Summer!

Wow am I behind. But really, who wants to blog/journal in the summer? Not me! I'd much rather be playing with my family and friends! So that's what I've done and it's been a great summer so far! Here are pictures from the last couple of months of what we've been up to.

Lots of hiking and exploring local state parks. I love that a lot of them have little beaches to play at!

Trying to blow a dandelion :)

Kissing the Caterpillar- we were afraid he was trying to eat it at first!

I love his expressions watching the waterfall!

Flight 93 Memorial

Lots of pool time and barbecues with friends. Jackson has gotten so brave at the pool that he scares me! He loves to jump into the baby pool from the edge and gets mad if I try to catch him. I don't have pics from our local pool, but here are some from a barbecue at a friend's house.

This seems to be his current "camera face" for some reason.

Trips to the zoo and children's museum.

Jackson loves Curious George and they just added a traveling exhibit of the little monkey to our museum!

LOTS of time at the many playgrounds around the area. I can't believe my baby prefers the big boy swings now!

Some exploring around downtown and Oakland.

He started out pretty timid, but was soon soaked from head to toe!

He loves chasing birds!

A Pirate's game. Jackson loves any and all sports and had a great time! He especially loves his pirate shirt and asks to wear it ALL the time. When he does get to, he loves cheering for the Pirates saying, "Go buccos!" and "Argh, matey!"

Weekly trips to the library with our friends.

Raspberry picking and jam making. Oh I wish I had brought my camera berry picking, Jackson was covered in juice! He ate the berries as fast as I picked them, good thing Jordan was with us so we actually had enough to make some jam.

And of course some rainy day play at home.

Jackson loves helping me cook! Surprisingly, he really can be helpful too! He unwrapped all of the chocolate for our cookies... though some of the blocks may have been missing a few bites.

Mischievous little Jackson, always getting into things! These both happened when I was upstairs for a few minutes. I didn't even know he could open the fridge until I came down one day and he was chomping on half of a cantaloupe. I walked into the kitchen to find he had also helped himself to a slice of laughing cow cheese and his milk.

This is how he opens the fridge, pretty clever I guess!

As frustrating as the messes can be, I just have to laugh when he does things like this. A couple of days ago when he was supposed to be napping, Jordan went to check on him and found him rubbing down all of his stuffed animals with lotion. Lovely. It was quite the mess to clean up!

We made a huge tunnel out of all of our diapers.com boxes and colored all over it. Jackson loved it and I felt bad taking it down after a week or so but it was taking up our whole front room!

I'm happy that he still loves to read and will entertain himself for long periods of time looking at books by himself. He even "reads" them aloud sometimes which is adorable! Notice the nice panties? He swiped them while I was folding laundry and it took me a few minutes to notice he had them on!

A trip to Utah! Jordan's parents helped us fly home to go on the annual Thompson trip to Lake Powell. We headed out early to see my family too. It was a great time! Jackson loves his family and talks about everyone all of the time.

Jackson is pretty much obsessed with motorcycles and was always climbing on Grandpa's and Uncle Drew's bikes.

Not sure how he managed to snag the whole bag of chips... sneaky little guy!

Apparently he told Jonny & Alli that this was a drawing of Jonny:)

Fishing with Grandpa Lords! Jackson is a major Grandpa's boy. My dad taught him to yell at the fish, "Bite it Old Mo!" and he still says it all of the time!

Helping Grandpa make his famous waffles!

Lake Powell with the Thompsons! Checking out some Indian ruins.

Jackson's first slushy from Uncle Cole, yum!

The water was cold so we didn't swim much, but we still had a great time!

Jackson loved touching the fish, he is so my son ;)

Jackson asks to go on Grandpa Thompson's boat all of the time since this trip!

We've also been adjusting to a big boy bed! Jackson learned to climb out of his crib a long time ago but it was never a problem until we got back from UT. He had been used to sleeping with us on a houseboat, going to bed around 10pm or so, and did not want to get back onto a routine! He was climbing out so much we were afraid he'd get hurt so we sped up the process and hurried out to buy a bed. He LOVES his big boy bed and gladly says that the crib belongs to baby Tyler now. However, we still had a really hard time getting him to sleep in it for the first couple of weeks. He is doing great now, thank goodness, I was going pretty insane for awhile there! Here is how he fell asleep one day during nap time, looks comfy huh?

4th Of July Regatta & Fireworks!

Watching the boat races downtown.

He loved the fireworks and is still talking about the loud noises and lights in the sky:)

Jackson is almost 21 months now and so smart! He talks nonstop, knows all of his letters (upper and lower case), can count to 15 or so- this is a little inconsistent, one time in the middle of counting he threw a random word in the mix??- has his shapes and colors down, and a great big vocabulary! I'm amazed at his memory, he always talks about things or people from the past and it usually takes me a few minutes to even remember what he is talking about! He is also all boy and is full of energy! Jackson, I love being your mommy!