About 2 weeks ago, Murray and I were having a conversation congratulating ourselves on being amazing parents. Gulliver NEVER says the following words: hate, shut up, stupid.
We talked about all the reasons that this makes us really good parents.
Then a couple days later, as we were leaving the house and getting into the car, Gulliver said "Shut up" to Joon.
I looked at Murray. Did he just say what I thought he said?
"What did you say, Gulliver?"
"Shut up?"
"Gulliver. We don't say that. That's a bad word."
We loaded the kids into the car and resumed the discussion:
"Where did you learn that word, Gulliver? Who taught you that?"
He named one of the older kids at the home where he is tended twice a week. The older kids (who are really good boys, and very personable) are home from school now.
"Well, it's a bad word. We don't say that word, Gulliver."
"Oh. Okay."
Then after a few minutes of silence:
"Mumma? I sorry I say shut up."
"Gulliver, that makes me so proud that you said sorry."
"We don't say shut up."
"No, that's right. We don't say it."
"T says shut up. But we don't say shut up. Shut up is a bad word. We don't say shut up. But T says shut up. But we don't say shut up. Shut up is bad."
"Okay... Gulliver, just stop saying it okay? Let's just not say the word at all."
"T says shut up, but we don't say shut up."
"Let's not say it at all."
"Mumma... why we don't say shut up?"
"It's a bad word. There are good words and bad words, and that is a bad word."
"Oh. Just like there's good spiders and bad spiders."
"That's right."
So that was the end of the story. Except that at Young Men / Young Women the following week, I pulled the boys aside and let them know that we were teaching Gulliver that "shut up" is a really bad word, "So if you use that word around him now, he's going to think you're really bad boys. So you'd better not use it around him."
Apparently it wasn't the boys I needed to worry about. Murray says "Shut up." Of course he says it totally differently. And the context is totally okay. But now that Gulliver's ears are finely tuned to the bad word "Shut up," he catches Murray every time.
Like in the car, when I say something incredible, flabbergasting, exciting, surprising. This happens all the time because I am a very interesting person. Murray's first reaction is often to say, "Shuuuut up!"
Now that is closely followed by a voice in the back that says,
"What you say, Daddy?"
We are going to need to break some habits.
The Great Salt Lake
Today for Canada Day, Murray and I promised the kids a fun day. After work. At 4:00 we picked them up from where they are tended and hit the road. Sortof. We were a little slow-going with a few hiccups along the way, but finally by 5:00 we were on the road and headed for adventure, all wearing matching Canada Day t-shirts that we made a couple days before.
Gulliver was very excited that we were going to Canada. For Canada Day. To go swimming. We tried to explain to him several times that we were not, in fact, going to Canada. But we WERE celebrating Canada's birthday. We had both kayaks (mine and Gulliver's new kayak) tied to the top of the Jeep and we were headed for Antelope Island to try swimming in the Great Salt Lake. It was on my summer to-do list. We've visited Antelope Island a few times, but always in April or October. So today (a particularly hot day!) we were finally going to go swimming.
After a particularly tedious 3-hour drive there (with slow traffic, and two diapers from Joan that were the result of her drinking bubbles solution yesterday... I don't think I need to say more), we arrived at about 8:00, not exactly sure what to expect.
To access the island, you drive over a long land bridge. As we drove, we were overcome by the most awful, putrid, rank, indescribable lake stink. This elicited very strong reactions from every one of us. The kids tried to find things to compare it to. Mostly dog poo. But they were so wrong. It was a hundred times worse than dog poo.
When I had told El Senor that we'd been to Antelope Island in April, he said, "Ew, stinky," and I didn't really know what he was talking about, and figured it must be a seasonal thing.
There is no way to possibly tell you how bad it really was.
But the good news is, it cleared up by the time we made it onto the island. Phew.
We started out by trying to eat food that we had brought, but the kids weren't hungry and were more eager to play in the sand by the picnic tables, which was abundant. So I left the kids and Murray to eat/play while I went to the Jeep to figure out just how exactly to get the two kayaks down to the water, which was 0.34 miles away. I know because I just looked it up. Most or all the journey was over sand, so I figured that dragging would probably be the best method. I took the kayaks down from the top of the Jeep, tied the two front handles together with webbing, and stepped into my yolk. I dragged the two kayaks (40 lbs and 20 lbs) plus gear (paddles, life jackets, phones, clothes, towels).
