Wheeler Farm

Wendy and I are discovering that despite living in a relatively urban setting that there are a lot of green open spaces that we were not aware of. (I can't say urban in fear that Elizabeth with her Boston and New York experience will deny SLC deserves the title). We've discovered parks, and recently we discovered an entire farm.

Ok...well...Wendy knew the farm was there. Andrew and I did not.

Our discovery dovetailed nicely with one of Andrew's recent discoveries. He's discovered animals. Now by discovering I actually mean that he  is actually interested in animals. Up until the past few days the only animal that Andrew reacted to has been dogs, specifically my sister's little dog Amber. Andrew now reacts to horses, and birds. We "found" this farm at the perfect time for him.

At Wheeler Farm he got to discover:

Chickens

Geese

He wasn't intimidated about being an inch shorter than most of the birds.

Ducks

Goats

And his most favorite animal of all:
Humans

Of course no farm visit is complete without:

Climbing

Pony Rides

Running in the Grass

At the end of the day Andrew was pretty tucker out and begging for his stroller.

Or maybe not.

I also managed to get some shots of Andrew with his Mother.

Snowbird

Snowbird has a special place in my heart. Growing up my grandparents and an aunt had week-long timeshares during July and October. It's at the top of the list of my favorite places.

Andrew was actually introduced to Snowbird a year ago; but he doesn't remember much. A week old's memories do not last long. I'm hopeful that we've managed to give him some memories this time that might at least last as impressions for future years.

Snowbird has hiking

Requisite family picture. Wendy is behind the camera

Ready to go!

Getting pulled by Grandpa

Getting pushed by grandma

Pointing out the deer

Snowbird has rocks to climb

First one leg

Success!

Snowbird has cooking with Grandma

Snowbird has playgrounds

And importantly, Snowbird has swimming

Testing the water

Kick kick kick

Jumping in

Splash!

Goggles

Rubby ducky you're the one!

Time to get out

Wet hug

This last picture has story behind it. Debbie was standing next to the pool while we were swimming. Andrew was playing on the steps. Andrew noticed Debbie, climbed up the stairs, crawled out of the pull, walked over to Debbie, and gave her a wet leg hug. To use Wendy's phrase, "SOOOOOO Cuuuuute!!"

And unfortunately snowbird ends:

Packing up and heading home

Weightlifting

Many of you are aware that Wendy and I are running a couple triathlons this summer.  For the past month and a half we've been practicing our swimming, biking, and running so that we don't die during the event. We found a good program online that minutely spells out how to train; even going so far as to plan out each minute of each workout up to and including associated weightlifting.

Well, today was the first weightlifting day for me.  Andrew was awake for part of the workout; he wasn't quite sure what to think.  At first he seemed fairly confused. He didn't quite understand the "fine art" of picking things up and putting them back down.  Eventually he caught on..

Come on Daddy, this is too easy!

Andrew gets his shots

Today Andrew had his one year check-up with our pediatrician.  That means that today was the day that Andrew received basically every known childhood immunization known to man. The poor guy has five little holes in his legs right now.

Ironically the person giving the shots was almost as traumatized as Andrew was.  The office's nurse had a funeral to attend today and they didn't have anyone available to cover.  So guess who that left to do the shots?  Me!

No. Just kidding.  The pediatrician was actually the one who had to give the shots. He was very disappointed when i refused his offer to give the shots myself. He likes being the nice guy and then sending in the mean nurses.  Andrew for one had a complete change of mind about his feelings for the pediatrician. Prior to getting his shots Andrew was high fiving and smiling at the doctor. After the shots, let's just say that the pediatrician was on the bad end of a very icy stare. If the doctor made any move towards Andrew he started to cry. Poor traumatized little boy.

Fortunately we found a way to untraumatize him. As we were leaving the nurses at our midwives office saw him. They thought he was cute so they gave him a sucker to make him feel better. Andrew had never seen a sucker before so he wasn't quite sure what to do with it.  In fact, at first he just looked at it.  Finally, I had to demonstrate to him that it was food. So I gave the sucker a lick. Andrew suddenly understood what to do with the sucker.  He put it into my mouth. 

Eventually Andrew tried the sucker in his own mouth.  In hindsight I should have had a video camera focused at him.  As soon as the sucker hit his taste-buds suddenly little traumatized boy was bouncing off the walls happy. His expression and reaction most closely resembled the "lightbulb" moments in comics. His entire countenance changed.  Fun to watch.

Shoe shopping

When it comes to clothes shopping Wendy and I ave vastly different styles. My habit is to go in grab the first pair of shoes that feel right and get out. Bonus points of the entirety of the visit clicks in under five minutes.  Introducing Wendy changes that equation; suddenly such trivial matters such as ascetics and "cuteness" enter the equation. 

I have learned however. Last time I tried to pick out shoes that Wendy likes and failed miserably. This time I let you tell me which shoes she thinks look nice and choose from that much smaller subset. It worked much better.

Oh. Andrew helped pick out shoes too.

Marsha entertains the children

When Andrew gets bored we will often come upstairs and Marsha will entertain him. Jill and her family were here today. It appears that Aunt Marsha is cable of entertaining multiple children at once.