Photos from Phones - May 2016 Round Up

Here's May's recap.  (I'll spare the commentary here and let the pictures do the talking.)

5.1.16
(Love those lashes)

5.1.16
(looks like he's going to crawl, but he can't . . . yet.
also, hair!)

bonus video #1!

so close, but not quite

5.1.16

5.1.16
(those eyes though!)

5.1.16

5.2.16
(this view will never get old to me, ever. Monday Night Hikin'
from the Art Nord Trailhead,)

5.2.16
(a girl and her hiking stick)

5.2.16

5.2.16

5.2.16
(heading up a steep, steep hill in Icebox Canyon -
we didn't plan to do the whole loop, but we just
kept going and Cal did great!)

5.2.16
(heart eyes emoji goes here!)

5.3.16
(we love the "wheel carts" at smith's - and now
Sam gets to enjoy them, too!)

5.3.16
(stay of the road - or out of the aisle!)

5.4.16
(My daily strollin' smelled amazing this day!)

5.4.16
(spring in the Valley is lovely)

5.4.16

5.4.16

5.4.16

5.4.16
(YES!)

5.5.16
(My mom came to play and we had a yummy picnic lunch at
the Huntsville Park.  Turns out bleachers make the perfect size
seat and table for a preschooler (and grandma).)

5.6.16
(I made this lemon blueberry cake for Mother's Day in Logan.)

bonus video #2!

jumping bean, two months later*.  plus grunting

5.6.16

5.7.16
(Cool blossoms at Dray's soccer game in Salt Lake)

5.7.16
(I made these Tres Leches Cupcakes for Mother's Day in SoJo.
Bless Mel for all the most delicious treats I ever make.)

5.9.16
(I got this lovely orange begonia from the ward
for mother's day. I really love the color.)

5.9.16
(Can't stop, won't stop)

5.9.16
(Auntie Ky Ky got to come with us to story time
at the library!)

5.9.16
(and we played at the park, too!)

5.9.16
(swinging sammy still loves it)

5.9.16
(we only lasted a short few minutes before the wind
picked up and the rain started and we had to run home)

5.9.16
(We love our Ky!
Also, cheesy mccheester Callie - sheesh!)

5.10.16
(the trees around The Hearthside are always so divine.)

5.10.16
(I have some serious tree envy - at our neighbors'
on the corner)

5.10.16
(I love watching him explore and discover.)

5.10.16
(Gregg's final day as high jump coach for the
local Snowcrest Jr. High and we got to come
watch him at work!  Here you can see one of his
kids clearing the bar for a pr - fun stuff.)

5.10.16
(Coach Dad cheering section.)

5.10.16

5.10.16
(she learned how to climb a chain link fence
this day.)

5.10.16
(hashtag overgramming.  you have been warned.)

5.10.16

5.10.16

5.10.16

5.10.16

5.11.16
(8 months old!)

5.11.16
(looks like he's going to stand up, but then he
plops down on his bum - the up and over method
of sitting up from hands and knees)

5.11.16

5.11.16

bonus video #3!

minute in the life of an eight-month-old

5.11.16

5.11.16
(so . . . close . . . )

bonus video #4!

he crawls!

5.12.16

5.12.16
(I could not resist a little impromptu photo shoot
on the way home from the park.)

5.12.16
(this is what I get when I ask her to hold still and
smile - insert laughing crying emogi here. HA!)

5.12.16
(luckily I caught this more candid moment and I love
it. And her.)

5.13.16
(she loves to help and I love to let her (most of the time).
Also noteworthy but not pictured, she made her own pb&j
this morning almost completely all by herself!)

5.14.16
(Dad's hat!)

5.14.16
(My faves.)

5.14.16
(I liked the moon in the blue blue sky - but it's
hard to see here just above the tree in the middle)

5.14.16
(this was a hike from the North Ogden Divide
trailhead that we hadn't tried yet on the parking
lot side)

5.14.16
(Heather can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm
fairly certain these are glacier lilies.  And they
were lovely.)

5.14.16
(our turn around point - not really a destination
for anyone else, but we did get a cool glimpse
of North Ogden)

5.14.16
(down, down, down, downdy down)

bonus video #5!

a little (more**) trail running

5.14.16

5.14.16
(back from our hike and hammocking as a family.
take one.)

