Something to Consider when Suprising your Child with an Orangutan

Apparently this orangutan was suppose to be one of the gifts for my 30th birthday thing. It got here a little late (last week) so Kim brought it over anyway. When she came over Ari was sleeping so I thought it would be nice to surprise him. I set it by his bed... Kim and I sat in the backyard talking (baby monitor in hand) until I heard the sound of a frightened child coming over the airways. I ran into Ari's room to find him huddled in the corner of his bed crying and trying to get as far away from the orange monster as possible. Oops. Ari refused to go near the orangutan and death gripped my neck every time we got close. If the orangutan was in a particular room of the house he refused to go in there, i.e. he wanted a toy from his room but made me first take the orangutan out so he could go in there. I finally put it in the corner of the living room away from any path he might take. He started to look at it more and more throughout the day, then closer, closer, touch it and run away, closer closer until he finally went up to it, pet it and said "he's nice." They have been friends ever since.

Lesson learned.

The Otus Kennicottii Family

We have a family of Western Screech-Owls living in the backyard, Moma (photo 1) and her six babies (photo 2).

Idaho: Not Just Good for Potatoes

Payette River, Idaho.

Kayaking and I have always had a love hate relationship. I usually get really nervous before running rivers, and during the run when I hear the sound of an approaching rapid, and while I'm in the midst of a rapid, and on occasion while I'm upside down and hoping I still know how to roll...then it's over, and everything went well, and I want to do it again.

I'm not sure if it's because I had not been in my boat for about two years (last year I was on a rafting kick) or if I finally got over the trauma of the Chilliwack, (the river in Canada that tried to kill me) but this year I had no nerves. I was just so excited to be on the water, it was a blast; AND I discovered I still have my roll...that was a plus.

Nothing too epic happened, the most excitement we had was while rafting the Cabarton Section of the North Fork. The wind was so strong it was picking up water from the river and blowing it at us, it was also blowing us up the river and against the bank. Luckily we were only in dire circumstances for a few minutes then the storm passed. It would have made a great video...especially the part where Lacey and I couldn't stop laughing.

Anyway, it was a great trip. I didn't take many photos, but Joe snapped a few. Joe was a champion Ari (and at times Adan) sitter. Ari had a great time sitting on the bank of the river and waving at boaters; when there was a lul in river traffic he would ask Joe for "more" more boaters to wave at. It was just one of those trips where I felt really lucky to be me. It was great.
Here are a few Photos:

ROW 1: The put-in of the Carbon Section on the North Fork AND Adan hangin in the boat. Turns out kayaks are great kid sitters. They sit in there and play around while you get ready...well, if there young kids...Ari on the other hand tried to run strait into the river.

ROW 2: Bathing in the hot spring AND Ari napping.

ROW 3-5: This is a series of photos Joe took. The three boaters are me, Lacey and Roy. The single boater is me. Not bad shots for a guy holding a kid in one hand and a camera in the other. I was sure this rapid was going to toss me which is why in photo #7 (if you click on it) you can see me going into the rapid holding my breath...like a dork.


I can't wait to hit up another river...now all I need is friends who live in a 100 mile radius who kayak. Hum.

Bruneau Dunes State Park, ID

Before we hit the river we hit the sand dune. Joe wanted to do some collecting near Bruneau Dunes so we stayed the night in the park.

We had some time to kill the following morning before meeting up with the Payette crowd so I decided to try something I have always wanted to do. Kayak a sand dune.

Hiking the boat to the top of the hill we couldn't help but recall painful memories from the year we ran the Escalante River...and hauled our boats out of Coyote Gulch...

This Dune may be the tallest single-structured dune in North America but it isn't the steepest. I tried several different paddling positions, but none seemed to work. You can tell what kind of speed I was getting by the way K-So is sitting there bored and Ari was blazing past me with his bum scooting skills. I obviously need to find a steeper sand dune to fulfill my dreams.

Saftey First!

Ari gearing up for this weekends trip to Idaho; Payette River or bust.

Sequential so Young?

These photos are from today's lap around the block. Ari likes to collect things he finds and put them in whatever he happens to be pushing/pulling that day. Today he had the toy we refer to as the "lawn mower". It's the only toy with compartments so Ari was able to separate his finds. On occasion I have noticed that it weirds him out when the items are touching; sometimes when were walking the block with the stroller and the collected items are jumbled together he will throw out all but one type of item (i.e sticks and flowers get tossed, spruce cones get to stay).

I had never seen him categorize his items like this before. If we hit a bump in the sidewalk and one of the rocks bounced into the circle compartment we would have to stop so that he could move the rock back into the triangle compartment where it belonged. It was weird.

Passing on the Banana Stuff Tradition

Banana Stuff: A banana, ice, milk, sugar, vanilla (and flax seed meal if Lindsey is around) concoction made by Joe nearly every night.

Today for the first time Ari received his very own cup of Banana Stuff; words could not describe Ari's excitement...the banana stuff was flying everywhere.

Lap Six with the Lawn Mower

Ari and I have a daily ritual; everyday we take a walk; everyday Ari is either pushing or pulling something (unless he's chasing Cora). Usually he chooses one of his strollers, the neighbors stroller, his toy lawn mower thing, K-So, the pop pop, the fire engine, the plastic mini wagon, etc... Today he insisted on pushing the lawn mower. He got a lot of laughs from passing cars, and many cheers from Cora. I tried to make this photo bigger but to no avail. I highly recommend clicking on it and making it bigger; these are some happy kids.

New Do

New hairstyle brought to you by Joe via K-So's dog clippers.

Making Our Way to the West Desert

On our way back to Logan Ari and I stopped off at his unofficial God Grandmother Bonnie's (aka Olivia's Mom). We spent the night at her house then made our way to the West Desert. We got a little distracted along the way by a nest of hawks, a diaper explosion, a visit to Olivia's evil landlord, some gas station snooping and a trip to the cemetery but we did eventually make it. We didn't stay long due to wind and nap time but it was nice just to be out amongst the sagebrush with a happy kid, some dogs, a west desert woman and a Jeep...Ari would like to put emphasis on the Jeep.

As you can see my bird photographing skills are sub par; so I went back to people...I'll get em next time.

A few More...

Ok, really. This is my last beach post. I just saw some photos that I had to share (my family combined took almost 1,000 photos; just starting to wade through those).

This photo sums up Ari and Libby...did I mention Libby also got molars on this trip?
This is a photo I like to call "Tourists". Trav fell asleep with his rash guard flipped up and Sky snorkeled into a rock.
My poor Mother. She had some type of Bronchial infection AND helped out with Ari and Libby AND played family hostess. Here she is after hitting the ginger beer pretty hard.
And here we are, the weary (literally) travelers.

Birch Aquarium

This was an interesting day. This was the day Ari decided he didn't want me, he just wanted my Mom. I should have taken advantage but instead I just ended up feeling bad. It was raining so we decided to hit the Birch Aquarium in San Diego...I think we were in San Diego, it was all a bit of a blur.

The Chariot: Good Cure for Molar Blisters

At one point Ari's was being so obnoxious I was about to go totally insane. I grabbed Ari's shoulder and was about to have a few words with him when I noticed while he was screaming that his molars had two big blisters on them. If you look closely at this photo you will see a blistered molar under all those tomatoes. Ouch.
I put him in the bike trailer (which was my saving grace on several occasions) with a pacifier to chew on...it was the most calm hours of the trip. We rode from town to town along the coastal highway while Ari worked on his teeth. When we got back to camp he was in better spirits and his gums were bleeding. I took this photo in true Harold fashion.