Union Station

 We like our family. And we like trains. So, we decided to take pictures of both at once.

 My sister-in-law's friend is a photographer. And so...

They turned out exquisitely.

Somebody's teething...

Can you guess who?

This is how I found Clara one morning as we dragged ourselves through puffy-eyed, runny-nosed, cranky days. Nathan saw me taking a picture, and asked "Picture, mommy?"

I said okay, and before I was done taking Clara's picture he had climbed up into her bed and was posing for his copy-cat shot. Toddler sees baby get attention for doing something cute, toddler does the same cute thing to get attention.

(These pictures are at least two weeks old. Clara's bottom two teeth are coming in nicely and get more visible every day.)

As I was taking some pictures of Clara's quite impressive post-ponytail look, he came and plopped himself down.

Same thing for the cute laundrybasket routine. Not that I did this "to be cute," but it's a good way to carry a baby and a load of laundry at the same time. She didn't love it. But Nathan did.

He still climbs into the excersaucer sometimes to play, but this was a first. As I got out of the shower one day I heard a very soft "mommy..." Since it wasn't an urgent death cry I continued getting ready. The cries got louder and louder.

Is he...? Yes. As I was taking a shower he was walking around with scissors before buckling himself into a baby seat. I've really got to start taking faster showers.

Here he is "taking a nap" in his laundry hamper. He continually amuses me with the things he finds fun.

And one more of Clara. This post was going to be very short and to the point. Instead this turned into a catchall post for August and September. But, with such cute kids, how could I keep these pictures to myself?

We had a fair time

By the time we got home from Mexico, I realized, the summer is almost over. And we still need to do Many Fun Things. And so we did.

We went to both the Weber and Davis county fairs. These pictures are from the Davis one. We had a great time seeing all the animals. We figured we'd go all out and let Nathan pick a ride, which I don't remember, ever in my life, my parents letting me ride the rides at the county fair. Which, yes, they're kind of a ripoff. First he sneaked into the bouncy house, and there was no ticket-taker in sight. Oh, well. It turned out to be too bouncy for a small boy to have fun, so I didn't feel at all bad not giving them any tickets for his seconds-long stay. We next picked out this car ride. He loves cars. He'd love this ride, too. Right? Well, he did. For about twenty seconds. The ride was a little too long, though, and the next thing I knew he was whimpering and calling out "Mommy!" And still the ride went on for another eternity. This is how he coped.

One of my favorite things about the fair is Fair Treats. Fresh squeezed lemonade and elephant ear scones take me back to childhoods spent at the Weber county fair. This year we tried a fried twinkie. It was not great. Don't waste your money. But we got some Zeppe's Italian Water ice that was delicious. Don't believe Clara.

Too cold! A couple weeks later she tried a snow cone at her NICU reunion, though, and loved it. The NICU threw a pool party at the North Ogden aquatic center, and served pizza and snow cones. And, hey, why not get into a pool for free? Nathan loved it. Clara loved splashing in the shallows too. And it was good to see some of our old nurses and have them (pretend to, at least) remember Clara. Too bad we forgot our camera.

We went to see the cows just before we left, and one of the owners let us into the pen to pet the big black cow. Nathan didn't want to at first, but wouldn't stop talking about it later. "I touch a cow!"

And then, on the way home, he found a hole in his shorts we didn't know existed. You can really tell in the picture, but there are little cargo pockets that are apparently fake. He got his hand stuck and was really unhappy until we got the camera out.

Days on the beach

One of my biggest concerns was sunburn. But, voila! A shade tent. It was our salvation from sunburn. The only drawback was that it blocked the wind as well as the sun. The humidity made it a little like a steam bath, the moisture trickling down your back and making it feel like you'd been in the water whether or not you had.

So, armed with our shade, we could play in the sand for hours at a time. The sand, which sticks to skin very well, does not stick to itself. Sand castles were disappointing. Luckily, though, we had a dump truck and a digger, with which we could play Truck Stuck. Truck Stuck is endlessly entertaining. You use the digger to bury the dump truck, and then you pull it out. Sounds great, huh?

Indeed.

By some cruel twist of fate, Nathan had to go more than a week without playing trains. And that was just too long. So he made his own. The shell he's holding above was his engine; he'd drive it around in the sand. The going was rough, since the engine had no wheels. But did that stop him? Oh, no. He's a determined train driver. It was a little hard when he wanted to make bridges in the sand for the train to drive under, but we managed.

Nathan wasn't the only one who had fun with the sand.

My favorite part? Our house was only about a hundred yards from the water. So it was easy to haul our stuff back and forth, and easy to go back for nap time.

And the sunsets. The sunsets were great.