Ryan is An Animal...errrr...Well He Saw Animals

All the planning in the world can be thwarted so very easily. Ryan celebrated the night before his birthday by awaking several times. Needless to say, we were all tired as this day of celebration began.

Thankfully, Ryan had slept for a little bit on the journey to the zoo. However, you can see he had not quite worked out all of his sleepies as he awoke to strange creatures like a barn owl.

We spent the morning at Hogle Zoo and the evening at a nearby park. The zoo has really made some improvements since the last time I was there (about 20 or so years ago). Back then me and my Mom would go to the Zoo and then after we would go to the Red Barn Hamburgers on North Temple and 9th West. Red Barn is long gone, but their legacy and pictures live on the internet (barnbuster.net Wikipedia article)

He wasn't really sure what he thought of the merry-go-round (carrousel) but his cousins enjoyed the ride. If Ryan had his choice he would rather play in the dirt and mulch around the zoo than look at the animals. By noon he was exhausted and running short on sleep and the albino alligator/crocodile (I don't know how to tell the difference) sealed the deal and he crashed.

Six hours later he was ready to go again for the next party. He enjoyed the cake but was not as messy as I wanted him to be. He enjoyed opening the gifts that were given to him and he is surprisingly good at opening things. It's a little scary truly.

Birthdays provide a good time for reflection and Tracy and I comment about how rewarding this year has been as we are learning to be parents and have greatly increased the gratitude we have for our own parents and how they raised us.

Here is to many more birthdays and loved ones to share them with....

Bubble, Cabinets, Parks, and Lake Mary

	Ryan is in a phase of life where he is trying to figure things out like in this classic where he is contemplating the life-cycle of a bubble.
	Ryan has to discover everything. Like most kids, who needs toys when you have kitchen cabinets to rummage through. This is definitely one area we didn't consider child-proofing. You can see in this second picture just how much he moves around in the cabinet.
	We took Ryan to the Thanksgiving Point Museum of Ancient Life and he had fun. By far the most fun he had was playing in the sandpit at the end of the walking tour. He could have stayed there hours just picking up sand and letting it drop.
	We went up as a family recently to Lake Mary near Brighton ski resort. He enjoyed it quite a bit. Of course, who wouldn't enjoy their own personal sherpa. Well, I guess I'm not an elite mountaineer but I was sure gasping for oxygen hauling an extra 20 lbs on my back. Along the trail someone had made a mini-little snow man that I just had to take a picture of. Ryan enjoyed doing three things: Bouncing on the rock outcrops, playing in the dirt and splashing in the water. Needless to say when you mix dirt and water you get mud. His one-year birthday is coming up, maybe we should get him a cake that has MUD in the title. I'll bet he would really be happy! We just enjoyed watching him have fun and discover.
	Tracy wanted me to have more bonding time with Ryan so I decided to take him to the park to see how he would react to the slide. He seemed to just enjoy the colorful playground and did enjoy the slide. He was so energized he started doing pull-ups on the jungle-gym equipment. Doctors have always said he had good strength for such a small baby, but who knew.

Son Chips

Ryan is in a phase of life where he wants to imitate *EVERYTHING* we do. Recently I grabbed a bag of Sun Chips (my favorite chip) and started eating. Over my left shoulder I caught sight of Ryan staring me down. He was intrigued by the crunch the bag made and the crunch my mouth made. Being a typical man, I thought nothing more of it, finished the bag of chips and threw it away.

A few minutes later I again looked over my shoulder and Ryan had retrieved the bag from the garbage. He managed to find some crumbs in the bag and was eating them just as I had done. I know think of that bag of Sun Chips as "Son Chips."

Who will squish the moth first?

This morning I was walking around with Ryan by the french doors in the kitchen when we saw a moth. I left Ryan for a minute while I went for a tissue. I intended to squish the little thing, and was a little worried about how Ryan would take it. When I got back to the window, Ryan was poking the moth. He'd touch the moth, and it would take flight then land on the window. He touched it like this another two or three times. Then he decided to pick it up and squish it between his fingers. Guess I didn't have to worry about his tender sensitivities...

