Reed took a fascination in my sunglasses the other day. I put them on his face and he sat there with this look on his face:
I started laughing cause it was this "I'm so cool, I don't even smile" look. The more I laughed, the more he made the face and wouldn't break his cool-guy persona. I'm sure he stayed in that pursed lips face for at least a few minutes as I laughed harder and harder. I even started tearing up it was so funny. The whole time, he never cracked a smile.
On a similar note, we went shopping yesterday and Fogg found this gem for Reed to try on. He also thought he was pretty cool, but not cool enough for us to spend 12 bucks on a hat for laughs.
If you know me even just a little, you know that I'm very much a "list person". I make lists of lists. I gain much satisfaction in checking things off the list. I have lists for pretty much everything. But today I would like to start my "To Do This Summer" List.
Find and sign up for a baby/mommy swim class. I've been having a hard time finding one that I can attend on the weekends, as I work during the week. I really want to teach Reed how to swim, but I don't know how to do that. Plus my friend has a pool in her backyard that I would love to utilize.
Go to the zoo! Reed has never been, and I think it would be fun to take the kiddo with some of his friends for the day.
Go camping more. We had a great time in Moab and I'd love to go more with little Reed.
BBQ and party! I love to do BBQ's, have friends over, eat food, drink libations, and have some fun. I also love hosting parties, maybe we'll do some of those too.
Cook more. I do like to cook, but by the end of the day, I just want to eat and not do the prep, cook and clean part. I'd really like to do some more cooking and have yummy veggie meals.
Hang out with my friends and their kids. Reed doesn't get enough child time - with other kids and I'd really like to do more stuff. I need more friend time, in addition to exploring some fun things. I want to do things like go to water parks, museums, children play areas, other fun stuff like that.
I'm not a huge fan of that title - but it's just so very descriptive of this post - catching up on the past few weeks!
Well, it all started with a fantastic dirt bike ride a few weeks ago with some of our friends. I didn't take too many pictures of the ride cause it was a little difficult, but we stopped at a beaver dam that I thought was quite interesting. We went to Moab the next weekend. We got a new truck - shown below - and borrowed a pop up trailer from a friend to give it a try. Our friends Marit and Bill (and their little daughter Hazel) joined us for the trip. We had a great time with them, exploring the "lower" adventure activities that Moab has to offer. We rolled in on Friday afternoon, set up camp then went for a small hike to the fabulous Faux Falls. At least they were honest about them - they came right out of a pipe. But there was a story about it, something about providing water for Moab or something. But it was a nice way to stretch our legs for a minute between rain storms. Marit and Bill rolled in later and we hung out with them for a bit before heading to bed. The night was a bit rough with Reed in the trailer but we survived. He wasn't very comfy, probably confused about where he was and I was really worried about him being warm enough. We woke up to another rainstorm, but got up and made some breakfast in the trailer. It warmed up a bit and we were able to head out of camp to see the farmer's market. After spending 5 minutes walking the entire 10 booths, we were done with that! We went out exploring a canyon that was supposed to have petroglyphs. We loaded up then walked the 10 minutes to the back of the canyon, finding only a swampy pond that the dogs played in. Side note, we did not bring London, but Bill and Marit brought along their two dogs, Frankie and Bailey, and discovered the their new pup Bailey cannot swim. I tried to take a picture of that but didn't quite get it. She would paddle as if her life depended on it, splashing everywhere holding her head like a foot out of the water - it was funny. We did finally find some petroglyphs, they were right by the parking area, very clearly marked. After that, we headed to catch some lunch in the shade, as the rain had stopped and we were warming up quickly. Back to camp, where the boys headed out for a mountain bike ride and Marit and I put the babies down for naps and snoozed ourselves (as we both barely slept the night before). We got up just in time for a torrential downpour that created some serious rivers through camp and town! The boys rolled in soaking wet. After everyone cleaned up, Marit and Bill made us dinner at their cabin and we enjoyed the nice evening with the babies and dogs. Reed was having a blast picking up lots of rocks to through them, and sticks to hit things with. He also quite enjoyed the mud puddles created by all the rain. We left on Sunday so we could join Reed's friend (and ours) Jane for her first birthday party and return the pop-up. It was a chilly afternoon but quite nice. Happy birthday Jane! Sorry didn't get pictures of that.
