Riley's trip

Riley took a trip to Utah last week to visit my mom and dad. Notice I said Riley took a trip, not Riley and I. And nope....I didn't make a mistake. Riley flew to Utah with a family friend while Sam and I did something totally irresponsible and flew to Hawaii for a week with some friends from college.
As expected, our trip was completely wonderful. We figured this was probably our last chance to do something crazy for a long, long time because Sam will be starting medical school in August. Plus, we got a great deal on airfare and a family friend let us stay in their rental condo for a really great price. All reasons we used to rationalize wasting money on a crazy trip.
Riley had fun too. I was so worried about him flying on an airplane without me there, but Riley was an angel (or so I'm told). Our friend said he slept pretty much the whole way there and the whole way back. The first thing our friend said to us at the airport when he delivered Riley was, "Your child is so well-behaved." I know, shocker, huh? Honestly, I consider his perfect behavior a small miracle since he can't even sit still through an hour of church.
As expected, Riley was spoiled silly in Utah and loved staying at his Grandpa and Grammie's house. Here are some pics of his trip, courtesy of my dad.

"Go faster, Uncle Dustin!"

Riley making gravel angels...don't ask me why. It seems like they would really hurt. He's going to be excited this winter when we introduce him to pain-free snow angels.

"Somehow this dirt doesn't taste as good as I thought it would."

My mom is wondering what she got into when she happily agreed to watch Riley for the week. Thanks a ton mom!

While in Utah, my dad and my grandpa took Riley on a 4-wheeler trip. No, I'm not kidding. Of course, it was a very slow-paced and perfectly safe trip, where the speedomotor never exceeded 5 mph (right dad?) Riley is absolutely obsessed with cars, trains, boats, planes, or any other sort of mechanical thing that moves. He knows which keys in the house go to which cars and how to unlock the door, stick the key in the ignition, and turn the engine on. He can seriously spend an hour out there pretending to drive. (And this from a boy who has a three-second attention span.)
So of course, he was in heaven on the "farm" in Utah, where they have motorcycles, tractors and riding lawn mowers galore.



Taking a bath with cousin Graycie.

"Here Graycie, stick this rag in your mouth and suck all the dirty water out of it. I do it all the time!"

"Cleaning" Grammy's flower pot holder. My mom filled him up a squirt bottle of water, which he happily used to spray down everything outside (Including my mom's previously unspotted windows)