James' 1st Birthday

 My sweet baby is 1! Ryan says, "Ohp, he's walking... time to have another one." I'm actually baby hungry... I haven't really been baby hungry before, and maybe it's because the timing's a bit off. Ryan will probably be at training all of next summer and we'll be moving too sometime after April, so we need to wait at least until a September due date. I think 2 years apart will be a bit more manageable than 20 months... somehow I'm thinking those 4 months will make a big difference. Not to mention, I need to get Alexander completely weaned before then too! "I'm still little..." -- Alexander ("Why is Alexander nursing still?" You might ask. "After all, he did have a weaning party in June"... Apparently it was premature.)

Since I'm already on a tangent: I never really thought I'd have a "big" family... and I REALLY don't want more than 4 kids... (Mostly for selfish reasons and because when you're playing the game of "LIFE", having to move 2 cars is really inconvenient... and I wanted to be in the same car as my hubby... AND the perfect layout for babies was blue, pink, blue, pink... Because every little girl needs a big brother... but I digress). Whenever I say "I'd be okay with just having 4 boys", Ryan retorts, "but you KNOW there's a daughter waiting."... just like I "KNOW" we're going active duty. Actually, I'll be VERY surprised if we don't go AD Army. But, seriously, when we're done having kids, I really want to be done. No mistakes nor surprises. Perfect world, I want to be done at 35... 2 more years. Really?! Are we going to keep having babies until our daughter shows up?! I'd be crazy to say yes... As I "kick against the pricks"... Anyway, I need to learn how to parent a 5 year old before I can have more kids. (Enough of my stream-of-consciousness... This really is how my mind works!)

Back to James:

 Gram came for the weekend before James' birthday. Right now our children are perfectly spaced out throughout the year for her to visit for each of their birthdays...

 James wasn't sure what the candle was for.

 He enjoyed the blueberries with his orange bunt cake (which was day old and free compliments of Fresh Market!!! I love free!)

As the tradition goes, I took James to have his photos taken on his birthday.

 I tried driving a matchbox car to James to get him to smile and he wouldn't give it up!






Then, he wouldn't stay still and insisted on walking off the set.                      "Here Mommy!"

 

Grandma sent his presents early b/c she was going to be out of the country and Benjamin was SURE James needed to open them early. We held off until the big day, but didn't wait for daddy to get home to open a couple of them. James was more interested in carrying the presents off than opening them.

Ryan was amused that James was nursing the frosting off the cupcake. I made the mistake of handing James the cupcake and then taking it from him to put a candle on it. He was sure he didn't need the candle... just the cupcake!

These were left-over Winnie the Pooh cupcakes frozen from my birthday. I'm thinking I should enjoy not having to make James a cake at least for another year. Alexander and Benjamin are already planning their cakes from the Birthday Cakes for Kids book my dad gave me a few years ago. They love looking through it. At the moment Alexander wants every cake in the book, but especially the ones that are decorated with lots of candy and Benjamin wants the football field w/teddy graham players.

Timpanogos Cave

 The hike up to the caves was a bit terrifying. It was 1.5 miles w/ a 1,000 ft. elevation gain. Much of the trail was mountain wall on one side and sheer cliff on the other. I probably made Benjamin paranoid about falling off a cliff for the rest of his life (Just like Ryan's dad is terrified of sharks in the ocean)... I get vertigo though and hate edges. It didn't help that every once in a while Benjamin would start walking backwards toward the edge. Some parts of the trail had chain rope hand rails and Benjamin said it was like the iron rod. We talked about how it is better to stay away from the edge because you always have more choices that way. Alexander hiked a lot of it and then rode in the backpack while I carried James in the sling for the rest of the time. James fell asleep on the hike down.  

 Inside Timpanogos Cave.

I'm sure I annoyed people by flashing our camera. This was our tour guide.

It will take 80+ years for the stalactite and stalagmite to touch.

Benjamin was excited stand on the hole to let the water drip on him. This sidewalk was built in the 1930s.

Benjamin and Alexander became "Junior Rangers" right before we left. It was closing time so we hurried them through.

There was a whole booklet of activities for them to do in order to complete the program. This is just a sampling. Benjamin said he drew a cow. We were all a bit perplexed as to why there'd be a cow in a cave and Alexander's, I think, is of bats.







It turns out, I must have left my camera on the desk in the visitors center. I hadn't seen the camera in a few weeks and the thought came to my mind that we must have left it at Timpanogos Cave. I called and talked to a forest ranger in the office and sure enough it was in their lost and found. I'm grateful we only had to drive about 20 miles out of the way to retrieve the camera and not hundreds. We also picked it up the last weekend the caves were open before they closed for the season.  I thought I took photos of the boys while they were becoming junior rangers, but when I got the camera back, there were none.