Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate for 2010 July

Fri Jul 02 2010 21:00 Busy but Slow: The answer is NO we do not have our visas and we're tired of telling everyone, so we've been escaping. We went up to the cabin last night. Yesterday we drove on a horrible dirt road up to Silver Lake and walked around it. Today we hiked Little Deer Creek Trail, then went to Cascade Springs.

Tomorrow we are heading to Dinosaur National Monument for a couple days. Last minute road trip! We were talking about how much more hiking we could do without our kids. At least we found a way to be spontaneous still.

And did I mention we have an adorable new niece?

Fri Jul 09 2010 09:37 He's Teething!: Teething became a joke to us about the 15th time we thought Maggie was finally getting some teeth. She ended up waiting until 13 months to cut her first. But Dalton just got his first yesterday! Teething doesn't seem so bad when you aren't expecting it around every corner. Actually, I was thinking this might be more of an indicator of how much less fussy he is than Maggie was. She was always crying for no reason and we wanted to blame teething.

(1) Wed Jul 14 2010 15:06 Kid Updates: Dalton: has two teeth on the bottom; pulled up in his crib for the first time yesterday (pack-n-play, with nothing to grab onto); stumbles along while pushing a stool (does that count as cruising?); is generally adorable. He eats just about anything I put in front of him, has the sweetest smile. He causes more trouble than Maggie did - tries to climb up and down the stairs, gets into everything, and he LOVES to chew on electrical cords. Eye color still TBD.

Maggie: Says "piet" for "quiet", "banquet" for "blanket", "pack" for "quack", "now" instead of "then" or "next", "last night" for anything that happened in the past ("remember I did [cute thing] last night?") and "bis a minute" (which you can hear in the video of Dalton walking behind the stool.

Mon Jul 19 2010 19:56 Park City Fun: This weekend we went for a quick getaway to Park City. We stayed at Uncle Justin's condo. We spent $16 swimming at the Racquet Club pool. We had to drag Maggie into the pool... and out again when we left. I took Dalton on the water slide first so she would see it wasn't scary. Dalton isn't afraid of water, or getting his face wet or anything. But I forgot until we got up there that he doesn't like slides! He was fine though, and the kids had a good time.

On Saturday we bought lift tickets at The Canyons. We took the gondola up, then the ski lift. The Canyons doesn't have the same qualms as the Park City resort about kids under 2 on the lift. We ate bread, cheese and fruit for lunch and did some hiking. We did more hiking than we intended, because apparently you can't take the lift back down.

(2) Sun Jul 25 2010 20:46 John Turns 30: John turned 30 this week! We celebrated by going out to Training Table by ourselves, and getting Zupas for dinner with his parents and Brook and Ember. I made coconut cupcakes. On Friday night, we did sparklers and poppers with Maggie. Saturday we went to Wheeler Farm, and then up to the cabin for a party with a lot of the Chadwicks. I really don't know anyone on the Chadwick side (John barely does) so that was kind of fun to meet some of them. We spent last night at the cabin and went hiking today. This is the first time in years that we've done our hike with no pouring rain or awful mud.

(2) Sat Jul 31 2010 14:48 Baby Talk: Happy Anniversary to us! We went to breakfast at Market Street Grill in downtown SLC. It was delicious and a great deal.

This post is really about Dalton, though. I have been teaching him some baby sign language. He has learned "eat" "more" and "all done". I've shown him a few others like "milk" "cat" and "alligator" (for stuffed animal he chews on when he falls asleep), but he is still learning the difference between "eat" and "more". He was babbling to himself in the car with his hands, and Ember asked what his signs meant.

Dalton loves animals. He gets so excited when he sees a dog or a cat. He looks eagerly and grunts at them. We went over to Brook and Erin's house last night to get Ember, and he followed Jazzy around. He will learn those signs quickly, I think!