summer days

It's a good thing I posted earlier in the week, because my memory grows ever more truncated: now I can't even remember what we did on Wednesday. (This might, of course, be because so many days are similar). Thursday morning I got this brainstorm about taking the kids to the park in our new double stroller. I was rather proud of myself--I got everyone dressed early enough so that it wasn't too hot (when we left, at least), pried Andrew away from his TV show, and herded both children outside to get the stroller out of the trunk. Only to remember, as I stared at the vacant curb, that Dan had taken the car to work that morning. So we improvised; I put Evelyn in our Snugli carrier and put Andrew in the stroller. On our way down the hill, we were passed by a jogger who turned out to be a girl I knew from high school, Aimee Hodges, who was in town for a wedding. She slowed down enough to chat with us the rest of the way down the hill. I remember Aimee as being unfailingly kind and cheerful in high school, and of course she was a cheerleader and horribly cute, so she was super popular. I remember feeling somewhat inadequate around her for those reasons--it's funny how age and distance creates a much more level playing field around our former classmates! Now, we're simply glad to see each other without any of the constraints of high school cliques.

Friday morning Andrew and I had a playdate with my friend Karin and her son Ezra, who's eight months older than Andrew. (Evelyn just got to tag along. She slept most of the time anyway.) It was fun to chat with Karin, and I think Andrew enjoyed himself, too. (Halfway home he was quite insistent that we turn around and go back to Ezra's house: "Stop, mommy! Don't go that way. Go backwards!") Ezra took a little while to warm up to Andrew--if I were about Andrew's size, I think I'd be intimidated by his exuberance on first meeting too! Nolan, Ezra's little brother, was fascinated by Andrew, however.

Andrew has been alternately entertaining and exasperating me lately by his interest in Evelyn's movements. While I could do without him trying to "help" me nurse, I do like that he's always willing to get down on the floor with Evelyn when she has her "tummy time." In fact, he's started to insist that he and dolly have blankets, too, which is what you see pictured below. (This was after I put Evelyn on her back when tummy time was over, but you'll notice that dolly is still face-down, doing her tummy time.)



I finally figured out how to turn off the flash on our camera (I know, we've only had the camera for six months), so I finally got some semi-decent pictures of Evelyn. She is a cute little girl, if I say so myself. Her fat cheeks just kill me!



Saturday was our big adventure day. In the morning, we went up to Salt Lake and met up with Sarah and her kids and headed to Liberty Park, where the Animal Planet Expo was in town. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed by the expo, which was mostly filled with smaller booths. But the kids liked the jumping house quite a bit, and they probably would have liked the animals, if we'd been able to get close enough to actually see the animals and not the big screen behind them. It also was quite warm (it hit just over 100 that day), so we weren't inclined to linger.
Jake was the only one of the kids tall enough for this cool looking crocodile slide. I think he liked the slide pretty well, but he scratched up his face a bit coming out, so we were glad that the younger kids were prohibited.



Andrew and Lydia weren't technically tall enough (although Andrew was only an inch shy) for this jumping house, but the woman in charge was kind enough to let them both in--twice. The second time Lydia just sat on the floor and let the other little kids bounce her. I love Andrew's open-mouthed enjoyment in this picture. He wasn't quite coordinated enough to hop with both feet at the same time (as Katie is doing here), but he seemed to enjoy his skip-hop well enough.

Luckily, if the Expo wasn't all we'd hoped for, Liberty Park is a wonderful park for kids. Sarah told us that there was a nice little wading pool nearby, so we'd come prepared with swim suits for all the kids. I think splashing in the water was their favorite part of the whole trip.




This is how Evelyn spent most of the morning: sleeping in the stroller. (We finally got to use the stroller outside--and I'm still enthusiastic about it. It was nice to have, even if Andrew was in and out of the stroller constantly). She didn't wake up until we were starting to round up the kids from the water so we could beat the lunch rush.

We had lunch at Granatos, and Andrew did us proud by eating a full half of a meatball sandwich on his own (for context, Sarah's kids split the same sandwich among the three of them, and as we all know, Lydia's no slouch in the eating department). I had a nice prosciutto and provolone sandwich on ciabatta, and Dan had pastrami. I saved half of my sandwich to enjoy at a later date--and then left it in Sarah's fridge. (Enjoy, Wells!)

We tried, unsuccessfully, to put Andrew down for a nap at Sarah's house (thwarted, ultimately, by a poopy diaper). Sarah and I left the kids for a brief shopping trip to Mervyn's (Sarah had a discount card she wanted to use) and the lace store, where Sarah picked up ribbons to make curly ribbon barrettes for the girls' latest dresses. Sarah has inspired me to try and create my own headbands for Evelyn--we'll see how successful I am!

After we got back home, Evelyn and I abandoned ship for a girls' night out: I met several of my friends from high school for dinner at P.F. Changs (Karin, Tasha, Sally, and Jennie). It was wonderful to see everyone again and catch up, and the food was good as well. Of course we had to have lettuce wraps, and then we shared entrees. I got a bit of ragging from the girls by ordering some take-out for Dan, but I felt bad leaving him with a hysterical and napless Andrew. Evelyn slept through all of dinner, waking up just as we were leaving. What a good girl! I need to remember and enjoy her while she's still little enough to be quite portable.