Apple Picking

Today, Bryan went golfing for the first time in 10 years. I was really excited for him to go until I woke up got dressed, got Oliver dressed, put together the diaper bag, put on my shoes then walked out my door to realize that Bryan had taken the car with him and left me high and dry all day. It wouldn't have been so bad but I wanted to go apple picking with some of the ladies in my ward. (Don't worry, this story has a happy ending. ) So I took Oliver back up the stairs and hoped that Bryan would be home soon. Did I mention this was at 9:00? When 11:00 rolled around I started to lose hope. I was not going to make it apple picking. I took off my shoes, stripped Oliver down to his onesie, and rolled up my sleeves to get some cleaning done. Bryan finally rolled in around 3:00 and I told him my story and he was very sad for me so he took me apple picking. He's such a sweet and wonderful husband. We drove all the way to Bethlehem Connecticut and grabbed a basket then headed for the orchards. . .We didn't find any good apples and we actually weren't trying very hard but we had a lot of fun taking pictures and ended up just buying a bag of already picked ones from the farm. You can see all the fun things that we did with our basket.

Oliver has found his Feetsies

I put this funny little shoes (slipper rattlers) on him every once in a while in hopes that he'll start to play with his feet and keep himself entertained enough that I can get something done. Well, wrestling him down and putting the shoes on has finally paid off. Oliver has found them and thinks they are great. He even giggled while playing by himself and I could clean the house to get ready for my family to come.

Oliver is eating solids

He makes himself a mess. We've started to hold his hands down when he eats because he sticks them in his mouth while it's full of food and squishes the food out everyone then touches things. But he sure looks cute when he's such a mess.

Bryan and Oliver

There is nothing cuter than Oliver and his dad. They are 2 peas in pod and completely lovable.

a couple hours old and already the do the same things

at the beach

at the aquarium, I believe they are looking at a
snake (just being boys)

Riding the train to NYC

cuddling at the farm

flying like an air plane

hanging out

wrestling in the leaves

their favorite thing to do, eat

I don't know what I would do without my boys. They keep life interesting and they are so full of love that I always have enough. Here's to my boys.

Giggle

Oliver did his first giggle yesterday. I don't have a picture or a recording but I just wanted to document it and let everyone know. Bryan was playing with him in the morning before we went to church and he was just laughing and giggling. It was probably the cutest sound I have ever heard. I love my baby!

Oliver rolling-over

This is the first time Oliver rolled over. I don't remember when it was exactly but it was while we were still in Idaho. He was so mad but he did. He flipped over pretty consistently for a while but then stopped and is now just starting to do it again.





This is a video I just took of him rolling over. He's getting so good at it that I don't have time to put him on his stomach and push play before he starts to flip himself over.




Now we are starting to work on rolling from his back to his tummy. He can get up on his side but he doesn't want to take that final plunge onto his tummy.

New York Subway Systems

This is a short rant about the New York Subway Systems. If you feel your day is going your way and your up beat and ready to take on life you should probably find a happier blog to read and come back to this one on a day where you already feel miserable and out of luck. . .

Ah, new york, the lights, the shows, the statue of liberty, the american dream, the subway systems. . . with stairs and no air conditioning and construction. I don't know how many peopled have carried their 4 month old son all over Manhattan, not pushed in a stroller but carried, but I know that I have and my thighs burn. We started out walking everywhere so that we could see everything because being in New York City is a very romantic idea but then your feet start to hurt and you begin to realize that you haven't bothered to wear tennis shoes since the snow stopped falling and walking 26.2 miles in Manhatten is not the best time to start. So feet hurting we decide it is time to hop onto that wonderful public transportation system called the subway. You walk down a set of stairs and swipe your card then you walk down another set of stairs, and then another set of stairs, and then another set of stairs, and then . . . well, you get the idea. As you go deeper and deeper into the earth you realize that you are slowly and willingly taking yourself straight down into hell. The air is getting thicker with smoke, it is getting hotter and hotter, your feet are hurting worse and there is a rumbling coming from all around you. Because of this experience I have decided to turn my life around and I will always follow all the commandments and be on my best behavior. ( I will never gossip again no matter how much i enjoy it. )
After many confusing New York signs. (Communication is not new york's strong point even for being the world leader in advertising, journalism, business, and public relations. Obviously that talent is wasted on some other more important thing than trying to get some where.) We hopped on a train. Did I mention no air and lots of stairs? Bryan was busy studying his handy dandy map while i was finally able to set Oliver down and enjoy a little air conditioning when Bryan announced that we were on an express train headed in exactly the wrong direction and we would need to hop off at the next stop and try to find the Train going the other direction. *Sigh*
More stairs, more heat, and finally a new train. Hooray! I sit down put Oliver down on my lap, enjoy the air conditioning and the conductor comes over the loud speaker " There is construction on the tracks heading south you will need to switch trains to the 2,3, or 4 if you want to continue heading south. This will be our final stop." Switch trains again, more stairs, more heat. Finally find our new train. Ride 2 stops. It doesn't go any further because of construction. So we hop off to find a whole new line. The green line this time. Green for go.
Or not, we wandered up and down stairs for about 20 min and finally asked someone who led us in the wrong but eventually right direction if we could've understood the signs. As soon as we found the green docking station there was a lady with an orange construction vest that told us if we wanted to go downtown that we needed to go and jump on the red line. The same one that told us to go to the green line. Obviously, the communication problem wasn't just with the passengers. . . I told Bryan that i gave up. I didn't really want to see the Statue of Liberty anyway. It has stood in that harbor for 100 years and it would probably be there in the next couple years for us to come back and see.
We hopped on the nearest train going to Grand Central Station and headed home. The nearest train was down a flight of stairs, up another, and then down 2 more. . .