Wordless Wednesday

-Bethany

Five Years

Rick joined Palmer and I in Park City to celebrate our five years of marriage.

We celebrated with a lovely dinner out with our Park City hosts, Adam and Cydni, and a weekend of fun mountain activities.

Charlotte and Palmer watching the "big kids" at the local skateboard park.

We took a gondola ride up to the top of the Canyons ski resort mountain to check out the mountain bikers and hikers.

It's a long way down...

Lucky for Palmer, we didn't attempt the long hike and rode the gondola back down instead.

Maybe next year.

Right, Hull family?  Can we please come again next year??

Thanks for having us out! Everyone had a ball.

-Bethany

Stories To Remember

Too often, I rely on photos to give this blog momentum.

Lately, I've had a few stories that I want to make sure and remember when Palmer is older:

1.  WE DO NOT PEE ON THE DIVING BOARD
We potty-trained Palmer last month and have had many conversations about why it is okay for Boston to go outside but people need to go inside and use the potty. Nevertheless, Palmer has regular interest in peeing on objects that are not white, ceramic or cylinder.

Meanwhile, Palmer loves to jump off the diving board at our club pool and also loves a crowd of attention.

One day, Palmer noticed some people were watching him go off the diving board.  Ever the ham, Palmer started goofing off and pretending like he was going to jump and then didn't.  His stalling and "entertaining" got to the point where the entire pool was chanting, "jump, jump, jump!".  Palmer would bounce to the chant, fake jump, and then end with a yoga move of a "downward dog" on the diving board.  On his last pretend attempt to jump, he entertained the crowd (still chanting, mind you) with pulling down his pants and acting like he was going to pee on the diving board.

Insert angry mother who swiftly pulled him from the diving board and put him in "time out".  (Yes, we have a time out spot at the pool.  He visits it at least once a pool trip.)

The next time we went to the pool, Palmer told me that "we do not pee on the diving board or we go to time out".  Yep, that's right.

2.  ALL THINGS RED ARE FIRE TRUCKS

Palmer thinks that all red objects are a fire truck.  For example, he is thrilled to get in the red "fire truck" carts at Target and Trader Joes.  He also was thrilled last night when he sat in a red "fire truck" booster at a restaurant.

So, what did I do to incentivize the two year old to throw away a piece of trash? "Palmer, do you see that fire truck trash can? Will you please throw this trash in it?"  Boy, was he excited to help.

This momma right here, she's kinda brilliant.




3.  OPEN TAB
We've gone to the club pool often this summer.  Often enough for the staff to remember Palmer's face and corresponding member number.  Also, often enough for Palmer to watch in amazement as bigger kids go up to the snack window and order treats on their own.  Specifically, ice cream.

So, imagine my shock as I watched the other day when Palmer and his buddy Charlie stood by the snack window and together schemed about ordering ice cream.  Then, they walked up to the counter and said, "we want ice cream, please".

These two boys were beyond proud of themselves when they walked away with two ice cream sandwiches without discussing the purchase with their parents first.

As Rick put it, it's not going to be our last club bill audit.

-Bethany

Wordless Wednesday

-Bethany

Park City Fun

We've been having so much fun in the mountains of Utah with Cydni and Charlotte.  Park City does such a good job of creating fun summer activities that almost rival their winter sports.

Palmer's first chair lift:

I might've been a tad nervous and crazy about safety with Palmer because when we recalled the chair lift together at bedtime, I asked Palmer what he remembered and he said, "we sit very still".  Yes, exactly.

At the top of the chair lift, Palmer and I rode an alpine slide down to the bottom.  Palmer yelled, "wheeee" all the way down and loved it.

One afternoon, we went to a street festival where Palmer had his face painted for the first time.  His choice art: a gold star.

We went back to the Olympic Park to watch the future Olympian nordic jumpers practice.  During the summer, the skiers jump on a carpet mountain kept wet by sprinklers before each jump.

