Birthday Time!

Just a couple of quick words along with a few pictures. (I really ought to go get Logan up from his nap. It's 5pm. Yikes!)

Logan showing his excitement (ha ha) for his Little Einsteins Rocket cake. Logan is a BIG fan of this show, and I think we've seen every episode - multiple times! The other night I started singing the theme song, and I was shocked to hear him sing the words to entire phrases. He got a Rocket sticker/coloring book for his birthday along with some mini figurines and a Rocket book where he gets to find things on each page. He gets really excited when he sees violins or trumpets. (BTW, every stringed instrument - guitar included, is a violin to this guy.)

Logan enjoying his cake. I do have to say that my cake-making tradition may be drawing to a close. I know I've only made two, BUT...we don't even like traditional cake all that much. (Obviously Logan enjoyed it all right). We ate it this night and then threw the rest out. I'm wondering if, in the future, I can talk Logan into cheesecake, pie, crisp, donuts, or any other yummy treat besides cake. We'll see.

Logan enjoying the "scooper" that he got from mom and dad. Gma Peterson is in the background. Logan was super excited to have grandma, grandpa, and Jackie join us for his birthday celebration.

Playin Legos with grandma.

Trying on his new bike helmet. It'll be interesting to see if we can get him to wear it. :)

Logan likes Thomas, but he definitely was NOT a fan of this costume. As you can see, it's too long for him. I ended up getting a safety pin and pinning it up a bit. But, it worked for the few minutes that we went trick-or-treating. He loved his "Halloween bucket" and getting treats, but he wasn't shy about letting us know when he was ready to "go home?"

We decided to carve one of the pumpkins before dinner on Halloween night. Logan thought it was pretty fun.

Our Last Little Fun in the Sun

We had a fun last little 'summer' stint in FL this past month. Garrick took a job presenting for a school district there, and Logan and I couldn't help but tag along. We spent 1/2 a day at Disneyworld for "Mickey Mouse's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party," went to the beach twice, got to watch both Jake and Sydney play in their soccer games, and had a great time just hanging out with the Weatherspoons. We had lovely weather while we were there and came home to a freezing cold house. (We had turned off the heat while we were gone.) Then we woke up to snow on the ground the next morning. Fall/winter are officially here.

We were a little surprised by how brave Logan was. We rode Dumbo twice, and he seemed to like it. He especially liked the Small World ride and driving the cars around the race track.
Logan driving the race car. I had to take over the driving for a minute or so in the middle of the ride, just so that we could have a break from being jerked back and forth. :)

Jake and Sydney showing Logan the 'cool' features of Minnie Mouse's kitchen - popcorn popping in the microwave and a cake rising in the oven.

Meeting Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

My first time at Disneyworld (or Disneyland for that matter). So happy to meet the characters!

Logan having fun at the beach.

Idaho-sized Potato

So, we've tried our hand at gardening the last couple of years, with limited success. We do grow a mean zucchini plant, and we've had some good tomatoes, but... the list doesn't go on and on. We planted red potatoes this year, and yesterday Logan and I dug up one plant. We were both very excited to see the yield. Maybe there's some Idaho potato farmer in Garrick's blood after all.
A closeup of the biggie. all.

A Week in Washington DC (well, almost a week)

We recently returned from a week in Washington DC and had a great time. Logan had a super rough night two days before our scheduled flight, and I took him to Urgent Care the next morning, only to discover that he had an ear infection. I asked the doctor about taking a plane trip in a couple of days, and he said it was hard to say how that would go. Fortunately, Logan's antibiotics were doing their thing, and he seemed to be feeling much better. The plane rides went just fine.

While we were in Washington, I took Logan to the zoo while Garrick was at some meetings. He loved seeing all of the animals, especially the panda, zebras, and tiger.

Here's Logan saying, "Cheese" for the camera. He happens to be holding Ruff, his very special dog. We also have a couple of Baby Ruffs that are often found in the arm opposite Big Ruff.
We got to see the panda in action. He was eating some leaves.

Logan was excited to climb this rock and even posed for a picture (second one) without even being asked.

The lion was a long way off, but he sat there just like he was posing for pictures.
I have two great college friends who live in the DC area, and it was fun to see them quite a bit. Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures on this trip, and I don't have a single picture with Heidi in it.

On this particular morning, Garrick was in meetings and Julie and I were going to meet downtown to visit a few museums. I had about a mile walk to catch the metro, and it was absolutely pouring. I stopped a short while into the walk because I was drenched and just didn't know if it was worth it. Logan and I made it to the nearby mall, and Julie met us there. Then we realized that we could walk inside straight to the metro, so we decided to head downtown in spite of the rain. (I later found out that our hotel would have shuttled us to the metro stop for free.) We spent some time walking through the Museum of Natural History before Julie had go to work.

Logan and I in front of the elephant. Can you see my two-toned shirt? The dark part is wet. Yes, I did have a rain jacket on, but it soaked all the way through.

Julie and Logan posing with a sea turtle skeleton.

Logan getting a tickle.

Logan posing with an old train at the US History Museum.

We also took Logan to the Air & Space Museum by the Dulles Airport. Logan loved seeing all of the big planes. It would've been pretty neat to take a "tour" or to read the info posted with all of the planes/jets/spacecrafts, but we'll have to go back in about 15 years for that. :)

This was one of my favorites.
Logan and Garrick in front of an old plane.

I was impressed with the size of the space shuttle.
Logan and mommy.

The Iwo Jima Memorial.

A view of downtown.

"Let's Do This"

Our future phone talker displaying his skills. You also get to hear his famous phrase, "Let's do this."

