Birthdays = ICE CREAM!!!

Andrew had his 18th birthday last week, and Riley quickly learned that birthdays mean the once-in-a-rare while opportunity when we actually let him have some ice cream. He loved it. I think he enjoyed making a huge mess and finger-painting himself in chocolate almsot as much as actually eating the ice cream.

A Second Fall

One of the great things about Allen is the city has tons of really pretty, wooded hiking trails. Some are paved and some aren't. We've been trying to take advantage of them as much as possible while the weather is still so nice.
Here, the leaves don't change colors and fall until much later in the year than they do in Utah. So really, we've had two falls this year, which is fine with me because I absolutely love the season. It's so pretty! We were in Utah until mid-October; plenty late enough in the year to see all the colors change. Down here, the trees are just barely starting to lose their leaves.


Riley is starting to get less stingy with his hugs and kisses for us now. It's been pretty nice! Every now and then you really like to have your favorite little boy love on you.
Riley's favorite activity...pushing his own stroller around. The only problem is that he's not very good at steering yet but gets offended big-time when anyone tries to help.

Who Says White Babies Can't Jump?

For some reason, the other day, sam and I decided it'd be funny to teach Riley how to jump. Riley thought it was hilarious, and now he practices all the time. As you can see, he's totally got it down (except for the teensy tiny detail that his feet never actually leave the ground).

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Dragon tales

Once he figured out that dressing up in a silly little costume meant lots and lots of free candy, Riley decided Halloween was his new favorite holiday. Of course, since he pretty much slept through both Christmas and Halloween last year, I guess this Halloween was the first real holiday he has been old enough to enjoy.
Riley was a little dragon this Halloween. Sam was pretty unexcited that I was making his very masculine son dress up in a purple costume that slightly resembled Barney the Dinosaur. The costume was so cute though that I couldn't resist getting it (and besides that it was on sale).
I was pretty worried that Riley would end up refusing to wear the dragon suit, since he hates hoods or hats of any kind. So I decided to have a few "dress rehearsals" for the big occasion. I put Riley's costume on him a few times before trick-or-treating so he could get used to it. I know, it sounds kind of dumb, but I figured if we had bought a costume, he darn well better wear it.
At first, he hated it. But then I put the hood on my head and growled at him and chased him around for a little bit. He thought that was pretty funny. Then, whenever he saw his costume, he'd point at it and say "Vaca." That's Spanish for cow. Sam taught it to Riley, and it quickly became his favorite word. But since he can't say any other animal name except dog, "Vaca" quickly became a generic word for animals of any kind.
Anyway, once he figured out that costume made him look like a little animal, he decided wearing it wasn't so bad after all. Halloween turned out to be a lot of fun--Plus, since Sam and I are the responsible parents that we obviously are---we couldn't possibly let Riley eat all of that Halloween booty by Himself. I

Happy Halloween!

Last weekend, we had the first annual McMurry family pumpkin carving contest. It was fun, and we all managed to escape the night without serious injury. Riley didn't care too much for the actual pumpkin carving, but he was simultaneously fascinated and freaked out by the gooey pumpkin gut stuff.
To see pictures of our finished masterpieces, go to www.mcmurryfamily.blogspot.com

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere

First of all, can I just say I'm so glad that Halloween is just around the corner because that means all the restaurants are rolling out their pumpkin options...Pumpkin milkshakes, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin drinks. I think it's a crying shame all that great stuff is only offered this time of year. Does anyone else out there feel the same?
Now that the important stuff has been said, we recently had a chance to enjoy some pumpkins of the inedible variety at a couple of pumpkin patches. One was in Utah with our friends the Ishiis before we rolled out of town for Texas and the other was with family in Oklahoma.
Riley didn't care too much for the pumpkins, but he did seem to enjoy the fact that both places had a petting zoo of sorts. The first place in Utah had a huge obese pig. I'm not exactly sure how much he weighed (and believe me, it was extremely evident this pig was a he) but it had to have been A LOT. The poor pig was so fat all it could do was lie there and wallow, surrounded on all sides by pumpkins. The other petting zoo in Oklahoma was great too because you could buy little grain packets (at 500 times the actual retail price) and feed all the little goats. Riley loved it. He would laugh and laugh as the dirty little things slimed him with their runny noses and discolored tounges. I had to cringe a little, but as a mother of an extremely active little boy, there must come a time when you have to trust that hand sanitizers really kill all the things they say they do.

Riley loved the wheelbarrow ride, as long as we didn't stop moving.
Same thing with the ponies. Once they started trotting around in their little circle, he was as happy as can be. When they stopped and he had to get off, it was another thing. My mom had to pry his strong little fingers off the saddle.

He's got the cowboy stuff down. What a natural.


I love the look on Riley's face. "What the heck is that thing my mommy is holding?"

No More Hugs!!!

