Things that Stick

Passing the 2 year mark, has opened up a world of words and memories. It's funny which things stick in the memory of a two year old, and which things don't.

RIDE BUS

By far the most important thing we did on our lengthy vacation to AZ and CA, was ride the bus.

By bus, I mean the shuttle from longterm parking to the airport.



Jackson has continued to express a desire to "ride a bus" again. He pretty much mentions it everytime he sees a bus--at least 5-6 times a day. I've decided we'll have to do that fun activity this summer--since there's a bus right outside our house, and admission to such a fun place is all of 1.50 for me.

RIDE HORSE

Although the bus trumped most of the amazing things he did, riding a horse with Grandpa did stick. Everytime he sees a play horse he explains, "I ride horse gampa, black, fart." The horses name happens to be "svart"--which means black in Swedish. Grandpa's so proud of how quickly Jackson picked all that info up.

Jackson was quite the natural out there, just had a hard time keeping his hat on.

 

Must have been something about wearing a sailor's hat on cattle drive. We'll have to look for a real cowboy hat to inspire it to stay on.

ROCKS in WATER

Jackson had ample opportunities to practice his recently acquired rock throwing abilities. Any body of water he came near seemed to be an invitation for rock throwing. Uncle Ryan's brand new swimming pool, was probably not the best place to practice. Neither were the rocks carefully placed on the new patio at Cousin J's house. Thankfully there were some places it was more than appropriate for Jackson to throw rocks.

Cole and Jackson in leftover irrigation water

Sifting for gold outside the Mormon Battalion museum (San Diego)

Clinging to one of many rocks that were thrown into the ocean with the help of auntie's and g'parents.

DADDY ONE

We got very used to having Mark around 24/7. Jackson LOVED all the fun things they did together. So much so, he's had a bit of a rough transition back to normal daddy-less life. Every morning (since we've gotten home--so we're pushing 3 weeks now), he asks, "Where daddy one?" The "one" part was recently acquired from asking where 'this one' or 'that one' is--it naturally got added to daddy. My recent answer has been "where is daddy?" And Jackson will sigh and say "ah wook." Darn work. Good thing it's summer, so we do get to see daddy one a lot more often than normal.

Daddy hugs at the park

Trying out the tractor

Checking out the Dolphins at Sea World [the splashing wales also have stuck in his memory a little bit, thankfully]

Practicing mowing skills

What stuck for me?

NAPS

Is it sick that I could relay exactly when, where, and how long each nap was during the entire trip?

ILLNESS

And the fever that struck on day two (after already seeing at least 20 cousins--which all progressively got the same thing). He was nice and sedated for family pictures.

 FAMILY!

Thankfully, that stuck with me a lot. What great memories we made. Photodump of family fun.

Thanks for sticking with us!