Bikes and rodeos and ducks, oh my!

        I wanted to start riding my bike more now that we're close to the greenbelt so I started looking for a bike trailer to tow Spence around in. We found a decent one on craigslist and have used it quite a bit to just go for a ride, or to ride over to lunch and literacy in the park. Spencer even seems to enjoy it and I have fun pulling him all around.

     Then a short time after that we headed downtown for the Boise Twilight Criterium bike race. 

          Shortly after that, Nate and I dropped Spencer off with my sister and her boys so we could go on a date to the Snake River Stampede since Nate had NEVER BEEN to a rodeo! Unfortunately these were the only pics we took that night...

     And finally, meet Harold.

     2 weeks ago me and Nate and Spence were out looking for a jogging stroller for me and Spencer's upcoming 5k (more about that later). We were in a parking lot off a busy road and about to exit when a teeny tiny baby duck ran toward the car. We were so confused what a duck would be doing in this parking lot, there's no water nearby just tons and tons of concrete. We got out and looked around for a mother duck or even other babies but it was pretty clear this duckling was abandoned. So naturally Nate caught him and we took him home with us. We filled an old horse trough with hay and put him out in the garage. He was pretty unsteady on his feet so we're assuming he just hatched that morning and all the other eggs must have hatched the day before and the mom already took off with them. We read online that if you try to add a lone duckling to another mother ducks flock that they will just drowned the stray so we are keeping him (or her) and Nate has named him Harold. He is a big hit around here!

8 months.

     Spencer turned 8 months old this month! Seriously, when did this happen? He is not a little baby anymore! He is on the move and into everything! We have to watch him constantly and he LOVES all the attention he gets! He is more and more fun every day!

     He has mastered the art of crawling and though it has made his life easier, it is not good enough and he wants to walk BADLY! He pulls himself up and walks holding onto anything he can! He is going to be toddling before we know it.

     Along with all this trying to walk business has come the always-a-bump-on-my-noggin stage. He faceplants or falls over quite often but it only seems to bother him about half the time. He's had a few good goose eggs already and I'm sure many more are to come.

     Spence has also started babbling waaaay more. His favorite sounds are ba-ba-ba or to put his hand over his mouth and make some Indian-esque call. Moaning while nursing has also become a new trend, especially while he's falling asleep. It's endearing but a little dramatic.

     This boy LOVES to eat! He wants a bite of anything you have and will grab at it himself if you're not fast enough. Or he'll grab your hand and shove it to his mouth. He tolerates baby food but would prefer to just eat what all the grown ups or big kids are eating, but he only has 2 teeth so that makes it hard to eat everything!

     Speaking of big kids, he loves to watch kids play. Specifically his cousins, he loves when they play with him (read, steal his toys) and he could watch them for hours. He thinks his dad is the funniest person in the world and will giggle and giggle for him and then is pretty serious to everyone else. He still likes his mom the best (she has the good stuff!).

    We have reached a good spot as far as sleeping goes. Spence nurses to sleep about 9pm and will sleep in his own bed until about 4am. When he wakes up I put him in bed with me and nurse him some more and then we both sleep till about 8am. It has worked for us for the last few weeks and I don't feel like a zombie so I am content with where we're at. He's even taking 2 good naps during the day so I am not going to be changing our routine anytime soon!

     He still loves the water even if its the freezing cold river or lake. He loves his Oma and Opa, loves to pick on their dog, still wants to eat grass any time he's sitting in it, loves to go on walks or runs, is starting to like the bike trailer more and more, and especially loves his new found freedom that crawling offers.
     We love our "baby fence" as Porter would say!

he hates to be in his car seat, but he loves to play on it and climb in it all by himself

Flying Pie.

     Flying Pie Pizza does this thing where everyday they pick a name or a category of people and if its your name or you fall in that category you get to make a free pizza. Well the beginning of July the category was if you were born in July. So I made Nate and Spence go with me to make my free pizza. They make you wear a goofy hat, so I naturally picked Robin Hood.

