Just some pics

Ok, so as promised in the last post, we needed to put up a few pics of our cute little guy. And it turns out that we actually DO have an SD card reader on our new laptop, we just couldn't find it. Ask me how it takes a guy with an almost completed master's degree in computer science a week and a half to find the SD card reader on his laptop. But then again I have to cut him a little slack because he was the one that actually found it. If it were up to me, we may still be pictureless. So the MS must be good for something. :)

Anyway here are some pictures of our cute guy.

Coloring with crayons...

Coloring with pudding as finger paints...

Eating the pudding finger paints and being quite satisfied...

This is Alan's new favorite game. Flowerpot, bucket, bowl, basically anything on his head. Hasn't proved too dangerous yet, but the potential is there. :)

And here he is in his new chair that he loves, but he isn't quite big enough to get in by himself.

And that's us!

Ramblings

Please be forewarned that this is a very long and boring post. Recently I've been posting with pictures and little text, but this will be text and no pictures. We got a new laptop, and while it is ten thousand times better than our last one, it lacks an SD card reader, which means I'm going to have to find a cord for this camera before you get pictures. Sorry!

But in addition to all of the fun vacations and visitors, I thought it was time to put a little up here about our normal everyday lives. We've been having a great summer, and Alan is getting to be such a funny little kid. It is amazing to see how much he learns and grows, even from one day to the next. He is starting to know what he wants, and gets more and more frustrated when either he can't communicate that to us, or when he just plain doesn't get what he wants. He just sits down on the floor and is so mad that he starts shaking. Kind of sad and funny at the same time. He's going back and forth trying to decide if he wants to take one nap, or two, which is quite an adventure. I'm trying to hang on to the two nap deal as long as possible. He did decide to take a morning nap today, which is why you get to read this rambling blog.

We're also trying to get Alan over his fear of loud, sudden noises, on the off chance that he'll be able to come to some football games this fall. We've been to a couple of the open practices, and he has freaked out at just about every touchdown. He did fine at one of the scrimmages when we went up high in the bleachers, away from everyone else. Then he only freaked out on really big plays, but managed to calm down a little more quickly. He now knows he is supposed to clap for the football team, so now he is usually clapping and crying at the same time. Sooo sad! So we ended up only buying football tickets for Scott this year, and I'll go to a couple of games that I can get tickets to, and we'll probably get a babysitter for Alan. Too bad. At least he got to go to every home game last year. :) And speaking of football... WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON????? Nelson or Heaps? MWC, WAC, Independent? It's not just Alan, I'm beginning to freak out too! All of these rumors and no real news...crazy. At least the media has something to keep them busy. :)

Anyway, here are some of Alan's loves that keep us busy most every day:

• Outside- That's really the place Alan would love to be every second of every day. He wakes up in the morning and asks to put his shoes on before he even gets out of bed. It's kind of funny. He loves the stairwells in our quad and is constantly running into them. He'll climb up and down the stairs, yell (because it echoes), and knock on everyone's door. Good thing he's so cute or everyone would hate him by now. :)
• Old King Cole- This is hilarious. My Grandma Foulk sent me this old VHS that we used to watch when we were kids. Wee Sing's King Cole's Party. Oh my gosh Alan absolutely loves it. Any other show I put on for him, he could really care less about. He gets up and walks away, but he is glued to this one. I'm pretty sure it's because of the constant singing. When the talking part starts at the end, he's through. But he does the little actions and just claps at his favorite songs. We're having to limit the amount he watches this though, because he is asking for it at all hours of the day if we're not outside.
• Throwing things off the balcony. No explanation needed. Thankfully this has decreased a little in the last few days. We find amazing things in the bushes below our house. :)
  
• Water- He plays in sink with the water and dishes, and in the shower while I'm showering. When we go on walks he loves going through the sprinklers. We even took him to the pool this last week (lucky guy) and he loved it. He's a happy boy when there's water around.
  
