Hogle Zoo

We are now proud owners of a membership to the Hogle Zoo.  We can go to the zoo, watch the shows, ride the carousel, and most importantly ride the train as often as we want for the next year.  We are very excited.

The zoo experience during January is slightly different than in July which is usually when we go to the zoo.  Lots of parking spaces, no lines, and no impeded views of any of the animals.  Appears few people visit the zoo in January. Sadly, some of the animals a the zoo also do not visit in January. The African Savannah exhibits are rather empty.

Much to our delight the lions were not absent.  Instead, they decided to come right up next to us,  I had not been this close to a lion before. I understood how big lions are; but there is a difference when you are right next to the big cat whose paws are as big as your head.

Hello Lion!

ROOOOOAAAAARRRRRR!

Bye Bye Lion

One thing has not changed, to get anywhere in the zoo requires a large amount of walking. Or, in the case of Andrew and Cameron a lot of walking, a lot of running, and some falling.

Another advantage of the small population of Homo Sapiens is that access to all of the statues and stationary features is easy. The kids had a blast climbing on everything in the Zoo. Wendy and I had a blast taking pictures of them climbing on everything.

Walking underneath the elephant

Whoa...that's big!

Chomp chomp.

All fun days come to an end. Cameron needed a little lift...and a resting place to finish out.

Appears I need to be more social

I had to fill out a background request for my clinicals this semester. One of the requirements was to include the names of three people who have known me continuously for the past five years. They could not be relatives.

It was hard for me to do.

"Here's Daddy"

One of the fun parts of being a parent is being shocked by the little ones understanding of what is going on around them. Today, I had an experience that was both heart warming and a little bit surprising.

Setting
Ben: Working at the computer on my final term paper/project for the semester.
Cameron: Rolling on the floor with his toys.
Kevin (Wendy's Brother):  Upstairs in the grandparent's living room
Arden (Wendy's Dad): Absent from the house

Experience
Kevin needed his dad to help him with something. Channeling his inner toddler or teenager instead of looking for his dad Kevin repeatedly cried out, "Dad! Dad! I need you, Dad!"

Little Cameron dropped his toys and ran over to me and with his happy voice called, "Dada!" As he often does when he wants to take me somewhere he grabbed me hand and pulled me to where he wanted to go.

Cameron pulled me across the room, up the stairs, into the living room, and up next to Kevin. At that point with a content look on his face, Cameron looked at Kevin, looked at me, yelled "Dada," and looked back at Kevin.

In summation
Cameron:
Heard Kevin call for Dad.
Recognized Kevin's voice.
Recognized Kevin's location.
Knew that I was "dad."
Took me to the person who needed "dad."

Isn't that the cutest thing ever? Happy fuzzy, Dad feelings.

Building and knocking down towers

Andrew and I spent the morning building towers for Cameron to knock down.

"Nose!!!"

When I was putting Cameron's pajama top on this evening, I asked him where his hands were. As soon as his hands were thought his shirt sleeves he popped up both his hands and showed them to me. Oh. Appears Cameron know what and what  his hands are. Just to play I asked him where his nose was...

"Nnnsse!" Cameron happily points to his nose.

"Where is your mouth?"

"Mmmmthhh!" Cameron happily points to his mouth.

Appears Cameron has been learning anatomy without me realizing it. Wonder what else he is learning that I have not tested yet.

Lots of lights...

We are trying to see if we can set up an infinite white background for pictures and videos. We will see if it works.

Touchdown!

I have been able to stream a lot of the BYU, USU, and U of U football games these past couple of weeks.  Andrew has been my football buddy.  This week instead of watching he joined in with his father with chants of , "Defense!"  "Offense" and the celebratory "touchdown!"

He knows just what to do when our team scores.

A few of my in-laws joined in watching football with me and Andrew.  Karoline and Kevin have watched the last few BYU and the last Utah games with me.  Yesterday, before the Utah game started I received a text from Kevin asking if I was going to watch the game. I celebrated! There may have been successful in converting an Ashton into a sports fan!

Wendy disabused me of that notion fairly quickly.  She suspected that the interest was driven by Karoline.  Suspicion confirmed once Kevin worked on his laptop during the entire game.  I felt slightly disappointed. On the plus side, at least Kevin married a sports fan so I have someone interested in sports to watch football with.