Friday, May 14, 2010

The Mountains

Dave's parents own some property in the Mountains near their home.  We went up on Monday to hang out and play.  Charlie's great-grandparents (Dave's Mom's parents) also live there and so it was nice to visit with them.  I should have gotten a picture of them.  We went on go-cart rides, played in the grass, planted some trees, and sat around a fire at the end.  It was a fun day.
This is Cody, (Dave's brother) on the lawn mower after he was done mowing the grass near the pavilion. He's a goofy guy, but we like him.
Me on the go-cart.  Dave told me to point to my belly (in case you didn't already notice it!!)
Below the swimming pool (read: huge pond with a ginormous slide that freaks me out a little bit - perhaps you remember our post from a while ago about the water slide), there is a pretty stream that runs below the trees. Charlie found a new favorite hobby: throwing rocks into the stream! As you can see, it was somewhat a group effort to make sure he didn't launch himself in there with the rocks. He would run toward the stream to throw the rocks and we sometimes would catch him just a foot or less from the edge. He had no fear! He loved watching the rocks make a big splash. Grandpa Johansen helped Charlie find really big rocks that made even bigger splashes and that made it even more fun. Charlie is definitely an outdoorsy lovin' boy. I don't know how my 'city girl' self (what Dave's Grandpa calls me - and he is correct!) is going to keep up in the coming years.

Dave also told me that one morning on the trip in Sacramento, him and Charlie found a lizard and the tail had fallen off I guess because it was scared. I guess that is normal? Anyway, Charlie happily picked up the little lizard tail and let it wrap all around his fingers -all the while laughing and thinking it was so neat. All I could think when he told me this story was 'What an icky yucky boy thing!'  I don't think there were lizards in Torrance where I grew up; only shopping malls, a beach, and Thrifty Ice Cream.  I never drove down a road and just saw random cows grazing or had to stop for a deer to cross the road.  All this nature stuff is new to me.  When someone tells me that they have milked a cow, or they own chickens or goats, etc - it baffles my mind, and I'm kinda serious!  Milk just appears at the store as far as I can tell, and I never held a chicken until I visited a petting zoo a couple years ago. :)  ANYWAY (digression over), I am glad Charlie has a Dad to handle the outside stuff of raising a boy. Speaking of which, Charlie and Dave are going on the Fathers/Sons Campout tonight with our ward. I'm sure they will return with lots of tales of adventure. All in all, Dave and Charlie are best buddies and it is really cute to watch/hear about their fun times when Mom isn't around to freak out.

By the way, SO EXCITED TO HAVE A GIRL!!!!  Hopefully she likes big bows, pink clothes, and everything girly.  However, I am trying to be prepared for the boys of this family to rub off on her...  atleast we'll be equally matched with 2 girls and 2 boys.  I won't be outnumbered for much longer!  Go Team GIRL!

2 comments:

PatrickandErica said...

Love the basketball belly Jenni, it will be sad to see it go, good thing you'll have a super cute pinked bowed baby girl for me to admire instead!

Laurel said...

I'm SOOO glad you pointed out your belly or I'd have missed it for sure.