Ari Goes to the Park

My Current Favorite PHotos

Spring Hollow Trail

Ari, K-So and I hiked Spring Hollow. I had never been on that trail, turns out I really really liked it...except for the part about your knees almost breaking coming back down. I must be getting old, or Ari must be gaining weight. Highlights of the hike included running into Ginger, pretty colors, amazing views, great weather, and we never saw a soul after the crimson trail fork. What a good day.

Photos From the Past Few Weeks

Why Walk When You Can Run

We have been trying to catch one of Ari's walking practice sessions on film...we finally captured one of these sessions; however Ari didn't seem too interested in walking. He wanted to run.

A Topham Family Reunion

This is a photo of some of my family members and cousins (taken by my Dad) at the the cabin in Bear Valley at last weekends family reunion. Let me tell you why I like this photo; notice K-So in the foreground; she stunk. Moments before taking this photo she had a run in with a skunk under the cabin. We were all trying really hard not to gag while this photo was being taken, both the air around the cabin stunk as well as K-So. I was grateful that I had a stuffy nose when it came time to ride to Logan with her. She was shaved of her stinky fur the next day...hence in the video of Ari running K-So is naked.

On Location

I'm down in St.George taking more photos for a magazine. The Article I've been shooting for is about the top 15 activities in southern Utah. I'm sure you can imagine the pretty places I've had to visit in the line of duty; Zion, Snow Canyon, Pine Valley, River Trail, Arizona strip etc. It's been a great assignment. Ari has been a stellar assistant; we even got up before the sun yesterday so that we could get nice light in Snow Canyon; and we were up way past his bedtime shooting a popular restaurant all lit up at night.Today we headed out yet again before sunrise to photograph some flowers on the AZ strip. We ended up leaving that photo shoot in a bit of a hurry...Ari ate cow pop and dug up an ant pile. I had to tare off all his ant covered clothes and just as I was doing so we got swarmed by mosquitoes. I have never shoved a naked baby through a barb wire fence so fast in all my life; we ran for cover as speedily as a baby and camera gear would allow. I was considering asking for hazardous duty pay.

Still Blabbering

I'm posting this video by popular request...ok; one person wanted to see it but she's pretty popular. I was videoing Ari in hopes that he would show off his walking moves (he's up to 5 steps) but that didn't happen so Ari standing and showing off his personality will have to do.

Our Baby Einstein

Lagoon

Joe's Mom had a work party at Lagoon on Saturday so we were invited to come along. It turned out to be a great day. Joe's Mom and or Dad so graciously watched Ari while we rode the "big kid" rides; and we even got to take Ari on a few. Here are some photos and some video clips we threw together. Yes Beth and I showed up wearing the same t-shirt.

Poo Party

After carefully surveying a few blogger friends of mine I have decided to post this graphic tale. Should the topic of natural bodily functions gone wrong be discussed on blogs? Why not, this blog is something I share with friends...most of whom I'm sure have had similar incidents; and if they have not, I'm sure their day will come. It was defiantly one of those right-of-passage experiences.

Warning: Story may contain graphic images.

Today as I was putting Ari down for his nap I could tell that something was just not right. Instead of falling asleep quickly Ari tossed and turned and groaned and moaned and screeched and bellowed and every time he would fall asleep it seemed as though some sort of abdominal pain would jolt him awake. After about 20 minutes of him tossing and turning in his bed I brought him in our room and laid him on our bed and rubbed his tummy as he fell asleep. He awoke two hours later right on schedule...only something was different. I came into the room to check on him only to notice that he was sitting up on the bed playing contently with something...something brown...something that was ALL OVER the place. I quickly noticed the seedy brown substance coming out of his diaper through the leg region (and all over the thigh region) and up through the stomach region (and all over the belly region). I then noticed that this brown substance was places it really shouldn't have been like on Ari's hands, and on Ari's feet, and traces of it on Ari's arms, chest and even a little in his hair. It didn't stop there, it was also spread Picasso style on my bedspread, pillow, and an associated blanket nearby. I was sort of paralyzed for a moment, the scene struck me as morbid at first; it was like wild animal ripping apart a carcass meets "Silence of the Lambs" meets "Lord of the Flies." It didn’t take long for me to realize that the brown substance was indeed poop and that something needed to happen fast. I picked Ari up, shook him a little to de-loge some chunks and set him in the bathtub. I took off the poor excuse for a diaper, filled up his duck bath, set him in there, washed the poo off and ran to pick dribbled poo up out of the hallway before k-so got to it. After taking Ari out of the bath I put him in his room to play and threw all the bedding in the wash. Ari thought it was pretty fun to take a bath in the middle of the day, I for one hope we don't have to bathe in the middle of the day for a long time.

PS His stomach is feeling much better. I think were going to lay off the grapes.

An Afternoon With Ari

Ever wonder how a 10 1/2 month old spends an afternoon at home if given his mothers undivided attention? I followed Ari around one afternoon to photo document him in his element. We did whatever he wanted to do; played in the crib, read books, knocked down block towers, made faces, sat in the duck bath, pestered k-so nicely, had a supervised look at the fan, listened to music, played with toys on the high shelf, got to see what was in his trash, danced, looked in the mirror, poked things, took toys off shelves and sat on them, put shoes on our hands, and the list-o-fun could go on. Ari was in heaven, I think we will have many more all Ari afternoons.

Red Pine Lake

We hiked Red Pine Lake in Little Cottonwood Canyon with the Gallegos family this weekend. It was a good day. Good weather, good friends, good kids, good exercise, good scenery, good conversation, and we topped it all off with good food.