Ya Know That Crazy, Neurotic Dog We Have.....

Well, yesterday was her 8th birthday!
Even though she keeps me up more than Austen most nights, we still love her and truly think of her as part of the family.
She hates kids, but she tolerates Austen pretty well (as long as he doesn't try anything crazy like ya know touching her).
Can't believe she is already 8.....time goes by way too fast!
Happy Birthday little Sophie Soph.

How Is This For Weird?

A few weeks ago, I was driving home from my Mom's house and just decided to turn down a random street. It was all in an effort to look at a new housing development, but on the way I found the most random thing ever. A herd of elk. These people have a herd of seriously huge elk just roaming around. This isn't in the middle of nowhere or anything, it's right off of a really busy main street. I stopped so Austen could see them and he of course thought they were the neatest thing ever. After I drove through the cute new neighborhood and found my dream house I noticed that these same people also have a herd of bison behind the elk herd. There were actually a lot of them and even some babies. And because that wasn't strange enough they also have two ponies and a donkey.

Anyway, Austen insists we drive by them now everytime we are on our way home from my parents house. One time when he was having a little terrible two's meltdown we drove him out there just to calm him down. Brian even got him out of the car to feed the pony and donkey.

The Funnest Night Ever!

Don't worry, I know funnest isn't really an actual word, but it accurately describes the night we had.

Last weekend South Jordan had an awesome night out to promote safety and awareness. We weren't really expecting much, but since it was so close to our house, we thought we'd go spend an hour over there.

They had so many cool things and Austen was literally in awe over everything. They had three different types of helicopters, a fire engine, police motorcycle, a swat van, and all sorts of different types of police vehicles. You could even get in most of them. The air-med helicopter was my favorite. I was amazed at what they can do in that tiny of a space! We even got to watch it land.

They also had k-9 demonstrations where they unleashed the dog on some poor rookie cop in a huge padded suit. Later they did a k-9 helicopter demo where the UHP helicopter took off with the dog inside and then they released the dog from inside the helicopter to attack the suspect. The dog literally jumped from a flying helicopter and took this guy out so hard it knocked the guy over! It was really cool.

The firemen were also doing a cool demo where they took a car that had been totaled and removed the doors using the jaws of life. It was really awesome to see!

Austen had a really fun time and he's still talking about it. He was really into the attack dog and sometimes he'll pretend to be the dog and come up and attack your leg randomly. It's hilarious! I told him the dog wasn't scary and that he only attacks bad guys, but somehow in his mind that translated to something else, so now he thinks the dog is called the bad dog.

Here he is in the fire engine.

And the helicopter.
As soon as he hopped in he asked the guy for a ride.

Update on our sickness: Whatever we got, it is highly contagious. It has made the rounds. So far both my sisters, three of our kids, and Brian and I have gotten it. I am praying I didn't give it to my Dad, Mom, and Brother considering I was at their house yesterday in the midst of my sickness. ( I thought it was a bought of anxiety, but it turns out it wasn't.)

Our Very First Throw Up Session

I feel like we've just hit a milestone......we've just had our very first stomach bug and it was epic! Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration. It wasn't bad at all, in fact it only lasted a couple of hours and now he seems to be fine. The worst part was that he threw up in our bed, on the carpet, and on several shirts. The rest of the time I was able to catch it in the throw up bowl.

He's starting to feel better with color back in his face now so that's good. He's been keeping down liquids, so I just asked him if he wanted a snack and he said "yeah, just not spaghettios". (That was the last thing he ate before bed last night, so that was what he woke up to throwing up. I'm pretty sure he won't be eating those again for a while.)

UPDATE: After his snack I asked him if his tummy was feeling okay. His reply: "Yeah, it just feels a little angry." I'm still laughing!!!

Random Cell Phone Pics

I got a new phone a couple of months ago that can do all sorts of neat things. One reason I was really excited about it was because it has an 8 mgpixel camera and it was my understanding that I could upload those pictures directly to blogger from my phone. I haven't bothered trying to figure out exactly how to do that yet, but I have been taking some cute pics with my phone......especially since I forget to take my camera with us way too often. So here are some random, completely unrelated pictures that I finally uploaded from my phone.

Brian and Austen love to play this little golf game where Austen tries to hit the ball into the bucket.

He's actually pretty good at it.

Austen at the big kid pool.
He was way more interested in a tractor digging out a basement next door to the pool than he was in swimming.

And last, but not least.....this is the reason I still have a baby safety gate up at my house.

