Halloween

We hosted a toddler Halloween party again this year. As the host, I felt like I had to dress up. Logan was a monkey based on the fact that that's what I found in his size at the baby consignment store months ago. I did not think far enough in advance to realize that meant I would be dressing up as a banana. Mark got to be the Man in the Yellow Hat, and then what else was left for me to be but a banana?

Lobster Ayla & chef Mark (I think this is Axel's lobster costume)

Lion Ely

Futurama Julie, Riley, & Jared

Banana, Man in the Yellow Hat, and Curious George

Pumpkin Mackenzie, Rockers Jay and Katy, and lion Ely

Every year I have grand plans for a pumpkin patch, and every year (well, all 2 years), we end up shovelling our patch out of the snow. It hasn't snowed since.


"Hayride" to the pumpkin patch




Trick or treating at Ginny's



Small Victories

I have had a box of bulbs in my refrigerator for a year.  I ordered them from a catalog last summer, but was busy when they arrived and I never managed to find an hour to plant them.  The instructions said to keep them in the fridge until you were ready to plant.  I wonder if they meant you could keep them there a whole year?  The bulbs' hour finally came last weekend, and so now we can look forward to flowers in the spring.  Unless they're totally dead after sitting in the fridge for a year and that hour was a complete waste of time.  But, at least I have the space in my fridge back.

Fall Fun

Colorado doesn't have widespread apple picking like everywhere else. You actually have to make reservations to pick apples here, and they get booked up weeks ahead of time. We can't plan anything that far in advance, so this year we decided to go apple picking at tree that Mark spotted on his commute to work. We pulled over on the side of the road, Mark scaled the tree, and started throwing down apples. It worked out pretty well actually-- the apples were really good and there were no crowds to contend with.

We then proceeded to the pumpkin patch, which appeared to just be somebody's backyard.  I think they bought pumpkins and laid them around the yard.  Maybe we should try that next year. 

The apple tree

Apple picking

Pumpkin picking

Logan and the chosen pumpkins

Kenny's birthday

Haircut



Logan finally got a real haircut.  I put it off for a while because a. I wanted to take him to one of the fancy kids salons in Denver where you get to sit in little airplanes/ jeeps/ sports cars; and b. because I was kind of attached to the curls on the back of his head.  I never feel like driving into Denver on the weekend though, and the cute curls were more often a tangled mess, so in the end we just went to the local Cost Cutters.  They did a fine job.  Logan was not super happy about the whole thing, but they were very fast, and my phone kept him relatively still and distracted long enough.

The before, and after:



Before

After









Daycare

Logan's babysitter Tammy texts me pictures of him during the day. Here's how Logan spends his days while we're at work:

Logan cooking

The proud day he finally got up on the horse by himself



Logan & Devon (both 1). They dump out the bins and turn them over to use as stools to reach the toy kitchen.



Rocking out on the guitar

More cooking

Not sure what's going on here...



Cheese!




They boys- Evan, Logan, Devon-- and their Barbie RV



Logan and his favorite girl Tori

1.75

At one and three quarters, Logan's favorite things are cars, trains, Buddy, Auntie Kenny, the park, and the iPhone.  He knows how to use the iPhone better than I do, and is always moving icons and changing the settings.  It has a new ring tone every time it rings, most recently a barking dog.  He's also started calling people.  I've tried putting it in airplane mode, but he quickly changes it back.  I gave him the phone for a little while to entertain him on our 6 hour drive back from Wyoming, and I think he made about 17 calls.  Usually he hangs up as soon as it starts ringing, but not always.  For a while he mostly called family like Kendall or Grandma, who were quite understanding, but recently he's started calling friends and acquaintenances.    I've discovered him having a conversation with someone a couple times. Obviously I should just not let him play with the phone, but it does get me a good 10 minutes of peace, so sometimes its hard to pass up.

Logan also likes looking at pictures of people.  He knows most of the names of the people in the Christmas cards on our fridge, even those he's never met.  He knows his colors (everything used to be blue, but he's figured out the other ones now).  As for numbers, all numbers are still 3.  That was always my favorite number too. 

Trains with Daddy

Driving with Buddy

Buddy is very patient.  Logan feeds him a lot... its a symbiotic relationship.

Ten Sleep

We finally made it to Ten Sleep, a crag up in Wyoming we've been wanting to go to for years. We often go back to the same crags over and over, but once in a while its nice to explore somewhere new.  It was a 5 day trip, and I wasn't sure how it would go with Logan since he can no longer be confined to a pack and play.  It actually turned out pretty well-- we managed to get him to nap at the crag each day (only for an hour, but still helpful) so I got a couple routes in while he slept.  The rest of the time he toddled around practicing his crag walking skills and getting really dirty.  We had lollipops and Mark's phone for times when we needed to bribe him to sit quietly.  He had a couple minor breakdowns, but mostly enjoyed himself, and also managed not to get hurt.  Success.  

There isn't a whole lot to do around Ten Sleep besides climbing unless you want to drive a long way, so on our rest days, we hiked around the crag some more staring at rocks and ate at the only open restaurant in town, the Saloon.  It turned out to be pretty entertaining for Logan because they had all sorts of heads on the walls-- moose, bear, elk, deer, and a whole mountain lion.  We explored all the playgrounds in town, and when we ran out, we moved on to the metropolis of Worland 25 miles away to check out all theirs. Rest day highlights included hiking to some different looking rocks and going to the grocery store.  

Naptime at the crag in the hand-me-down tent from Mike & Janelle.  It worked great!



Logan's hang



Rest day hike to some other, different rocks.

Mark sending his project.  It is very important in climbing not to take "butt shots" so we clip the camera to the end of the stick clip, turn the timer on, and hold it up in the air.  If you do it enough times, you usually get a good one.

Another view of Mark on his project.  It was a pretty wall.

Time to go home