Luke's room

Here is a photo of Luke's room, as well as one of him sitting in his room with his beloved Mr. Bear, who will definitely make the trip to New England with us.

His room is pretty big and looks a little empty right now, but I have no doubt that it will be filled up with little boy stuff soon enough, so right now we're enjoying the running/rolling/Monking around space.

Sunday hike

Late this afternoon we escaped the heat in the valley and went on a hike at Alta. Luke was in the backpack for most of the hike, but we let him out to Monk around a little at the top and he had a grand old time.

Below is a short video of Keith helping him navigate some rocks.

Fellow hikers like our friends Matt & Carla will be disgusted to see that he's up on the hill wearing Crocs, board shorts and a cotton Who t-shirt... we'll be sure to get him in proper hiking gear by next Summer :-)

Zoo

Today I took Luke on his first trip to the Hogle Zoo, a nice little zoo that's just a 5-minute drive from our house. In three years living here before we never even entered the parking lot. Now we're members.

We saw monkeys, zebras, elephants, cougars, tigers, rhinos, and much more. One tiger actually took quite a liking to Luke and was definitely staring us down (see second photo; he's a little hard to make out, but he's there all right; eyes fixed right on us!) As Luke ran off in one direction, Mr. Tiger followed. Of course he was behind two layers of fence, but since we were the only people in that area of the zoo at that time, I got a little freaked out and hustled us onto the next section! And we rode a little train; he liked the "toot-toot" of the horn.

Since we're members now I'm sure we'll be back soon.

Sneak peek: living room

Since our living room is almost all together I thought I'd share a couple of photos. The first one is the before shot, how it appeared when we bought and moved into the house. This week we painted it a light blue-gray. I actually wanted it a bit more on the gray side, but I think the color is a nice contrast with the dark wood floors and furniture.

We still need a simple rug under the coffee table and need to hang the remaining two blinds, but otherwise, it's almost there. HGTV would tell me that it needs long curtains in a bold, graphic pattern, and random stuff stacked up on the mantle and coffee table... but unfortunately that's not our style, so it's probably going to stay pretty understated.

Since we've never had two living areas before, everything in the room is new. The couch is from Ikea and --big shocker-- we had to put it together. It didn't occur to me when we bought it, that even their couches require self-assembly. Since it was too big for our car, I ordered home delivery and almost fell over when it arrived in eight pieces. But it was actually much simpler to assemble than some other Ikea items we've tackled (one dresser comes to mind). We bought the round coffee table in Vancouver several months ago to minimize sharp edges when Luke started cruising, so it's fairly new. And we recently picked up the two chairs and sideboard from a vintage shop here in SLC. Compared with similar items that we've seen in other cities, they were a steal, so we were excited to find them.

Oh yeah one thing-- do you think the painting over the fireplace looks too high? Keith thinks I hang pictures too low and I think he always hangs them too high. Guess who hung this one.

Taste of August

This afternoon we sat on our front step and ate nectarines. Luke's was small, but he ate the whole thing (even tried to eat the pit). And I think it only fell on the ground three times.

Cousins

The Lawlor clan (plus their friend Ryan) came to visit us this past weekend, on their way to a dude ranch in Colorado. Even though thunderstorms forced a 27-hour journey from DC to our front door, I think they still had a good time. We took them to Snowbird, and to Park City to enjoy the summer activities, including the alpine slide, bungie trampoline, and a ropes course. Keith took Kim on a hike and they saw a large diamond rattlesnake. Declan doted on Luke (I offered him a nanny job). And Kim, Dec, Keith and I attempted to go out to a nice dinner down the street while leaving a sleeping Luke with the boys. However, since Luke was wound up and a little overwhelmed, he didn't fall asleep until 10:15 pm, with me lying by his side. The other adults did enjoy a nice dinner at one of our favorite spots, and they lovingly brought me leftovers. Kian, Declan, Burke and Ryan were great with Luke, who basked in the attention.

It was great to spend time with the whole family, which we hadn't done in a long, long time. They boys were still little kids then--a far cry from the tall 13, 12 and 11 year olds that stayed with us this time! We will definitely try to see them much more in the next year, before they head off to Geneva for a few years.

New tricks

Within a 5-minute timeframe this evening, Luke managed to rip the control key off of my laptop keyboard. Then, as I was watching the news, he grabbed the remote control, changed the channel to a program called "Knit and Crochet Now!" and started recording it!

As a grand finale, he bit off the back panel on the remote off and tried to remove the batteries. I think it's time for a bit more lock down around here!

Raisin love

Luke tried raisins for the first time today. Once he figured out how to get his chubby fingers into the tiny box, they were a big hit.

