Carlton Capers: Utah Trip

The kids and I spent a month out in Utah visiting Grammy (Brandon's Mom). We had so much fun going on little outings and playing with cousins (Kael and Ashleigh)!

We went swimming a lot! Ginger and Edison had swim lessons 4 days a week, and we were also able to go to a community pool and a neighbor's pool. Before we went to Utah, Edison HATED being in the water! Even in the bath tub, he would stand up the whole time so that he didn't have to be IN the water. Well, thanks to his swim teacher, Miss Mindy, he now loves playing in the water!

Edison's first lesson with Miss Mindy. He screamed a lot during that lesson.

...and even after the lesson he screamed. It took him a while to calm down.

And look at how happy he is now! He loves playing in the water!

The kids loved playing with Kael at the pool. And I loved it because he would make sure that they stayed at the shallow end.

I wish I had gotten more pictures with her in these sunglasses, because she looked so awesome with them on!...And this was my day of triumph: she WANTED to wear her floaties!

Ginger has always loved being in the water, so she was always so excited to be at the pool. But she has also always been a little too adventurous for my nerves, and would refuse any kind of floatation device. I finally convinced her that arm-floaties are cool, so now she doesn't have a total melt-down every time I try to put them on her (and I can actually enjoy being at the pool instead of trying to hawk-eye two toddlers who are always moving in opposite directions). All I had to do was get some arm-floaties for Edison so that Ginger would be jealous and want some too! Thank goodness for sibling rivalry, right?

We also went to go feed the ducks at a local pond--it was one of the favorite activities of last year, so we were so excited to go back. We soon realized that Edison had no interest in the ducks, only in running away from adults. I got so tired chasing him down the whole time that we didn't really make it back to the pond.

Running, running, running. Into the woods, into the stream, and almost into the pond. If I really wanted a great workout, I could just take him back there!...not worth it, it was so exhausting!

Another favorite from last year was Suzie's Farm! Grammy has a good friend who has a little farm where we could go pet the animals: she has goats, horses, a donkey, etc....Edison's favorite was Suzie's cat. Edison would watch the older kids feed hay to the goats, so he followed the cat around trying to feed it hay! (honestly, I'm surprised that he didn't try to eat the hay himself, but I am glad that he didn't). Ginger had so much fun with the animals--she really loved the goats! And she rode on one of the horses for a long time all by herself.

This is one of our favorite pictures: Ginger lifting up the goat's tail to see what's underneath! She was really close to poking her finger into the goat's rear-end, but luckily Brandon caught her in time! There's no limit to a child's curiosity!