The long awaited video of Matt walking

Here is Matt taking some steps. Notice how his arms are above his head, I guess this helps him balance because he always holds them up there. Its fun to see him become more confident and daring the more he walks.

Fun in August

We've had another fun filled month. Matt loves to help me out at home, from laundry to making dinner. He is picking up on things so fast these days, its so cute to see him learn new things. He is walking more these days and can go for a whole room's distance before he decides to sit down and continue crawling. We helped Amy and Justin move to Pleasant Grove into their new condo. They didn't have very much to move since they moved all of the small things earlier that week. There were no big appliances just some furniture. Matt and I cheered all the movers on as there wasn't much for us to lift.
We had a mini-emergency last Monday night. Josh was doing some wood carving and I startled him as I came outside to see him. His chisel missed the wood but carved into his thigh instead. We headed to the instacare where the 3 inch gaping tear got stitched back up (There are some pictures of it on our site but they make it look so small).Josh and I backpacked into East Shingle Creek Lake last weekend. It was as hard to find as it is to say. Luckily, we made camp before dark and Josh even had time to catch a few fish.
We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Dedication on Sunday which was such a neat experience. I love President Monson! We baby swapped with Ashlee and Mark (Matt for Blueberry). She is such a cutie pie, but she got a little angry when Josh tried to hold her.
Anyways, here is a link to a photobucket album. I can't get the slideshows to work anymore.
http://s632.photobucket.com/albums/uu42/hnf04/August%2009/

Another Matt video

I was having a hard time posting more than one video on the same post, so I thought I would make a slideshow. Hopefully this works!

Matt video

Here is a random video of Matt. This is from our backpacking trip to Fehr Lake. Enjoy :)

Catching up the blog

Summer has been fun this year. Matt is enjoying playing outside and we've been able to do some fun things with him.
We met Josh at a park for a lunch playdate last week.

Matt loved the slides and tunnels.

Last Thursday, there were some really strong winds ( is there such a thing as a wind storm?) in SoJo. We lost our biggest Aspen tree :( That night was spent chopping up wood and clearing branches out of the yard, roses, and street.

Last night, we went for a hike up to Lower Bell's Resevoir. It was completely uphill as we had to climb to the top of a ridge to where the lake was. Matt was a trooper. He loves being outside and does well in his backpack. He was mostly interested in throwing rocks in the lake. "Sorry Dad and Grandpa for scaring away the fishies." Matt told me to type that.

This morning Matt and I went to the Gale Museum in South Jordan as part of an Enrichment activity. The museum has an exhibit on the early settlers of this area. There were several ladies that came and half of them had small children. Matt was the least interested in the tour until we came to the hands on part of the museum. He was sad when we had to leave. He got to milk a cow, collect eggs from a chicken, catch fish, and drive an old car. He would have liked being a pioneer.

Matt eating lunch

This is one of Matt's favorite video to watch. He is eating chicken tenders for lunch all by himself. Too cute!

Matt's 1st Backpacking Trip

It's been so fun to have "first" things with Matt as he's grown over the last 15 months. Just about everything is a first, but it's exciting as a parent to see the excitement in Matt for a new activity or experience. So Thursday night we drove up to our favorite mountains, the Uintahs. We packed in a whooping .5 miles to Fehr Lake and setup camp that night. Matt absolutely loved being carried in his backpack, playing in the dirt, and throwing rocks. We watched Josh fish for a while. We played at our campsite and fun around the fire. I know its hot and its summertime, but a fire is an absolute must (if allowed) when camping. Plus, it helped smoke all the buggies away.

We walked around the Fehr lake, its was gorgeous and fun to be in the outdoors. Josh gets this like primal, manly energy when he is in the mountains. He wants to scout out the area, fish, climb around, basically anything but sit and relax (which is what I love to do on our backpack trips). He is the happiest guy in the world when he is outdoors.

Matt didn't sleep the best in his sleeping bag, didn't let him roll around easily. So we weren't very rested when the sun came up at 6am Friday. But we ate breakfast, and packed up for our hike to Shepard Lake. It was about another mile from our camp, but it was all downhill going (uphill coming back, ahhh). It was worth the effort. There was a waterfall that fed into the lake, which was significantly bigger than Fehr Lake. Josh fished for a bit and caught 3 or 4 brookies. It was so much fun for him, he hasn't fished in ages! Matt liked watching Josh fish and would point to his rod like he wanted to hold it and cast himself. Matt got to hold onto the rod when a fish was on the line and Dad pulled it in. Then Josh held the fish close so Matt could get a feel. Look at his poor, dirty hands in the picture. My baby loved the dirt soooo much! I could only wash and wipe those hands so much while camping. Anyways, we had a great first experience with Matt and backpacking. Who knows, there might be another one in store this summer for him!?!? P.S. Josh has been growing his mustache out for 2 weeks, a buddy dared him. (Thanks Mike!) So that is the reason his upper lip looks shady and dirty looking. It is gone now, WOO HOO!