There weren't many people there (it was late; I'm curious how many would be there during the day, but I don't think many more than what we saw). I got a lot of looks from passersby (European, Indian, Japanese), and I eventually made it down to the beach. Gulliver joined me half way (he is very concerned with 1) not being left behind and 2) beating everyone else). As we got closer to the shore, I could see great black waves of dust being kicked up. Which was a little odd because there wasn't any wind.
As we got even closer to the beach, I found out what the black waves of dust were. FLIES. I looked up the ecology of the Great Salt Lake on wikipedia after our adventure and learned that there are over 100 billion brine flies. I think we may have seen all of them. As you walk, the ground is peppered with these flies, and small clouds of them fly away to avoid being stepped on. So basically, you wouldn't expect to see anyone laying out on the beach.
Gulliver and I finally made it, and I could see that Murray and Joon were approaching. So Gulliver and I got in while we waited, and I got some more surprises! First of all, the water was very very warm. I knew that it would be warmer, but this was like a bath tub. Second of all, it was teeming with brine shrimp! I knew, of course, that the lake was full of brine shrimp, but by "full of brine shrimp" I didn't expect to see every bit of water full of them. I would say there was at least 1 shrimp per cubic inch. If there are 100 billion brine flies, how many shrimp are there? (And by the way, that aforementioned stench? Decaying insects. Feel free to go vomit now.)
Gullie and I scooped up the brine shrimp and let them swim in our hands. Then we went out deeper and deeper. And by "deeper and deeper" I mean "farther and farther" because you had to go VERY far before the water got very deep. I was very very excited to test the buoyancy. Being shorter than me, Gulliver noticed the buoyancy first. "Whoa," he said. "This water is bouncy! It's like in a space ship."
I finally got far enough to test it out for myself, and discovered that yes, indeed, it is very bouncy. Just allowing my feet to come off the bottom was enough to send my feet floating up to the surface. If I worked at holding VERY STILL with my feet below me, then without any movement or effort at all, my shoulders were out of the water. It was an amazing experience.
Now, lest you picture this as anything that it was not, please remember that at this depth, the water was STILL teeming with brine shrimp, both the bright orange wiggly ones and the black floating dead ones. And the surface of the water was all covered in brine flies. Lots and lots of brine flies. Occasionally, a feather would float by, and it was like a brine fly cruise ship.
At this point, Murray and Joon were in the water. Murray was expectedly not exactly loving it. He had also noticed the dead waterfowl at the shore, which I had not, since they were camouflaged under a blanket of brine flies. But he was a good sport, and was helping Joon explore the shallow, warm water, with lots of "wildlife" to look at and enjoy. (Should I add here that we have two bug-obsessed children?) Joon was so delighted, in fact, that she simply explored her new world while singing. Which is something we have never seen her do.
Gulliver at this time was focused on trying to catch a brine fly. To be clear, "catching a brine fly" was as simple as standing up; you'd have at least 10 stuck to your body. But he wanted to catch a brine fly on his finger. He explained to me that these were good bugs. And that daddy was not coming in all the way yet because daddy didn't like bugs. Gulliver got a bug on his finger, and tried to share it with me, but when I put out my finger, the bug jumped on my finger then back in the water. Which led Gulliver to believe that the bugs didn't like me. But they liked him. So he got a new bug. I asked him, "What's his name?"
"Bugs don't got names! That's silly!"
"What's your name, bug?"
"His name is Franky."
"Hi, Franky!"
"Franky don't like you. Franky's scared of you."
Gulliver held onto Franky for a full 10 minutes, because he was so excited to show him to Murray.
I had noticed that Murray and Joon were on shore again (remember, there are GREAT distances to travel between being on shore and being out in the water where I could float), and I was a little disappointed that Murray was going to miss trying out the floating. I was also surprised, considering between the shore with its billions of brine flies or the water with its mere millions (and billions of brine shrimp) the more pleasant choice would be the water. Murray obviously figured this out quickly enough, and came back into the water with Joon.
The four of us finally floated around together, and Murray was able to experience and enjoy the buoyancy of the water. He even admitted that he was having fun. He said he liked about 50% of the experience (it was actually quite pretty and he could very easily pretend he was somewhere exotic or foreign + family time) and didn't like the other 50% (long walk to the beach in sand with a toddler, a hundred billion brine flies, dead waterfowl, and billions of brine shrimp). We floated and played a little bit, but the sun was setting and it was time to head back.
