Swim lessons

I love these pictures I got while he was in the pool, it sure captured some of the funny facial expressions he gives.


We've been taking "swim lessons" OK, the mom tot class, and he has LOVED it. It gets me outside everyday so I won't complain about the tan. He spends most of the class sticking his head underwater and climbing out of the pool. He was the only kid under the age of 2 who mastered getting out of the pool. I feel bad because his stomach gets so cut up on the cement but he just loves climbing out. We took the class with my friend, Lindsey, and her son, Davis.The bike rides got a little hot and the boys annoyed each other almost the whole way. We'd stop by the cannon center for lunch right after and load up on cookies to make it the rest of the way back. The best part was the 3 hour naps he took when we get home. Now, I teach a few boys in the ward swim lessons and he has to just sit and watch. Basically, he's not too happy about that. The mom, Sis. St. Clair, is so sweet to chase him around and try and entertain him. She commented to me that suckers seem to be the only way to get him to sit still! AMEN!

I also met my new idol at swim lessons.

When I first passed this lady, I thought for sure she was babysitting, then I learned, no, they really were all her 6 kids, and they all were under the age of 6, AND, they all rode bikes. I felt bad asking to take her picture while they all were riding,

so I just got the bikes in. No need to lock them to the rack, just all together prevents someone from stealing! In case you can't tell, there are 5 little bikes AND a seat, and she rides too! She took the mom-tot class with the 2 youngest, and the rest were in different classes. It sure seemed like a lot of work for one 25-minute class, but I soon stopped complaining about the effort of only having one!

CAMPING!

Ever since before we were married, James has tried to convince me to buy a tent. It took 2 years and I finally caved in. He's been so excited he even set the tent up in the front room!

Well, we finally braved the elements (aka Jackson) and tried to go camping. We only went back in American Fork canyon, but the weather was perfect. We stayed in the Timpanookee campground and really did have a lot of fun. We did decide that one-night camping is perfect for the one year old little boy who isn't walking yet. He crawled all through the dirt, ate the rocks, and of course, annoyed the fellow campers with his shrieking!

We spent the next day hiking around Cascade Springs. We tried to get someone to take a picture of all of us, but she held the camera upside down so it didn't quite work. But, I fell in love with Cascade springs! You walk in the middle of all the little falls on boardwalks. Jackson loved all the birds and everything was so green! I loved it!

This picture cracks me up just cause you can see how Jackson always sticks out his chin so his bottom teeth stick out. James is always worried he's going to need braces already.

Baby contest

We entered Jackson into the Freedom Festival's baby contest. I'll be honest, I really just wanted to win some of the great door prizes, and you got Stadium of Fire tickets if your baby won. Well, it was so wierd... parents took it WAY too seriously, and most kids were just crying. Jackson was VERY cranky in line and I gave him suckers to try and calm him down. But then he wanted to "crawl" around so of course the dirt stuck everywhere the sucker juice was. Basically, by the time we got to the table, he was so dirty and his face was bright red from crying, and James and I had both about had it. These were the only pictures we managed to take, and no, we did not win. But, I will probably try again next year in hopes of the prizes!

A new generation of babysitters

I've now left Jackson a couple of times with a new babysitter, Grace. She's the bishop's daughter of our ward and passed us out a magnet with her number. I always leave her with my cell phone in case she needs to call me. I was going through my old text messages this morning when I found a few I didn't recognize.....

Grace: "He is so cute mom! He's like chase and race (her older brothers) put together into one cute little package"

Grace's Mom: "I agree! Jackson is so cute. I like how carefully you take care of him. Love, mom"

Grace: "We just came in and are very tired. Should we put on a baby show to calm down too?"

Grace's Mom: "Make sure he is dry. Offer a snack and water, wipe his hands, read a book and rock. If he is tired put him in his crib with a kiss."

Grace: "Mom we just watched the show and now he is a little bit sleepy"

I sure had a good time laughing at those! Maybe I should be a concerned...but now that I know HER mom is so involved too.... maybe I won't!

And I wondered why baby-wise wasn't working

It hit me while going through all the pictures from these past few weeks that we really haven't planned around Jackson's schedule at all. Poor guy, he's just been worn out!