Hair Cut

Our neighbor and friend Shannon has a salon in one of the extra rooms at the hotel. She traded us a hair cut for some babysitting. Thanks Shannon!

"a piece of licorice?"

a question we often hear

Yesterday we went to Rock Springs to explore. We found this fun park with a "jet airplane" as Boston calls it and a tank. Spencer liked crawling around on the tank but Boston just wanted to get down and chase bunnies. There are rabbits everywhere here. The park also had a regular playground that was wheelchair accesible. It was fun. Most of the pictures I have are of Boston running by or just his back because he would not hold still long enough for any other photos.

P.S. We are loving the weather. I wish it was like this all the time.

A Visit

My mom and dad came out for a visit last Wednesday and Thursday. It was so fun to have family around. We shot some rockets, fished for goldfish, played at the park, and even got to play some games. On Wednesday evening we went rock hunting. It was a warm evening and the sunset was so pretty. The photo is of Boston and Spencer looking for rabbits while the rest of us looked for rocks. They are more interested in things they can run after than things that sit still.

Like Father Like Son

Spencer was trying to fix the heater vent under the bathroom vanity. He laid down on the floor to get a better look and Boston laid down next to him. Spencer was talking to me about how to fix it and pointing to the vent. Boston listened and then when Spencer stopped talking he started talking and pointing to the vent. He loves his Daddy!
Now that he has been introduced to fishing he often says "Let's go fishing!" Spencer is so proud.

Sunday Tradition

My family usually went to my Grandma and Grandpa Heslop's house on Sunday after dinner. Grandpa always popped a big batch of popcorn. Grandma made a pitcher of lemonade in a beautiful glass pitcher. Even now when you go up to grandma and grandpa's there is often a bowl of popcorn. So we are continuing the tradition. Every Sunday we pop popcorn.
Boston loves popcorn. He often asks "pop popcorn?" and points to the popcorn popper. He likes to watch the kernels go "round and round."
Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the yummy popcorn and great memories.

Goldfish

There is a water tank and a small pond next to a mine about 5 minutes behind the hotel. The miners put goldfish in the pond a long time ago and now the pond is full of them. They are all sizes and colors. It is kind of neat to see. Saturday Spencer took Boston fishing for goldfish. He caught 5 or 6. Boston was not so sure he wanted to get close to them. Usually he would touch them and run away. He better get used to them I have a feeling there will be a lot more fish in his life.

Oh NO! Update

We went to Rock Springs. We got a card reader. We can't figure out how to use it. I have tried unplugging and plugging back in the thing too many times. When we are in SLC we will take the card into a camera/print store and see if they can recover the photos. Until then we are left with one card that holds 3 pictures. Hope nothing exciting happens.

Quest

I am looking for a full sized Strawberry Laffy Taffy. I have been looking for over a month at all the grocery stores and gas stations from here to Salt Lake and in Green River and Rock Springs. Once I saw an empty box. I have also seen tons of other flavors (did you know they had mango?) I was just going to order one from the internet but shipping was over $10. I thought that was a little outrageous. Now it has become a thing for me, everywhere I go I check for Strawberry Laffy Taffy. wish me luck!

Say a little prayer

Spencer and I sat down for dinner the other night and Boston, who had eaten earlier and was playing with his trucks ran over to us and said "prayer" He folded his arms and squinted at us. We were so excited to see that he remembered what to do.

Open Brella

This is the picture on the side of the graham cracker box that Boston sees and says "brella" He thinks it looks like the umbrella at my parents house.

He loves this umbrella. Within 5 minutes of getting to my parents house he says "open brella" You have to take him out open the umbrella and spin it around. Whenever we are out and see umbrellas he wants us to open them and spin them around and if we try to sneak by he throws a fit. It is so funny the things that he latches on to and remembers. When he was younger it was clocks and flags. He still loves them and spots them all over but when he was younger he would find them all over the place. We would be driving down the street and he would spot a flag a mile away. I wonder what it will be next ...

Oh NO!

Today we went up to Fontenelle Reservoir and followed the Green River back to I-80. Spencer fished while Bos and I ran around and dug in the dirt or threw rocks in the river. We also visited Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge. Spencer caught 3 big fish and we got good pictures of Spencer, Boston and the fish. We saw a group of 20 pelicans, 2 eagles and 4 hawks. It was a great trip until ... after the last pictures I was messing with the settings on the camera because the exposure keeps being too much or too little and then ... the pictures were GONE. I have no idea how it happened. We are so bummed. I came home and immediately started looking up ways to recover photos. There are several programs on the internet so, with high hopes I downloaded one program. Again everything was going great until we realized we have to have a card reader and so do all the other programs we saw. Unfortunately this is not something we have nor can we just run to Walmart/RadioShack/BestBuy and pick one up in 10, 15, or even 20 minutes. We (and you) will just have to wait until our next trip to Rock Springs or Salt Lake to see our pictures. What a way to end the day.
PS It also included photos of Spencer's parents and Lily's trip to see us. Thanks for coming up. It was fun to show you around our little town.

Blast Off!