5.14.16
(pretty dang good Saturday spent with my loves.)

5.15.16
(Mother's Day pic a week later.  Sure feel lucky to be their mom.)

5.16.16
(can you see the toothies?)

5.17.16
(lilac lane - my anne of green gables name for it -
was looking lovely this day.)

5.17.16
(I opted for some daily strollin' during Sam's nap and he just
slept and slept so I just walked and walked.
(My total for the walk was just over 6 miles!)
The water here was probably 5 feet below this
walkway a month ago on our first Monday Night Hike
- and look at how full the lake is now!)

5.17.16
(I walked further than I ever had on this part of the bike path
and entirely enjoyed it.)

5.17.16
(there's the "lilac lane" I was referencing above)

5.17.16
(these bushes are HUGE and smell so good!)

5.17.16
(in a word, lovely.)

5.17.16
(we found my early Huntsville settler ancestors
in the Huntsville Cemetery)

5.17.16

5.17.16

5.17.16
(it was a stunning cemetery!)

5.17.16
(I really loved the big lilac bushes dotting the
area - smelled heavenly!)

5.17.16
(my little cemetery lover by her great-great-great-great-great?
grandparents)

5.19.16
(these are 12 month jammies.  What!)

5.19.16
(Sam was napping so Cal and I had some quiet
hammock time together.)

5.19.16
(what a smile!)

bonus video #6!

hammock time with cal

5.19.16

bonus video #7!

crawling, one week later

5.19.16

5.19.16
(I couldn't help myself!)

5.19.16
(what a snuggy bug)

5.19.16
(picking all the bad weeds from our yard)

5.21.16
(back on the same trail from the Art Nord Trailhead
- this time with friends Brian, Cassie and Max.)

5.21.16
(Max and Sam "playing" as a one-year-old and eight-month-old
do.)

5.23.16
(swinging Sammy at it again. what can I say?
it's a perfect photo op)

5.23.16
(great cloud day)

5.23.16

5.24.16
(our little seed germination test results - on the left, the store-
bought radish seeds from an expired package; on the right, seeds
my uncle gave me from his uncle's radishes (I had to break them
out of their pods and they clearly are more "fresh"). I'll let you
guess which ones I planted outside in my garden.)

5.25.16
(last day of music makers before summer break - it's been a fun
thing for us to participate in the past few months and we're excited
to do it again in the fall. Good-bye Sarah, Good-bye Jared, Good-bye
Arta, we're glad that you could come!  The rest are Jemma,
Gideon, Callie, Theodore, Ellie, Ellie, Moriah, Lily, Quincy
(and his mom, Emily), and don't forget Bennett's leg crawling away.
Also, this picture just cracks me up - this is the best we got
from a group of 5 and unders (mostly unders).)

5.26.16
(yep. again.)

5.26.16

5.26.16

5.26.16

5.26.16
(baby knees. you're welcome)

5.26.16

5.26.16

5.26.16

5.26.16
(lunchtime pucker face - first tastes of mashed
potatoes)

5.26.16

5.26.16
(he's got the "I do it myself" attitude a bit, much
like his big sis.)

5.26.16
(she's getting better)

5.26.16
(our daily bike ride to the mail boxes)

5.26.16
(he gets to come, too)

5.26.16
(it's been a while since she's been my daily strollin'
partner - it was fun to chat about the animals
and trucks and what they were doing on the way to the
store to get milk this evening.)

5.27.16
(breakfast helper - very messy but very adorable.)

5.27.16
(goodness, I really do take a lot of swinging
Sammy pics - I really had no idea!)

5.27.16
(maybe I should make a book of all the shots of
him in this swing)

5.27.16
(lonely day at the park)

5.27.16
(we sure do love this guy!)

. . . and then we finish off the month with "Remorial Day" and some time in Logan (which got their own posts).

***

*previous bouncing vid from Leap Day here

**first trail running vid from 7.28.15 here

***

Every other round up here:

2016: Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan

2015: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sept | Aug | July | June | May | Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan

2014: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sept | Aug | July | June | May | Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan

2013: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sept | Aug | July | June

Logan Time, May Edition

We weren't in Logan for very long post-Memorial Day (we left Wednesday afternoon after naps to get Gregg at the airport again), but we were able to do some pretty fun things with Grandma and Grandpa and the aunties.