Running man

Tonight we went to Sugarhouse Park after dinner to let Luke run around. Yes, he's actually running now. It was very entertaining to watch him run down some small hills, little legs going faster and faster until he tumbled and rolled and giggled. And of course he had to chase a couple of dogs and try to climb up the slide at the playground-- standard stuff.

When it got close to bed time we had to drag him back to the car, promising to come back soon.

Lip music

We finally got Luke to play along with the lip music trick.

Out in the Woods

Yesterday we went hiking with Ben, Meredith and Max up in Little Cottonwood Canyon. It was Luke's first hike in Utah and the first hike for the Duffys and Petersons WITH KIDS. Needless to say, we didn't hit record speed, or even make it to the top of the hike. Instead, we were responsible parents and stopped in a shady spot for obligatory snacks and stone throwing/ dirt digging/ stick nibbling before heading back down. Both boys fell asleep for a period during the outing and overall, seemed to have a good time. As far as we're concerned, that's the go-ahead to keep taking them on hikes!

Bye Daddy

Luke watched in the front window as Keith left for work this morning. It was very cute.

Almost funny

Luke was doing this cute thing for a couple of weeks, where you run your finger horizontally over his lips and he makes a silly sound... then starts laughing like crazy. That trick must have a name. I tried to video it a few of times with no luck. And recently he has stopped doing it, so of course we keep trying to make him. I think he's onto us because now he just sits there with his lips tight. Darn!

However, since I haven't posted a video in a while, I figured you might like to see him giggling anyway.

House Tour, first peek

Here are the first two snapshots of the inside of our house-- the kitchen and the family room off the kitchen. We're painting the living room, dining room and Luke's room, so I'll wait until that is done before sending more pics.

Scavenger

Luke is learning his way around his new kitchen... and apparently he is ready to help himself to snacks. We just returned from the park and he went right to the cupboard, pulled the bag of Cheerios out of the box and dug his whole arm right in the bag. Then, unsatisfied with the cereal, he went back for his favorite--graham crackers. A few seconds later, Keith came into the kitchen to get a drink and Luke, seeing the open fridge, scampered right in. He opened the fruit bin, pulled out a cluster of grapes and started eating them.

I guess we don't have to wonder if he's hungry anymore -- he'll just ransack the kitchen like a bear, helping himself!

New play place

Luke is enjoying the new little kid table that my parents stuffed in the Subaru when it was shipped here from NH. The chairs are a little big so we made a seat belt with some stretchy cord and velcro. Yup, he can get right out of that, but if he has something to entertain him like his new abacus or--even better--my wallet, he'll sit there for a while.

He's not supposed to be playing with my wallet, but sometimes it's the only thing that works. He even has his own wallet, filled with various hotel key cards and expired cards collected from around Vancouver and Alaska... but sadly he can't be fooled.

Three small things that make life easier

1. Neighborhood clean up program.

Twice a year, you can dump almost anything on the street in front of your house and city works will pick it up. It is awesome. It saves us a trip to the dump (which is way far away), plus, we don't even have a vehicle big or dirty enough to haul the stuff that will need dumping. I remember from our last stint here, people had some really impressive piles going. Then of course, there are tons of pick up trucks trolling the neighborhoods looking for treasures and you should see some of the things people fetch out of the heaps. Unfortunately the fall pick up is several weeks away and we already have a pile of stuff started on the side of the house.

2. Cheap parking.

You can park all day in downtown SLC for $3. Or you can valet your bike for free.

3. Hassle-free dealings with public services.

I called the DMV with a question that was not answered on the website. A real person answered 30 seconds after I went on hold and answered my questions politely. Not only did someone actually answer the phone, but he did not rudely tell me to look on the website then hang up, as I have experienced in a bigger city like Chicago.

Dealing with the gas and electric companies is similarly easy.

Even better, when I went to the DMV office this morning, an hour and a half after they opened, I was in and out with new plates for both cars within FIVE MINUTES. I'm not even kidding. I brought snacks and toys and books for Luke, planning for a long wait, but I guess I forgot that this is Utah!

With all the extra time this morning, I let Luke play with the plates, which he thought was cool.

Yard?

Here's a shot of the guys in our backyard. As you can see, it's small, has dead grass, and is adorned with lots of things we don't want, such as part of an old wire fence and metal posts, a laundry line post, overgrown bushes and weeds, etc).

That's why we had a landscaping company come on Friday to give us an estimate on some sprucing up. We're planning to rip out all of the unwanteds, put down new sod and sprinklers, and build a stone patio, which will go behind where I'm standing taking the photo.

Hopefully we will have that work done soon so we can enjoy cooking and eating out, and playing in the grass for the rest of the summer.

When we do have it done, I'll post some before and after shots.

Also, stay tuned for more photos of the inside of the house in the next week.