Finishing up July

I already wrote about our lightning adventures in July. Here are some photos from the rest of the month. The first half of July was pretty much ruined by the lightning fiasco. Our next problem of the month came when we tried to install sod at the house. Kyle roto-tilled the soil in preparation for laying the sod.  But then it rained and rained and rained.  It rained so much that the sod couldn't be cut at its source. It took another 4 days before we had the sod, and by that the top soil in our back yard had firmed up again. Some heavy duty hand raking had to be done first. We also had hoped to have someone to watch Logan during the sod install, but that didn't work out. The weekend prior we had taken Logan to urgent care as he had a weird red spot on his torso that looked like it might have been from a recluse spider. During the 3 hours of sitting in urgent care, Logan got 3 more of those marks. The doctor thought it could be chicken pox. Since Logan had been partially vaccinated, he ended up having a very week case of it (assuming it really was chicken pox). We decided that we better isolate Logan just in case. That meant no grandparents to watch him while we installed the sod. It also meant missing 1 of the 2 weeks of swimming lessons. All in all, July wasn't the greatest month. Kyle was also furloughed, but for us it was nice to have Kyle home an extra day each week. Enough sad stuff.  Let's get on to the photos.

Testing out some new trucks at the water fountain at the outdoor mall.

We pulled this toy out of the garage so that our new trucks had something to ride on. Our friend Suzi was sweet enough to pass it on to Logan when her kids were done with it. Logan loves it.

Here is Logan waiting for the big garbage truck. That is his favorite Monday morning activity.

Here is the only picture I got from our swim lessons. Logan wouldn't do much in class, but he would come home and blow bubbles in the bath tub. He would also kick his legs when the teacher wasn't looking. Needless to say, we didn't pass swim lessons this year. Didn't help that we missed a whole week due to chicken pox.

Another bright part of the month: for a few days we had this mom and her little chick in our back yard.

A quick tractor ride at Lowe's while mommy grabs more materials for her endless list of projects.

Here are some of the things Logan said in July: Towel, chip, ketchup, daddy get up (this has become a common saying in the morning), thank you, pumpkin, come on, off, big bite, cherries, upside down, I love you (melts your heart), raisins, yummy in my tummy, Betty, Dewey, Jay, Keith, Chris (the names of his grandparents).

He also learned to roll over and over again across the floor.

Rewind back to June

As always, I will keep the text brief and rely on my pictures to tell the story. June was a month of birthdays and days spent swimming.

Since we moved to our new place, Logan has been taking big-boy baths (he hates the shower). One of his favorite things about bath time is bubbles. He is constantly trying to eat them, as you can see in this first photo.

We scored his first car on Craigslist. The great thing is that it was half a block away, so we just walked over, and I rolled him back to the house. One of the first things he had to do was to see if all of his balls would fit. He doesn't ride in it much, but loves pushing it up and down the hill in the back yard.

Back in June, he was still obsessed with balls, and one day he decided that he and the small ones should be put away in his toy bin. Over and over again he would put the balls in, climb in after them then get out, dump them out and start over.

Here is a picture of our back yard. We have done a ton of work on it since June. Those photos will come soon hopefully. I say that, but you should see my list of "to dos" for October, November and December.

 For Keith's birthday, we opened gifts and then ventured over to Sandia Casino to swim.

This was Keith's favorite present.

Pool Time!

Not many people probably know this, but Keith is a master at Tetris. We gave it to him years ago, and he has since beaten all of our (well Kyle's) old records. I tried to give him a cake that would reflect that love of Tetris. I think it turned out pretty well even though I had to change it a little from my original design.

Logan had his first haircut in June. His hair was starting to really curl.  The doctor had even uttered the word "mullet" when he saw Logan. That was when we knew it was time for a cut. I would like to say that he took it like a champ, but he hated the trimmer.  Kyle and I both had to hold him. The woman did a fantastic job though, and in the end he loved her for giving him his first lollypop.

After the haircut, we were off to Alamogordo for the next celebration. Along the way, we stopped at one of our favorite spots:  El Sombrero in Socorro. I should mention that these photos were taken after a very messy lunch, but Logan was clothed before these pictures were taken.

Finally made it to Alamogordo. The trip wasn't as smooth as we would have liked. Logan had slept prior to our stop in Socorro, but needed constant attention the rest of the way. Glad it is a pretty short trip.

I decided to stay with the game theme for Dewey's (Kyle's Dad) cake. He loves crossword puzzles. I will say that I thought the design turned out fine, I had serious issues with my frosting as I did a new recipe of blueberry butter cream that didn't want to stay firm at all. I kept having to put the cake in the fridge to firm it up so I could continue to work on it. At the end of the day it did taste good, and I am pretty sure Dewey liked it. Well, I am pretty sure he liked the design. I don't recall if he ate any as there was also some fantastic peach cobbler on hand.

The party continued in the pool with Logan's cousins and 2nd cousins.

Reece tossing the squid for a game of seek

I think there was some rough housing going on here.

Back inside for gifts. While Dewey received great gifts, probably the best was the letter written by his son-in-law and edited by his daughter and son.  The letter was a mock testament to Dewey, and it was full of intentional grammatical errors for Dewey, the grammarian.

Back in Albuquerque we went to a zoo concert. Logan loved watching the other kids, dancing and running around.

Running up and down the hill, over and over again.

Running makes one happy little boy.

Logan absolutely loves peacocks. We have to see them every time we are at the zoo. Not that you can miss them. They are everywhere.

We finished June with a pool date at the Sullivan's home. We love these guys and are always well fed and highly entertained when we are there.

At the end of June, Logan said "Grandma" and "Grandpa" for the first time and in that order. He also started finishing his words. For example he started saying "book" rather than "boo".