Yay, Spring!

After the winter that wouldn't end, I think it's finally safe to say spring is here (despite a forecasted high in the 40s one day this week). We are moving forward--last week, Lewis helped me get some seedlings started indoors:

He was really helpful, scooping the dirt and patting it down.

We started some broccoli, zucchini, and bell peppers.

Another sign of spring--our first hike of the year! We headed out to Creasey Mahan last weekend to hike and play at the playground. Lewis agreed to the playground part, but he was a little hesitant on the hiking (I am NOT hiking). He was into it after the first 5 minutes or so: 

 Hitching a ride on Dad's back, at first (when he was still NOT hiking)

The trails were also pretty muddy, and he wasn't used to navigating that.

 Walking with Mama

We saw lots of wildlife/signs of wildlife! Kevin spotted a 'Cardinal Bird' (UL's mascot), and we saw tracks in the mud from deer, raccoon, and a big dog. At the pond, we spotted lots of tadpoles and turtles. Most of the turtles slipped back into the water as we got closer, but there was one who stuck around on the bank:

There it is! (to the left of Lewis) 

 Not too close, buddy!

 I was trying to get him to crouch down next to it--this was as close as he got. :)

Cheese!

It was a nice little hike in the woods and great to see so much animal activity. After hanging out with the turtle, Lewis was ready to move onto the playground! We'll definitely head out there again soon.

Boise Trip, Part Two

The second half of the trip was kind of dampened by Lewis getting sick. He had sort of a fever on Saturday afternoon/evening, and overnight Saturday he was a sweaty/fevered mess. Emily came over Sunday morning with medicines and snacks, and we decided to take the day 'off' to hang out at the hotel and hopefully let him get better. He was still not 100% the next day, but we decided to go ahead and go to the zoo since it was our last full day there.

Sickly Lewis Pete :(

He had a fever, cough, and runny nose.

We did go over to their house that evening for dinner and some more play time with the chickens:

 Juni and Hamburger Helper, the friendliest one

 Lewis petting Hamburger Helper (Joe named her that...)

The next day, it was onto the zoo!

  Sweet Otis :)

 The coolest giraffe slide!

 I think I tried to get them both to climb on the same animal, but they weren't having it.

It's MY elephant! It's MY gorilla! :) 

Cousins :)

 This one I would caption, 'I want to drive, NO, I want to drive!'

 ALMOST tall enough to reach those pedals. :)

Back at the house on our last evening, Juni and Auntie Schwee taught us how to look for bugs:

 Juni, Lewis, and Drina

 Checking out the chickens one last time

 We learned that the roly-poly bugs like to hide under rocks!

And we've since been looking for bugs at our house. Lewis wasn't really into it last summer, but we spent about an hour outside last week, studying worms, a locust exoskeleton, a dead beetle, etc. I was feeling my nature nerd-ery coming back a little. :)

 Hugs for Otis :)

We had an hour-long first flight from Boise to Denver that went very smoothly. Our flight to Louisville was about 2 1/2 hours, and much to my surprise, Lewis slept THE ENTIRE WAY. This was him, already asleep, as we were taxiing out to the runway, and he slept until we touched down in Louisville. I couldn't believe it. Granted, he was still not feeling well, did not nap the entire week, and didn't sleep as well overnight, either. Regardless, it was amazing.

Sweet dreams, Lew.

It was a great trip, and we can't wait to see them all again soon. :)

Trip to Boise, Part One

My goodness, it's been awhile. Lewis and I went to Boise over Auntie Em's spring break and had a great trip. It took us both a while to get adjusted back from the time difference, and I've fallen behind on posting. Plus the weather has been nicer, and we've been getting outside more.

Anyway, here's part one of our trip:

Our flights out were good--on time, even early into Boise. We bought a Kindle for Lewis to use on the plane, and he watched 10-20 minutes of a movie before he wanted to move onto something else. Thankfully I had enough snacks, movies and games on the Kindle, and looking-out-of-the-window time to fill our two flights.

Once we got to their house, Juniper was so excited for Lewis to come outside and see what was waiting for him in the chicken coop:

An egg!