The 0.34 mile trip uphill in sand, dragging two kayaks was not a pleasant journey. Oh, did you forget the kayaks? We never used them. We didn't have enough time. But I'm sure that there and back, I managed to burn enough calories to cancel out every bad thing I have ever eaten in the history of my life. Or at least today's bad food. I can hope. Murray and I switched off on the way back to the car.
Showering off the kids (and trying to shower out any places on my body that brine shrimp might be hiding... in an outdoor, open shower) and packing up the car was about as pleasant as you would think it might be. The only thing that coaxed them back up to the car in the first place was the promise of fireworks.
As we loaded up the car, we were treated to a chorus of coyote howls. They were coming from the north, they were coming from the south, they were coming from the east, they were coming from the west. Wait... were we surrounded by coyotes? They're more afraid of us, right? Anyway, as cool as it was, both kids developed a new fear. Of coyotes. For the rest of the evening, we would repeatedly hear from both of them, "I scared of coyotes."
The grand finale of the evening was "fireworks" in the parking lot. I had brought sparklers. I let everyone have two. And then announced, "Okay! Time to pack up!"
Gulliver said, "Wait! No! Fireworks go IN THE AIR." Mom's so dumb.
We gave the convenient excuse of "Canada Day fireworks are like this. When we celebrate America's birthday in 3 days, we will have fireworks in the air."
Finally, at 10:30 p.m. we made our way off the island. And had to drive over the stinky, stinky land bridge again. If possible, the stench was even worse this time. Bad enough that Murray and I were laughing hysterically because every time we inhaled, we were genuinely surprised all over again at Just. How. Bad. It was. And there was a car pulled off to the side of the road, which made us laugh even harder.
All in all, it was a very memorable trip. I don't think that Murray is particularly keen to go back soon, but I'd like to do one more trip sometime this summer and share the unique experience with someone else! I was thinking The Boy...
Gulliver was very excited that we were going to Canada. For Canada Day. To go swimming. We tried to explain to him several times that we were not, in fact, going to Canada. But we WERE celebrating Canada's birthday. We had both kayaks (mine and Gulliver's new kayak) tied to the top of the Jeep and we were headed for Antelope Island to try swimming in the Great Salt Lake. It was on my summer to-do list. We've visited Antelope Island a few times, but always in April or October. So today (a particularly hot day!) we were finally going to go swimming.
After a particularly tedious 3-hour drive there (with slow traffic, and two diapers from Joan that were the result of her drinking bubbles solution yesterday... I don't think I need to say more), we arrived at about 8:00, not exactly sure what to expect.
To access the island, you drive over a long land bridge. As we drove, we were overcome by the most awful, putrid, rank, indescribable lake stink. This elicited very strong reactions from every one of us. The kids tried to find things to compare it to. Mostly dog poo. But they were so wrong. It was a hundred times worse than dog poo.
When I had told El Senor that we'd been to Antelope Island in April, he said, "Ew, stinky," and I didn't really know what he was talking about, and figured it must be a seasonal thing.
There is no way to possibly tell you how bad it really was.
But the good news is, it cleared up by the time we made it onto the island. Phew.
We started out by trying to eat food that we had brought, but the kids weren't hungry and were more eager to play in the sand by the picnic tables, which was abundant. So I left the kids and Murray to eat/play while I went to the Jeep to figure out just how exactly to get the two kayaks down to the water, which was 0.34 miles away. I know because I just looked it up. Most or all the journey was over sand, so I figured that dragging would probably be the best method. I took the kayaks down from the top of the Jeep, tied the two front handles together with webbing, and stepped into my yolk. I dragged the two kayaks (40 lbs and 20 lbs) plus gear (paddles, life jackets, phones, clothes, towels).
There weren't many people there (it was late; I'm curious how many would be there during the day, but I don't think many more than what we saw). I got a lot of looks from passersby (European, Indian, Japanese), and I eventually made it down to the beach. Gulliver joined me half way (he is very concerned with 1) not being left behind and 2) beating everyone else). As we got closer to the shore, I could see great black waves of dust being kicked up. Which was a little odd because there wasn't any wind.
As we got even closer to the beach, I found out what the black waves of dust were. FLIES. I looked up the ecology of the Great Salt Lake on wikipedia after our adventure and learned that there are over 100 billion brine flies. I think we may have seen all of them. As you walk, the ground is peppered with these flies, and small clouds of them fly away to avoid being stepped on. So basically, you wouldn't expect to see anyone laying out on the beach.