     I made a hawaiian pizza and it was tasty! Nate tried to take some pictures of the pizza making process but Spencer was not about to let that happen, so no good ones.

these guys didn't think I was funny...tough crowd.

we did however capture this adorable gem!

Independence Day!

July 4, 2014

We started off our 4th of July with a ward breakfast at the neighbors. They served delicious breakfast burritos and pancakes with my favorite topping; strawberries and LOTS of whipped cream! It was a good time!

cutest baby in a lifejacket!

     
     After that we quickly got our stuff together and headed to the lake for some boating, which I hadn't done in 2 years so naturally got zero pictures of me skiing. On the way up we could see smoke and just across the bridge before Spring Shores the hillside was on fire. We crossed over and then parked by Katie and Tyler and the boys to watch the planes and helicopters. There was already 2 BLM crews there working as well. Nate said it made his adrenaline start pumping and a part of him still longs to be out there firefighting with them!

playing on the beach, this boy LOVES water!

     Once we got situated we all did a little boarding or skiing. Nate had to work at 2 and as we were headed back to the beach to pick up all his stuff, our boat died! Brayden and Nate grabbed paddles and started rowing us to shore. We were ready for Nate to climb up the hill to the road and hitchhike back to the car. Dad messed around with things for a while and we finally got going again and Nate made it to work alright.
     The rest of us had a really great time of getting the boat on the trailer (did I mention it's been a while?). We got it on once, pulled out of the water, realized it was wrong, put it back in the water, the trailer then came unhitched from the truck, tried again, and then things were successful. What a day. And of course Spence cried much of the way home. But he sure looked awful cute all day in his lifejacket!

these boys had to have a throw down.

     Once we got home we had a little lunch with cake to celebrate mine and Katie's birthdays. I got some running stuff and my favorite snicker's cake from Albertson's. Heaton then entertained us all with some firecracker tricks and I ran 2 miles. Nate and I have had 3 independence days since we've been together and we have yet to watch fireworks, maybe next year!

these 2 stayed dry by hiding in the boat.

Spence and Oma.

Fishing while yurting.

     I failed to mention our yurt was 20 or so miles outside of Idaho City. On the way up we stopped so Nate and my dad could do some fishing on/at Crooked River (I don't know if that's really where we stopped, but the name Crooked River sounds familiar like it was mentioned at some point), Nate caught one little guy was all so it wasn't very successful.
     On our way home we drove a different way in hopes of stopping along another river for the guys to fish at. I want to say this was along the Salmon River (dad?). We did stop and check out some hot springs, but it was at least 90 degrees out and none of us really thought sitting in 100+ degree water in the hot weather sounded that nice, so off we went again.

me and Spence watching the guys fish.

     A short while later Spencer got awful crabby and my dad knew of some ponds for fishing (and being close to a raging river with a baby kind of scared me) so we stopped there. The fishing was ok. I think Nate and my dad each caught 1 medium sized fish in the hour+ we were there. I saw a muskrat, and Spencer took a nap.

     Then something awesome happened, a fish and game truck pulled up right next to us and dumped 1,000 fish into the pond! To say the fishing got good was an understatement! Every other cast they were catching fish! My dad remarked it felt like cheating, so they challenged themselves by removing the barbs on their hooks. That made things interesting and challenging because as soon as they'd get the fish out of the water it would slide out of their hands and flop along the ground until it made it back in the pond.

     As we were leaving a truck pulled up and a guy asked me how the fishing was. I told him it was excellent and he was like well the fish and game did stock it yesterday. I was like no no, they just stocked it like an hour ago! He was excited about that! Successful fishing all around!
     The boys each kept 4 out of the billion fish they caught and we cooked them up on the grill when we got home and they were very tasty!!

don't be fooled, I didn't catch this.

   

Yurt-ing.

June 30-July 1
   
     Nate had a few days off in a row and we wanted to do something fun! My dad being the outdoorsman he is, booked a yurt for us to go stay in. Then he packed us all up, drove us up there, biked all our stuff in, and caught lots of fish for us. It was a pretty fun experience and I am a BIG fan of yurt camping for these reasons: real beds to sleep on, a stove for if you get cold at night, and lights!