Riley has always been pretty darn stingy with his hugs. He almost never gives one to Sam or me unless it's one of the "angry" hugs that he gives when we're doing something that he doesn't like and so he hugs us out of frustration. But I was up in Oklahoma last week with my mom and Riley visiting family. When Riley met his older cousin Zach, it unleashed a hugging maniac. Riley hugged Zach nonstop for the next few days. He got so enthusiastic about it that he flat out tackled the kid and knocked them both down more than once. Finally, after three days, the ever-so patient Zach had had enough and he said, "Riley, Please! No More Hugs!"
Since then, it's been a non-stop hug-fest.Riley now hugs pretty much every little kid he meets...at the mall, at the park, at church. Most of them don't seem to mind, except for the few that get knocked to the ground in the hugging process.

The Great Outdoors

Riley has this handy dandy kids carrier I bought him earlier this spring so that we could do some hiking. It was an expensive little thing, I we haven't used it near enough to get our money's worth. However, we have been taking advantage of the great fall colors the past couple of weeks in the mountains near my parents house.
There are some great hiking trails up there. Even greater than the nice scenery is the fact that Riley actually loves riding around in his pack. It's kind of a small miracle, because he hates being confined in any way, shape, or form. But he's as content as can be, riding up there on Sam's shoulders. We even went caving last weekend with my family. I thought Riley would be a little scared or anxious because it's a huge, pitch black cave. He really seemed to like it though.

More Peas, Please

Up until Riley turned 1, he was a great little eater. Broccoli, peas, beans...it didn't matter. He'd eat it all. Then we let him have unlimited access to cake and ice cream at his first birthday party, and it all started to go downhill from there.
In this video, my sister Audra was trying to trick Riley into eating peas. She'd give him a bite of chocolate to trick him into thinking he was getting something good, and then try to sneak the peas down him. It didn't work very well.
We did finally figure out a real solution though. Now, we blend his vegetables up with a generous mix of some fruit so he can't really taste the green stuff. It works like a charm.


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Happy Talk

Riley loves "talking" on the phone. Flip cell phones are his particular favorite. He always holds the phone to the back of his head instead of up to his ear, I guess because he lacks the coordination to hold it in the right place. He'll laugh and pretend like he's talking to someone on the other line for 10 minutes, which is a long time for his short attention span.
This video doesn't do the cuteness of the "phone talking" justice. It's too hard to film on the move. If nothing else though, it will give everyone an idea of what a busy little boy he is.


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It's Show Time

I have about five million videos that I've been meaning to post for the last little bit. Here are two of them. I'll try and post some more in the next few days. I love these videos, because they show off what a laugher Riley is. He laughs at everything! He even has this little fake, social laugh that he uses when people around him are laughing and he has no idea why. It's pretty dang cute!



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Into the Woods

Earlier this month my sister and I both had some free time on our hands and husbands who were very busy studying and working. So I dropped Riley off at his Grandma's house for a couple of days and Audra and I went on a backpacking trip to Grandaddy Basin in the High Uintas Wilderness Area.
For the most part, it was a lot of fun. I say for the most part because, well to be perfectly honest, I think backpacking in and of itself is a pretty stupid idea. You strap a monstrously heavy bag on your back and climb up and down steep hills for hours on end. But the chance to really be away from civilization and some of the most beautiful scenery on earth totally makes it worth it.
I'll be honest, all the seclusion and the no husbands around part of this adventure did get to me a bit. We were there two nights, and each night I could have sworn we were about to be eaten by a big fat bear. It must not have been a bear, because it didn't touch the enticing honey offering that we left on a stump to distract it away from our tent. I'm pretty sure it was some other big animal....but my imagination does tend to get away from me sometimes. Maybe it was a chipmunk on steroids.
On our way into the Basin, it started snowing and hailing. No, I'm not kidding. You can tell by the way Audra and I are dressed that we were ill-prepared for such an event. We broke all wilderness safety rules and huddled under a tree for about an hour with our one measly plastic poncho until the snow turned to rain.

Here's a photo of Grandaddy lake, the biggest in the Basin. Isn't the view beatiful? The lake and all that nature stuff looks pretty okay too (ha ha..i'm so dang funny)






For some reason, my sister was bound and determined that we catch a fish, clean it, and eat it. The only problem was that we weren't having any luck with the whole catching part. After casually observing some Scouts in the area who were catching fish one after the other, we figured we must be doing something wrong. So we went over and asked them if our pole set-up looked okay. Our first clue that we had done something wrong is when the Scouts started coughing to cover up their laughs. Apparently fish are smart enough to realize they shouldn't eat something if it's an inch away from a huge red and white plastic bobber. Go figure.
So, after we got some great advice from the Scouts and made a few adjustments, I caught a fish on the second cast. The next part was the hardest. I told Audra she had to kill it. She closed her eyes and hurled a rock at it's head a few times. Turns out its pretty hard to aim when your eyes are closed. Then we cleaned it, cooked it and ate it.
The meat itself tasted pretty good, but I could only manage to eat a few bites. This may sound a little hypocritical because I do like meat, but I've decided that I have to be far, far away from the actual killing process if I'm going to enjoy whatever it is I'm eating.
After that little adventure, we didn't fish anymore because we were too afraid that we would catch some poor little fish and not be able to figure out how to set it free.