Gulliver and I finally made it, and I could see that Murray and Joon were approaching. So Gulliver and I got in while we waited, and I got some more surprises! First of all, the water was very very warm. I knew that it would be warmer, but this was like a bath tub. Second of all, it was teeming with brine shrimp! I knew, of course, that the lake was full of brine shrimp, but by "full of brine shrimp" I didn't expect to see every bit of water full of them. I would say there was at least 1 shrimp per cubic inch. If there are 100 billion brine flies, how many shrimp are there? (And by the way, that aforementioned stench? Decaying insects. Feel free to go vomit now.)
Gullie and I scooped up the brine shrimp and let them swim in our hands. Then we went out deeper and deeper. And by "deeper and deeper" I mean "farther and farther" because you had to go VERY far before the water got very deep. I was very very excited to test the buoyancy. Being shorter than me, Gulliver noticed the buoyancy first. "Whoa," he said. "This water is bouncy! It's like in a space ship."
I finally got far enough to test it out for myself, and discovered that yes, indeed, it is very bouncy. Just allowing my feet to come off the bottom was enough to send my feet floating up to the surface. If I worked at holding VERY STILL with my feet below me, then without any movement or effort at all, my shoulders were out of the water. It was an amazing experience.
Now, lest you picture this as anything that it was not, please remember that at this depth, the water was STILL teeming with brine shrimp, both the bright orange wiggly ones and the black floating dead ones. And the surface of the water was all covered in brine flies. Lots and lots of brine flies. Occasionally, a feather would float by, and it was like a brine fly cruise ship.
At this point, Murray and Joon were in the water. Murray was expectedly not exactly loving it. He had also noticed the dead waterfowl at the shore, which I had not, since they were camouflaged under a blanket of brine flies. But he was a good sport, and was helping Joon explore the shallow, warm water, with lots of "wildlife" to look at and enjoy. (Should I add here that we have two bug-obsessed children?) Joon was so delighted, in fact, that she simply explored her new world while singing. Which is something we have never seen her do.
Gulliver at this time was focused on trying to catch a brine fly. To be clear, "catching a brine fly" was as simple as standing up; you'd have at least 10 stuck to your body. But he wanted to catch a brine fly on his finger. He explained to me that these were good bugs. And that daddy was not coming in all the way yet because daddy didn't like bugs. Gulliver got a bug on his finger, and tried to share it with me, but when I put out my finger, the bug jumped on my finger then back in the water. Which led Gulliver to believe that the bugs didn't like me. But they liked him. So he got a new bug. I asked him, "What's his name?"
"Bugs don't got names! That's silly!"
"What's your name, bug?"
"His name is Franky."
"Hi, Franky!"
"Franky don't like you. Franky's scared of you."
Gulliver held onto Franky for a full 10 minutes, because he was so excited to show him to Murray.
I had noticed that Murray and Joon were on shore again (remember, there are GREAT distances to travel between being on shore and being out in the water where I could float), and I was a little disappointed that Murray was going to miss trying out the floating. I was also surprised, considering between the shore with its billions of brine flies or the water with its mere millions (and billions of brine shrimp) the more pleasant choice would be the water. Murray obviously figured this out quickly enough, and came back into the water with Joon.
The four of us finally floated around together, and Murray was able to experience and enjoy the buoyancy of the water. He even admitted that he was having fun. He said he liked about 50% of the experience (it was actually quite pretty and he could very easily pretend he was somewhere exotic or foreign + family time) and didn't like the other 50% (long walk to the beach in sand with a toddler, a hundred billion brine flies, dead waterfowl, and billions of brine shrimp). We floated and played a little bit, but the sun was setting and it was time to head back.
 |
| Do you see the two TINY DOTS in the water way far away? That's me and Gulliver. |
The 0.34 mile trip uphill in sand, dragging two kayaks was not a pleasant journey. Oh, did you forget the kayaks? We never used them. We didn't have enough time. But I'm sure that there and back, I managed to burn enough calories to cancel out every bad thing I have ever eaten in the history of my life. Or at least today's bad food. I can hope. Murray and I switched off on the way back to the car.
Showering off the kids (and trying to shower out any places on my body that brine shrimp might be hiding... in an outdoor, open shower) and packing up the car was about as pleasant as you would think it might be. The only thing that coaxed them back up to the car in the first place was the promise of fireworks.
