Fire!!

Yesterday, we went downtown to go to the Children's Museum and we stopped off at the fire station so MVP could check out the fire trucks. The fireman was very nice and even pulled the truck out and let MVP "drive" a little bit. He thought it was pretty cool.

Uncle Stephen (AKA Uncle Buckethead) would be so proud!

The Zoo

Yesterday, we took MVP to the local Zoo. I honestly didn't have very high expectations because I know it's a pretty small zoo and I assumed that the selection wouldn't be all that impressive. Boy was I wrong! Because it is such a small zoo, the cages were small (don't tell PETA) and you could walk around most of the cages so that if a lion, for example, was off sleeping in one corner, you could simply walk around to get a better glimpse of it. There were also a few peacocks walking around, so MVP was able to get within a few feet of them. We saw lots of monkeys, bears, a giraffe, panthers, lions, alligators, goats, birds, reptiles etc. The best part about the visit was that you could purchase bags of peanuts and corn to feed some of the animals. We fed peanuts to the bears and monkeys and we fed corn to the goats, mini horses and sheep. The best part was that MVP got to feed the goats, mini horses and sheep right out of his hand through the fence!

MVP was able to identify several animals--many of which he has only seen in books. Aside from it being really hot and humid, we had a wonderful time!!

The Best Month Ever

July 2011 was the best month ever!! My friend, Anne, came to visit the last part of June and stayed for a few days. We had a lot of fun hanging out together, playing tennis, going to the beach, etc. It was soooo nice to have her here.

We did one thing that I had wanted to do for a long time here in Wilmington. We went to a concert at Airlie Gardens. We brought a picnic dinner and just relaxed as we listened to the music. It was a lot of fun, the park was beautiful and MVP found lots of new friends. There was a family playing with a beach ball and he just jumped right in and took over. Fortunately, they all thought he was cute and they let him play.

MVP loved playing with Anne too. He has learned how to rough house and she was a good sport and let him tackle her and crawl all over her--much to his delight.

Anne left on July 3rd, so she missed out on our 4th of July celebrations. We were thinking about going down to the Battleship in downtown Wilmington where they have an elaborate fireworks show, but we knew that it would be close to 11pm before we could extract ourselves from the traffic and get MVP to bed. So we decided to stay home and we're glad we did. One of our neighbors put on a fabulous fireworks show with aerial fireworks and all kinds of stuff!! They must have spent about $1,000 because it went on for quite a while. I was so glad we stayed home!! MVP has also discovered Pop Its (or Snappers). Here's some video of him celebrating the 4th of July.

About a week later, we went on vacation to Utah and Idaho for some family reunions. We went to Brian Head, Utah for a Pearson family reunion. Andy organized the reunion and it was a lot of fun.

We all stayed in a large "cabin" (it was HUGE) complete with video games, air hockey, a fire pit and board games. Each family did a "spotlight" so we could get to know everyone better and we also had lots of activities including Pac-Man and four wheeling. MVP thought the ATVs were pretty cool, but when he was actually riding on them, he would get really quiet and serious.

We also had a family reunion for my immediate family, which is no small feat these days. I have five siblings from Washington to Tennessee, so when we are all able to get together at the same place at the same time, it's a miracle. We spent the better part of a week at Yellowstone. We camped out and ate wonderful food (thanks to Stephen) and had fun hanging out together. MVP thought it was pretty exciting to try and chop wood for the fire just like his uncles. There were lots of bison, but I was a little disappointed that we didn't see more bears, eagles and moosen.

MVP had lots of fun with his cousins. He is very much a people person and couldn't get enough attention. He has one cousin who is about 6 weeks older than he is and they had a lot of fun together hugging and getting tossed into the air. We stopped by the Tetons (my dad's favorite destination) on the way to Pocatello to see more relatives before going to Utah for a reunion on my mom's side of the family.

From there, Andy went down to Mesquite to play golf with his cousins and a friend in the Deserted Souls Classic. They try to get together once a year to play as much golf as possible in two days in the hottest place possible. This ensures that they are all sufficiently loopy and can have as much fun as possible talking smack. I stayed a few extra days in Utah to help my parents prepare to move. They will be moving from the home they owned when I was born and into a nice, new home in Lehi, Utah in August. One of the things I helped with was installing wood floors in the new home with my brother Stephen and sister Paula. Here are some before and after shots of the Kitchen and living room area. I was a bit surprised that it took the better part of three days to install the floors because, frankly, I watch way too much HGTV where flooring takes about five minutes to install.

By the time I returned home to Wilmington, Andy had already been there for a few days and his mom had arrived the day before for a visit. We have a brother in law who works for an airline and has been very generous in sharing his buddy passes so Grandma can come visit MVP. Andy's sister, Melanie, joined us a couple days later and we had a lot of fun together. Her daughter is sooo mellow and easy going and MVP is just the opposite. It's hard to imagine having such a placid child!! It was pretty hot, so one of the things we did was play in MVP's little pool in the backyard. MVP splashed a lot while his cousin got very wet.

 So aside from the reprieve I got from working during most of the month, being able to spend so much time around family and friends made July the best month EVER!!!