Race Time

Garrick taught Logan how to race the other day, and now he loves to race - over and over and over again. Here's just a little snippet of how it goes.

End-of-Summer Outings

When Garrick's parents were in town a couple of weeks ago, we went to a baseball game just down the road from us. Logan loves playing in the grass and on their playground. Someday he might enjoy the actual game.
Garrick taught Logan how to roll down the grass hill.

The things you'll do for your kids/grandkids: Grandpa Peterson joined in on the rolling-down-the-hill action.

Enjoying the Utah State Fair. Note to self (and others): Don't wait until Sat night to go. It was fun, just a little crowded.

Logan loved being able to "drive" all of the "scoopers." He is way into "scoopers" lately. Thanks to an abundance of road construction, he's able to see one almost every time we go anywhere.

Meeting the sheep, up close and personal.

He was even brave enough to pet this one.

My two favorite boys with the sea lions in the background.

Tigger Again?

Due to his recent love of jumping and bouncing, it might not be a bad idea to bust out last year's Halloween costume and let Logan be Tigger again this year.

My Little Man Is Getting Big (or is it just his feet?)

Trying on mommy's shoes. In Gma and Gpa Peterson's wheelbarrow. What a fun ride!

Oops! The mud has been flung. Doesn't keep him from shoveling, though. (Bear Lake)

Zucchini

I finally got motivated to do something with the 4 zucchinis that have been sitting on my counter for a while now. I froze some, made a double batch of zucchini bread, and made this yummy zucchini soup. I may have shared the recipe last summer, but I'm going to share it again.

Zucchini Soup
1 c. chopped onion
1-2 Tblsp butter
3 c. sliced zucchini
2 c. chicken broth
1/4 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
1/2 c. half-and-half (or regular milk)
1 c. grated cheese (optional)
4 slices bacon, cooked till crisp, then crumble

In a large saucepan, cook onions in melted butter until tender. Add sliced zucchini and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Simmer until tender (about 15 min). Add salt and pepper. Cool slightly. Pour mixture into blender and puree it. Stir in half-and-half (or milk). Return to saucepan and reheat, but don't boil. Garnish with grated cheese and bacon bits. Serves 6.

I changed this up a little this year, mostly because I had some cauliflower on hand, and thought, why not? So, I added about 1/2 a cauliflower (cut into pieces) with the zucchini. To compensate for that, I also added an extra cup of broth and a little extra milk. It turned out super tasty - even better than I remembered from last summer. Now I just need to remember to use my frozen zucchini to make this sometime this winter.

Prayer Time

We've had a couple of neat experiences with prayers lately. First off, Garrick lost his keys at work last Friday and wasn't able to find them by the time work was over. So, he hitched a ride home with a co-worker, and we were off to Bear Lake/Montpelier for the weekend. We got back Sunday afternoon, and decided to jaunt over to the school so that I could take a look around. We went through Garrick's office, the front office, the bathroom, the cafeteria, etc, etc and I wasn't having any more luck than Garrick did. Then we said a little prayer and kept looking. Garrick remembered that when he was bbqing hamburgers for the faculty, there was a piece of cardboard on the bbq where he was putting the cheese wrappers, and he wondered if his keys could have been placed on that cardboard and then thrown away. We headed for the dumpsters. We were able to pull out a couple of boxes of garbage, and we sorted through them, but found nothing. In order to go through the rest of the garbage, Garrick was going to have to get into the dumpster. Yuck! I was sorting through a bag of garbage when I heard keys dangling to my right. There was Garrick sticking his hand up from the dumpster, waving his keys in the air. Hooray! That was an answered prayer!

Logan is in the stage where he likes to repeat some of the words of our prayers. So, we usually go slow and emphasize words that we know that he knows. Our prayers go something like this (Logan's comments in parentheses.) "Thank you for mom (mom). Thank you for dad (dad). Thanks that we could go to the park (park). etc" Last night, Logan added a little twist. When Garrick said, "Thank you for dad," Logan said, "Garrick." Then Garrick said, "Thank you for mom," and Logan said, "Deyce." Of course, you kinda had to hear him say our names with his cute little accent, but it was pretty precious.

Rocky Mountain Retreat (with the Peterson fam)

We had a great little stay in CO with the Peterson family a couple of weeks ago. We visited the Garden of the Gods Park in Colorado Springs and enjoyed Trav & Amy's hospitality before heading to Indian Hills, where we rented this house for a couple more days.

The house was perfect! It was plenty big, had lots of bedrooms, bathrooms, and gathering areas with seating for everyone. It was on 40 acres up in the hills, and it really felt secluded. It had a fun little sport court where we enjoyed a little tennis, basketball, and a double-elimination shuffleboard tournament. It also had an indoor pool and hot (or medium warm) tub.

One of the house's best features was the deck. It was so nice to sit there and enjoy the cool evening temperatures.

We were excited to finally meet our newest nephew, Kale. He's about 8 months old now.

Jackie and Mariah. A year from now, Mariah will be playing softball for the USU Aggies. We're excited to have her closer!

Garrick and Logan. Unfortunately, Logan had a fever and just wasn't himself for most of this vacation.

Butch, Kade, and Kambree checking out the brackets for the shuffleboard tourney. Sadly, they had to leave a day early, and we never finished the tournament.

Grandpa Peterson watching the shuffleboard action.

Maddie showing off her tennis skills.

Maddie and Logan enjoying the tire swing.

Now for some shuffleboard action shots:

Amy

Kendra

Kade, Travis, and Makenna

Travis and Kade

We loved our little Colorado vacation. We went tubing in Golden, had a massive water balloon fight, drove on the highest road (14,000 ft elevation) in North America, and spent lots of time hanging out with some great family!