As we loaded up the car, we were treated to a chorus of coyote howls. They were coming from the north, they were coming from the south, they were coming from the east, they were coming from the west. Wait... were we surrounded by coyotes? They're more afraid of us, right? Anyway, as cool as it was, both kids developed a new fear. Of coyotes. For the rest of the evening, we would repeatedly hear from both of them, "I scared of coyotes."
The grand finale of the evening was "fireworks" in the parking lot. I had brought sparklers. I let everyone have two. And then announced, "Okay! Time to pack up!"
Gulliver said, "Wait! No! Fireworks go IN THE AIR." Mom's so dumb.
We gave the convenient excuse of "Canada Day fireworks are like this. When we celebrate America's birthday in 3 days, we will have fireworks in the air."
Finally, at 10:30 p.m. we made our way off the island. And had to drive over the stinky, stinky land bridge again. If possible, the stench was even worse this time. Bad enough that Murray and I were laughing hysterically because every time we inhaled, we were genuinely surprised all over again at Just. How. Bad. It was. And there was a car pulled off to the side of the road, which made us laugh even harder.
All in all, it was a very memorable trip. I don't think that Murray is particularly keen to go back soon, but I'd like to do one more trip sometime this summer and share the unique experience with someone else! I was thinking The Boy...
More Junabun
I now bring you a series of photos of Junabun still wearing the same sweater. Unintentionally, of course. Actually, I think that as far as sweaters go, this is almost all she has. We have a couple more choices...
Junabun is adorable, but doesn't love to keep bows on her head. Too bad because she's even more adorable with a bow!
Junabun is almost a year now. She weighs 22 pounds and I forget how tall she is... maybe 29?
She loves to explore. If there is a door that is partway open, she makes a break for it. This girl has speed crawling as one of her major talents. My mom describes her as fierce, and that definitely applies! She and Gulliver are starting to play together more. He loves to cheer her on. Also to play fetch. Also to police her. She loves to pull things out of the cupboards and Gulliver loves to take her treasures away from her and say, "No, no, no, no, no Jun! That's Mumma's!"
We're enjoying these fun kids.
Junabun is adorable, but doesn't love to keep bows on her head. Too bad because she's even more adorable with a bow!
Junabun is almost a year now. She weighs 22 pounds and I forget how tall she is... maybe 29?
She loves to explore. If there is a door that is partway open, she makes a break for it. This girl has speed crawling as one of her major talents. My mom describes her as fierce, and that definitely applies! She and Gulliver are starting to play together more. He loves to cheer her on. Also to play fetch. Also to police her. She loves to pull things out of the cupboards and Gulliver loves to take her treasures away from her and say, "No, no, no, no, no Jun! That's Mumma's!"
We're enjoying these fun kids.
Junabun's Stats
This week I took Junabun in for her 6 month checkup. She weighs 20 lbs and is 29 inches, which puts her in the 100th percentile for weight and 110th for height. Way to go, Juju! Her head is 55th percentile.
She continues to be a delight in our home. She is very good natured and easy going, and has a high tolerance for the abuse she suffers at the hands of her big brother, who just wants to love her to death.
(Recently I was talking to a friend whose daughter is Gulliver's age and is able to talk much more than Gulliver can. She doesn't have any younger siblings, but when she was shown a baby, and asked if she thought he was cute, she said, "I want to hit him." I laughed about what we would hear from Gulliver if he could articulate his own thoughts so well. "I want to hit her in the head repeatedly with this balloon." "I want to roll over her again and again and again." What we DO get from Gulliver on a regular basis is, "I la loo, June." So sweet.)
Junabun loves to eat, so when we eat we'd better be prepared to share something with her, or else she eyes us jealously and complains a little. Recently I shared my favorite pineapple Greek yogurt with her. We polished up the container of it, and when I walked away, she got very VERY angry. Far be it to deny her the delicious yogurt, I opened up another one and we ate up all of that, too. Again, when I got up, she got REALLY mad. But I didn't want to see what eating more than a full container of yogurt would do to her, so I called it quits there.
Juju learned to roll over probably a month ago now (close to the end of 5 months, beginning of 6 months). She does well sitting up by herself, and she's starting to think about crawling. She prefer's Gulliver's toys over her own age-appropriate toys, and loves to stick dinosaurs' tails in her mouth and make me go crazy.
