Glasses, strawberries and smiles.

 

Sam loves pulling glasses off Grandma Marty's face. Well one day Marty put her glasses on Sam and he was as happy as all can be.Of course when the picture was taken he seemed otherwise. I thought it was post-worthy.

 

We tried again the next day with much more success.

 

Hehehe...what a nerd. He looks like a rabbit with those teeth.

 

Moving on to the actual substance of this post; Hank's sister was down for a couple weeks with her two girls and we did all sorts of fun stuff including a visit to the Underwood Family Farms. Sam is feeling pretty cool being in the wagon with his cousins.

 

Hay is fun to stand on. We also saw many animals and played in a play pit and did all sorts of cool things, but I don't have many pictures of those things...just the hay. Oh well.

 

The main event was wandering aimlessly for strawberries the pick. We finally discovered them after some direction was given. It was a trek out to the patch but oh was it worth it. Sam is concentrating very hard on enjoying the strawberry's delectable flavor.

 

It took some convincing to get the girls to wait until we bought the strawberries before eating them. Here we are enjoying our spoils. Sam and I were covered in red for the rest of the day.

 

Sam's new thing is this smile. I have decided to encourage this behaviour by giving him whatever he wants when he does it. I feel good about my decision.

 

I love you too, bud.

Random Happenings

Two weekends ago Hank and I went to an Earth Day fair. They had all sorts of booths and crafts. I was very excited about making paper. We went right before Sam's nap time and that was basically his expression the whole time. Even though he was tired I could tell he supported the event.

My mom is now a certified Yoga Instructor. She has been certifying all year and she finally graduated! We are all so proud of her!

Here she is waiting to get her graduation beads. Yeah Mom! you are an inspiration to us all!

My little sister went to Mormon Prom last Friday and oh my gosh did she have fun! the prom was at the Long Beach aquarium and I guess they really went all out. She is the youngest of the family and so there are no more proms for my parents. I asked my dad how he felt about that and he said "I guess it's sad but you really get worn out!".

My sister had to be the most beautiful girl at the prom! look at her. I think any guy would have just died to take such a pretty girl.

The weather has been magnificent and Sam and I have been taking advantage. I got him some sand toys I am not lying... hours of fun.

We also got him a little floaty thing. Look, he's a race car driver! Sam you are so silly!

More water fun. He spent a long time investigating the sprinkler and I think he finally decided it was too complicated for him and decided to stick to the little pool behind him. He is getting so big. He just turned 13 months. He's not walking yet but crawls exceptional well and pulls himself up on everything. He is also a huge talker. All day long he babbles to himself and I can tell he is mimicking what I say. He also loves to investigate how things work and notices the smallest details. Seriously I could sit and watch him all day. What a kid!

First hair cut

I know many of you didn't know Sam even had hair and wonder if a haircut was really necessary.I mean when his hair gets wet it's completely invisible But to his adoring parents the rat tail that was forming in the back needed to go, even if it is only visual upon close inspection.  That's the way it goes when you have a toe head baby. Anyway, Sam did very well...the smock didn't last long.

Here is Papa Harv distracting him while Dad does the dirty work.

He doesn't know what he does to me...just look at that face...oh my gosh I love him.

 We start long and then worked our way in, Hank did a very nice job.

 Sam was giving us a hard time so we don't have the best back shot but if you squint I think you'll notice a difference. Man! he is one good- looking kid!

Fingerpainting and Farm

Sam and I did a little experiment and I must say it was an all afternoon success! I made finger paints out of flour, water and food coloring, put plastic on the ground and let Sam go for it. We started out with just a little, but that soon changed.

 

He took matters into his own hands as soon as I gave him free reign over the Tupperware that was housing the paints.

I added more "tools" as time went on so he could move the paints around in interesting ways.

He is thanking the heavens for finger paint!

This morning we went to the Underwood Family Farms with some friends. It was really neat. They had a big animal farm section. They also have fields where you can pick your fruit and veggies. I need to go back to do that. Today was just an animal day, which was packed with fun.

Emus...Sam is ecstatic.

Sam's favorite part was the big wooden train. There was lots to climb, which is what he is into right now. What a cute kid.

Easter and more England stuff...

We had an English Easter. On Saturday we went to this cute outdoor museum called the Black Country Museum. It was all about the black country area and what life has been like for people in that area. For the Easter holiday they had some traditional English activities; included was egg rolling which Oliver, Katya and even baby Sam participated in. Easter here is a little different. They don't have Easter baskets, instead everyone gets a huge chocolate egg and eats lots and lots of chocolate. It's right up my alley!

