A day at the park

One of my favorite things to do during the summer here is to spend time at the park. Our favorite park is Porter Park in Rexburg. My only complaint is that it is too close to BYU campus so at times it can be overly crowded, but right now is the perfect  time to go there since the students are all on a 7 week break, yeah! The great things about this park are it has a great playground and picnic areas, plus at one corner there is a splash park and Carousel. Which are just perfect for little ones on a hot day. So I decided that Nathan and I would spend the morning at the park.

                                                             The Splash Park

 The Carousel is definitely his favorite part of the day. While we were at the park Nathan started running away from me and towards the street. After a couple times of trying to tell him that he couldn't play in the street he still wasn't understanding me so I told him if he kept running off we would just go home and he wouldn't get to ride the horses. Well that put an end to it and he played on the grassy hills until the carousel was open and immediately got in line. He always picks out the same horse to ride, but today there was already some girls around it so I had to convince him to ride another one.

Here come the photos

Enjoying the pancakes at the Salem area 4th of July Breakfast.

                         Getting some help putting on his shoes.

                                    On the way to the lake.

 

                      Watching Dad getting ready to start surfing.

 

                       What a life this dog has.

                    The beach where we ate lunch.

                                       
                                      Some of the cliffs that surround the lake.

                        Hanging out on one of the floating docks.

                           Enjoying some refreshing time in the water.

Towards the end of our day on the lake Nathan was fighting to keep his eyes open.

                                                       And he is out!

        Watching the fireworks. So worried!

              Here dad how about these ones?

                                                 Grand finale!

 This picture was from a week ago while we were at a birthday party for one of his friends. He sure did enjoy the cupcakes!

4th of July

 We had a great Fourth of July weekend. We finally took the boat out for the first time  Saturday afternoon. It always seems like so much work to get ready and out on the lake, but I forget what a good mood surfing puts me in. For the first hour Nathan was really nervous and clung to my lap, i was actually nervous about getting in the water because I thought he would have a melt down when I left him. But he got a lot braver once he saw me surfing and really started to enjoy the ride. Once everyone was hungry we left the lake and headed over to Big Judds, a local hamburger joint that sells 1lb and bigger burgers for those willing to try and make it on their wall of fame. The food is actually pretty good. By the time we got home it was after 10 and Nathan was more then ready for bed.
Sunday night we were invited by a friend of Dave's to a BBQ. We had a good time just hanging out and Nathan had a blast hanging out with some new girlfriends. That night was another first for Nathan because he got his first Fat lip. He was playing with a lab who loved to catch a tennis ball in the air, and in an attempt to throw it up for her it went over his head and in her excitement to catch the ball she jumped right onto Nathan.I think he must have bitten his lip when he fell. After a little clean up and some ice on his lip he was back to playing in just a few minutes.
On Monday the 4th we started out our day by going to our local Salem community pancake breakfast. We were all ready to leave straight from the breakfast to the lake with our friends the Vreekens. I will post some pictures from our time on the lake once I can get some copies from them. We had a great time. We started out by surfing  a little and I was able to work more on staying on the wake with out the rope. Then we headed over to a grassy shoreline to eat some lunch. After lunch the guys did a little more surfing and then we docked near some cliffs so they guys could do some cliff jumping and Cheris and I tried to get the kids to swim a little in the water. Nathan definitely did not want to get all the way in but he had a great time sitting on the boat platform and splashing the water with his feet. At around 3 we decided it was time to head home when Dave noticed that a boat nearby was having some problems and they ended up needing a tow back to the  boat ramp.Nathan was so tired they he fell asleep on the was over to the ramp. That ended up being his only nap for the day. I was kind of worried he wouldn't be awake for us to do fireworks, but he seemed to be OK.
 After we got home we showered and relaxed until it was time to BBQ some dinner and then we set off a few of those safe and sane fireworks that I had bought from a local stand. I must say that most of the little fountains were really weak and I was a little disappointed that I didn't realize that there were no sparklers in the pack. But I had spent a little extra and some larger fountains and those ended up being fantastically dangerous. I was pretty shocked when they started to shoot into the air and sometimes even at us. I was laughing so hard and wondering if I should grab Nathan and run for cover, especially after one fell over on its side and was aimed at us. Good thing we had the hose ready. I bet those ones aren't available again next year, but you know I will have to get them if they are.

                                     Happy 4th of July!

                                  Loving the watermelon.

                                          
                           Fireworks, kind of lame, this picture pretty much sums it up.

Nathan  was excited to pick out the fireworks and then hand them to Dave.

                 He was so worried during the finale, I just love this picture!

3rd late night with no nap and he is still running around with his friends like he could go all night.

Tuesday after Dave got home from work he suggested that we go see new Transformers together. So we dropped Nathan off with Dave's cousin Daniel and headed to Idaho Falls to watch it in 3D. I usually think 3D is a waste of money but I thought that this one was pretty cool and Dave even said he didn't get sick watching it. Nathan had a great time hanging with Daniel and Heather. We didn't get home until after 11, another late night for Nathan. But it is fun to get out on a date just the two of us.