This afternoon we drove a mile or so off of property and did our first rocket launch. We started with a small rocket and that went well. Boston liked the blast off noise the rocket made and the rocket pretty much floated down on top of us. The second bigger rocket did not deploy its parachute and crashed into the ground. We had to drive around to find in and then it was broken. The biggest and last rocket went better.

It landed just a little ways away. You can see the tops of the hotel trees in the center of the horizon and the rocket is in the sky a little left of center near the top. I'm sure we'll be out again pretty soon. Do you like how I color coordinated Boston's outfit with the rocket? I tried to get Spencer to go along also but he didn't like the idea.

Choo Choo

Green River has a large train yard right in the middle of town. Yesterday we took Boston across a bridge over the top of the train yard. We could see about 5 different trains. Guys were working on several different trains and doing train stuff. It was pretty interesting. Boston liked watching the trains and kept yelling "heyo" (hello) at the workers. We've heard that sometimes there are trains on all the tracks and some pulling in/out. We'll have to go back another warmer day and check it out again. The bridge was covered with graffiti (most of it unrepeatable) but we did find this:

So now we have found exciting thing #2 to do in Green River (#1 is fishing-of course) feel free to come and visit us some time. We'll take you to the train yard and probably fishing.

Honey Lime Enchiladas

We love enchiladas. When I saw this recipe on a blog I check occasionally I was excited to try it. Yum! They are delicious. I little bit sweet and a little bit spicy. Give them a try.

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas
from Brittany at The Sisters' Cafe
6 tablespoons honey
5 tablespoons lime juice (1 large lime)
1 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 pound chicken, cooked and shredded (I used 3 small chicken breasts)
8-10 flour tortillas
1 pound monterey jack cheese, shredded
16 ounces green enchilada sauce
1 cup heavy cream
Mix the first four ingredients and toss with shredded chicken. Let it marinate for at least 1/2 hour (I tossed mine together in a ziploc bag in the morning and let it sit in the refrigerator all day).
Pour about 1/2 cup enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9X13 baking pan. Fill flour tortillas with chicken and shredded cheese, saving about 1 cup of cheese to sprinkle on top of enchiladas. Mix the remaining enchilada sauce with the cream and leftover marinade. Pour sauce on top of the enchiladas and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until brown and crispy on top.

Painting

I have not been brave enough to introduce painting to Boston. I was waiting for him to get a little older and not want to eat it. Well I now know I need to wait a little longer. It started out okay.

He liked making marks and was trying to figure the brush out.

But then he figured out how to flip the bristles on the brush and make the paint splatter. He really liked that. And you can see he had also tasted the paint a couple of times.

Now we are done. There was more paint in his mouth and splattered on his face then on the paper. He was not very happy about losing the paints.

Next stop: the bath.

Fireman Spencer

Spencer called me today and said, "Hurry! Bring the camera. We're practicing with the fire truck." Part of their safety meeting this afternoon was learning how to use the fire hoses. Because the nearest fire station is at least 20 minutes away the hotel has its own fire truck and equipment. If there is a fire, an alarm goes off on top of the hotel and on our neighbor's roof and everyone runs to the firetruck gets suited up and puts the fire out. (or so that's the plan. I hope there is never a real fire )

Here is Spencer being the nozzle man on the hose.

Boston thought it was so cool. They would turn the hoses off and switch places and he would yell "ready set GO sprinklers!"

Our House

With all or the trees around the house it makes it dark inside. I wake up and think it is cloudy because the sun is not shining in the windows and you have to turn the lights on in some rooms all day because the windows are blocked by trees. It is nice to have so many trees.



Most of the trees grow low to the ground and Boston loves to run under the branches and hide. The back patio has lots of sap from the pine trees so when you go in the house you stick to the floors. I am really looking forward to cleaning up all the sticky sap.

Here is the toy room. It is just off the kitchen/dining room. Don't be fooled by the toys on the floor. Boston rarely plays with his toys and it is even rarer to see him playing in the toy room. He does however like to get int the island cupboards close the doors and say "Where Boston go?"

Spencer's New Jeep

Spencer came home in the golf cart last night for dinner. Boston saw it parked in the driveway and wanted a ride in the "jeep". Spencer took him around the block and then he wanted to go again ... and again ... and AGAIN. This morning he woke up and ran to the windows looking for the "jeep".

Pots and Pans

Moving to a different home Boston has found lots of new things to explore. His favorite right now are the pots and pans.

Bunnies

One of Boston's favorite things about the new place is all of the wild rabbits. Boston likes to run after them or if Spencer is pushing him in the stroller chase them. You can see two of them in this photo of Boston playing at the next door neighbor's water table. (Just to the right of the trunk of the left tree and to the right of the whisk) These two rabbits spend the afternoons napping in the neighbor's yard.

The Move

We moved to never never land on the 15th of August. All in all it went pretty well. Boston loved running around in the empty truck, pushing his walker up the ramp, and riding on the dolly. Thanks to everyone who helped move boxes and furniture, cleaned and entertained Boston. We are so blessed to have amazing friends and family.