Fake Summer

Everyday I take Jack to the window and we stare outside.  We point at the trees, cars, and usually the three feet of snow on the ground and imagine what it would be like to go outside.....if only it weren't 10 degrees.   Eventually, we do venture outside, even if only for a few minutes.  Jack is a trooper and would stay out forever if I didn't force him inside to thaw out his face.  Regardless, summer and warmth are still months away.  But every now and then we get fake summers. While I should enjoy these small spurts of unusually warm weather, it often just makes me cranky because it reminds me of what I am missing and how it will be ages till it gets here.  We recently had a fake summer and I think we even broke the 50 degree barrier.  Jack and I spent as much time outside as possible.  We went on nature hikes and of course we fed the ducks.  And just as we all knew it would happen, there is now 4 inches of snow outside my door.  Fake summer #1 has come to an end.

Longing for summer.

It's somewhere out there, I just know it.

I think Jack is laughing at a telephone pole.  Our parking lot view isn't very exciting.

I don't know what this silly face is all about.

Fake summer!

 We went on some nature walks.  

We picked up some pine cones.

. . .  and some sticks.

Jack likes to stand on small surfaces.  Kind of like cats do.

Why not stand on the platform with your stick?

Then we fed the ducks some clearance Captain Crunch from Smiths.

 

 Once Jack realized that the "duck food" was also "human food", the Captain Crunch disappeared quickly.

Jack is still learning about consequences.  Like what happens when you run into a freezing lake in February.  And somehow Jack seems to believe that WE are the idiots for trying stopping him.

At first he was afraid of the ducks.  By the end he wanted to take one home.

Airplanes

Jack's new obsession is airplanes.  He loves anything that is above his eye level, but especially airplanes.  Whenever one passes overhead, he yells and screams at everyone to look up and see these amazing airplanes.  Here is a video I took of him reading his vehicles book just before bedtime so its a little hard to see.  Who would have thought transportation could be so awesome?

"I was going to make you a robot."

This year for V day Logan and I decided to go homemade.  After much thought I decided on the Snuggie, or as I would call it the Snuglet, for Logan.  It was well with in my sewing capacity.  I really wanted to make him one out of wolf fleece just because that would be awesome, but this basketball material was on sale.  I felt like I was in the 8th grade making a blanket for my boyfriend.  It was lots of fun to make.  I had no idea what Logan had up his sleeve for me.  I hadn't seen any evidence around the house of anything.  He surprised me with a t shirt he had made on my Yudu of his bio-reactor.  It even had glitter on it.  This may seem lame, but that bio reactor has run our lives for the past two years as he has worked on his project and so I am proud to wear it on my shirt.  He later told me this was his second choice of gift for me.  When I asked him what his first was, he said as serious as ever:

"I was going to make you a robot.  But it started getting into the hundreds of dollars to get all the parts so I changed my mind."  Ha ha.  I love it.  I guess his plan was to construct a heart shaped little love robot to go around the house and be my pet.  Makes sense right?

We sticked to our theme with a meal brought "home" and bought with Logan's "made" money from Costa Vida (I will take any excuse I can to not cook).  Then topped it off with homemade ice cream cake and homemade movies from our marriage that we have never gotten around to watching.  Happy V Day!

The t shirt Logan made me with his BioReactor on it.

The Snuglet!

The delicious ice cream cake I made.  It was a red velvet cake with chocolate chip ice cream and cool whip frosting. Yum!

I "Tri-ed"

I almost died, but I did it.  A weeks ago my friends Erica and Dani and myself decided we wanted to do a triathlon USU was hosting.  We had about a month to train and so we changed up our regular workout routines and started practicing.  The Day finally came.  We were all terrified.  It was a very small tri with only 12 participants, but that seemed to make it more intimidating. It wasn't insanely difficult, but still hard: 400 yd swim, 4 mile bike, and 2 mile run. Once we got started and got in the groove it was okay.  I am glad I did it, but it was surely torture.  Our dear husbands came to cheer us on and afterwards we celebrated with mounds of food with a buffet at Golden Corral.

Me, Erica and Dani representing with our made up "Big Nate's Gym" T shirts I gave them for Christmas.

Get it- Swim, Bike, Run

Ugh, Swim.  I always feels so disoriented.  It was 400 yd swim.

The bike!  A chance to catch your breath.  I like how our girl's legs are in sync.  You can see the # written on my arm.  They wrote on our legs too.....in permanent marker.  It was a 4 mile bike.

No picture of the run.  Logan was chasing down Jack and couldn't get any and I am not pretty when I run.  It was a 2 mile run.  Finally done!  The classic tough picture.  We got sweet arm bands from USU.

