JCP Portraits 6 Months and 2 Years

The boys took turns cooperating for pictures, so this was the best one together.

The photographer always wants to use props with the babies, but Jonah just wanted to eat them. He was pretty smiley, though.

And drooly.

 Scott is flushed from running around. We waited 45 minutes for our appointment, so it was pretty hectic. 

This one I bought one print and scanned it rather than the digital image just to document the ridiculousness that was our picture session. I gave Scott a string cheese to keep him happy during Jonah's turn and then he crawled over and got in the picture. It would have been great if not for the mouthful of cheese.

I still think the boys are cute and the pictures turned out okay, but I might stick with my own photo shoots until they are older and better behaved. Or take one kid at a time.

Scott's 2nd Birthday Party

We invited some nursery friends and our parents and siblings to the park to celebrate Scott's birthday.

It was raining all day, but stopped right before the party started. The train and carousel were still closed, but John and Scott took towels to the playground slides and we were ready to play.

Jonah napped.

Adults stood around and chatted.

Kids played.

Amanda took a billion pictures of Scott.

Olivia followed Scott everywhere.

She loves "Scott's daddy" and gets sadder about leaving him than Scott.

I can't blame her. He's a fun guy.

Maya usually observes rather than playing at the park, so her favorite part was probably the cupcake.

My mom brought her class pet, Shelly the turtle.

Lots of kids came over to meet her.

Pushing the empty swing to each other. 

Holding the little ones. 

Amanda indulging Scott with a "sruck" ride.

John playing with Lucas and Lincoln.

Little Paige and Katie.

Scott blew out his candle when we had one at home on his birthday, but wouldn't do it at the park party. Eventually the wind took care of it for him.

If his wish was for chocolate frosting, then it came true immediately.

My mom brought various milk and juice boxes. Scott discovered his love for chocolate milk.

Lou only had baby snacks because she wasn't quite one yet.

It started sprinkling as we packed up to leave, so perfect weather timing. 

We went with our families to Blue Rock for lunch and Scott opened his presents.

We had a great day!

Scott Turns Two

We came home from Hawaii late the night before Scott's birthday, so he slept in on the big day.

 Even though we agreed to keep things low key, I felt guilty doing nothing on his actual birthday. So I put sprinkles in his pancake.

 Don't let his sleepy face fool you, he loved it.

We spent the day doing laundry, unpacking and being visit taught, so I let him watch a movie to keep things fun.

We sang to him and he ate a red velvet cupcake after dinner from the Barnes and Noble kids club.

 Later in the week a package came in the mail from my aunt.

 I had to convince him to open another present after the goldfish crackers.

 He did, then he ran the paper to the trash and came back to fry up the fishies.

Scott didn't care about the cute clothes, but I was excited. Jonah liked playing with the box and lid.

 His Arizona cousins sent him a birthday card with two dollars!

I don't know that Scott's birthday seemed any more special to him, but after a week in Hawaii I think he liked just hanging around at home and he definitely enjoyed the treats. 

Hawaii: Sunday and Monday

Sunday we went to church and ran into someone who recognized me from the temple and someone else we had met at the farmer's market. Small world. 

 After church we took a leisurely walk up to and around Rainbow Falls.

Alan took our picture by this cool tree.

 John took one of me with Scott further away. 

Jonah napped on John which made them extra sweaty.

 I was pretty warm without any help.

 Scott ran around. Pretty much sums up his whole vacation.

Scott went up and down the ramp a few hundred times.

Then we went to Pe'epe'e Falls where there are boiling pots, but it was closed off other than to view. So we saw the gorge and walked around a little before moving on.

 Jonah was pretty happy even in the stroller. The trip provided Jonah with exposure therapy to the carseat and stroller and he really cut down on screaming time by the end of the week.

 We weren't ready to go back to the house yet so we just drove north. We saw cars pulled over and discovered a beautiful cove. 

 There was a pretty accessible trail down to the water so we pushed a sleeping Scott in the stroller.

After we had explored for a while I tried to wake him up so he would go down easier at night.

 He perked up enough to take a picture and then walked back up to the car.

We came home to make dinner and Scott found a hiding place in the empty kitchen cabinets.

The next morning was our last. Karen really wanted to zip line so I made reservations for her and John.

We had stopped at the Mauna Loa macadamia nut factory on Saturday, but the tour part was closed. So we went back Monday and the tour is really just videos, since the full production of nut making wasn't running.

 We still tried lots of tasty samples and bought Scott a new puzzle and book for the flight home.

 At the zip line, I took pictures of Jonah while Alan and Scott wandered around.

 He was so smiley!

 His foot wanted to be in the picture as well.

 There was a beautiful view of the gorge where they ziplined over the waterfall. There weren't other people in their group so they came back much faster than anticipated.

 A lady working at the zipline gave me directions to this beach.

 It was windy and the water wasn't very warm, but it didn't stop Scott from playing.

 There were some marine biology students studying in a rocky area and one of them showed us where to go to see a sea turtle up close. We switched off with the kids so we could snorkel.

 I took Jonah out because he was not as content to be cold. Once he was dry he was fine. So I took nakie baby pictures on the shore.

 Scott threw all the rocks he could find. Even some that were bigger than he could really carry.

 He had to enlist John's help. His teeth were chattering and his lips were getting purple, so I asked if he was ready to get out. He'd been asking to go in water for two days, so I didn't know how thrilled he'd be about leaving, but he ran right out and asked for a towel.

 We had a fun last day and slept like babies.

The next morning we flew home and back to real life. Scott still responds to bye-bye with, "Bye! go Hawaii!"