Sliding!

Playing on his slide last night in the yard.

Austin Powers.

Stuck like Austin Powers in "Goldmember"!

Corn!

Looking at all the sweet corn in the garden reminds me of Nebraska. It even smells like a corn field!

Speaking of corn, we had Hotdog on a Stick last night! It's fantastic! And so close to the house, I'll weigh 300 pounds by the end of the year!

Some fun with friends.

Last night we hosted dinner to a couple that we met from our birthing class a year and a half (!) ago.  Dinner was cooked by me and it consisted of a beef tri tip on the grill, roasted Yukon Gold potatoes with garlic and white cheddar, sauteed zucchini, and grill roasted peppers, onions, and zucchini.  It was delicious!  After dinner, we went out to play in the yard.  Easton and Skyler got to play on Skyler's new slide!!

Nick supervising Easton while Skyler gets ready to climb.

I picked up the slide this past Tuesday and Skyler has played on it every day since.  In fact, I have to make sure it's out of his sight when he's in the house or else he just tries to get out to play on it.  This includes him opening the back door.  On his own.  Such a smarty!

Painting the UDOT bridge.

Last night after Altair got off work, we went over to paint Skyler's hand and footprints on a pedestrian bridge that UDOT is moving.  It was pretty fun!  He didn't want anything to do with having his hands placed in the paint, but I got his footprint a few times.  Altair and I got to put our hands in paint as well.  This bridge was for an elementary school not too far from our house, but it had to be moved and replaced for a road project.  It's now being moved to another elementary school out west of here.  Pretty cool that someone had the idea to be creative!

The bridge's temporary home.

Skyler's feet in purple, my hand in red.

Skyler's foot in blue.

Skyler's hand in orange, mine in green, and Altair's in yellow.

Sadly, I think he was more interested in the water truck than making hand prints.

Story on the news.

Playing with the iPad.

Using the photo booth app.

The progression of a hay field.

Skyler and I walk almost every day.  It's no secret that I like this one particular canal road near our house.  Up by that canal road is an 8 acre hay field.  I know the owner from when I used to be a parts guy at John Deere.  He's a former realtor and a wanna be farmer/rancher.  So far this year, I've fixed his baler and his swather.  Last week he cut his 2nd crop of alfalfa with little to no chance of it getting rained on he told me.  Wrong.  It's been rained on at least 3 times now.  For those of you that don't know much about baling hay, rain = bad quality hay.  Plus the additional moisture makes the hay start to decay resulting in poor quality feed for the animals that consume it.  It's a good thing this is just hobby farm hay for horses.

Two weeks ago.

Looking west.  This was seeded this spring.

Looking to the southwest.  Kennecott copper mine is just visible to the right.

There's a broken swather somewhere in this picture.

Last Tuesday, just starting to open up the field.

A better view of the windrow produced by the swather.

Anyone for prickly lettuce?  Prickly lettuce is a noxious weed.

The swather sits where it broke down.  I got the call to come fix it a few hours later.

This morning's happenings.  The little Ford tractor is raking windrows to help them dry before they get baled.

Hay should be green in color when it's conditioned before baling.  Not straw color.  You can see a few bales in the distance.

Skyler looking at the tractors.

He was screaming "tractor" even though they weren't running.

We're watching Sesame Street.

You can't make this stuff up!

Skyler unrolled half a roll of T.P. yesterday, look at his pose and his proud face!

Just being adorable!

Yesterday, Skyler was just being himself, adorable!  First, he had to sit on one of my tractors and pretend to drive, then it was time to pull his wagon around the yard and load it with his other toys.  He would even stop to pick a raspberry and eat it!

And finally, LOOK WHAT'S GOING IN NEAR OUR HOUSE!!!!!  Hotdog on a stick!!!  I'm eating there every day the week it opens!  :)

Foot piano.

Last night we caught Skyler playing his piano with his feet!

Washing windows.

With a helper!

I'm Elmo and I know it!

Dancing to "I'm Elmo and I know it" on the iPad.  If you want to endure the hell that is Elmo for yourself, click here

Getting a drink!

From the pet water...

Cat and mouse.

Last night I couldn't find our cat, Eddy or Mr. Mittens as he's been aptly nicknamed anywhere in our house.  Turns out, he had some late night entertainment in the basement window.  Seems that a FAT mouse fell into the window well and Eddy was watching it and trying to bat at it through the glass.  He was quite entertained!  I feel a little bad for the mouse, he looked at the cat for help at one point.  The mouse is still in the window well as of an hour ago, I'll see what happens later in the day, he has a stick he can climb out on.  Altair wouldn't let me let Eddy into the window well or hit it with a shovel.  I can't believe I'm saving mice now...

"I see you Mouse!"

Can you believe how FAT that mouse is?!

"Hey cat, a little help here please?"

A trip to Cabelas.

Or a trip to redneck world!  Yesterday we went to Cabelas to find the dog a specific toy (they didn't have) and to show Skyler the aquarium they have.  The aquarium was nice, the rest of the experience not so much.  The customer service is severely lacking at this particular store!  Cabelas is based out of Sydney Nebraska and I remember going there as a kid and it seemed like an extra special experience.  Maybe I'm just older, maybe it's the fact that the world has lost it's manners, I don't know.  I know I'm excited for the new Scheels store to open in September and I hope they put Cabelas out of business here in Utah.

"Look at all the fish!"

A giant catfish!

Trying to get the iPhone!

Multiple fish.

He really liked the waterfall.

Continuing with the plant theme...

I know this blog has been lacking Skyler pics lately,  but I've been so busy chasing him around the house and yard I haven't had any time to take pics of him.  I'll try and get some today.  In the meantime, here's some hollyhock flowers after yesterdays rain.  My first memory of hollyhocks was when I was a kid in Nebraska and the lady that lived south of my Grandma's place had an immaculate heirloom flower garden.  It was truly spectacular!

Our hollyhock "hedge".

If I remember right, this is the old fashioned variety of hollyhock.  Only one set of petals.

Almost black.

I think this would be the modern hybrid variety with multiple petals.  My Grandmother could tell us for sure.