Celebrate!  Us, the Lloyds, and Carlile's.  Jack tipped a tray and spilled 2 entire glasses of pop on Erica.  I felt so bad.

Jack treating his Zuh Zuh pet like a car, just like he does with everything else.

Little Jackie

For some reason Jack is often mistaken for a girl. I am not sure why this is. So today when the cashier complimented me on my "little girl," I was about to be offended until I looked at Jack. He was wearing a sweater that Logan had called "too girly" and now that I think it about it, it very well could have been made for a girl. He had my necklace around his neck and my lip gloss in his hand. I was just handing him things to play with that were close at hand to keep him busy. His long hair sealed the deal. He looked like a girl. Poor Jackie. This is the second sweater I have purchased him that was made for a girl. I am not sure what my subconscious is doing.

This one was on purpose. I was making a headband for a friend who is having a baby girl and I was using Jack as my size reference. He just looked so irritated as I kept trying it on him that I had to take a picture.

Evolution

I can still remember the first time I went snowboarding. I was probably about 10 or so. Mckell took me of course, she was pretty much my only exposure to life outside of Gunnison. We were at Elk Meadows. I had glasses, no real snow clothing so I had just layered tons of sweats and sweatshirts. My glasses kept fogging up and I remember crashing so hard I did a barrel role down the mountain and hit myself in the head with my board. I hated it. And this was pretty much my experience with snowboarding, randomly here and there, for the next 10 years. I always wanted to be able to do it, but it was so expensive and it just wasn't happening. Then Logan and I got married. His history of snowboarding was similar to mine, except he actually has some natural skill. We went the year we were married and decided it was a hobby we wanted to acquire. So we scrounged together some snow clothes and old boards and drug Logan's siblings along. We taught them what we knew, which wasn't much, but we all enjoyed it enough that it caught on. Every Christmas break for the next 4 years we would go as much as we could. We were even able to squeeze in one trip last year when Jack was born. We usually just go to Fairview where it is free and every now and then we hit a resort. And slowly over the years we have accumulated proper gear which made such a difference. Really, the first time we went we had some Wal-Mart boards, farm boots and Lafe was in his pajamas. We still don't go much, just usually over the break, and we are by no means amazing. But, it is fun to see the progress we have made. And I love it because it has sort of become a tradition. We always stop at Terrell's in Mnt Pleasant and get a bucket of fried chicken and some snacks and I say our travel prayer that no once will get hurt. Logan's parents are to thank for lending us the truck, sending us with food, and babysitting Jack.

We went the first year we were married and decided it was our hobby.

Notice the sweatpants and farm boots.

This was a snowboard I bought from Jorgen Jensen. It was terrible. So heavy, like a plank.

Like I said, Logan has always had natural skill.

So we rounded up a crew and went. I taught Mad and Hannah. Logan and Lafe dropped us off and literally an hour and a half later, we made it to the bottom. I had to unstrap and dig out both Madee and Hannah a couple of times. Lafe is wearing pajamas.

This is 2008. Apparently I didn't take any pics of 2007. We are starting to have proper clothing.

Colby Caldwell and Madee

Lafe

Madee

2008 at Beaver Mountain

2009. Logan

Me

Madee

We took a big group this time. Bradly Jackson came snowboarding. I am pretty sure he had never been before but he is fearless and just flew down the mountain. We have never had an injury in our group, except this trip. He flew off a jump and got a concussion.

Madee and Lafe came to visit and we took them to Beaver Mnt.

Mckell and her cousin visited too.

2010. I had Jack a couple months before but we were still able to go in March to Sundance.

2011. Our most recent trip. Logan was a trooper and was our driver even though he couldn't go (shoulder surgery). But we just may try one more time this year so he can come. Good times.

Prognosticator of Prognosticators

Thousands of people gather at Gobblers Knob in Punxsutawney PA to watch grown men dressed in top hats pull a giant rodent known as a groundhog, out of log and ask him to predict the weather. What an awesome and under appreciated holiday! This year was Punxsutawney Phil's 125th prediction. And he so kindly gave us spring. Although I can't help but wonder if he had felt that -1 degree weather I felt this morning if he would have chosen otherwise. And yes we celebrated Phil this year by watching one of our all time favorite movies Groundhog day. I could watch that movie today and the next day, and the next, and the next.... We also enjoyed some delicious Punxsutawney Phil Pie. I first attempted to draw a groundhog with the chocolate syrup but that ended in disaster. So I quickly watercolored up this picture instead. The pie was topped with grasshopper cookies because groundhogs occasionally eat grasshoppers. Logan said his favorite part of the pie was the little bits of groundhog bones.