The Aquarium and Tiny Town

Having more fun in Colorado!  On Friday we left early and went to the Denver Aquarium.  I have always wanted to go but it is pretty expensive ($16 a person) but after much searching I found some 2 for 1 tickets on Facebook so we decided to go.  I thought the boys would love it since they love to go see the fish at Walmart.  Mikey did love it.  He pointed at all the fish and tried to grab them but didn't understand the glass being in the way.  The coolest part was the tunnel through the big aquarium, James even stood still for that part.  James' favorite part was the captains wheel at the very beginning, climbing on the rocks they had in one of the rooms, and climbing the stairs and walking across the bridge.  My camera battery died part way through so I didn't get very many pictures.  My favorite part was the tiger.  They had a tiger in one of the cages, and it was the most active tiger I have ever seen.  It came down right in front of Mikey and he thought it was so cool.  

James decided to go fishing in his boat.  He spends so much time in this boat.  

On Saturday we headed up toward the mountains to go to Tiny Town.  I have driven past this a lot as a kid, but we never stopped to see it.  I knew James would like this, and I was pretty sure Mikey would like it.  It is this "town" made out of miniature house that people build and donate.  The whole way up James kept talking about going in the "dark in here's"  this is what he calls the overpasses that you drive under.  I don't know where the term came from but he has been really excited driving around the city with all of them.  

As I expected James LOVED Tiny Town.  He tried climbing all the miniature stairs, knocked on all the doors, and tried to go in a lot of them.  They were really cool.  Some of them were decorated inside like the buildings that they were (movie theater, dentist, school etc.)  Some of them were built so the kids could go inside, those were James' favorite.  Mikey didn't care too much about it, he was just tired and hungry.  Oh, and we took a picture of James by the purple one for Aunt Amber and family because it was called The Price House Cafe.  After that we rode the steam engine train.  Mikey didn't love it, he hated when they blew the whistle a let out the steam.  James loved it, he just sat on Grandpa's lap and looked at everything.  It was a pretty fun day. 

3 Weeks in Colorado

We have been pretty busy these past few weeks and I haven't gotten around to blogging.  Doug's parents and brother Scott came to visit last week for Tim's graduation.  We had some fun with them, golfing, playing at the park, grilling, roasting marshmallows at the sand dunes, and just hanging out.  Then when they left on Sunday morning the boys and I went with them.  So we are spending two weeks in Colorado with Doug's family then 1 week with mine.  So it should be fun.

Mikey loves his blanket

Before we left we set up James "ladder bed".  He loves it.  We thought it would be a problem with him wanting to sleep on top, but he doesn't.  He plays on top but sleeps on bottom, and he seems to sleep better.

James' ladder bed

I finally found Mikey a hat, just in time for the trip, he actually keeps it on!  Here he is getting ready to go.

Getting Ready for Colorado

We drove all day on Sunday and got there at 7:30ish that night.  James was amazing in the car as usual.  Mikey was another story.  Every time he finally fell asleep it would be time to stop, so he kept getting woken up.  But once we got here the boys were all business.  They found the toys and started playing.  Monday night we went swimming at Great Granny's pool.  James loved it and Mikey hated it, just like I thought they would!  The next day I decided I needed to get James a pool toy since we would be swimming so much (there are at least 3 pools we could choose from on any given day) So I bought this little blow up boat for $4 at Walmart.  He loves it!  He just liked to sit in it on the floor.  

James' pool boat

That afternoon I took him to the pool, just me and him.  We had so much fun.  He talked so much and kept getting out and getting a noodle, or climbing down the ladder, or jumping into my arms.  It was a lot of fun to have some one-on-one time with James.  I get it a lot with Mikey, but not as much with James.  

Some things that Mikey enjoys: the dog and the rocks.  Everyone has rocks in their yard and Grandma and Grandpa's yard is no exception.  He loves to just go sit in the rocks and throw them.  When we took them over to the school to play yesterday he crawled/walked right over to the rock (they are big for decoration) and started trying to pick them up.  He also loves Max the dog (black lab).  He gets so excited when he is in the backyard and says "goggie" all the time.  

Playing in the Rocks

Last night I was putting James to bed and read him a story.  When I was done I gave him the book.  He got up and laid on his stomach with the book out in front of him and started flipping through it.  It was so cute I just had to leave the light on for a few minutes so he could read for a while.  

Reading a story

Today Uncle Scott and I took both of the boys to the pool again.  Mikey doesn't like to swim but I thought maybe if I just let him get used to the idea on his own he would start liking it.  Scott took James in the big pool and I headed over to the baby pool with Mikey.  At first he only wanted to put his feet in (on the step) then he started kicking, then he sat down on the step, then he actually got in the pool!  He really liked it, especially when Scott and James came over and he got to ride in the boat with James and Uncle Scott pulled him around the pool.  I will have to bring my camera next time. 

He Walks!