Leah made a pork roast and we ate English roast potatoes, brussel sprouts and green beans for our Easter dinner. It was so yummy! Leah inspires me with her cooking. We celebrated Katya's birthday that evening by decorating cupcakes and opening presents. During dinner Katya turned to me and said "Leah, this is all for me".

 Curries are a really big deal here. Leah and Martin along with Martin's brother and girlfirend, Matt and Trudy took us to a Bangladeshi resturant. Hank and I ordered a "banquet" dinner for two thinking it was an easy way to order and get a little of everything. Little did we know the insane amount of food that would be brought out.  So after stuffing ourselves with declious curry we took the rest home and enjoyed the magic the next night. I am now so imspired to learn how to make curries.

Here we are in Stratford-upon-Avon at Shakespeare's birth place. That was a fun and interesting day. I am suddenly in mood to watch Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet.

This was fun and exhausting day...Warwick castle. It's like a theme park as well as a historic sight, so there was  alot to do for the adults and the kids. Look how cute Sam's smile is.

 Sam basically worships Oliver. He gets so excited when Oliver is playing with him and wants to follow him around everywhere. I know someday they are going to be troublemakers together.

 Just yesterday we went to the Preston Temple. Hank and I switched off watching Sam so we could both do a session. It was really nice. We are having a lot of fun and are going to be sad to leave. We have just a few more days left and it has been such a neat experience.

London!

 Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of last week was our London trip. We did so much in a small amount of time and felt exhausted by the end. Sam did so well considering we walked everywhere and he couldn't get out of the carrier to crawl around and it was basicly pouring rain the whole time. It was an adventure to say the least! Here we are at Westminster Cathedral.

The first day we wondered around aimlessly trying to find bathrooms and a map. We ran into Buckingham Palace along the way. There was no changing of the guards that day...oh well. It's a pretty impressive building all on it's own.

We eventually got a map and did a LOT of walking. We went through Hyde park which was pretty beautiful and then found ourselves at Portbello road. The rest of the day was filled with walking, talking and looking. It was quite magical and wet.

The next day we took it slightly easier. We saw Parliament and Big Ben first and then,

Westminster Abbey (I am in that picture, see if you can spot me!) and then...

...the National Gallery! Poor Sam had to endure four hours of gallery looking because I wanted to see everything. Hank is really nice and took him out for the last leg of it. That took up the majority of the day and it was well worth it. I don't know why I wanted to see so much artwork, I am not even a art historian or anything; I just liked it.

The last day was jammed packed! We started early and went to the Tower of London and London Bridge. Fascinating history lesson here. Notice how I am in every picture...that's Hank's doing. Also Sam is starting to smile when the camera comes out. It's so cute.

St. Paul's Cathedral. That was pretty impressive and mind boggling. I don't know what else to say about that.

After the cathdral we went to Shakespeare's new globe and took a tour. This is our tour guide, Tony. Have you ever seen anyone more English? We had such a fun time on that tour, it was really interesting and right up our alley.

 Fortunately we had time after the Globe and popped into the Tate Modern and saw even more artwork. It was awesome and very different from the National Gallery. In the Tate we actucally had to be carefully not to see every exhibit in case there was something unbelievebale offensive. We also spotted Willem Dafoe in a taxi on our way out.

The last event of London was going to a pub called The Albert. I guess people from Parliament go there and whenever Parliament is in session they ring a bell. They are famous for their carvery which is very English. We had Roast Beef, Turkey and Pork...so yummy in our tummies. Look at how cute Sam is! He's in his own seat.We have done a lot since then but my own my I don't have the energy to blog about it all. Anyway, we are having fun!

This is what we have been up to

I really want to document all the English food we are eating because I always hear jokes about how mediocre English food is and so I want to get a taste of it for myself so I can make my own opinion and so far...SO GOOD! Of course I am not that harsh of a critic and I haven't had much yet. Here we are eating cornish pasties. 

 

 Sausage and Mash

That's right we went to Cadbury World, where we learned about Cadbury Chocolate and saw parts of the factory where it's made, we also of course ate lots of chocolate!!! so good!!

 

 This is the "seaside" in ChristChurch, a little village near on the coast. 

Here is the church. Cool uh?

Here we are at Stonehenge. It was freezing because of the wind. Hank and I wanted to enjoy the audio guide they gave us but gave up half-way through because Sam was screaming and we both were freezing. I don't feel like I missed much because the guide would repeat over and over how mysterious the whole structure is and how no one really knows anything about it. The thing I find interesting is that this was an ancient site even before the Romans invaded. No wonder nobody knows anything.

Salisbury Cathedral. It's a bit mind boggling.

This is the first ancient Cathdral I have ever been in, it sorta took my breath away.

Anyway, more updates to come!