Our recent adventures

Last week we got to spend a relaxing Sunday afternoon with Anthony's parents. After dinner they realized that they had never actually seen the town we live in or the beach so we went for a drive and a walk!

 Anthony's dad took a picture of us taking a picture :)

 We walked all along the boardwalk over the dunes next to the beach in search of animals and gopher tortoises. We finally found one!

 Then we took a walk farther down the path to see if a geocache we found last year was still there. It was!

Last Monday I was on the phone with my mom when James came running up to me asking for the vacuum. He was covered in dirt and had apparently tracked it in the house and wanted me to clean it up. I had to get a picture of the filthiness! (He is saying "cheese" in these pictures :)

Look at those feet!!

Last week Anthony seemed to have a lot of plans/commitments away from home so I had even more time at home alone with James. He has recently been nap-striking and just playing in his crib during nap time which makes him a joy in the time between dinner and bedtime. So when Saturday came around and I was faced with another full day and night with just us (Anthony had work and then a priesthood meeting right afterwards) I was desperate to find something to do! Luckily I stumbled across a flyer for a spring fling at the Humane society. Animals plus a bouncy house? We were in!

The event didn't start until 10am, so we had some time after breakfast before we could go. James was not a fan of waiting! He found my shoes, put them on, and stomped around the house repeating, "Ready go, ready go!"

Almost as soon as we got to the event, they announced that they were starting the pony rides. When I brought James over to the field I was surprised to see full grown horses! I was imagining small horses and I was a little worried about how James would react to these big guys. He was definitely nervous at first as we approached them and he was gripping me really tight like he didn't want me to let go of him. The guy in charge said that they just put them up on the saddle really quickly and that they will get used to it. So I quickly put him up there and he was right! As soon as James got both legs over the saddle, he loved it!!

Every time he would pass by me he would tell me about the "steering wheel" (saddle horn) he was holding.

They held him still at the end so that I could get some better pictures of him. He was so focused he didn't want to look at the camera and smile until one of the volunteers jumped behind me and started waving her arms and making silly faces. It was so nice of them!

After our horse ride, we went inside of the building to see all the animals they had for adoption. Of course, the kittens were the favorite! I don't know why, but James loves him some kittens :) He definitely prefers them over big cats and dogs. Which is funny to me because our cat never lets James get close to him at home and our dogs always let him abuse them.

He kept getting excited and telling me that the kittens were "going night night":

Right before we left we spent a good amount of time in the bouncy house. This was James' second time ever in one of these things, but he definitely remembered it! He was such a good sport, nothing phased him! One little boy was even being a little bit rough with him (he would purposefully bounce next to James so that he would fall and even bounced on his back one time!) and James would just laugh and laugh!

I don't know why, but for some reason he decided that he was going "night night" in the middle of the floor. I was certain his head was going to get bounced on. I felt a little bad because the other kids would almost trip on him and their moms would yell at them to be careful for the baby. I say, let James learn that when you lay down in the middle you are going to get jumped on! It is always a bit awkward for me in those situations because on one hand I don't want to interfere with someone who is trying to teach their kids to follow rules that they set (like telling them that they have to be careful around younger kids) but on the other hand I want to let them know that I don't mind.

Jumping shots!

I could not convince this kid to come out when it was time to go. I even used the "let's go see Daddy" card (since we were planning on having lunch with him) which usually works to get him in gear but not this time. I had to haul myself through the tiny kid opening to grab him and get him out. All the rest of the day he would randomly start talking about "jumping" in the "bouncy house". I think we can add jumping as one of his new favorite activities!