She'd collected the other two but saved one for Lewis. :) 

 Otis and Auntie Schwee

 Making pizzas

For the first part of our trip, we stayed at the house of some of Emily and Joe's friends (we moved to a hotel the second part because they were coming home from their spring break trip). They had an 18 or 19-year-old cat, Zoe, that Lewis was obsessed with. Most cats he's encountered (especially Gma and Gpa T's cat, Maggie) run away from him, but Ms. Zoe barely moved at all (because she's so old). It worked out very well! He was so gentle with her and made it a point to find her every morning when we woke up and every evening when we returned to the house. She got LOTS of lovin's from him:

She was a very sweet girl. :)

 We went to the Discovery Center one morning:

 Lewis could have dropped in golf balls and watched them go down the spiral all morning long. :)

 Filling up his cart with groceries

Lewis and Juni had a lot of fun in this triangle of mirrors. At one point, Emily, Otis, and I got inside, too, and you could see like 50+ reflections of us all. Pretty trippy. :)

We took a trip one day to the MK Nature Center:

 Juni was hooting. :)

 It's a GOOSE (says Lew)!

I'm not sure that he realized the goose was hissing at him. We kept our distance.

 J&L with some rainbow trout

 Otie Man, watching some little fish in the tanks inside

Our trip wouldn't be complete without a visit to the water table!

The Snuggle Monster

The past few weeks, Lewis has been very into snuggling. He has been in the past, too, but it's gotten really intense lately. If we're sitting on the couch for any period of time, he will go get a blanket and insist that we're both covered up. He's started including the dogs in it, too, whether they like it or not. :) Peter is pretty ok with it, and even Hattie has been surprisingly tolerant. She and Lewis have been bonding a bit this week. :)

Some samplings over the past few weeks...he has definitely evolved:

Sans blanket, at first

Each dog under the blanket, separately

Both Dogs

Both Dogs and Dad :)

Kevin hasn't really been able to experience the Snuggle Monster until today, so I'm glad they've had some time for Lewis to show him how it's done.

When Lew decides he's finished snuggling, he will get up, turn on the light (if it's off), and rip off the blanket. He'll say, 'Time to wake up, everybody!' He's brutal! :) Just when I'm starting to relax and get comfortable, usually.

To the Zoo (On What Was Supposed to be a Warm Day)

When planning out our week last week, I could have sworn I saw that there was a high of 72 degrees on Thursday. I even thought they said that again on the news that morning, so Lewis and I went to the zoo, dressed only in light jackets. Very quickly I realized that the forecast had changed, and the high was only going to be in the 50s. That also meant the train and carousel weren't running (the train wasn't open for the season yet and the carousel apparently doesn't run until it reaches 45 degrees outside). Thankfully Lew wasn't too bummed about them being unavailable.

There's a new exhibit of giant bugs located all around the zoo. There was a family getting their pictures taken in front of this huge spider, so Lewis asked to have his taken, too. :)

Creepy and Crawly

 They use animatronics and make just enough subtle movements to be slightly creepy.

One thing we don't always do is pet the goats, but Lewis wanted to this time: 

 I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of it, but this was a few seconds after Lewis leaned down to give this goat a hug. :) 

 This one was my favorite--it was just a particularly sweet goat.

Onto Glacier Run to see the polar bear and sea lions:

 Checking out the cool old truck

 Cracking up at the sea lions

He was cackling as they swam by him and came up for air. He doesn't usually pay much attention to them, but this time they were hilarious to him.

As we were leaving, we passed by the new ropes course, which DID happen to be open. Lewis saw it and said, 'Do that!,' so I decided to let him try it since there wasn't a line. They have a high ropes course for adults and kids over 4 feet tall and a low one for those under 4 feet. Lewis got all harnessed up and walked towards the BIG stairs that lead up to the high course...one of these days, buddy! The low course was pretty simple, but Lewis seemed to be challenged enough by it and had a good time (I walked alongside him the whole time):

 Getting harnessed up

 His biggest challenge at first was figuring out how to keep that big black rope out in front of him. I helped him at first, but he got the hang of it towards the end of the time. There was a track system up above that he was connected to, so anytime he wanted to go on an obstacle, we had to move the rope into the correct slot before he could begin walking.

 Crossing a bridge

 There were some easy and some more difficult obstacles--he did fine on the bridge and the basic balance beam but didn't catch on at first to the tougher ones where he had to be more careful about where he placed his feet.

It was a chilly trip, but still fun. The following day (Friday) ended up being in the low 70s, I think, so we went to the playground that day. And yesterday was gorgeous--I got some yard work done and we had a bonfire and cooked hoboes, which is always nice. This week is supposed to be in the 40s, but Lewis and I are heading to Boise--at last check, it will be near 60 there. :) Wahoo--I'll take it!