All in all, it was a pretty great adventure.

Lake o' fun

We had the chance to go to Lake Powell again with my family this past week. Riley loved it, even more so this time than last now that he's walking. He got into everything, practiced steering the boat, swam, knocked down sandcastles, chewed on lots of sand and rocks from the beach and ate.... a lot. I'm amazed how much food that little guy's belly can hold when he finds something he likes. It was a ton of fun!

Rileyisms

Hey All!
Sorry it's been so long since i've posted. I'll try and get some new pics up here in a day or two. Life has been pretty crazy lately, what with moving out of our apartment, going on vacation and trying to figure out our new life plan. We've got the life plan thing narrowed down to opening a sunscreen stand on a beach somewhere or selling t-shirts on a street corner.
Riley has grown so much. He is now a pro walker with no more intentions of crawling ever again. Unless he's pretending to be a dog or other type of animal. His forehead seems to be a magnet for furniture and sharp corners. Now that he's walking, it's been pretty hazardous having almost everything that he could possibly hit his head into right at eye level. I think i'm going to buy that little guy a helmet and make him wear it 24-7.
I'd thought i'd take a minute or two to write about some of the cute things Riley's been doing. First of all, he definitely knows what no means. Anytime he is thinking about doing something he knows he's not supposed to, he starts shaking his head and saying, "Uh uh, uh uh." About 99 percent of the time he ends up doing whatever it is he wasn't supposed to be doing anyway, but the whole time he's doing it, he's shaking his head No.
His vocabularly has doubled--from three whole words to six. He now says Mama, Dada, Duda (Uncle Dustin), Odda (Aunt Audra), Hot, and Dis (This). While saying Dis, he also points frantically at whatever it is he wants at the moment.
He loves animals, and moos anytime someone says cow. Dogs are his favorite, and he sticks his tongue out and starts panting anytime he sees a dog. It's pretty darn cute.
Every day he's less and less like a baby and more and more like a little boy. It sure did happen fast.

I have tri-athlete's feet

Last weekend I ran my first triathlon in Roosevelt, Utah. I wish I could tell you something cool like I won first place and ran 30 miles without stopping. But neither of those are true, and as we've all heard over and over in church, lying is bad. The triathlon is a Sprint Triathlon, which actually means it's the smallest and wimpiest of all triathlons. It was a 1/3 mile swim, a 13 mile bike, and a 3.2 mile jog. I finished 12 minutes behind the women's leader. My dad ran it with me. That guy is in amazing shape.
Mostly, I decided to do this as an incentive to get fit. It kind of worked. I sure jogged and swam a lot more than I would have if I hadn't known I was about to embarrass myself in front of lots of people. I wasn't as ready as I should have been, but it was really fun, and best of all this race got me really excited about working out and trying to get in better shape.

Happy birthday to baby Riley!

Our big baby boy celebrated his first birthday on July 21st! I absolutely cannot believe he's already one. It's gone by so fast. I know everyone says this, but it really does seem like it was only yesterday that we got to see and hold him for the first time. Don't tell, but I actually woke up the morning of his birthday with some stray tears in my eyes. It's sad how fast babies grow and change, but at the same time, each new stage and period in Riley's life has been so fun for us to experience. He makes us smile and laugh each day, and we're so greatful to have him in our home.

Daddy setting up Riley's new toy.
Riley's first unlimited access to unrestricted sugar. As can be expected, he loved it (except for the few minutes when he got a huge ice cream headache from eating a bite the size of texas)
Riley and his baby friends at seven peaks water park. We went there for a couple of hours in the evening before his party to take advantage of the discount rates.
Presents, Presents everywhere
Riley with Aunt Alison and Uncle Ben

Heat Wave

Here's some funny cartoons I found online for all of you who are suffering in this mega-ginormic summer of hotness that never ends. Seriously, it's been sooo hot in Provo for the past few months. They think it will probably end up being the hottest summer on record for Utah County. I'm just glad we have air conditioning and the ability to keep it cranked up 24-7.


All of you McMurrys will relate to this one. For all of you non-McMurrys, I guess I should explain. That whole family is addicted to box fans. They sleep with them at night and lug them around the country when they go on vacation. At night, Sam sleeps with his nose about an inch away from a fan that's on full blast. And Sam,don't be mad, but I have to tell this story. It's just too funny. We had just moved to our apartment in Provo, and Sam's fan stopped working in the middle of the night. He rummaged around the room in a pacnic for a little bit, trying different plugs to see if that was the problem. Then, when that failed, he got up and drove to Wal-mart at 3 in the morning to buy a new one. Now that's dedication.