we found a neat hike up the mountains a few weeks back. it was beautiful, but of course we left the camera at home. we went back over the weekend, this time bringing the camera. gavin, of course, was busily hunting for new additions for his rock collection.
"i found a rock!" he says, while surrounded by rocks...
you can see more pics from our adventure in the mountains here.
meanwhile, lilah found a new, fashionable use for stickers:
grandma & grandpa R came to visit the kids (and, presumably, us too) from California. we had lots of fun adventures like going to red butte garden (gavin was excited to show grandma and grandpa around), the clark planetarium and the living planet aquarium. gavin was especially excited about grandpa’s new car, complete with sun roof, rear camera and display when you back up and a GPS (that had some problems with Salt Lake City’s numeric addressing system) that talked!
more pics from their visit can be found in the flickr gallery we made.
gavin and lilah have been playing a lot more together for longer periods of time. i snapped these pics when they were being particularly cute together one evening during dinner.
we took a long road trip with g-ma & g-pa to moscow, idaho to see the kids’ great-grandparents there. it was a two-day drive and the kids were wiped but we were glad we split the drive up rather than try the 11-12 hour trek in one go. the kids had a good time hanging with the fam and exploring great-grandma & great-grandpa’s house.
the kids have been working on their faces
gavin happy
gavin excited
gavin grumpy
gavin angry
i don’t remember what this was supposed to be, but what it actually is is gavin saying okay mom and dad, that’s enough now
similarly, i think this was intended to be grumpy but came across more confused…
lilah happy
lilah excited
lilah surprised
lilah grumpy
as per usual, the kids have been sick. so imagine my surprise last night when, rather than unhappy wailing, i suddenly heard rambunctious giggling and laughter from the other room
the kids were exchanging tickets (puzzle pieces) for a chance to ride on the slide (large armchair)
this was being done as a solo activity (pictured above), or with gavin standing behind lilah and sliding down together
a few minutes later, the game changed, and one of them would get “stuck” and require the other’s help in rescuing them
gavin, of course, was the ringleader of this operation
last year on halloween, we got a monkey suit for gavin because he was really into monkeys. but he wasn’t into the suit so much. (at least, not on halloween. later, he was more than happy to run around as a monkey.) i wanted to get a gorilla suit to encourage him to jump in the monkey suit, but you’d be surprised how difficult it can be to find a gorilla suit (at least, when going to halloween stores in real life — this year i found plenty online).
gavin really likes pirates and pirate ships, so we decided to get a pirate costume for him this year. and we got a bumblebee costume for lilah because they were so cute. i decided that i could help encourage gavin to want to wear his pirate costume if i was a pirate, too (and that had absolutely nothing to do at all with wanting to dress up like a pirate myself. nope. not at all.)
here’s some of our dress-up adventures:
gavin tests out the bumblebee suit
once pirated, encouraging "arrr"'s are performed to get him in a piratey mood. instead, he has a look of "dad, what are you doing?"
but after further demonstrations, he starts to get the hang of it
lilah shows off her stinger
like pirate...
...like son
gavin shows off the broom he and mommy made at Red Butte Garden's Garden After Dark
...and starts practicing for the quidditch team
the day is topped off with the first annual pumpkin rolling contest
we took a camping trip to southern utah’s capitol reef last weekend. i posted some pics to flickr and on my blog, but here’s the kids highlights. it was great fun, and the campsite had a couple fruit orchards that the kids, especially gavin, loved. also, the orchards were great for attracting a family of deer who would wander through the campground to the orchard and have breakfast on the fallen apples. unfortunately, no deer shots here.
lilah models her new birthday dress
gavin, of course, wants to pose, too
lilah (and gavin) had a great time with her new tea set from g-ma & g-pa reynolds.
later, lilah presided over the opening of her presents. she allowed gavin to help, and even rewarded him by giving him a ride her her new baby doll’s stroller.
but then she reclaimed it for her baby doll.
what’s this for, mama?
lilah tests the juice to make sure it’s acceptable for her baby girl.
Gavin starts school next week!! He is so excited! We got to meet his very nice teacher and see his classroom and we got to take a trip to find him a backpack. Wow! I know he is going to love it! He’s got quite a good start on ABC’s and 123’s already but he didn’t want to show off for his teacher when we met her.
Lilah is talking a lot! And she loves to sing too. She makes a pretty good attempt at Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Happy Birthday to You. She says “Hi, Ga..in” every time she gets up from a nap. And thanks to Gavin, she also loves flying airplanes with sound effects (whoooosh!) and building anything with legos.
Gavin’s favorite thing at bedtime is reading Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever which coming from him sounds like “Best Work Book Eber”.
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