Getting out and exploring

We had a gorgeous weekend last weekend so we took the ATV out to the mountains. Jake was a trooper; we went for a four hour drive and he loved it the whole time. It was so good to get back up into the trees. We saw lots of elk (my favorite animal) and a few deer.
The rest of the weekend we did some landscaping. Erich spoiled me for mother's day and bought me a bunch of new flowers and plants for the yard (that way they'd last longer) During the process Jake discovered how much fun a hose can be. I just love watching him explore and discover things. It ended up being a win-win: we taught him how to water the plants.

Real is always better

As much as Jake loves his little four wheeler, what he really loves is Dad's big ATV. As soon as we say the word "Ride", Jake starts giggling and wiggling in excitement. Take close look at his smile in the pics...I would say he is one happy little fella whenever on dad's ATV.

This last week was lots of fun. My mom and dad spoiled us for a little visit. It was so wonderful having them around. My dad let me lose again and the again at cards, my mom made all sorts of decorations for Jakes play room (I'll post some pics when I get it all done), and admist the 20-50 mph winds we managed to make it outside for a few walks and afternoons in the park. There's just nothing like having parents around helping out. I was sad to say goodbye.

Love the Weather, Not the TIcks

It's been so beautiful and sunny here laterly. We've had a great time out hiking, biking, and playing at the park. It was over 70 the past weekend so we headed down for our first camping trip at City of Rocks. It's a unique place a little less than 2 hour from here. It's renowned for rock climbing but Erich, Jake and I just hiked around. There are massive granite boulders everywhere, randomly conglomerated in central Idaho. Everything was fabulous until we were falling asleep and Erich found a tick on him. Pesky little buggers ruin all the fun.

Anyhow you might notice something different with Jake, like how you can see his smile! Erich got brave (and I went along) we took Jake's binky away cold turkey. I've been dreading this task for 20 months now but it actually went relatively well. I'm so glad we just took away it completely, out of sight out of mind.

He Speaks!

Jake was feeling pretty talkative tonight. We were outside and it's hard to hear the video with all the wind and it's blurry, but it's fun nonetheless.

Easter

Holidays are definitely much more fun with a little one around...And a whole lot more interesting. We tried dying eggs but Jake was clearly more interested in drinking the cool looking water than dipping the eggs. We finally had to put Jake to bed and finish the eggs for him :)
We took Jake to the City Park easter egg hunt and he did great. He got a whole basket full of eggs and had fun opening them up, although the City of Twin Falls must have been on a tight budget this year because half the eggs didn't have candy in them--fun nonetheless. I'm glad we did the that egg hunt because Easter morning Jake was so excited about his new toys he didn't care much about the eggs. The highlight was his new ATV. When we visited cousin Rhone Jake fell in love with Rhone's ATV so the Easter bunny thought a little ATV would be the perfect gift.

Other than that life has been good. We squeezed in another cross-country skiing trip. Sadly there was only a few inches of snow so it looks like the ski season is wrapping up for the year. On the bright side we're back to hiking. Last Sunday we went for a pretty mild hike. Jake didn't want to get in the backpack so we thought we would let him walk for a bit. A mile and half later the kid was still going and showing no signs of tiring. We were such proud parents. It was a blast until we found a tick on Jake. Once I saw a tick I was done. We packed Jake up and hightailed it out of there.

The East Coast

Erich has a sister and a brother stationed on the East coast this year so Erich and I decided it was time to visit the east coast. We had lots of fun. Erich's Brother Ben is a pilot in Dover Delaware. He flies the largest plane in operation a C-5. We got to tour and it was pretty impressive. He said it can haul like 5 black hawk helicopters at once. While we were in Deleware we visited the beach. It was quite cold and windy but fun nonetheless. Jake and his cousin Rhone (only a few months younger) kept us entertained as they played in the sand and with the seashells.
From Deleware we went up to NYC. Erich and I aren't exactly city folks and we weren't dying to experience New York traffic so we settled for a tour of the city via a ferry. We went to the Statue of Liberty an Ellis Island. That was a very fun day. The Statute looks so different in person.
From NYC we went to PA for a little ski trip. We've heard so much about all the east coast storms we were expecting some pretty impressive snow. It was more like 3 feet of slush! And there was pretty much snow only on the ski runs. Fun to enjoy skiing east coast style (or that's what Ben and Erich report) Meagan and I took Jake and Rhone to the Crayola Factory.
We ended the trip in D.C. I was worried before hand that Jake would be an impossible handful in all the museums. Not exactly the dream vacation with an 18 month old but he did remarkably well. Or at least in our eyes. Apparently people on the East coast are very good at giving parenting advice. Erich and I got more advice in one day than I think we've gotten in the past year :) Guess backpacking around 18 month olds isn't as big at the Smithsonian as it is in the hills of Idaho! While DC wasn't exactly relaxing it was fascinating. I LOVED all the museums and history. Erich's fav was the Air and Space museum and my definite fav was Mount Vernon. I've always been a pretty big George Washington fan so it was particularly neat to see his big homestead. All in all it was awesome touring the east coast. Very different but fun to experience. We learned we are not as good of navigators as we thought. Yes we did break down an buy a GPS half way through the trip. We also learned a greater appreciation for the toll-free roads in the west!
The best part though was catching up with family. It was so nice to have locals show us around and to see where they are living.
Anyhow pretty fun vacation for the Glecklers. Now it is back to the grind!

Missing the Mountains

Unfortunately there aren't any mountains right in Twin Falls so we've been spending the last several weekends taking road trips to the hills. It's been awesome. First we went to Stanley for a weekend of intense cross-country skiing. The scenery was spectacular--some of the most impressive terrain I've ever seen. We had two beautiful sunny days. We spent the night at a little hot springs resort. While soaking in the springs you looked right up at the peaks (the view from the springs is the fourth pic up). Pretty awesome. Then last weekend we spent the long weekend down in UT visiting all our friends and enjoying a little ski getaway. Erich's very fun niece and nephew attend BYU so we hooked up with them for some Downhill and cross-country skiing.
In between our little trips we've been busy laughing at our little boy. He is definitely fiesty but also a whole lot of fun. His favorite thing of the week is bringing us a blanket and having us pull him around on it--the magic blanket ride. At last he's starting to say more words. The most exciting of which is "Geese". Erich was outside in the garage and Jake pointed to Erich's goose decoys and said "geese". Should I be worried already?!?