     This particular yurt we had to bike about a mile or so to get to it, which I really enjoyed even though I'm an awful biker. It probably helped that I didn't have to pull a trailer full of gear or a baby!

     We only had 1 bike trailer (from when I was a kid, ha!) so my dad ended up making 2 trips. While he was gone Nate was starting a fire for dinner. 2 things to remember about this moment, the first being a wonderful Nate-ism:
he had just built a tee-pee style fire in the pit and was about to lite it.
Nate: HA! They didn't call me Mr-boy-scout-1998 for nothing!
And it immediately fell over into a big mess.
Way to go Mr-boy-scout-1998 ;)
Shortly after, Mr-boy-scout-1998 DID in fact get a mighty fine fire going.

     As we are sitting around the fire waiting for my dad to get back with our last load of stuff, I was just gazing at the hill across from us, about 75 yards and all the sudden this good sized, sandy colored, cat-like creature, with a long tail, slinks across the dirt on the hill I'm watching. I didn't think too much of it and asked Nate what it could have been. He said it sounded like a mountain lion and got really excited. I got scared outta my mind (have a mentioned I have completely ridiculous fears, one being getting attacked by a mountain lion which until this moment I had never actually even seen one?). Nate really wanted to go look for it which I was not about to let happen, I was sure it would eat him! Then he wanted to ride his bike to meet up with my dad, which I was also not going to let happen because I KNEW the cat would come for me and Spencer as soon as he left! Finally, he did go look for it and alas, couldn't find it. When my dad got back and I told him what I was he was like "COOL!" What is wrong with these guys?? Don't they know that is a scary wild animal?!
     Anyway, we never did see it again, and for that I am thankful, but it was kind of cool to see and I'm alright with never seeing another one.

     We roasted hot dogs, had smores, and then set up our beds. Spencer had a better night than when we went tent camping in Palmyra, and I didn't freeze so I'd say it was a success!

    We also did some fishing, but that's its own story for another post.

Waaaaaay behind.

     I have quite a few things to catch up, but for now I just wanted to remember this snippet from my life with a 7 month old...
     In PA I learned to ALWAYS bring an extra outfit for Spencey to church with me (it may have taken 2 gigantic blowouts and church being a 15 min drive from our house for me to learn, but I learned nonetheless). Well today in Idaho I learned another lesson to add to that...ALWAYS take the extra outfit with me when I change him!
     Toward the end of sacrament I started noticing that foul odor I know all to well, sure enough, it was my kid. I did the once over and noticing no leaking poop, grabbed our dipes & wipes and headed for the bathroom, though I thought about changing him on the carpet in the foyer like I normally do, alas, it was too crowded today. (Side note, the only bathroom with a changing station is in the basement of the building, and totally not conveniently located whatsoever) I lay Spence down on the counter and by the time I get him unbuttoned and diaper off, there is poop smeared halfway up his back, all over his outfit, and all over the changing station. My life is awesome. I completely undressed him and then stood him stark naked, on the edge of the table while I scrubbed his back down. Of course he was facing the door so he and all his glory was the first thing anyone would see if they walked into the bathroom, of course someone had to use the bathroom at this exact moment, of course it was the only time I've ever run into another person in that bathroom! After I had him all cleaned up (half a box of wipes later) I diapered him and cleaned the table off. I started to try to clean his outfit, but it was a total lost cause so I just folded it up to let oxi-clean work its magic. Then came the awesome part of walking back into sacrament meeting with my baby in only a diaper. Not obvious or anything. I made a beeline for my seat and rolled my eyes to anyone staring. Funny baby, blowing out his drawers at church! I didn't want to make more of a scene by leaving with a naked baby AGAIN, so I just dressed him on the pew. Crisis over.
     I will however, be bringing my whole diaper bag to every diaper change from now on. Thanks baby Spence, you sure make my life fun! ;)

     And because what's a blog post without pictures, here's some randoms for your enjoyment.

sometimes when you're baby's nursing and totally sweaty you make a bunch of spikes in his hair!

we had my dad take a couple of family pix for us since we had none!

and this is the stinky guy today after the big fiasco, i still love him.