Then last weekend was Ashton's birthday party. His actual birthday is in late December but because of busy holiday activities, he has never gotten his very own birthday party. So his mom, my friend Bree, threw him a party for his 3 1/2 birthday. It was a gorgeous day, the first warm day of the summer really! She had the party at a park that has water features and Reed really enjoyed pulling Lala around in the water.
Here is Reed with his friends, Carden and Ashton.
Reed and his friend, Brinnley. Brinn is moving this week to Ohio - sad!
Sunday was Father's day. This was Fogg's second father's day, last year we were driving up to Portland that day so we didn't do much. This year we just hung around, I made some breakfast and we went to the crazy church picnic for lunch. We headed home for some R and R for the evening and a nice steak dinner for Fogg. Here is my one father's day picture, Reed having snacks while watching cycling with his dad. That's about it! Nothing big planned for the next few weeks, hopefully Reed will decide that he can really walk on his own all the time... Or speak a word.... Anyway, he's having a blast, hopefully get to go swimming with friends this summer, maybe go to the zoo, other fun stuff.
Fogg's brother Dale and his wife came out to our wedding way back in 2004. Georgette was pregnant at the time with Gabby. Well, they came to visit last week, with a almost 6 year old Gabby! It's a long trek from Pittsburgh to Salt Lake, as there are no direct flights and we are SOOO glad that they made it out to visit! Cousin Gabby and Baby Reed (what they were referred to all week) had the best time together. They played at the Dinosaur Park, Antelope Island, Bear Lake, and tons of other stuff. We had a very busy time with them, with a little relaxing too.
They got in late on Tuesday night, so we start our adventure on Wednesday, when we went to the Eccles Dinosaur Park in Ogden Canyon. First we had lunch at the Greenery, Mormon muffins and all. Then to the park, where there was a small indoor museum, then park/walking path outside. Here are some pictures from that day.
Reed watching the mechanical dinos
Feeding the birds
Thursday, we met up with Fogg for lunch in Layton, then headed to Antelope Island. We got to see an antelope in the middle of a field! But then out of nowhere, it's baby came out and started feeding from it's mommy! It was really cool. Then we walked out to the Great Salt Lake and stuck our toes in. Ok, I didn't, but the rest of them did. Reed wasn't a big fan of the sand on his feet. Then we got back in the car in search of a buffalo. We found one, but it required a small walk, where we were attacked by gnats! We all scratched our scalps and arms for the rest of the week! Here are some pictures from that day.
Playing right after they got up in the morning
Reed was upset about the sand and wind
Friday, we actually just hung out at home all day. We walked down to the park and played for a little bit while Fogg and Dale went fishing and truck shopping. We went to the Prairie Schooner for dinner, where we sat under a covered wagon. Gabby had fun walking around looking at all the animals. Here are some pictures from the park (I don't have any from the schooner). Saturday, we went down to Salt Lake City and had some lunch at the Gateway. Then we went over the Discovery Children's Museum. The kids had fun, it was a madhouse, Fogg was freaking out about germs the whole time. We had about enough pretty quickly, then headed up to Snowbird/Alta to see some snow and mountains! Gabby had fun rolling around in the snow up there. Then we headed home for some snacks and the night.
Gabby was the pilot in the lifeflight helicopter!
