Savoring Life: April 2011

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Tyke Hike

About 2 miles from my home, there's nature preserve called the Madrona Marsh. Smack dab in the middle of the city, there are 10 acres of vernal marsh that are home to hundreds of species of plants, birds, insects, mammals & frogs. You can literally walk across the street from Target and get lost in fields and flowers and swamp! I vaguely recall visiting as a kid, prolly on a field trip, but it has been at least 2 decades since I'd been there! (Oh gosh, just saying that makes me feel old!)

Isn't this place beautiful?!

Once a month, the nature center hosts a "Tyke Hike", a guided tour around the preserve, just for little kids. We went with Rebecca, Jack & Sammy (I know, big surprise, right?!) and Nani! I'm always so thankful to have Nani or Grandma come on trips because it's another set of legs to help chase after my boy! But this time I was beyond pleasantly surprised! Austin did so so good! I guess he was having so much fun, he forgot to wander very far!

I think this was the farthest he ever got from us!

At the beginning of the hike, each child got a card with an animal on it, for them to look out for.

Austin's had a bee & was so excited when we spotted several!

and Jack's had wood duck and he earnestly watched all the ducks until we found it!

Occasionally, one of the docents would find an insect or a frog and would pick it up to let the kids inspect and touch it. Austin was so attentive & gentle!

We found the cutest frogs! I was expecting big frogs, not these tiny little things. And they were everywhere!

We came across some wonderful pawprints! It had just rained a few days before, so we found lots of these. I believe the deep ones are either skunk or raccoon and I'm not sure what the very light one is.

We saw a beautiful Great Egret! I spotted this one and was pretty darn proud of myself, even though I didn't have a card.

You may be wondering where McKenna & Sam were! They just came along for the ride. Sammy took a nice nap all wrapped up on his momma, (You can just barely see a few footsies sticking out the bottom)

but McKenna decided there was too much fun stuff to see!

Some other fun finds...

A lady bug! My fave!

A kestrel

Purdy flowers!

It was a great hike! You can tell from this picture that Becca took that Austin was thoroughly enjoying himself!

As always, Jack & Austin really enjoyed palling around together!

After the hike, we went back to the nature center to check out some caged animals and some stuffed ones!

Austin was brave enough to pet a snake! I was so proud!

So was Sammy!

Austin stopped to say "Hi!" to a stuffed duck.

Two last pics of my sweet boy! I needed new headshots to send to his agent and Becca was kind enough to get some since I can't get the boy to sit still and look anywhere near the camera while smiling all by myself! She got some great ones!

Friday, April 29, 2011

Everybody Sharts!

Okay, before my mom starts gasping that I'm using foul language on my blog, you may remember from my monthly/quarterly updates that Austin has a unique style of pronouncing the word "fort". It comes out "shart!" And it has also been turned into a verb in this house, as in "Momma sharts!" and it can be used in the present progressive tense, as "Daddy is sharting!" Didn't know you were going to get a grammar review when you click on a post called "Everybody Sharts!", didya?!

Sharting/forting used to be a common past-time around the Crowley household, played almost daily for a long while, but is a little less common now. I would love how excited Austin would get about playing though! He would insist that EVERYONE played - he would very frequently exclaim "Momma shart, Daddy shart, Aus shart, you shart!" It was so often repeated and with such enthusiasm that I was determined to capture it on video.

So all that is a bit of a explanation/translation of the video below. Enjoy!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Daddy Rides

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Happy Birthday Sammy!

February 18th marked one year since our little buddy Sammy was born. His momma threw him one heckuva farm themed party, complete with an awesome petting zoo AND pony/donkey rides! I mean, we would have been there even if it had been a boring party cuz we love Sammy, but I can guarantee I've never RSVPd quicker for a party than when I heard about the petting zoo! I knew Austin was going to have a wonderful time!

The birthday boy and his big brother took first rides on the donkey and pony. Sammy wasn't quite sure about it but did pretty good!

I thought McKenna would be too little for a pony ride, but I was so pleased to find out she wasn't! Next I was a little worried she would want nothing to do with this giant of an animal, but was again pleased that she loved it! She smiled the whole time!

And Austin, of course, was in heaven on his big ol' burro! He kept going "hee haw! hee haw!!"

The petting zoo was by far the best petting zoo ever! The animals were all really friendly and stinkin' adorable. Bunnies, chickens, a pig, a sheep, a momma goat and by far, the cutest bunch of lil' baby goats that I have ever seen! Honestly, I was tempted to stick one in the diaper bag and call him my own! They were 4 days old! And bouncing everywhere and headbutting each other. A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E!

Austin did the same thing with these animals that he did at the zoo - went up to each of them and got down to their level and said "Hi!" "Hi Sheep! Hi Pig! Hi Goat!"

He did pretty good at first being gentle and calm but soon got a little excited and a little silly. At one point he was trying to "pet" the sheep and instead held on to the sheep's back and went for a ride! Feet up in the air and everything! This pic was right before lift-off!