Ryan's First Fourth of July Celebration

We were excited about making Ryan's first Forth of July special. The day before, I took him shopping at Walmart where we bought his first wading pool along with a big box of fireworks. I thought for the 4th, Ryan would enjoy time in the pool and a few fireworks. As it worked out I didn't take him out in the pool, but that was okay because I let him play in the pool the night before. By the time I got him ready for the day, he had a nap. When he woke up, it was super hot. I thought I'd put him in the pool after dinner, but then he went back down for a nap. That was the strangest part of the story. Historically, Ryan pushes himself to the brink of exhaustion before he'll settle for a nap. If Ryan had a motto it would be, "Sleep is for the weak". The forth of July was no different. He had a short one hour nap in the morning, then pushed himself through the rest of the day. When Mom and Dad came over for dinner, I could tell Ryan was pretty tired. I gave him a bottle after dinner and he finally crashed. He doesn't usually sleep at 7:00, but under the circumstances I thought the nap was perfect. He'd be all rested and ready to go by the time we started the fireworks. While he slept, I played Scrabble with Mom while Steve and Dad visited in the front room. After Dad went downstairs for a little snooze, Steve joined us for a few rounds of Boggle. One hour went by, then an hour and a half. Still no sound from Ryan. We decided it was probably time for him to wake up, so we started shaking the Boggle box of cubes rather loudly. Still no sound from Ryan. It was starting to get dark, so Steve and I went in to check on Ryan. I rubbed his back and his head. He was out like a light. Steve and I started a conversation right there at his crib, but he didn't stir. I figured if he was that tired, we should let him rest. Maybe he was experiencing a growth spurt. I hoped he would wake up when we started the fireworks. We took our chairs out to the sidewalk. I had Ryan's monitor receiver with me so I would hear him when he woke, which I was sure he would do, after the first couple of fireworks. I lit the fireworks, which popped and screamed like fireworks do. We listened at the monitor, and all I could hear was the steady tick, tick, tick from the clock in Ryan's room. We lit firework after firework and regularly ooohed and aaahed. Steve took lots of pictures with his fancy camera. All four of the neighbor boys came out in their PJs to watch the show. After what must have been at least a half an hour, we had our finale. The monitor was still silent except for the tick, tick, tic, from Ryan's clock. I saved a few fireworks to show Ryan the next day. After our show, we watched either the Draper City or Riverton City fireworks from the front porch. We had a great view. Between our small street fireworks and the show we could see from the porch, we had the best of both worlds. After the last firework popped in the sky, we cleaned up our things, said our goodbyes and headed off to bed. I was sorry that Ryan missed the show, but was glad he was getting some much needed sleep. I brushed my teeth, got my PJs on, had my prayer and laid my weary head on my pillow. Suddenly, Ryan woke up with a cry. Steve said I should entitle this "It was not Bombs Bursting in Air, but Pillow Hitting Hair that Awoke Ryan."

One question runs through my mind. Do you think he would be smiling like this if he knew the lizard was on top of his head? I mean, I knew that lizards like red rocks, but I didn't know they liked red hair. :-)

A couple of Concerts

We love going to outdoor concerts. Our favorite place for outdoor concerts is currently the Sandy Amphitheater. Maybe once a year or so we hit the Concert in the Parks series downtown at the Brigham Young Memorial Park. Last week, we went to see a band called Fire on the Mountain. They call what they play "mountain music", I guess I would call it more in the blue-grass arena but that's just because I'm not a music aficionado. They were good entertainers. You can tell they were used to crowds and working them over. It was a nice evening out. The landscape photo of the water and lit stone is an example of the scenery in the park where the concert was held. I actually got out of my seat in the middle of the song when I saw this lighting. I just had to shoot the picture. This will make a nice calendar print for next year's calendar.

Last night at the Sandy Amphitheater we saw Richard Marx in concert. By far he is the best act we have seen there in the last couple of years. He still has his A-game, he still produces new music rather than riding on just hits of yesteryear and he works with the audience like calling us out for just sitting on our kiesters instead of getting on with the music. The only downside is our little Ryan who we left with a baby-sitter and who had only slept 30 minutes all day would not go to sleep so we had to leave about 30 minutes before the end of the concert to take care of him. That's okay, because the concert was still great and we love our little guy. We would go see Richard Marx again if he came to the Amphitheater. Oh, as an example of his presence, he mentioned that he doesn't mind if people take photos of him because he said that's what all entertainers want is to be paid attention to (nice candor). When he said this the guy in the picture to the left came running down like he just run the Showcase Showdown on the Price is Right and Richard Marx stopped to pose for him. Ha! Funny stuff.