A Day at the Park with Asher

We had some time to kill and so decided to take Asher to the park.

He loved the ducks, and I even think he said the word "duck."

Walking around the pond with daddy, and Grandpa Lincoln.

Justin and Asher on the slide.

I think Asher's favorite thing at the park 

was this tube he played in.

He could stay just out of reach of his dad 

and his grandpa at each end and he was playing it up!

CUTIE!

Here Asher is in the "tube" teasing, his dad and grandpa.  So FUN.  I love this video.

I miss this little guy!

Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt, Uncle and Dad Joy

*Warning*

Too many cute pictures follow!

We visited Utah the end of March.

We got to see all of our children,

most of Lincoln's family,

and even some of my family.

Needless to say the main event was our grandson Asher.

It was my second time to see him and Lincoln's and McKay's first time.

His mother was kind enough to let us take him for 4 1/2 glorious days!

He kept us on our toes!

It took 5 of us to take care of him and follow him around.

Parenting is definitely for the young!

Asher had us all wrapped around his little finger,

and trained us pretty well to take care of him in the fashion he likes!

One morning Lincoln and I fought over the chance to get Asher 

out of his bed when he woke up in the morning.

Friendly banter really, no fighting!!!!!

Justin beat us there, as he was sleeping in the same room, HA!

Justin was so cute,

in the mornings he had everything ready

and lined up for Asher when he got up.

He had his morning milk ready to go, his diapers,

wipes, change of clothes (for after his bath) all lined up in a line.

Love this little guy! 

He sure loves his aunt Halley! . . . . . I was getting jealous!

Justin, trying to teach Asher to walk.

"Nothing doing," said Asher!

Grandpa tried to teach him to pound on the container like a drum.

"Nothing doing" said Asher!

He like the inside of the container not the bottom of it!

Asher loved swimming . . . . . 

It must have been funny to watch all of the adults

paying so much attention to this little man.

 Even Uncle McKay is smitten.

The handoff.

This pool was perfect for little kids.

Asher power-crawled all over the kids area.

Splashing with grandpa.

A hungry little guy after all that swimming!

Four generations . . . . . . "nothing doing," Asher was saying!!!!

He wanted to be off doing his own thing!

more to come.

The Selfie

There is a new type of photography

that I really didn't think I was into.

The Selfie.

Because "if you didn't take a picture of it, it didn't happen!"

As I was looking at my smart phone's pictures,

I realized that I do participate in

this phenomenon a little bit.

Here are my contributions:

Boy oh boy, the faces I had to make to get this little one to smile!

At first I wanted to look good in the pictures 

and then soon forgot about that!

At the DC Temple.

At the U.S. Capitol, waiting for a concert to begin.

Lincoln, True to form! :)

On our cruise in Canada.

At Lincoln's work Halloween Party

Fun! Fun!

Christmas in May

 No, Christmas was not in May,

BUT

I'm blogging about it in May. :)

I used to be so good about this blogging business . . . . 

It is something I WANT to do, 

but apparently I don't WANT to enough!

This is Christmas Eve.

When we are in town we have it with the Bainters and Youngs.

We have a big dinner and then open up our Christmas Eve present.

This is Ceci, Trudy and Stevie,

I am convinced I need a faster camera,

I had a hard time finding clear pictures for this blog post.

My camera captured a lot of fuzziness.

Which I hope isn't just my middle-aged eyes playing tricks on me.

Steve and Grandma.

Grandpa, Steve and Grandma.

Noah, McKay and Zane.

Me!

The Bainter Family - They all got robes this year for their present.

Oh! how hard it was to get this picture!

Lincoln has to make faces,

McKay laughs at him or makes a funny face

and by the time we finally get a good one

I'm seething with frustration.  

Can you see seething behind that smile?

Mom and Dad.

Dad brought his guitar to accompany our singing this year.

I've been struggling with tendinitis and have been laying off the piano playing lately.

Dad always gives us the account in Luke 2 

of Christ's birth on Christmas Eve. 

 He has it memorized.

(I think I must have had my fingers over the mike, it is so muffled, DRAT!)

 



 McKay on Christmas morning.

He forgot to give us his Christmas list this year.

So when he finally decided to hand it to me,

I said, so sad . . . . . . shopping is already done!

He was actually surprised and even liked his gifts.

I know he was very nervous about what we'd get him.



Swimming

Over the last several years we have spent a lot of time at the pool.

3 of our children have been on a swim team.

This is the last of the road.

Our competition pool days are over.

Lincoln spent a lot of time in the stands by himself.

McKay and I would come visit him during the mid-meet break.

I spent a lot of time on the pool deck

as a stroke-and turn official.

The meets go a lot faster when you are involved in them.

I have to admit that while McKay is swimming,

I didn't do my "officiating" very well.

My priority WAS to watch him swim

not to be an official!

This is McKay with his relay team,

he swam the breast most of the time.

He's the one in the very colorful swim trunks.

On the blocks . . . . . . 

We never made it to any of the end-of-year awards parties.

I made it a point that we made it to this last one.

This is McKay with his two coaches.

Getting his most valuable male swimmer award.

(he got this award as a sophomore also,

since we didn't go to the award party I found the award 

one day several months later while sifting through the mess

of McKay's room!)

Most Valuable Male Swimmer

Congrats McKay!  We've loved riding along with you in your adventures.