Palmer would say to each skier as they walked by, "Hiiii.  I do that when I'm bigger!"  One skier was so sweet and asked Palmer if he wanted to ride on the skier's back as he jumped.  Palmer quickly said, "yes!" while I quickly said, "no!"

Look carefully and you can see the skier jumping on the left hill:

Cydni's neighbor is an official for the bobsledding events and took us on a behind-the-scenes tour where we got to see the bobsled, skeleton, and luge starts.  We also went to the top of the nordic jumping hill.  It is way higher than it seemed from the bottom.  I'm not sure how you get the nerve to do your very first jump.

Of course, what is Palmer's highlight?  A tractor.  It's the simple things, people.

Palmer is a little homesick and keeps asking for his own house.  I asked him why he wanted his house and he said so that he could "see Boston and Daddy and play with his firetrucks and toys."

Rick joins us this weekend and we are looking forward to sharing more memories with him while celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary.

-Bethany

Daredevil Inspiration

Palmer and I are spending a few weeks in Park City, Utah with our friends Cydni and Charlotte.

Today, we visited the Olympic Park training center where many of the winter Olympic athletes train.  (This site hosted the 2002 SLC Olympc luge, skeleton, bobsled, ski jumping and nordic combined events.)

Palmer needs absolutely no prodding to try new experiences, so you can only imagine his enthusiasm when we watched teen Olympic hopeful freestyle aerialists practice their jumps in the summer training pool.

 Palmer said, "Mommy, I want to do that!"  Ski lessons first, little buddy.

Cydni was such a sport for letting us do touristy things and confessed that she had never watched the athletes practice despite living in Utah for so much of her life.

Me and my boy:

To further put "bad" ideas into my little man's head, there is a dirt bike park down the street from the home where we are staying.

 Again, Palmer was incredibly interested in the "big boys" and liked watching their jumps.

 You can see the wheels turning in this brain.

My little daredevil loves the outdoor spirit of Utah.  (And I love the weather is in the 50s-80s in August!)

-Bethany

Wordless Wednesday

-Bethany

Red Robe

Have you met our little Hugh Hefner?  This red robe has been one of my favorite accessories this summer.

Need to quickly dry off your kid and throw him in the car?  Use the robe.

Need to throw something over your kid's bathing suit in lieu of a cover up?  Use the robe.

Need to cover your child's naked and wet body but forgot dry clothes?  Use the robe.

I think my friend Adrienne meant for this robe to be used after bath time when she gave us this robe.  Sorry, friend.  The robe lives in our mudroom for the summer and we use it almost daily.

What a great find!

-Bethany

Horseshoe Bay

We've had the pleasure of staying at one of our favorite places, Horseshoe Bay, TWICE this summer: once for the weekend of my brother's engagement and another with friends.

(Quick funny story:  Aunt Samantha stayed with us at the Horseshoe Bay Marriott during Luke's engagement weekend.  Since Samantha just arrived from her flight in DC, it was too confusing to Palmer to explain where Samantha lived and why we were all staying together at the HSB Marriott.  So, we settled with, "this is Samantha's house".  A month later, we pulled up to the Marriott and Palmer said, "OH!  We are going to Samantha's house!!!"  Oops.)

Rick and I got married here five years ago (can you believe it??) and we just love the atmosphere and water activities.

First things first.  Our 2013 obligatory wedding spot photo op:

Last summer, 2012:

 Wedding day, 2008:

How many people does it take to drive a golf cart?

And how many friends does it take to push the golf cart when it runs out of battery juice (whoops)? Um, that may or may not have happened two different times.  We didn't learn our lesson the first time.

Sweet sunset friends:

Speaking of friends, Rick made a new friend on the golf course.  And made some bets on that golf course.  And won this watch on the golf course.

I'm still having a hard time believing the story, but his eyewitnesses swear it's true.

All dressed up with nowhere to go at Horseshoe Bay.

We love our summer memories at Horseshoe Bay.  Five years ago, Rick and I began our life together in this resort town.  We look forward to many many memories here to come.

-Bethany