Summer at the Pool

This summer, Janae and Ainslie spent a lot of time at the Veterans Memorial Pool here in Provo. Almost all of these pool trips happened while Josh was in Salt Lake working, but we lucked out and were able to get the whole family at the pool on the last day it was open this year. Ainslie absolutely loved the pool, everything about it: her swimming suit, her swim diapers, her hat. She knew exactly want needed to happen before a trip to the pool. The pool was a great place for Ainslie. She loved playing in the shallow splash pool and jumping off the sides of the big pool. You may not be able to tell from the picture on the right (you should be able to click on it for a better view), but she really did enjoy going down the big slide with Janae.









The little slide was a little more her speed. Ainslie's tube-suit helped keep her head above water when she got a little overly brave. As much fun as the pool is, you have to wrap up in a towel and head home sometime. The pool really was one of our favorite things in Provo this whole summer. We're going to miss it during these last few warm days of the summer. We're all a little worried about what we're going to do this winter when it's too cold to go play outside . . .

Harmonica!

Her style may be a little different than Wilco's, but we're huge fans of this little girl . . .

WILCO!

Way back in May, Josh saw that one of his favorite bands, Wilco, was coming to Salt Lake in August. It didn't take much for Janae to realize that this concert was a big deal, so we snatched up two tickets just before they sold out. Since then we've been counting down the days to the big show (August 18 was a long time coming). But, it was all absolutely worth it - the show was incredible. We showed up a few minutes before the gates opened and ended up pretty far back in a line that had obviously started with people camping out a long time before we even left Provo. Once we got inside we staked out a great spot towards the back. We were pretty surprised at how full the place was - the people just kept coming and coming. Apparently Wilco has a pretty good following around here. We watched a little TV on Josh's iPod while we waited for the show to get started until The Fleet Foxes came out to open things up. They sounded pretty good, but it was no secret that everyone was there to see Jeff Tweedy and Co. Wilco took the stage right around 8 o'clock and played for over two hours. Josh was happy as could be snapping pictures through the whole show. As the sun was setting some turned out better than others, but we walked away with a few pretty good ones.

When he wasn't taking pictures or singing along, Josh was keeping track of what songs they played. By the end of the night the list had 24 songs on it! They played a great show and then came back for two encores. It was awesome.
When things wrapped up we decided to hang out for a few minutes and let the crowd clear out before we headed back to the car.
While we were waiting, we took advantage of some cowboy's forgotten hat for a perfect souvenir shot to remember how perfect the show was. But, that wasn't the only souvenir. Josh has been longing for some nice office art, and when he saw this art deco concert poster, he decided that it would be the perfect addition to any office. It's hard to imagine that Josh could be any more of a Wilco fan, but this concert just might have done it. And after a show like this Janae can definitely understand why.

What Does a Cow Say?

This weekend we headed out to check out a few of the animal attractions here in Utah county. Ainslie's getting pretty good at her animal sounds these days, but she's been working mostly with the magnet farm on the fridge. We thought it might be fun to check out some real farm animals. Sippy cup? Check. Pig tails? Check. Here we go . . . We know that fish don't really make a sound, but ever since she saw the fish in Uncle Steve's office, Ainslie loves fish. Cabela's has a great aquarium with trout and other fun fish. Ainslie was really excited when she realized that we were surrounded by fish. Big fish. Swimming fish. It was awesome. After that we headed over to Thanksgiving Point to see the farm animals. Ainslie had fun with the animals, but we found out that Janae has Dr. Doolittle-like abilities to get the animals to come say "hi."

Goats, sheep, cows, everybody was drawn to Janae. The turkeys freaked her out, just a little, but Ainslie thought the they were pretty funny.

These chickens were a little less threatening. Even Ainslie could tell that they were just babies.

Why do these pigs look so content?They apparently just had their fill of bagels. Our favorite friend was probably this little calf.

These guys added a certain degree of personality to the farm. The donkey was really ornery, but his alpaca pal was totally chill.
But, our favorite character was this guy. With a face like that, how could you not put a picture of this guy on your blog?Lots of friends, lots of fun.

Mommy's Little Helper

While Josh is gone at work, Janae and Ainslie have been working on lots of fun projects around the house. It doesn't matter what Mommy is doing, Ainslie loves to help.