Mr. Ed and friends

Every summer, our neighbors across the back field babysit their friends horses for a couple weeks.  Its always very exciting when they show up.  Last year, it was Brownie, Blackie, and Snow Leopard.  This year Mark had even more creative names for them but I can't remember them and they were probably racist anyways.  (One day Logan is going to start repeating some of the things Mark says, not realizing he's joking, and we're going to be in trouble.)  They ate us out of carrots and apples.  For a week I kept forgetting to get more.  I finally came home with a giant bag of carrots and 2 bags of apples, and they were gone.  Next year.  

Father's Day

Father's Day was actually spent moving Ginny into her apartment.  We had the worst movers ever, so it was a kind of terrible day.  So these pictures are actually the makeup father's day activities.

On our way to the Rodeo parade

For comparison, here's Rodeo Parade day one year ago.

Mark has been talking FOREVER about this alpine slide in Golden.  We finally went-- Logan liked it for the first half, until Mark released the brake and started going full speed.  Then he just started calling for mama.

Family bike ride up Vail Pass.  By adding an extra 30 pounds or so to Mark's bike, I can almost keep up.

17 months

 

At 17 months, Logan is talking more and more and we get to hear what he's thinking about.  What he is thinking about is Buddy the dog and Charlie the kitty cat.  Every time he says something new, I am so impressed.  I realize everyone learns to talk and he is no different.  But its very impressive to watch the process.

Logan loves to be chased. My mom spent our week in CT saying "I'm going to get you" and chasing him around the house.  He would giggle with delight.  One morning, he turned to me and said "Gonna get you" and ran off.  I was sure he was a genius for figuring those words out. On our camping trip a few weeks ago, Kendall taught him what the moon was.  A few days later, as we were walking outside, Logan picked the moon out of the daytime sky and pointed and said "moon, moon".   Logan can also pretend now.  Along with the talking, that seems like another huge leap of understanding.

Logan loves cars.  He spends a good part of each day in each car. He likes to turn the hazard lights on, put the keys in the ignition, turn the lights on.  This is a dangerous game-- for now it just means dead batteries, but one of these days he might actually start a car.  He loves to throw things.  It started as just throwing rocks in the pond, a perfectly fine past time.  It has expanded to throwing books, toys, utensils, food... we need to work on the distinction between what is okay to throw and what is not.

Connecticut

Kendall, Logan and I spent the first week of June in CT helping my mom clean out our childhood home in preparation for selling it, and helping my grandma pack up for her move to Denver.  It may have been the most exhausting week of my life. A lot of stuff and a lot of memories build up in a house over 35 years.  We found some treasures, including the rules for our childhood clubs.  Mine was the Rock Club, which I ran with my best friend Meaghan.  It was located in a pile of rocks leftover from construction at the school.  We researched different kinds of rocks using the Q-R volume of my Encyclopedia.  According to the rules, if you wanted to have a meeting, you had to bang 2 rocks together.  Kendall's club was the Roof Club.  She was (is) always cooler. She and her friend Caitlin were the chairwomen of the club.  Andrew was given the position of janitor.  They practiced various ways to climb on and off our roof, the favorite being jumping off onto the trampoline below.  Things were different back then.  Everybody else jumped off their roof too, right?  It is very sad to part with your childhood home.  I guess it has to happen some time, and I am lucky to have kept mine for so long.  I hope Logan can have the same.

Some photos from our week:

Christmas in June dinner at Aunt Susie's.  Mmm eggplant!

Logan and his pal Kiera.  Kiera LOVES Logan.  It is very cute.

At the beach with Katie and her boys, Nicky and Owen. 

Covered in sand and other goo

Nicky and Owen found an awesome stick.  They were going to bring it home for the raft they're building.

Nothing better than a good sink bath

Sorting everything into moving van, dumpster, and donation piles. 

Logan loved Charlie.  He's still asking "Where's kitty cat?" I see animals in our future.

We found 5 "Z" hats my dad had made for a vacation once.  Logan is hiding behind one.

Logan spent the better part of the week climbing up and down the stairs.  He's kind of starved for stairs in our house.

At the airport for the trip back to Denver. That was a LONG flight.

Peek A Boo!

Some games never get old.  Take for example, our favorite game, "I'm Thinking of a Color".  This game is guaranteed to bring a smile to everyone's face.  Whenever Kate is feeling down, or bored during a long car trip, I just let her know that I'm thinking of a color.   She responds "Is it Magic Spell", I say "Yes it is" and we move on with our mundane lives. [Ed. Note: Magic Spell is the color of our master bedroom.  Nobody ever guesses Magic Spell, which makes it the perfect color for 'I'm Thinking of a Color']

Anyway, one of Logan's favorite games is to play with the pots and pans while Kate is cooking.  Its really important for Logan to have something to do while Kate is cooking.  Otherwise I wouldn't be able to watch TV during this time.  So often when Kate starts cooking we will open several of the child-proofed cabinets so that Logan can drag out his favorite pots and pans and proceed to bang them together making all manner of horrible noises.  Fortunately Kate got me these wireless headphones for watching TV so Logan's pot-banging doesn't detract too badly.

A couple weeks ago while Kate was cooking, and I was wathcing TV, someone noticed that it was oddly quiet despite all the pots and pans scattered across the floor.  Logan was nowhere to be found...