One of Gulliver's favorite activities is sitting down with the iPhone and looking over past photos and watching videos. He recently found the following video (he was in bed when it happened) and was enjoying watching it, but a little over half of the way through, he discovered something amazing! Junabun says "Egg!" She does say it very clearly although it's never something I would have noticed if Gulliver hadn't. He is BEYOND excited about Juju's first word. Every time he watches the video, he waits for it, and then says, "Egg!" with Junabun. He also tries his best to get her to say it again, coaxing her, "Egg! Egg!"
We are loving being parents of these two kids! Right now I'm getting ready for Halloween, and I just am putting the finishing touches on the costumes. Gulliver, Junabun and I will be sheep from Shaun the Sheep (Gulliver will be Shaun). We are not sure yet whether Murray will join us as the farmer (if only we could figure out how to do it without buying a bald cap and some red hair...).
She continues to be a delight in our home. She is very good natured and easy going, and has a high tolerance for the abuse she suffers at the hands of her big brother, who just wants to love her to death.
(Recently I was talking to a friend whose daughter is Gulliver's age and is able to talk much more than Gulliver can. She doesn't have any younger siblings, but when she was shown a baby, and asked if she thought he was cute, she said, "I want to hit him." I laughed about what we would hear from Gulliver if he could articulate his own thoughts so well. "I want to hit her in the head repeatedly with this balloon." "I want to roll over her again and again and again." What we DO get from Gulliver on a regular basis is, "I la loo, June." So sweet.)
Junabun loves to eat, so when we eat we'd better be prepared to share something with her, or else she eyes us jealously and complains a little. Recently I shared my favorite pineapple Greek yogurt with her. We polished up the container of it, and when I walked away, she got very VERY angry. Far be it to deny her the delicious yogurt, I opened up another one and we ate up all of that, too. Again, when I got up, she got REALLY mad. But I didn't want to see what eating more than a full container of yogurt would do to her, so I called it quits there.
Juju learned to roll over probably a month ago now (close to the end of 5 months, beginning of 6 months). She does well sitting up by herself, and she's starting to think about crawling. She prefer's Gulliver's toys over her own age-appropriate toys, and loves to stick dinosaurs' tails in her mouth and make me go crazy.
One of Gulliver's favorite activities is sitting down with the iPhone and looking over past photos and watching videos. He recently found the following video (he was in bed when it happened) and was enjoying watching it, but a little over half of the way through, he discovered something amazing! Junabun says "Egg!" She does say it very clearly although it's never something I would have noticed if Gulliver hadn't. He is BEYOND excited about Juju's first word. Every time he watches the video, he waits for it, and then says, "Egg!" with Junabun. He also tries his best to get her to say it again, coaxing her, "Egg! Egg!"
We are loving being parents of these two kids! Right now I'm getting ready for Halloween, and I just am putting the finishing touches on the costumes. Gulliver, Junabun and I will be sheep from Shaun the Sheep (Gulliver will be Shaun). We are not sure yet whether Murray will join us as the farmer (if only we could figure out how to do it without buying a bald cap and some red hair...).
Living the Good Life
[First, quick excuses: Work, work, work. But I want to blog consistently again, so here's a fresh start! To catch up on SOME things you've missed, check out my mom's blog! There are beach pictures!]
Recently Murray and I were talking about the fact that what we do doesn't require us to be anywhere specific geographically, as long as we can get a good internet connection. So that considered, why didn't we move somewhere more exotic for a couple years while we could! The trouble is: 1) I'm not adventurous like that, 2) I like to be near family, and 3) I'm not adventurous like that.
This Monday, Murray and I drove the Alpine Loop on a whim. Fall is by far my favorite season. I find it energizing! And I didn't want to miss the opportunity to get outside and see the beautiful fall leaves. So we packed up our little family, packed a picnic lunch, and headed out. The views and the colors were amazing, and it felt SO GOOD to be outside and doing something together as a family. We stopped at Cascade Springs to eat (no food down at the springs, so it was a parking lot picnic) and enjoyed the little hike to the springs. Again, it was beautiful, and everything felt incredibly fresh.
Gulliver loved being out on the trails and enjoyed looking for the grasshoppers. He brought two dinosaurs with him, so when we saw the grasshoppers, we had to stop and pretend that the dinosaurs were going to eat them, and that would make them jump. Great fun! All week, he's been talking about grasshoppers, dinosaurs, and the sleeping grasshopper (hint: it wasn't sleeping).