Sunday, we went to Bear Lake. We were out of the house early, then drove up there. We got there around lunch (after a few stops along the way). So after some greasy burgers and fries (and raspberry shakes) we headed to the beautiful blue water where Fogg and Dale went fishing, Gabby and Georgette went in search of shells and Reed ate lots of rocks. It was a bit more chilly than we hoped for, so we bundled up a little. Gabby wanted to swim, so we went to a better beach where she promptly froze her butt off (but to her credit, she actually got in the water!). We made the drive home in the afternoon and crashed! Monday was Memorial Day so we just hung around the morning, then down to 25th street for lunch at the Union Station. I ran a few errands for food, then back home to host a BBQ with the Duran family. It was evident that all of us were getting pretty tired! But we had a good time anyway.
Silly kids, they put themselves in there and laughed a lot
Tuesday was a chill day, I stayed home to rest and hang out with Reed while Dale, Georgette and Gabby headed to Park City for the afternoon. Upon their return, we found lots of stickers in Gabby's hair. Dale had gone fishing, where Gabby played nearby, when she bent down to pick up a stick, her head went right into a sticker bush!
They left early Wednesday morning. It went so fast having them here and we loved every minute with them. It was so great to spend time with everyone and for Gabby and Reed to spend time together. I know that Reed missed his little play buddy when they left and I'm fairly certain that Gabby misses baby Reed. She was so helpful, helping to give him baths and give him food. We can't wait to see them again soon!!!
Well, the Fogg Blogg is going to experience a slight change in format. All throughout the day, I think about a lot of things that I wish to write. Most of them are just not consistent with the mission statement of the Fogg Blogg - the adventures of Mike, Meg, Reed and London. They are random thoughts by me (Meg). So the Fogg Blogg will now only be dedicated to Fogg family news and events (which most of you are probably interested in anyway). My personal thoughts and compulsions to spew useless things will be moved to a different venue (yet to be decided of it's publication forum). So for those of you that visit to just see pictures of the Reed-ster or know of the happening of Fogg life - then keep on truckin' as you have been, you now just don't have to sort through my weird personal posts. For those of you that particularly care of my random thoughts, then stay tuned for the announcement of it's new - private - location.
Next post to be about the visit from Fogg's brother and fam last week!
I promise, after this, I swear I'll be done with these birthday posts and move on to something else.
We had a birthday party for Reed and we combo'd it with our friend Mardi and Ryan and their little girl Brinnley. Brinn was born just 4 days after Reed, her birthday was actually Sunday. So we did one big party for the two of them on Saturday. The plan was to have it at the park near my house, but at the last minute (ok the last 45 minutes) it started raining and the temp dropped a ton so it was going to be pretty uncomfortable outside. Though it would have been more spacious, people would have been miserable! So we changed it over to our house with only a half hour to spare. I think we pulled off the quick changeover and to my knowledge, we didn't lose anyone in the move! Here are the birthday kiddo's: We got everything set up and ready to roll by the time the first people arrived. We were able to have a nice play area in the living room for all the little kiddos. We also had lots of yummy food. Here are the massive amount of cupcakes we had:
And custom double-decker 4" cakes made by Fran. They didn't have a lot of surface area for the names, but they were cute anyway! Brinn was less than thrilled about the whole thing. She was tired anyway (as you can see by the picture above of the two of them) then we stuck this hat on her head, lit a candle in front of her, and had a ton of people staring at her singing. She cried, the poor thing! She didn't eat any of the cake, but her mom and dad did ;)... Here is Reed sharing his with me (as I'm the one with the camera). He didn't face plant it like he did on Wednesday, but he was enjoying it anyway! Here are the daddy's with their birthday kids! Then it was on to presents. Many of our guests had left at that point (which was fine, it calmed down a bit). Brinn had finished and was enjoying the best part of her gifts - the paper. Reed was just holding the gift over his head (maybe like Johnny Carsen used to?). And that was about it. We cleaned up and just chilled the rest of the weekend! Thanks to everyone that was able to attend! Now we forge on to the second year of Reed's life, whatever we have in store...