After he created this lovely mess (half the roll was already IN the toilet) he flushed it. It got clogged of course and Brian had to fix it when he got home from work. He was appalled to learn that I had no clue how to unclog a toilet.
Isn't that the men's area??? That and taking out the garbage cans!

Out Of Control Tomatoes

I planted some tomatoes in the backyard this year and one of them is going completely out of control!
It has even taken over the window well.
I guess I shouldn't have listened to the King Of Overkill when he said to fertilize once a week......
Anyway the tomatoes have just started turning red and Austen gets so excited to go out and pick them!
Not to mention eat them!
I slice them up, put on some cottage cheese, and salt and pepper and the kid seriously can't get enough! He eats at least one a day!

Just Cruisin Around

I can't remember if I've mentioned the electric motorcycle Austen has before, but it is AWESOME!!!
He loves it and feels so cool cruising around on it.
Here are some pics of the little man going for a Sunday ride.

While Daddy's Away...

We go play.

This is what we'll be doing today until naptime while Daddy is off golfing.

We Went To Planet Play Again.....And This Time I Remembered My Camera

So I hope you're prepared to be bombarded with pictures because I took a lot!

We started off with bowling.
Austen lasted about three turns and then he was off to the next thing.

Which is this game.
Austen loves it!
You push down that white thing and it pops the balls into the dogs mouth while the dog is saying how hungry he is.
Then when you're done the dog says he's full and that you're strong.
Austen thinks it's hilarious!

Then he played this animal feeding game.
(I guess they don't think toddlers should be pretending to shoot animals, so you're actually feeding them.)

Seeing how this merry go round thing works.

Stuck in the playground.
He has a hard time figuring out how to get out of this one.....kinda makes me wish I had it at home!

Driving a car.

Of course he can't sit down the whole time.
Good thing it goes slow!

Racing a boat.

Posing as an Indian with his cousins during their black light mini golf game.

He had so much fun!!!
He went home and took a 3 hour nap.

Just Being A Boy

I took Austen out to the lake the other day for some much needed boy time.
Sometimes he has way too much boy energy for the house and he just needs to find sticks, climb on things, get dirty, and throw rocks to get it all out.

A Day At The Fair....Petting Zoo Edition

The petting zoo at the fair was so much fun!
You could buy a cup full of carrots to feed the animals and other than the pushy goats, the animals were all super mellow.
Austen had so much fun because he loves animals.
See if you can pull out a theme......

Feeding a goat a carrot.

Trying to feed a donkey.

Hugging a donkey.

Petting the tortoise.

Testing out the strength of his shell.

Petting a baby camel.

Hugging a baby camel.

Feeding a carrot to a baby cow.

Hugging a goat.

Hugging a baby pony.

I always knew Austen was a little cuddler, but I had no idea it spilled over to animals as well!
He is a hugger!!!
This might also explain the high fever..... :)

A Day At The Fair

We went to the fair again this year, but instead of the one we went to last year, we decided to try the Salt Lake County Fair.
It was much better than the Salt Lake Fair, which we will never go back to.

Anyway.....there was a lot of fun stuff to see and do.

Austen got to smash a car with a sledgehammer......every man's dream!

He even got to play a game to try and win a prize.

This is what he won......doesn't he look thrilled???
By this time he was ready to go, but he loves the ball I swear!

There was all sorts of FFA animals that had won prizes and even a petting zoo that was probably the highlight of the trip.
So much so that it deserves it's own post.....coming up next.

Jungle Jim's Again And Some Sleepless Nights.

Austen had a high fever the other night and I was so confused because he had no other symptoms, but he was seriously burning up.
We loaded him up with meds and stuck him in cool bath and that seemed to help, but I was so worried about him I hardly slept at all.
He seems to be doing fine now and the only thing I can think of was that it had to be his last molar coming in.
It's broken through now and he no longer has a fever, so I'm hoping we're all clear over here.
Anyway......on to the fun stuff.


Hope you're not too sick of seeing pictures of us at Jungle Jim's because we go there quite a bit.
It is seriously one of Austen's favorite places!
My sister got a pass for a really good price, so we'll be going a bunch more times before it expires.
He really had a lot of fun this last time we went.
He was with two of his cousins and that makes everything more fun!

Hailey even let him steer the airplane and you can see from the look on his face he was so excited about that!

Driving the jeep.

I even talked him into trying the swing again.
He was hesitant considering the first time he went on it he cried the whole time and wanted to get off!
This time he actually loved it and went more than once.

And of course riding the carousel.
He pretends he's riding the talking donkey from the movie Shrek or Bullseye from Toy Story.

How cute are those smiles???