Dinosaurs!!

This summer dinosaurs have been at the Minnesota Zoo and since Tyler loves dinosaurs so much, Carl was pretty excited to take him.

Unfortunately, Saturday was one of those days filled with great plans that didn't really work out. For some reason (and I have no idea why, because I was clearly wrong) I thought the zoo was open until 8. So we decided to go after Tyler's nap so Carl could help a friend with some house projects in the morning. As Tyler was eating a quick snack after his nap, I decided to look just in case and realized they close at 6! But we already had food packed for dinner and were all ready to go, so even though we wouldn't get there until 5:15 we decided to go anyway. Unfortunately for us, they stopped selling tickets to the dinosaurs at 5:30 and it would have been too late by the time we got to that part of the zoo. So instead we looked at some of the outdoor animals and headed off to Edinborough Park to play instead.

Edinborough Park has a huge indoor play structure and a gym. We've never taken Tyler there before, but he had sooo much fun! He was in his element climbing on everything and going down slides with Carl.

So even though it wasn't the plan, we did have a lot of fun. And we went to the zoo yesterday instead! It was supposed to rain all day, but we figured we could always see the indoor animals if nothing else. Lucky for us, it barely sprinkled a couple of times, and since it wasn't a great day out, there was hardly anyone there.

The dinosaurs are huge and loud and the first two even spray water at people, so I was a little nervous it might scare Tyler. But I should have known he would love them, just like Carl thought. He made sure we were always near him, but he really wasn't scared. Just a little cautious at first. He even roared back at most of the dinosaurs. :-)

This was Tyler's favorite. He thought the noises it made were pretty funny!

 He wasn't such a fan of this one, but can you blame him? Creepy!

 The dinosaurs were much more interesting than the camera. The only pictures where he's even kind of looking in right direction worked because there were more dinosaurs roaring behind the camera.

 Reading up on his dinosaur facts.

A dream come true for a little dinosaur lover.

For as many times as we've been to the zoo, we've never gone to the farm. So we did that too! Tyler especially loved the chickens. He chased them all around and even tried to climb in the bushes after them. He couldn't figure out why they kept leaving.

It was a pretty fantastic day for a little boy!





T-Dawg

Tyler is 16 months old now! I figured it was time to give a little update on the life of my sweet little man. I'm pretty sure that if you would have asked me at any point in the last 16 months what my favorite stage was so far, I would have said whatever he was in. But this is really my favorite so far. I do miss the baby snuggles, but Tyler is just so fun right now. I was telling a friend of mine the other day that I've never really noticed him changing day by day because I'm always with him. But now that he's learning to talk, he just seems more grown up all the time.

So here's what he has been up to:

CLIMBING!!! That pretty much describes most of his days lately. Some of his favorites places to be are on top of the kitchen table, standing on the coffee table, and bouncing on his rocking chair without holding on.

He loves to play in his toy box. Not next to his toy box. In it.

He's starting to sing songs. For the last month or so his favorite has been "Tick Tock". It just melts me to hear him singing "Dee Dah Dee Dah Dee Dah" over and over again while he sways back and forth.

He loves to climb into things, but often can't get back out. Thankfully he learned the sign for help and uses it all the time when he gets himself into little predicaments.

Another favorite (of his, not mine) is climbing onto the big brown chair in the office and sliding back off head first as fast as he can. He has a tough little head. I can't even begin to count how many times he lands on it. And he thinks it's funny every time.

And here's my favorite. The talking. He is saying so much! I can't get even close to listing all the words he says. I feel like there are new ones by the hour sometimes, since he's imitating everything. But the common ones are Daddy, Mommy, uh-oh, hi guys, ball, night night, baby, aye yi yi, and go, go, go! He signs please, thank you and help. He actually blows a kiss for the thank you and he is very consistent about it. He does it when we ask him to and anytime he hears some one say the word. So anyone I say thank you to, usually gets a sweet little thank you kiss blown their way.

I've been trying to teach him to say Tyler, but my sister got through to him first and taught him to call himself T-Dawg. As much as it's not his name, it's pretty cute to hear him say it. :-)

Another fun one is "no, no, no" while shaking his finger. He learned that at the zoo this weekend when one of the horses was kicking another horse. Right now it's adorable, but he just says it because it's fun. He's not using it to actually say no to things yet.

I love that he's starting to use words to tell us things. The other day the bucket on his dump truck came off and he came up stairs saying "Mommy, Mommy." Then he just kept saying uh-oh while he led me back downstairs to show me his dump truck.

He also makes the sounds for cows, puppies, monkeys, ducks, and anything that roars. Excepts bears. If you ask what a bear says, he sneezes. It's funny every time! He has a book where the bear sneezes, so that's what he thinks they do. Is it wrong that we're letting him go on thinking that?!

And he's learning to point out his nose, eyes, ears, hair, teeth, chin, cheeks, fingers and toes. He prefers to point them out on other people though, so don't let him get to close to your eyes. He will poke them right out.

Tyler's favorite toys are his Little People, balls, blocks, cars and dinosaurs. And he LOVES his new bowling set (best garage sale find ever!). He very carefully sets up all his pins and throws the ball at them. Today I was putting something away in the kitchen and when I came back all his pins were knocked down and he was standing there with his arms in the air and a huge grin on his face, waiting for one of us to notice and cheer.

I think the very sweetest thing he does, is fold his hands to pray. That's another thing he does even if he just hears some one say the word. So anytime he does it, we say a quick prayer with him. It is so precious. It melts my heart every time.

Tyler, we love you so much. You are our funny and adventurous little ball of energy and you are so special to us!

Great Friends, Great Fun

During the few days we had at home between camping trips, we had visitors! Our good friends, Noah and Katie, and their sweet daughter Ellie stayed with us for two nights on the way to Noah's sister's wedding. On Wednesday when they got here, our good friends, the Sutherlands and Jahnkes came over too!