After waiting for what seems like forever Michael finally started walking this week!  It has definitely been different teaching Mikey how to walk then it was with James. James just started walking one day.  No wobbly steps and falling down every few steps, just walked across the room, turned around and came back.  Mikey has been learning at a very cautious, slow pace.  He wouldn't even let us only hold one hand while he was learning, it had to be both or he would sit right down on the floor and refuse to stand up!  So last week he took a few steps back and forth from Mom to Dad.  That was exciting progress for us.  A few days later I took my night off to go see a movie with Jordyn.  During the movie I got a text from Doug saying Mikey had walked across the floor on his own!  No parent around to force him.  I can't believe I missed it.  Over the next few days he started practicing more and more, and now I would say he walks most of the time.  Still pretty wobbly, but he is so proud of himself. 

Another fun thing with this new walking stuff is how much better friends James and Mikey are.  James love to make his brother laugh, and they really seem to be close to the same level socially.  So I got the tunnel out the other day and the boys just had a blast playing in it and making each other laugh.  I love days like this!

3rd, 4th and 5th of July

We had such a fun holiday weekend. On Friday Jordyn and I drove the scooter to Doug's job and he finally gave me a tour of the site. It was pretty amazing. I had a picture in my mind but it was way bigger then I imagined.

When we got home we found this surprise in the mail box. And we have to say a big thank you to Grandma Allen for sending it. No more naked James in the morning! Whoever thought of pajamas that zip in the back was a genius!

Friday night we went to the sand dunes and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mikey ate the entire time, and James didn't eat at all. James loves the sand dunes and it is a good place for him to get tons of energy out.

Saturday morning we went to the Rexburg parade. This year we went to the beginning of the parade and it was way less crowded and we got way more candy. James really enjoyed sitting next to mom.

Mikey got to sit with Uncle Shabadoo. He was really into the whole parade, and candy of course.

I think James was getting a little tired.

At the end one of the floats was giving out American Flags. The boys loved them more then all the candy.

James decided that was all he needed and went and sat on his chair and waved his flag for the rest of the parade.

And this picture is just because my boys are so funny when they eat corn. James wont pick it up and Mikey eats it from the end!

We had a fun barbecue with Doug's brothers and cousin. It was a lot of fun, then we did a few sparklers. Surprisingly James really liked it so then we felt bad we didn't get some more fireworks.

Once the kids were in bed we went on the roof and watched the city fireworks. They lasted about 5 minutes and weren't that exciting. I am realizing that I don't really remember what we did what days. It all kind of blends together in my mind so this may not be that accurate of a time line of what we did, but at least you get the idea.

Splash Park

I feel like I have so much to blog about that I don't know where to start. Now that we have James' blog that helps so I can blog about everything and not overload this blog. Last Friday we finally got James' child locator. I will probably do a post about that on the other blog. So we decided to try it out. Fridays are always difficult days for me because they seem to take forever so after Michael woke up from his nap I loaded the boys up in the bike trailer and we headed to the park. The ride was much easier this time, maybe because I knew Doug would meet us at the park after work and I would make him bike home while I drove.

First the boys wanted to play on the playground. Mikey loves this playground because he climbs the stairs, crawls across the bridge, climbs some more stairs then finally goes down the slide (with mom).

When Dad got there we headed over to the splash park (swimsuits were in the car). Both boys loved it. It took them awhile to warm up to the idea of being wet.
James and Mikey both love to go watch the Merry Go Round. I did finally take Mikey on and he didn't seem to like it too much. James just wanted to watch.

Then the boys finally got brave enough to play in the water. Mikey loved to stand at the end of the slide and splash in the water.

James finally got up his courage to go down the slide. He wasn't afraid of going down the slide, just having the water falling on his head, which I don't understand because he loves showers. Once he figured it out, we couldn't get him off of it.

Now that James has figured out that Mom can ride bikes too, he asks every day for a "Blue bike ride" (My bike is blue). First thing in the morning he is trying to get out the door for a bike ride, I guess I am going to be in shape this summer!

Team James

We have decided to start a new blog to share experiences with James' autism. I figured that everyone is not interested in the day to day details and stories and my venting, but some people are. So if you are interested then you can join Team James and read about our progress, setbacks and stories.

Crazy Mikey

Mikey has learned a ton lately! He loves to crawl around on his hands and feet and looks really funny doing it. He loves to be outside and whenever the door is open he "runs" to it. He has learned to climb stairs, but he doesn't know how to go down. We are working on that right now he just tries to go head first and I have to go get him before he falls down. The biggest reason he doesn't really get the stair thing yet is because the only stairs we have are the two steps in from the garage, the two steps in from the back yard and the three steps in to the front door. Not a lot of practice.

Mikey also has learned to stand up on his own. He loves to just stand up in the middle of the room and gets so proud of himself. Yesterday he was just standing in the middle of the room and I thought "What a great time to get a picture."After I took the picture Mikey started being really silly. It was so cute. Usually he can stand for quite a while and is pretty stable, but I think he saw the camera on and decided to ham it up!

The funniest part was when I showed the video to everyone last night. James thought it was hilarious and started acting it out. Mikey thought it was the funniest thing he has ever seen and was just laughing and laughing at himself. These two boys are sure a lot of fun!

P.S. I almost forgot to put our big news on here! Mikey took his first steps yesterday! He took one step to me. Then a few minutes later he took two more. Yea, maybe he will learn to walk after all!