• Packing supplies- Luckily we've been getting all sorts of packages for my sister's wedding and they're filled with fun baby things, if the boxes themselves aren't fun enough. Packing peanuts, plastic popping bubbles, crinkly paper...Alan is in heaven.
  

Anyway, that's us in a nutshell. We'll try to get some pics up soon!

Grandma and Grandpa Robertson Visit

We have been so lucky this summer to be able to spend so much time with our families, considering neither of them live close by. The Robertsons were able to drive down here for a quick visit last week, and we had a great time. I think they were most excited to see this crazy kid of ours troddling all around. He had soooo much fun with Grandma and Grandpa at this play area in the mall.
As usual, Alan had to be outside every chance he could. Here he is waving to Scott and I who are standing on our balcony.

And of course when parents are in town, you get to go out to eat and go to Costco. No Bronco this time, but as you can tell, Alan greatly enjoyed the hot dogs. He even did pretty well with the mustard too. :)

Family Reunion

So I'm finally getting around to posting some picture updates from the Tucker Family Reunion. It served as both a Foulk family reunion and a Tucker family reunion for us. It was so much fun to be able to relax and spend some time with family.

We spent the first day at Seven Peaks water park. Alan absolutely loved the water. He didn't like it when I dunked him under, but couldn't seem to get enough of the waterfall in the kiddie area pouring straight down on his head. Go figure. :)

Dad on one of the water slides!

Playing a little speed scrabble...

Family Picture! (minus Geoffrey)

The grandkids!

We had a blast at Snowbird Ski Resort. We took the tram up to the top of the mountain and there were some spectacular views.

Alpine slide!

Rock Climbing!

A couple of cute guys.

All of the girls at Steph's Bridal Shower

Mom and sisters :)

And the little girls had a fun time fixing Steph's hair.

Alan was so excited to be at in-n-out!

Basically we had a really fun time with everyone, and in one month, everyone will be out here again for Steph's wedding. Woohoo!

Walking

Well it's been a crazy few weeks around here. I haven't been keeping up to date too well, but I had to go back and document this major milestone. Alan took his first few steps two weeks ago. He was out playing on the balcony, and I walked over to the door to check on him, and he was just walking! It was so funny. He took a few more steps every day and now he is walking everywhere he goes. No doubt he'll be running soon. All this walking has led to more falls though. I swear he has a different bruise every day. Luckily he seems to be falling a little less now. Here are a few pics of the expert.

Before he started walking he would just stand for long periods of time.

"Expecto Patronum!"

Breaking Balloon Records

So this is what we did today on Scott's day off. BYU was trying to break the world record for the biggest water balloon fight ever. The University of Kentucky had previously held the record with 3,902 people and 119,211 balloons. We decided that since we would get free t-shirts and lunch, it would be a win-win situation and we'd give it a go. When we got there, we were pretty impressed at how well organized the whole thing was. They wouldn't let Alan on the field (for obvious reasons) so Scott and I took turns throwing balloons and staying with Alan. It worked out quite nicely since I was outside at the end and was one of the first in line to get food after the fight.

We read tonight that we only ended up beating the record by 25 people and 1,021 balloons. Insane! I have a feeling there were actually more people there, but probably everyone didn't stand in the line to sign a waiver. But luckily enough people did. It was a lot of fun and a great way to spend the holiday. Happy Pioneer Day!

Boise

We decided to visit the Boise area last week. Luckily Boise is about half way between Provo and Portland so Grandpa, Grandma, and George Robertson came to help and visit, too!

Alan was really so good on both car rides. When he did get a little upset, we thought taking his picture might help:



When we arrived, we were delighted to find very nice rooms at the Motel 6. Alan's favorite feature was the large mirror near the bed:



While we were there we drove around some neighborhoods, looked at some apartments and just had an overall fun time.

We even got to visit my cousin and her family, who made us a delicious dinner. Baby A got play on a tramp for the first time:



It was a great trip, and from what we've seen so far, we love Boise!