Father's Day

We had some fun celebrating Father's Day this year. We started things out with a homemade waffle breakfast.  Then we went to church as usual. Austin dressed up very nicely for the occasion.

That evening we had a delicious dinner at my grandparents' house with my family. Then we gave out some gifts to the fathers in the room.

This is the shirt that Austin "helped" pick out for his dad

For my dad, I cut out a key chain that says "DAD" and packaged it in a crown box.

Here's all the "men" in the family

Unfortunately, I didn't quite finish everything I had planned in time for Father's Day, so a couple things were a little late. Like the "pusher" I made for Nate, which is a tool designed to push wood across the table saw.

And somehow I originally forgot to give Nate these funny glasses cut from a free design I ran across online.

I am so grateful for my own dad. He has been and continues to be a good example to me. He is always trying to learn new things and I frequently find him to be a great source of all sorts of good information on a variety of scientific and nature topics.

And it is wonderful to have a husband who is also such a good dad to Austin. It shows too; Austin loves being with and spending time with his dad for a good reason. I am grateful that my husband can be a good dad and a great example to our kids.

Family Pictures

We've been wanting to get some family pictures taken of us, and a couple weeks ago we finally did. Austin didn't want to cooperate much though. He started out alright for the first couple pictures, but tired of the whole business very quickly. Still, we ended up with a handful of some nice pictures of us all together.

Nate went to great efforts to keep Austin happy.

But all Dad's efforts plus all the efforts of happy puppets playing peek-a-boo and other games weren't enough to keep Austin happy long when it came to pictures of us all together.

Austin was much happier doing his own thing.

Like examining the bugs on the path.

Or greeting everyone walking by and pointing out their dogs to us with his characteristic exclamation "Doooooooog?"

Or making odd faces. (I love this picture.)

He loved looking at the pictures of himself on the photographer's little screen after each shot.  

 

But he was more than a little ready to be done at the end of it all.

Pictures taken by photographydotmom.

Farm Country

A week ago Monday my parents had us down to there place for a visit. Nate was out of town for a couple weeks, so the visit was a nice break from being in our house alone. That afternoon we all went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point.

(Even though I brought my camera, I accidentally left it at my parents' house, so I had to get pictures from my parents camera.)

Austin had a great time looking at the different animals. He particularly liked the ducks. (He loves saying "quack quack.") He also especially enjoyed the carriage ride, and he was enthralled with watching the ponies that walked in a circle giving rides to other kids.

Unfortunately, Austin wasn't so happy in this picture because I had just taken him away momentarily from something else he was enjoying so that we could take the picture.

I think Austin's favorite thing at Farm Country though wasn't even the animals, but the kid-sized play buildings. There was a dance hall and a jail. Austin got a kick out of playing behind the bars in the jail and peering out the barred windows at us.

Austin having a blast in the play jail

Memorial Day Hike to Donut Falls

On Memorial Day, we went on a short hike to Donut Falls in Big Cottonwood Canyon since we were going to be in Murray later that evening.  As expected when hiking on a holiday, it was crowded and parking was pretty limited.  Because of that we had to hike about as far to and from the trail head as we were planning to hike on the trail.  Either way, we enjoyed the hike and Austin did too.  Near the end, in order to see the 'donut' portion of the falls, we had to walk through the freezing cold river (evidenced by the snow along the bank).  We were a little late to the family hot dog roast, but it was fun to get out with Austin.