The scene of Logan's mysterious disappearance

Eventually we heard a ruckus coming from one of the cabinets.  Logan had crawled compltely inside (not unheard of) but then managed to close the door behind him.  And thanks to the child-proof clips, he couldn't get out.

Logan caught in his own trap

We found this endlessly amusing, so now we put him in there whenever we need some peace and quiet so I can watch TV while Kate does the chores (just kidding.   But seriously, we do*).







(*Just kidding)

Tiny Town

Tiny Town is exactly what it sounds like; a tiny town of miniature buildings constructed in c. 1915 to entertain children.  Tiny Town is located about 4 miles from our house, so we knew it was inevitable that we would end up there.

World Famous Tiny Town

The marketing juggernaught behind Tiny Town claims this place is "World Famous"  which I sorta have to wonder about.  Is there a federal agency that verifies these claims?  Seems like there should be.  Anyway, Tiny Town is without a doubt Nationally famous, thanks to MSNBC picking up the hilarious story  of last year's tiny train derailment (must have been a slow news day).  Apparently 15 people were injured so I suppose I shouldn't joke about it, but if you've ever seen this train--and how slow it moves--you can't help but laugh.

Death Train!

Much of the original Tiny Town is truly tiny, and therefore pretty boring.  But the newer buildings are big enough for kids to go inside, and Logan really got a kick out of this.

Kate & Logan at Tiny Town

Logan belting out his favorite aria

Logan operating the Wind Mill

Logan where he belongs; in the Tiny Town Jail

It didn't take long for us to tire of the tiny houses.  There was a decent playground but the slides were all really hot, and Logan did a great job of showing off his growing vocabularly (he knows more than 30 words) by saying "hot, hot" every time we put him on a slide.  Now we're trying to teach him "warm" but I think that's going to take some time.  Better to err on the safe side anyway.

We could no longer delay our rendesvous with the death train.  Fortunately we love danger so we were pretty fired up to get on this train that had claimed so many victims at 2 mph.

Kate tries to contain her anxiety about the death train

These are the people responsible for ensuring we don't derail while cornering at speeds approaching 2 mph.

All aboard!

Underweigh

Kate screams in terror as we approach the treacherous corner

Logan reacted to the Death Train about the same way he reacted to countless rides at Disney World.  Somewhere between general dis-interest and annoyance.  We figured this would be a good test of when Logan is ready to go to Disney World again.  When he thinks this train is fun, we might consider taking him to a real amusement park.

Logan thrilled by the Death Train

Camping Again?! (sigh)

It seems like we just can't get enough camping.  The first trip wasn't horrible so apparently that seemed like a good enough reason to go again.  This time we were resolved to not camp in the rain, and fortunately the weather cooperated.  We chose a nice spot less than an hour from home--so that we could bail at the first rain drop.  It was redneck paradise, with generators running all night long, ATVs and motorbikes zipping up and down the dusty road, and people chopping down aspen trees with hatchets.


Kate walking with Logan near our site.


All told it was a nice mellow experience.  We went on a couple of hikes and a short mountainbike ride (made shorter by a broken chain that I managed to fix with my leatherman tool right up until it broke again).  There was a fire ban but we were able to roast marshmellows on our propane stove.

Our campsite

We ate some delicious fish tacos with chips and guacamole.  Logan has trouble reaching into the bag of chips due to his short arms.  Always inventive, his solution was to turn the bag upside down and dump all the chips onto the ground.  I've seen him do this a couple of times at home, but it never occured to me he would do it outside.  He doesn't seem to understand the difference.  He was perfectly happy eating the chips off the ground, as was his now-even-better-friend Buddy.  Even the local chipmunks got in on the fun.

Logan helping put the chips back in the bag, but the damage was done.

We had to cut our trip short in the morning to go on a play date with Logan's friends Aila, Lucian and Quinn.  We went on a short hike in Golden and then had a picnic at Aila's house.

Logan with his new obsession; dandelion puff balls (official term)

Attack of the Zombies!

I don't really have a story here, just some funny pictures that I want to post.  Logan's dear Aunt Kendall is a very talented soccer player.  She plays on a number of club teams in the Denver area, and a few weeks ago her outdoor team played for the league championship, which they won of course, in dramatic fashion.  They were down by one with only a few minutes left when Kendall delivered a great ball to the forward.  Her shot didn't go in but forced a corner kick that resulted in the tying score to force overtime.  Some time around the 100th minute her FC Denver squad scored the game winner.  They will be presented a trophy at the half of an upcoming Colorado Rapids (2010 Major League Soccer champs) game. 

Anyway, we attended the game to show our support and provide valuable advice to the referees, who seemed to not understand some of the basic rules of soccer such as "no hands allowed".  Fortunately as a Santa Clara Alum I have plenty of experience yelling at soccer refs, so I was the perfect man for the job.  Kate will tell you that the refs took my advice on a number of occasions, much to her embarrasment.

Finally to the zombies.  Logan loves the camera.  If you want him to immediately drop whatever he's doing, get out your camera.

Zombie Logan, but instead of moaning "braaains" he moans "caaamera"

"Hey you, tough guy, gimme dat camera or there's gonna be trouble"