For the love of the mountains

I will never tire of the mountains here in Utah. They are perfect, absolutely spectacular. And only minutes from my house. So on Tuesday when the weather was divine and the baby was happy, I thought I'd take a little walk in the mountains, just the two of us.

We drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon to the Lake Blanche trail head and just enjoyed the splendidness of it all. I pushed the stroller up the paved trail for a bit and then let my boy out to "walk". With one hand in mine he zooms around quite quickly. Every day I notice he needs my hand for balance less and less. However, it is the sweetest thing in the world when he reaches up for my hand so we can walk together.

James loves to "hike" over rocks, sticks and logs. I swear, we never stay on the trail because he sees something like a big rock off to the side of the trail and all he wants to do is step on it or over it. He'll be a good hiker one day, I can tell.

There is a little waterfall next to the trail. James and I sat here and ate lunch. And did you notice the amazing color of the leaves in the photo above?
I love to sit James down and watch him explore the world around him. He uses his little pointer finger to feel new textures.
Oh wow, he's found a stick!
And tasting a rock...
One of Jame's tricks these days is kissing. When I say "kiss kiss?" he will open his cute little mouth into a perfect O and leans in for a kiss. It is a little slobberly, but the cutest thing ever. While we were up the mountains he seemed to be in an extra kissy mood, so I tried to do a self portrait. Glad it kinda turned out.
Such a love.
He loves water and kept trying to lunge himself toward the river. I found a calm spot that he could splash in.
Near some big rocks he found another stick!

Of course he had to taste it.

Silly hair

I love "fixing" James's hair in the bath. We do all sorts of styles while its wet. So silly.

Evening hike in Ferguson Canyon

Today was lovely. Don't I sound like such an old broken record? A record you're tired of hearing? Yea, well it was a lovely day. Again.

This morning E and I had some friends over for brunch and then after a very fussy afternoon with a certain McGoo (Fussy McGoo that is) and a nice long afternoon nap that seemed to improve McGoo's attitude, we did a mini hike up Ferguson Canyon.

The last time we were in Ferguson we didn't hike very far either, and this time was no different. We like this hike because even if you only go up a little ways, it is stunning. And tonight did not disappoint.

Once we stopped to take a break and let the baby man out of the pack, he took off. He was happy to hike on his own. Notice from the blur he was moving fast.
I just love the way these two look at each other. Love it.
Such a goofy kid.
1 - Graham crackers are such a good hiking snack
2- But not as good as DIRT!

I was laughing and snapping away as E was trying to get James to not shove a handful of dirt into his mouth.
He succeeded (and E failed at blocking all the attempts). Notice the dirt evidence left behind on the cheeks and chin?
I love these two more than they will ever know.
And a few more from our hike:




And right at the end of our night out we saw this guy glide over us. James was fascinated.
Goodnight Salt Lake City.

Adorable

James loves the fire bush in the backyard. Maybe because the little trunk is just the right size for him to hold onto. He can stand there all day long if I let him.

Farmer's Market

Today, like the last four Saturdays, we went to the Murray Farmer's Market. We love this place. The park is close to our house, less than a three minute drive and the market has such a fun fresh feel to it.

We wonder around, carefully spending the money we brought along. We sample things at each stall and decide what to purchase. Today we came home with a very adorable green pumpkin, an acorn squash, a butternut squash and two of the most amazing tamales that Utah has to offer.

I brought my camera again. I snapped photos of the splendid produce. And E snapped a photo of my boy and me.

Ten months {Double digets with Wolfy}

Ten. Ten. I still can't say it. When people as how old he is, I'm still saying "nine and a half" because ten months might as well be a year, and how can my baby be a year already?

James has been fantastic this month. He's enjoying finger foods more and more with his favorites still being fruit fruit and more fruit. Cottage cheese is also up there in his "must have" list, as well as avocado.

My little man is still sleeping through the night (my god this is wonderful!), but in the last month woke up quite a few times crying really really hard at about 9:30 pm. No idea why. A snuggle and some baby Tylenol seemed to help though.

James is no longer content to sit and by all means, never ever lie him down if it is not bed time. Oh no. This child must be walking with help or standing at all times. The days of being able to diaper a baby without a huge screaming fit have past, because as you well know, you must lie down for diaper changes. I have yet to master the standing up diaper change, but I'm getting a lot of practice.

Because of the walking milestone approaching at lightning speed, James has been a touch more fussy the last week or so, but nothing I can't handle. Like I said, as long as he's "walking" life is good. Dare you let him practice crawling (by lying him down) you'll hear about it. I think this kid is going to skip crawling altogether.

Now onto Wolfy photos!

"Why hello Wolfy, I haven't seen you for a month!"
"Scratch scratch scratch behind the ear, just where you like it"
Biggest bestest boy.
And after the photo shoot he was more than happy to stand up on the couch.
Then... only moments after taking the photos above I sat him on the floor so I could put his shoes on. He threw a fit. So I grabbed my camera. I'm such a meanie.

In the last photo doesn't it look like he is saying "wait, you're laughing at me?"