A Leisurely Bike Ride

Matthew loves sitting in the back of Jericho's bike. A few of us decided to take a bike ride through Holly's neighborhood and check out the duck pond. I rode right behind Kristina to make sure my baby boy was safe.

He did pretty well, except for the occasion when he'd stand up and I'd yell at him to sit back down. Kristina realized afterward that he may have been imitating her when she'd stand up to pedal the bike.

When we got to the pond, he made a b-line for the water.

Danielle, Matthew and Kristina

Aunt Holly caught up to us in the middle of our ride.

Jumping in for a Bath!

We were at Holly's house the same day we had gone to the zoo and Jericho had to take a bath that night. While we were all hanging out in the family room, Jericho came traipsing in sans towel. At just about the same time I'd been wondering where Matthew had disappeared to. Holly ran after J-boy to get some clothes on him and glanced over into the bathroom to find Matthew in the tub with all of his clothes on having a great time in the water!

The water was still dripping out of the faucet and he was filling this cup and drinking it.

When he saw us he promptly plopped down into the tub and then turned around and did a belly flop on the tub floor. He is a silly guy!

I found a sweater in the diaper bag to put on him. Here he is in one of his favorite spots - shhh . . . don't tell Grandma Karen that he just loves her computer!

Zoo Boise

My nephew, Jericho, had his 2nd grade field trip to Zoo Boise today. Jericho is autistic so his teacher asked my sister, Holly, if she would come to the zoo just in case things didn't go perfectly. She was supposed to meet him at the zoo, but he refused to get on the bus when it was time to leave the school, so she quickly drove to the school to coerce him to get into the car to go to the zoo. She found him at the computer looking at zoo animals and the conversation went like this:

"Hi Jericho," She said.

"Do you want to go to the zoo?"

"NO"

"Do you want to stay at school?"

"NO"

"Do you want to go home?"

"NO"

"What do you want?"

"Com-pu-tor"

He didn't want to go to the zoo, because he didn't want to miss out on his computer time. Silly boy! Holly and Miss Andrea came up with a plan to get him out the door. They let him play on the computer for 10 minutes. Miss Andrea set a timer and they put together a visual schedule. (A piece of paper that says what will happen next--like a list you can cross off.)

First--Computer

Then--Go to car with snacks

Zoo

School

When the timer rang, he crossed off computer. They showed him the list about every two minutes, as he worked on the computer. He looked at the next thing on the list, made some noises about how he really didn't want to do it. Then, he picked up his snack and walked to the car without one melt down!

Holly always amazes me with her patience and the way she is able to talk things through with Jericho and explain things in away that makes sense to him and motivates him to act.

Meanwhile, Matthew and I were getting ready to meet Aunt Holly and Jericho at the zoo. We had to drop daddy off at the airport first.

We made it! Zoo Boise isn't the greatest zoo in the nation. At this age, Matthew doesn't mind and in fact I am just happy if I can tell that he notices the animals at all. He was much more aware of his surroundings this time which was exciting!

The Jeep - one of the best spots at the zoo. Especially for little boys!

Matthew gets his turn to drive!

The giraffe slide - hot spot #2!

Jericho makes it down the slide.

Matthew at the top of the slide. He always held the line up as it took him a while to decide that he was really going to go down. I had to have the little girl behind him give him a little nudge to get going.

A visual of the huge slide next to my little man!

Loving Jericho's chew toy. This is a toy Jericho uses - it helps calm his nerves when he is in an unfamiliar situation or place.

Keeping an eye on that goat!

Decides he is brave enough to touch the goat.

Aunt Holly helping Matthew feed the goats.

Hanging out on the tiger.

Dipping fries in Idaho!

So, we now live in the great state of Idaho! I really never though I'd say that. I never imagined living here and I honestly felt sorry for all the people I met that grew up in Idaho. Like it was the middle of no where po-dunk state. Everyone I meet here has moved up from California. We didn't even take any pictures of us moving in. We had plenty of guys from our new ward show up to move us in and I seriously think it took less than an hour to unload the truck. They were wonderful and I'm sure highly motivated to get the work done quickly so they could go shooting for their Elder's Quorum activity. Yes, we definitely live in Idaho. Matt politely declined the invitation to go shooting although I told him he was welcome to go :)

Here are a few pictures of Matthew at Five Guy's dipping fries in ketchup for the first time. He would dip, dip, dip, and then suck the ketchup off the fry and dip again! One day he will learn that the fry is actually really tasty!