Junabun enjoyed the fresh air and the stroller ride, and I think she PARTICULARLY liked being taken OUT of the stroller to get some more personal attention.
After our jaunt at Cascade Springs, we started talking about all the wonderful things that surround us here in Utah, and decided that maybe it's wisest instead of moving away to seek a fun experience for a couple years, we should make a list of things to do here and actually do them! (This isn't the first time we had this idea... we thought about this a couple of years ago, but didn't do anything about it officially.)
So this week, I've had that in mind. Yesterday morning, Murray was working at home, and Junabun was napping. We haven't used our bikes all year. Or all last year. Or really more than once since we got married, if we're being totally honest. In fact, we had decided recently that we should probably just sell them. Well, instead I went out, pumped up the tires of Gulliver's Boot Scoot bike and pumped up the tires of my bike. We tried Gulliver's bike---which he loved---but his legs still are not quite long enough. So I put him on the high bar of my bike and we started riding around. What started out as a little ride around the parking lot turned into a ride of over an hour, and several miles! Gulliver enjoyed ringing the bike bell half the time, and we both enjoyed talking to one another. It was sweet to have him so close (he said, "I love you, Mumma" a dozen times) and to have a little date with him.
Today, we continued the trend of taking advantage of what we have here in Utah. We planned a fun trip to see Murray's sister's family in Moroni. It was so much fun! We prepared ahealthy delicious lunch of Navajo tacos that was almost all carried away by flies (they were out in full force!). They allowed me to drive the Ranger (a cross between a four wheeler and a Jeep) up Maple Canyon with Murray and Gulliver. Gulliver loved it and kept pointing forward and yelling, "Gooooo!" He did NOT want to stop and look at the cows, he wanted to goooooo! (Murray, ever the protective father, urged me to not take the gradual turns at my reckless speed of 15 mph.)
After our little family spin, we went back to the cabin and loaded up everyone onto various vehicles and headed out again! This time even Junabun joined us (Murray, ever the protective father, made sure that both she and I were belted in). Murray, a little out of character for his artist personality, got his very own four-wheeler. After we were on the road, Gulliver looked back and gasped in admiration, "Daddy!" This time I was NOT driving, and we rode up very bumpy terrain. I think that both Gulliver and Junabun were thrilled!
During our ride, we went to an apple orchard where we were able to pick our own apples. Gulliver was at first interested in the ones on the ground (easy pickings!) until we told him those were yucky. After that, he'd just look at them and say, "Gross. Yucky." Sister M helped him to pick an apple from a tree and wipe it clean, and then he bit into his delicious treat! An apple just perfectly sized for him! I think that he ended up eating at least four! He decided he was a big big fan of the orchard.
But as good as the orchard was, nothing could prepare him for what was next. Murray's sister's family are turkey farmers, and they got a new batch of baby turkeys last week. So we took Gulliver to the turkey shed to see what he thought. I mostly expected him to be afraid, since he's going through a scaredy-cat phase lately where EVERYTHING is scary. Instead, he was SMITTEN with the baby turkeys and did not hesitate to want to touch one. At first he was very gentle and cautious, but he eventually became fairly confident... so we got him out of there before he could get TOO confident. He did NOT want to say goodbye to the baby turkeys (he saw a "sleeping" baby turkey, too... oh, when do we teach him about life and death??). But that's okay, because next on our whirlwind tour was seeing the BIG TURKEYS. We went to the big turkey shed, and unfortunately Gulliver seemed just as confident with these as he was with the babies... so needless to say, I didn't even let him NEAR them!
After saying goodbye to ALL the turkeys, it was time to head back to the cabin and order some pizza. What a good day! After pizza, we even enjoyed a bon fire and some star gazing (Gulliver, who LOVES to sing Happy Birthday, performed several rounds of the song and vigorously tried to blow out the fire).
What a perfect day! We are very grateful for our Moroni family for having us over and showing us a good time all day! I look forward to hearing what Gulliver has to say about everything tomorrow. Tonight, he was so tuckered out, that he only lasted about 3 minutes in the car. (After 2 minutes, he suddenly exclaimed, "Hat!!" and put his hands to his hatless head. I reassured him that we had his favorite hat, and pulled it out for him. He put it on and was asleep within about a minute.)