On Tuesday, after I got back from a session at the temple, Cal, Sam, my mom and I packed up a picnic lunch and ventured out to the Willow Park Zoo for an outing.  They've changed up the entrance location and cost (yeah, no more suggested donation box anymore; you actually have to pay a person and get a stamp), but I think there are some fun things they are doing to try to revitalize the place.  They had signs about feeding the birds and we got to see some kids inside the cage holding birds and letting them eat from their hands.  They also apparently have a story time every week for the little ones.  So that's cool.  We just wandered and looked at the animals and fed the ducks.  I wondered if Sam could even see what we were looking at through fences, but it turns out he could indeed.  Just like a couple years ago when Cal visited the zoo for the first time with my parents and giggled at the trumpeter swan (I need to find that video!), Sam started giggling at a rather bossy goose that was trying to get all the food Cal was throwing.

bonus video!

gooses and giggles

We got to play at two playgrounds, too,
so that was extra fun.

That afternoon after naps, we enjoyed the shade and the grass and the tent and popsicles!

Ky captured the above photos of Sam crawling toward her and she got some videos, too.  So glad she shared! #1 and #2

Popsicle selfie!

Cal rode her bike and did a little hopscotch, too.  (Insert crying laughing emoji here.)

On Wednesday morning we visited both sets of my grandparents.  We helped Grandpa Thornley plant some onions and squashes in his garden (and he gave us a couple of tomato plants and an eggplant plant to take home to ours!)  Cal and Sam experienced their first go on a teeter totter (together - with help, of course).  And we played with the blocks and eggs at Grandma and Grandpa Elwood's house, while eating cookies from the cookie jar.  I love visiting my grandparents and am so glad that Cal and Sam get to know them.  (And that Cal no longer bursts into tears when we see them. Oh dear, that was an interesting phase.)  Oh!  And my mom's roses were in full bloom and looking ever so gorgeous, so I had to do a little photo shoot of them before we left on Wednesday.

"Remorial" Day

Since Gregg had a work trip to Montreal (he should do a post of some pics of that beautiful place) and leaving on Remorial Day morning (Cal's word for it), the kids and I dropped him at the airport and then headed to Logan to spend a couple of days.  We arrived at my Elwood grandparents' house just as Memorial Day breakfast (pancakes, hash browns, eggs, bacon, sausage - the works!) was being served.  We enjoyed visiting with my grandma and grandpa, parents, sisters (and T), and cousins Cardon and Chiara (and Taylor) and the weather was perfect for breakfast on the deck.  

Cal had a blast playing on Great-Grandpa's
parked law mowers with T.

After we had our fill, we traveled a couple of blocks to the Hyde Park Cemetery to visit the graves of my great grandparents.  First stop (always) is Grandma Lamb (Helen), my grandma Elwood's mother.  (Well, Grandpa Lamb (Frank) is buried there, too, but I didn't know him since he died before my dad was even born, so we don't have all the memories to relate about him when we stop by.)  She lived next door to my grandparents and we'd either stop to see her each Sunday before stopping at their house, or we'd trek over to help her maneuver through the bumpy lawn to come next door to visit with us all together.  She was a small lady with snow white hair and an always full cookie jar (my faves were the fudge striped, pecan sandies, duplex sandwich and wafer cookies).  Heather and I used to mow her lawn in the summer and help rake her leaves in the fall.  We'd help with spring cleaning projects, too.  I remember going grocery shopping with her and my grandma, too, on occasion; I always loved those trips.  She always had a crossword puzzle book and/or a crochet afghan project going next to her couch.  A special memory I have is when she was in the hospital after having a fall, I was serving as the accompanist for the hospital branch (I think I was about 15 or 16 or so).  She never was up to coming to the Sacrament Meeting that was held each week for patients, but I did go visit her in her room and got to help her take the Sacrament that the men brought around to patients who wanted it.  She always gave us great-grandkids a card with money (I think $5) every birthday.  I really feel blessed to have known her into my teen years.