It was so fun to all be in one place to catch up and spend time together. Hanging out with three little ones around is definitely different, but it was a great night. For some reason being around college friends with kids just makes us all seem so grown up. It's weird. But in a good way. :-)

I purposefully set my camera in a noticeable place before they all came over so that I would be sure to remember to take pictures. But in the midst of talking and catching up, I completely forgot until they drove away. I did get some with Noah and Katie before they left though.

Tyler and Ellie are almost exactly a month apart, so it was really fun to see them play with/near each other over a few days.

Tyler just loved Ellie. He has been singing her name all weekend. And even today, four days later, he started calling her name when he walked into the guest room. So sweet!

We are so thankful for such good friends. We feel very blessed to still have these three amazing couples in our lives six years after we graduated!

Busy Little Camper

My family always went camping when I was growing up. Every year that I can remember we had some sort of camping trip, or even several. We camped in a tent when I was really little. Eventually my parents upgraded to a pop-up camper and now they have a camper trailer. When Carl and I got married we made sure to get everything we would need for camping and we love to go every summer. I love camping. It's sort of weird that I love it, since it usually means taking showers with a large and frightening variety of bugs. But there are so many things I love about it, that I put up with the bugs somewhat happily. I'm not saying I don't scream or freak out about them once in awhile. I'm just saying I put up with them.

I'm not sure how long ago this started, but every summer my parents get a campsite at Coon Forks, which is about 45 minutes out of Eau Claire. The last few years they've stayed for over two weeks. The rest of us kids come out whenever we can and we're usually all able to be there at the same time for at least a couple days.

This year Tyler and I stayed with them for nine nights, came back home for four and went back out with Carl for two more nights. So fun! We stayed in the air conditioned camper for the first trip and stayed in our tent when we went back with Carl.

Anway, Tyler and I started our camping trip on July 20. The first couple of nights we camped in different places because we started in uncle's driveway after my cousin's wedding. Then we camped one night in New Ulm where we visited my grandma and my dad's sisters. Then we went to Coon Forks. The first few nights were a little rough getting Tyler to sleep since he was on a camper bed instead of in a crib. He just ran in circles all around the bed like a little torando. When it took him three hours to fall asleep the third night we set up the tent and and had him go to sleep in his pack & play. Then when he was sleeping I brought him into the camper. He was really excited to see a more familiar bed and that worked perfectly for the the rest of the trip. Sometimes being a parent means being a little creative. :-)

We took out a paddle boat, played at the playground, roasted marshmallows, played at the beach, and after Tyler was sleeping we played games. We also took quite a few trips into Eau Claire and did some fun things there.

Sadly, my camera battery died after only a couple days and I didn't have my charger. So I have no pictures of my family! But somehow I still have a lot of Tyler from before it died.

 Helping Grandpa and Grandma shop

 The cutest little camping bed I've ever seen

 Waiting for our food to come at Culver's!

 Tyler got to play at the mall twice! Once with Aunt Laura and once with Auntie Em.

 Trying to pull the camper? Tyler was very curious.

 Building a campfire with Grandpa

 Whoa! So many Tyler's!

Tyler and Carl missed each other a lot during that week. They had a lot of fun together this past weekend when we went back! They make a great team.



There was never a question about whether or not we would bring our kids camping someday. It was a given. I wasn't sure exactly what camping would be like with Tyler, but I hoped he would like it. He does (understatement of the year). Camping with Tyler is a lot of things. Most of them really great. But one thing it isn't? Relaxing. That boy is busy! One of the many things we love about him. :-)

Tyler loved playing outside, finding trails to walk on, playing in dirt and mud and exlporing everything! He has never been so dirty in his life. But he had a great time with his Grandma, Grandpa and aunts and uncles. And we all had a lot of fun watching him figure out new things and watching him constantly finding new little adventures.

As and added and sort of spontaneous bonus, we also got to see Carl's parents, grandparents and great aunt on our way home last night. We were able to stop by for a few hours to have dinner and hang out on our way home. Tyler surprised them all with how much food he can fit in his little belly and gave his Grandma Beckie countless scares with his constant climbing! It must be a grandma thing because my mom was feeling the same way at the campground. :-)

We had an amazing time camping and an amazing time with family. We're always sad to say goodbye to everyone, but I'm not sure I've ever been so excited to sleep in my own bed before. We didn't even unpack the car. We brought in the bag with food in it and Tyler, and we went straight to bed.

Where In The World Are We?!

That is how I've felt since about the end of May. If you've wondered where I've been and how come I can't keep up with this blog lately, it's because half the time I haven't even been sure where I am. It has been crazy. But for the most part, it's also been really fun.

Since then we have installed a window and a closet, redone all the landscaping around our yard, done some painting, listed our house, spent 15 days in Kansas and Colorado, and camped in WI for a weekend with our good friends Jesse and Andrea. We went to The Melting Pot and a Twins game for my 30th (ugh) birthday. We spent a very fun weekend at a lake home in Appleton for Carl's grandmother's surprise eightieth birthday (also, I finally fulfilled my dream of jet skiing). We went to one wedding, Tyler and I camped for 10 days in WI with my parents, we hosted almost 40 people for a get together for my parents (they planned it, but it was at our house) and in about an hour we have company (which we are super excited about!) for the next couple nights. After that we have at least one more camping trip planned, but we will be home other than that. Whew! Somehow in the midst of all that we have managed to remember to eat and sleep.

 

My boys surpised me with awesome seats at the Twins game! It was over 90 degrees so we had to take quite a few shade breaks, but it was soooo much fun! And I can't remember for sure, but it might be the first game I've ever been to that they actually won.