Recently Murray and I were talking about the fact that what we do doesn't require us to be anywhere specific geographically, as long as we can get a good internet connection. So that considered, why didn't we move somewhere more exotic for a couple years while we could! The trouble is: 1) I'm not adventurous like that, 2) I like to be near family, and 3) I'm not adventurous like that.
Gulliver loved being out on the trails and enjoyed looking for the grasshoppers. He brought two dinosaurs with him, so when we saw the grasshoppers, we had to stop and pretend that the dinosaurs were going to eat them, and that would make them jump. Great fun! All week, he's been talking about grasshoppers, dinosaurs, and the sleeping grasshopper (hint: it wasn't sleeping).
Junabun enjoyed the fresh air and the stroller ride, and I think she PARTICULARLY liked being taken OUT of the stroller to get some more personal attention.
After our jaunt at Cascade Springs, we started talking about all the wonderful things that surround us here in Utah, and decided that maybe it's wisest instead of moving away to seek a fun experience for a couple years, we should make a list of things to do here and actually do them! (This isn't the first time we had this idea... we thought about this a couple of years ago, but didn't do anything about it officially.)
So this week, I've had that in mind. Yesterday morning, Murray was working at home, and Junabun was napping. We haven't used our bikes all year. Or all last year. Or really more than once since we got married, if we're being totally honest. In fact, we had decided recently that we should probably just sell them. Well, instead I went out, pumped up the tires of Gulliver's Boot Scoot bike and pumped up the tires of my bike. We tried Gulliver's bike---which he loved---but his legs still are not quite long enough. So I put him on the high bar of my bike and we started riding around. What started out as a little ride around the parking lot turned into a ride of over an hour, and several miles! Gulliver enjoyed ringing the bike bell half the time, and we both enjoyed talking to one another. It was sweet to have him so close (he said, "I love you, Mumma" a dozen times) and to have a little date with him.
Today, we continued the trend of taking advantage of what we have here in Utah. We planned a fun trip to see Murray's sister's family in Moroni. It was so much fun! We prepared a
After our little family spin, we went back to the cabin and loaded up everyone onto various vehicles and headed out again! This time even Junabun joined us (Murray, ever the protective father, made sure that both she and I were belted in). Murray, a little out of character for his artist personality, got his very own four-wheeler. After we were on the road, Gulliver looked back and gasped in admiration, "Daddy!" This time I was NOT driving, and we rode up very bumpy terrain. I think that both Gulliver and Junabun were thrilled!
During our ride, we went to an apple orchard where we were able to pick our own apples. Gulliver was at first interested in the ones on the ground (easy pickings!) until we told him those were yucky. After that, he'd just look at them and say, "Gross. Yucky." Sister M helped him to pick an apple from a tree and wipe it clean, and then he bit into his delicious treat! An apple just perfectly sized for him! I think that he ended up eating at least four! He decided he was a big big fan of the orchard.
But as good as the orchard was, nothing could prepare him for what was next. Murray's sister's family are turkey farmers, and they got a new batch of baby turkeys last week. So we took Gulliver to the turkey shed to see what he thought. I mostly expected him to be afraid, since he's going through a scaredy-cat phase lately where EVERYTHING is scary. Instead, he was SMITTEN with the baby turkeys and did not hesitate to want to touch one. At first he was very gentle and cautious, but he eventually became fairly confident... so we got him out of there before he could get TOO confident. He did NOT want to say goodbye to the baby turkeys (he saw a "sleeping" baby turkey, too... oh, when do we teach him about life and death??). But that's okay, because next on our whirlwind tour was seeing the BIG TURKEYS. We went to the big turkey shed, and unfortunately Gulliver seemed just as confident with these as he was with the babies... so needless to say, I didn't even let him NEAR them!
After saying goodbye to ALL the turkeys, it was time to head back to the cabin and order some pizza. What a good day! After pizza, we even enjoyed a bon fire and some star gazing (Gulliver, who LOVES to sing Happy Birthday, performed several rounds of the song and vigorously tried to blow out the fire).
What a perfect day! We are very grateful for our Moroni family for having us over and showing us a good time all day! I look forward to hearing what Gulliver has to say about everything tomorrow. Tonight, he was so tuckered out, that he only lasted about 3 minutes in the car. (After 2 minutes, he suddenly exclaimed, "Hat!!" and put his hands to his hatless head. I reassured him that we had his favorite hat, and pulled it out for him. He put it on and was asleep within about a minute.)
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