Next stop is always my Grandpa Elwood's parents, my Elwood great-grandparents, Dallas and Laura Elwood.  I got to know them, too, though most of my memories of them were in the Sunshine Terrace nursing home in Logan (Grandpa had Parkinson's and was in a wheelchair and didn't talk much at all and Grandma had Alzheimer's and was not herself, obviously).  We would go visit them most weeks at the nursing home.  Megan was a tiny baby and I remember vividly one lady in the Alzheimer's wing (it wasn't Grandma) asking my mom to hold her.  My mom carefully handed Baby Meg over and then the lady said, "Look at my pretty baby.  Don't you think my baby is so beautiful?"  I was not too sure we'd get her back!  My dad tells stories about driving in the milk truck with his grandpa to deliver milk (they had a small dairy) and eating tuna fish sandwiches on his grandma's homemade bread or eating her amazing potato salad or pumpkin pies.  I do remember being at their house, which was just a couple blocks down the street from my grandparents') before they went to the nursing home for a Sunday evening visit.  It must have been summer because I was playing charades barefoot outside on the front sidewalk with my dad's cousins (who are closer to my age than to his) and I stubbed my toe so bad that it bled.  They had a ditch out front, too, that was fun to wade in when the water was running.

(Watch out for the ants!)

Callie loves her aunties.  (And I think they love her, too.)

He just fell asleep against my chest.  Never
done that before!

After we circle around the cemetery to visit a few more Lambs (great-great grandparents) and a few more Elwoods (my great-grandpa's brother Mervin died in WWI and there is a monument to him there) we pile in our cars and drive a few miles north to the Smithfield Cemetery to do it all again with my mom's family tree.  A big group of her siblings and their families and my Grandpa Thornley and his brother and some of his kids/grandkids usually show up, and many bring lawn chairs, and they just sit in the shade in the "Thornley corner" and visit and swap stories and share family history tales.  I love it.  Callie wasn't too into the sit-still-and-listen game, so she and my mom wandered across the entire (HUGE) cemetery to see what they could see and to pick up tipped-over flowers along the way.  Cal thought she was such a helper by doing that (and she was!).

Another great-grandparent visit here is my Great-Grandma Gladys Thornley.  I knew her, too, though I was only seven when she died.  But I remember visiting her home in Smithfield, one of the oldest in the city and still standing, at holidays.  She would give us a sock with some peanuts and an orange and the other sock stuffed inside at Christmastime.  I got a little toy pots and pans set from her for my 3rd or 4th birthday.  She had a spinning top toy that we loved to play with on her kitchen floor when we visited.  In warmer months we'd all sprawl outside in her lovely, shaded lawn for dinners and visiting and Easter Egg hunts.  (We continued these traditions in her yard for years afterward because my Uncle Ken and his family lived there for a while after she died.)  My favorite gift she left our family is her beautifully handwritten personal history and the roses she gave my mom.  The roses seen below in the vase are from the bushes she gave my mom years ago.  They are thriving and stunning in my mom's garden now and I loved that she brought some to decorate her grave for Memorial Day.

We also decorate the graves of my mom's mom (who died before she was married), her brother (who died when she was eight) and her Anderson Grandparents (who died before I was born), among other great and great-great and great-great-great grandparents and aunts and uncles who are all buried in the Thornley Corner.  I love to hear my mom's and aunts' memories and stories of these members of our family who I don't have any memories of of my own.

Cal was a good sport to pose by so many headstones.
This one is of my mom's mom, Annette.

Grandpa time for Sam.

After the cemetery, we ventured over to Mack Park for a picnic lunch of fried chicken and a variety of salads and desserts.  Some years the weather doesn't cooperate very well and we have to picnic inside someone's house, but this year was lovely and warm and dry and the shade felt delicious.

Great Grandpa time for Sam.
(My Grandpa Thornley)

It's a full morning, and even longer for the littles, so I headed back to my parents' house a bit early to get naps in for everyone.  We finished the day with some grilled hamburgers and backyard sandbox time.  The best!

It was a good day with my family.  The kind of a day that is right up Callie June's alley, with her love of cemeteries.  Only thing missing was Gregg.