Wheeler Farm

Wheeler Farm is one of Gwen's favorite places on Earth. We went there yesterday evening because the Terrible Two's have hit us hard this week for some reason. Gwen's been extra grumpy and clingy. She refuses to do anything she's asked even if it's something she wants to do. Her favorite word is no and it's all we hear these days. To counter our extra grumpy

nearly two year old, we've been spending more time doing her favorite things. We discovered that PetSmart is a wonderful and free place for a little one who loves animals when it's rainy and cold outside. One can only spend so many hours walking around the store watching the kitties and birds and saying "hi" to every single animal and person there. That's why we were so glad the rain cleared up so we could spend an evening at Wheeler Farm. It's also free and includes miles of little trails in case your kid is more active than ours. Gwen is content to sit in front of the animals and watch them forever. I remembered to take my camera and got some good pictures. She sure is cute even if she's quickly growing into a Terrible Toddler.The wagon rides end at 4:30 and we were there later than that but it didn't stop Gwen from climbing all over the wagons.

The sheep kept baaing at Gwen and she'd giggle and call them "silly". Just as I was taking this picture a bunch of kids ran around the corner. That's why she's not looking at the sheep anymore. The kids were more interesting anyway.

Looking at the bunnies with Mommy. Gwen still does that cute almost jump where one leg still stays on the ground.

Sitting on a bench watching the ducks and geese with Daddy. It was a wobbly bench and it was fun to scare Mommy by standing on it and making it wobble even more

You'd never guess that she's been super grumpy from her smile in this picture. Don't let her fool you. She's just thinking of ways to get into trouble.

Getting a piggyback ride with Daddy. She's actually squirming around trying to get down so she can run off.

So cute in her summer outfits. And so tall too.

Baby Ducks

They finally came! Our baby ducks hatched on Sunday morning, sorry no white ducks, Joel. Gwen and I found them all huddled in the nest on our way to church. When we got home Mama Duck was trying to lead them to the nearby pond. Unfortunately, she picked a bad time to head out - everyone was driving home from church. She got scared and headed back to her nest only three of the seven babies got stuck in the gutter and couldn't climb up the curb. I don't know how long they were there and it was really hot that day. It was near 90 degrees and probably a lot hotter on the pavement. Anyway, I saw them stuck there and quickly grabbed them and put them back near mom and the others. One didn't look too good though. He was having a hard time even standing. If you look hard you can see his poor little feet up in the air at the back of the bunch in the picture. After lunch I went back outside to check on them and he had gotten stuck in the gutter again and died. It was sad. We went to the ponds to see if we could find our little duck family today. Do you know how hard it is to tell ducks apart? We did see a family with some little babies, so that might be them. I hope they got there without any more problems.

It was fun to have had this experience. I wish the babies would have stuck around for a day or so. It was a little bit of nature happening in my tiny backyard. Now I finally get to clean up the weeds and her old nest. There's four or so duck eggs that didn't hatch. I'm going to toss them before they go bad.
On another note, I bought some cute summer clothes for Gwen today. They're all 3T and fit her great. My kid is so big. I also let her choose her new sandals. It was super cute because then everywhere we went today she would run up to people and hold up her foot saying "shoes". It's so fun to watch her pick up new concepts and I'm always surprised at how much she understands. She's really not a baby anymore.

Mama Duck and other pictures

There she is snuggled behind my rose bush and about a foot and a half away from our back steps. She's not the smartest duck on the block because we almost never go out our front door so we're constantly walking right past her. She tolerates us though because for the last at least 2 1/2 weeks she's been there all the time. We've seen three other duck families out for swims in our ponds nearby so we know that the eggs should hatch any day. Joel - it's just a plain old duck and the dad's a regular mallard, unless she's more of the Jerry Springer type duck. But, if there's a white baby duck I'll help you catch it and keep it as a pet. It's so tempting to touch her. She holds really still if you get near her. None of us have tried to pet her yet. I can't promise the same for the babies.
I know you all do it every day, but Gwen put on her pants by HERSELF for the first time the other day. We've yet to see a repeat of the performance though. She does insist trying by herself to do it before getting mad and screaming for help.
Gwen insisted on wearing her gloves all evening. Aren't almost two-year-olds fun? I was trying to get a picture of her coloring with her gloves on but just at that moment her shoe started to bug her.
This is from the Train Museum in Ogden on Mason's 6th Birthday. We drove up to spend the afternoon with the Witkamps and Laura and Noah. I don't think I got a picture of Noah - he just won't hold still long enough. Here's Kim and Gwen playing in the train engine.
Mason the Birthday Boy. I love his toothless grin and fauxhawk. He's gotten so big. I can't believe he's already six.
Daddy is a great ride. Gwen prefers to rough house with him which is okay by me. If we're all sitting around watching TV she come over and push us off the couch. She's keeping us young, that's for sure.
One word: talent. I'm not even that good at using chopsticks.

A New Month?

Gosh this last month went by so quickly.

First off: Happy Birthday to my BFF and Maid of Honor John. (hee hee, BFF, I'm sooo hip . . . or 13)

Jonathan had finals this week and is now one semester closer to having his Associates Degree in History. "What can he do with that?" you're wondering. Nothing. Except transfer to a 4 year university and get a bigger degree in another couple years so he can teach history to geeks like himself. He has one more semester at SLCC before we have to decide on U of U or Weber State for the rest. He's glad school is over for the next couple months but will be keeping busy working full-time at a center that handles calls for the Deaf. The work is just on a weekly basis right now, but we hope it settles into something more temporarily permanent that we can count on for a couple months.

I'm still working 5 or 6 evenings a week at the urgent care clinic. I'm sticking to my workouts at the gym. Sometimes quite literally since I sweat buckets when I'm there. I've started doing the different classes they offer and love the cycle and yoga classes so far. I even ran over 3 miles without stopping the other day. I've never been able to do that before. I feel good, sore, but good.

Gwen got her first ear infection the other day. She'd been battling cough and congestion for almost three weeks and then got a fever and goopy eyes. After two doses of antibiotics she was back to being my happy kid again. Her favorite things to do these days are to make forts in my front loading clothes dryer and play the piano. She takes her blankets, snacks, crayons and paper into the dryer and will hide in there while I cook or clean the kitchen. She climbs up on the piano bench and plays the piano with her tushie, bouncing up and down on the keys and giggling. She knows it's not allowed and I think that's why she likes it so much.

We have a mama duck just outside our back door who built a nest a few weeks ago and has been sitting on her eggs since. I'll post some picks when I upload them. There's 10 eggs in there but she wasn't around for a couple days after laying the first two so I don't know if they'll make it. Still, we can't wait to see if her eggs will hatch in the next few days. It'll be awesome to have a family of ducks in our backyard area.