.  I gave him 2 scoops of ice cream, while his cousins got a cone full.  Well, lucky for Allstar his cousin was done with hers and offered it to him, which he glady accepted and thoroughly enjoyed!  I let him savor the moment and happily took pictures of him.  Who could with that face!

 The 3 Glade cousins. 13 mo, 16 mo, 20 mo.  It's already getting fun for them.

 Monkey see monkey do...

 Since 14-15 months he won't let us feed him anymore.  He loves to use his fork and spoon and help himself. The messes have begun.  Full wipe downs after every meal.  I don't complain, because he is a super eater.

 Bath time!  His favorite game is to throw everything out of the bathtub,as I'm sure most of you are familiar with.

 He's no longer my little boy, he has really grown up.  It is so sad for me to watch, but so fun at the same time to see him exploring and enjoying life.  Aren't his little Nike shoes darling, thanks to our friends for their hand-me-downs.

 Blankets...he sleeps with these, but we have not let him get attached to have to take them everywhere with us. However, he has started dragging them around the house quite often, usually with his binky.  He will usually listen when we tell him to leave them all, or go put them back in his room before we go somewhere, so it's not a battle.

We love this little boy SO much!  I tell him that a hundred times a day and kiss and give him loves a thousand times a day.  If he wasn't so stinkin' cute.  We are so glad to have this little guy in our family.

Grand Teton's

This is our favorite National Park.  It is beautiful every time we have visited and the campgrounds are always great.  Obviously as you have seen a couple outings, we have had quite the summer of camping!  It has been awesome.  This Teton's trip was our big one of the summer, we took it over July 24th.  We were gone 5 nights 5 days, 2 at family's house to start and end the trip, 3 nights & 3 days at the campground/park.  Plus, it's like a 2.5 hour drive to family's house, then another 3 to the Tetons, total of 5.5 hrs in the car...yuck.  Allstar hates being in the car for longer than 30 min.  He just wants to be out moving, we think he gets bored in the car, like his mom.  So anyway, because the Teton's is so far away it's the drive that was the scariest part.  In the end, he did Awesome!  He slept a good part of most of the drives, and played with toys the other little parts, and only fussed a little.  Wow, we were so thankful for that.  We had a wonderful time, of course.  We ended up taking Spencer's parents tent trailer since it was a longer trip, as well as our friend's canoe.  Both ended up being fun to have.  I'll let the pictures tell you the summary of our days!

This is actually the very last picture of the vacation, as we were leaving Idaho Falls.  If you look close at our faces and hair you can see they look 4 days old!  I still think this pic is really cute; dirty and all.

 This is my latest invention...the car tray.  We looked at the ones to buy, and decided we didn't want to pay $15 for something that may or may not work.  So, this is what I thought of!  Genius if I say so.  I bungee'd it to the sides of his carseat to keep it in place.  It worked for the way up, then he started to figure out to throw things out, then to kick it with his legs.  It's ok, it worked for moments here and there!

 We stopped here to eat on our way to Pocatello, where Spencer's sisters live, who we stay with in ID.  It's just down the street on the Exit for Malad.  Highly recommend this little bbq joint.  Prices are great, food is awesome.  Only open like March-Oct.

 We canoed a couple times.  Jackson Lake was first, pictured below.  It was a bit rough since there are boats, but it was nice to get out.  String Lake we liked better.  It was so calm and smooth.  Allstar didn't sit for long.  He was usually in between my legs while Spencer rowed us around.

 We learned after our first camping trip to take plenty of toys for Allstar.  We filled a canister and little backpack full, which worked out great.  This was our dirtiest camping of the season, nice brown dirt covered us most of the time, caked on with bug spray!

 My friend gave us this little stroller a couple days before this trip.  It is missing part of a wheel and the handlebars are bent a little.  Out of all the toys to choose from in her garage, this is what Allstar wanted!!!  She said it'd be great for him to have, with the new baby on the way.  I don't mind the pink, and neither does he, it was his dad who had to be convinced!  After Allstar wanting to push this thing around for blocks of time throughout the day, Spencer was convinced pretty quickly that this stroller rocks and is now taken on any trip we go on!

 This is the hike to Hidden Falls.  It's our special hike that we will forever remember.  It is actually where Spencer proposed to me!  Awww...which that moment we caught on camera, you may be lucky enough to see it if I ever remember to scan and post!  Anyway, we took the other hike route and ended up not liking that way.  Between the backpack with a 21 lb toddler on Spencer's back and a big 7 month belly on me, squishing my bladder, we made it.  There were tons of people, way too many, but you wouldn't know from our great pics!  We managed a quick, not so great, family pic and headed out, the easy way...

 We took the ferry boat back to the trail head!  The hike proved too much for Spencer's back and my hips that we decided to take this out, this one time.

 the Beautiful Teton Mountains.  We have managed to have blue skies every time we come.

 Sunday we went into Jackson for an hour of church, then spent the afternoon at the park for lunch and delicious ice cream.  It was a nice, relaxing day for us.  Much hotter than at the Tetons!

 We always take a pic in front of the N.P. signs.  It proves a little more difficult with a kid now, but we still take the effort to get one!  Maybe sometime I'll show you a post w/all the N.P.s we've been too...it is quite the impressive list I must say!

 Eating w/Allstar was much easier with this chair we borrowed.  Though we were not great parents for a moment and he wiggled his way to the edge of the table [b/c of course we had him on top of the table] and tumbled off.  Whoops!  He was fine, just got scared.  He loves to eat corn ON the cob. btw.

 Sleeping arrangements inside the tent trailer.  Allstar get's one side in the pack 'n play, we get the other.  He actually sleept really well, throughout most of the nights.  It was CUTE to wake up to this though, don't you think!

Camping is over, we are now on our way back to Pocatello, where our sweet boy starts to get creative!  I of course find this highly amusing and totally laugh and watch him for 10 minutes, only encouraging this behavior!  I stopped after a while, and he actually hasn't done this since.

 Idaho Falls.  Spencer hadn't ever been here, and it had been like 10 yrs for me, so we finally rerouted over to it.  The temple is beautiful, of course.  The falls were interesting to read about.

 Allstar LOVED all the ducks and geese.  He chased them around, and got a little too close to the water for a good half hour or so.  We restrained from feeding them all, since it is not healthy for them anyway.  It was pretty gross with all the bird droppings everywhere, but definitely worth that little boy's excitement!

 I stuck with the stroller and the shady spots and let Spencer chase after the curious boy.  Too hot for this mama!

I guess that is the end!  A shower was so nice to have, but we instantly miss the campfires and being outdoors 24/7 in the beautiful nature that we can find.

Mr. Clean at 15 months old

Daddy is teaching Allstar from an early age to be a cleaner just like him! He's been trained on sweeping, mopping and putting things away. Ok, well maybe not trained, but Allstar has really caught on to the watch and do thing. He loves to get the broom out of the closet when it is left open. One of his first real words was "back", meaning he's putting things back, like we ask him to. He'll take things out of somewhere then put them back. It is amazing how much these little ones understand!

This little 1:13 min. video is so amazing. It shows Allstar "mopping" the floor at my office that we clean. He watches daddy do it every other week.