Adventuring {The Spiral Jetty}

The forecast called for rain on Saturday, April 23rd, so we took that as an invitation to plan a rainy day road trip.  It's one of our favorite little ways to get out and adventure.  And adventure we did.  We picked our destination (Golden Spike National Historic Site + The Spiral Jetty) and set out.  Only problem?  It wasn't raining.  Yet.  The clouds were pretty cool, though.

On the road, heading west.

Our only pic at Golden Spike - and an illegal
one, to boot.  Apparently you're not supposed to
hold a child in your arms while on the hand cart.
(Strike.)  You're also not supposed to be on there
by yourself (which Gregg was, once he handed
Sam to me).  (Double strike.)  Good thing there
were three lady rangers waiting for something
catastrophic like this to happen so they could rush
out and stop us!

Back on the road, we drove through fields and fields of sage brush
and I loved every second.

I've heard of the Spiral Jetty, but only because my artsy friends in college had a field trip out there or something.  I don't know how I missed it in my Utah history classes throughout my youth.  I thought we'd drive there, get out, look around a bit, and head back home.  Instead we spent a good hour or so climbing the hill next to the parking lot to get a better vantage point.  (Callie was an awesome hiker - she just kept going up and up and up!)  And then we decided to join the rest of the crowds that had assembled (okay, not so much "crowds" but I was surprised at how many people there were exploring, too - something like 6 or so other cars I think) and explore the rocks and sand and salt and water of the jetty itself.  It's huge!  And pretty cool, I must say.  Then we wandered further, probably a quarter of a mile out, to reach the edge of the lake.  It was wavy and foamy and salty and awesome.  The packed sand/salt looked like a polished marble floor to me.  Sam was strapped to my back by this time and Cal just walked and walked and walked.  We made it back to the car in time for a picnic lunch in the back and finished eating our sandwiches and carrot sticks just in time for the rain to come.  The kids napped on the way home and we enjoyed the scenery driving the back way from ATK to Tremonton and through Elwood and Brigham and home.  Great day with my adventurers!

So big!

Hikin' hikin' hikin'!

Favorite family selfie of the day.  (There were many.)

Utah is rad.

Happy girl.

Marble floor or packed sand and salt?

Oh how I love them.

Hard to tell really in the photos, but the water was a pinkish-
purple color and it was gorgeous.

Ready for lunch!

Cutest hooligans.

And there's the rain.

Little Sammy Seven Months

Seven months!  Closer to one than to birth.  What the?  I'll skip any more intro than that and get on to the good stuff:

• Lately he seems to have outgrown the need for a daily snot-sucker session with the bulb syringe.  Sure, there are occasions when we need to whip it out, but they are certainly fewer and further between.
• He seems to like his bink more than he used to - especially while awake.  I used to have to force it on him, but now he finds it and happily sucks away (even when he's not crabby or noisy, when I'd prefer he used it).
• He's got the beg/grunt thing down - when he wants to eat or wants to be picked up, he'll put his arms straight out in front of him and grunt, grunt, grunt till I do what he needs.
• A little bit of separationg anxiety creeping in?  He will now cry or fuss when I leave the room, but it doesn't last long, thankfully.
• He loves being kissed - whenever his cheeks are kissed he grins so big.
• He's learning to bonk - just a soft little tap of his forehead to ours when we say "bonk".  I like to think it's our little baby version of "I love you".
• Hates (with a capital H) medicine - when he was sick last month and I tried to give him Tylenol (or when we think he's crabby because of potential teething - by the way, still zero on the tooth count), most of the medicine would come right back out once I finally got it squirted in.
• He loves that darling baby in the mirror (and he has learned where the mirror in our room is and leans toward it when I pick him up after a nap, or in the bathroom after a bath, just to get a glimpse of said baby).
• He finally eats food with gusto - new foods he's tried this month: avocado, pears, peaches, peas, carrots, green beans.
• He has mastered the peek-a-boo (can pull things off his face when we cover it).
• He started babbling ba-ba-ba and da (I even heard mama once or twice or a few times - best sound ever!)
• At his six month well-check (which happened when he was 6 and a half months old) he weighed 16 lbs 4.5 oz (18%), was 28 inches long (88%), and had a head circumference of 44 cm (58%).  The doc was still a little concerned about the dropping weight percentiles, but also said that he is long and is reaching milestones and looks just fine, so I just need to pay attention and feed him more formula if I feel like he needs it.  So far, we've just upped his bedtime bottle to 6 oz and things seem to be going fine to me.
• He loves Daniel Tiger, just like his sis.  Whenever he hears it on, he won't eat because he wants to watch (actually, it could be anything that distracts him from eating these days - he's very distractable) and then he smiles his huge gummy grin when Daniel is talking to the screen.
• He's started doing this scrunch-nosed smile, showing all his gums (top and bottom).  His other favorite smile is when he sticks his tongue between his gums and cheeses it to the max.
• He loves to play patacake and waits for the "throw it in the oven" part.
• He had his first burley ride and did awesome - I thought he'd flop over and annoy Cal, but she did great with being patient with him, too.  Hooray!
• He's got a new nickname, courtesy of Cal.  She calls him Ham.  And its adorable.
• He has been sleeping better some nights and then horribly others.
• He started pushing up onto his hands and knees and rocking back and forth.  Crawling is close!
• He can pivot/rotate 360 degrees while on his tummy by pushing with his arms and turning.  Very handy for reaching hard-to-get things, it turns out.
• His stats from his late 6-month well check (it was closer to 6 1/2 so I'll post them here): weight: 16 lbs 4.5 oz (18th percentile), height: 28 inches (88th percentile), head circumference: 44 cm (58th percentile).

And the pictures, because you knew they were coming:

Here's the hands and knees position!

And, pivot!

Around he goes.

And he's back.  (Almost.)

Oh, his sitting up skills are getting steadier, too.

He's such a happy boy and a good, good baby.
We love our Sammers!

Watch Samuel grow: 6 months | 5 months | 4 months | 3 months | 2 months | birth