Hi everyone! Evelyn has come a long way in her development recently. She finally figured out how to crawl forward, and now she's a speedy little crawler. She likes to follow Clarisse and I and to chase the cats. She also has one little tooth now on the bottom. It looks like other teeth are soon to follow.

Evelyn also went for her first swim this week. She likes her baths so much that we figured she would like the pool. She had a little nervous moment when she first got in, but after that she had a great time splashing.

We had a nice evening at the park yesterday, and Evelyn enjoyed watching the ducks. They weren't shy when coaxed with a bit of bread.

Clarisse, Evelyn, and I spent the week at a Jensen family reunion at Yellowstone, and had a great time! It was fun spending time with family, and we appreciate all of the efforts of the planners and organizers, especially Grandma J who rented the cabins.

The first site that we visited in Yellowstone was the most famous attraction: Old Faithful. It puts on a nice show about every hour if you are willing to wait for it!

Old Faithful is the most commercialized part of Yellowstone and is surrounded by some interesting buildings. This picture is of the interior of the historic Old Faithful Inn.

I liked some of the other geothermal features even better than Old Faithful. There were several hot springs that gave off sulfuric-smelling steam and had perfectly clear, sky-blue water.

Sapphire Pool was one of my favorites despite its small size.... It's so otherworldly.

This is the Grand Prismatic Spring. The center of the spring is blue, but the banks are bright orange due to thermophilic bacteria that thrive there.

There was plenty of natural beauty besides the thermal features. This is Yellowstone Lake where we stopped for lunch. The water was too cold for swimming!

This picture of the canyon was taken from the very appropriately named Artist's Point. We saw a few impressive waterfalls during our stay.

Evelyn had a good time whenever she wasn't in a car seat. She enjoyed the new sights and textures and had no trouble finding things to play with.

Here we are wearing our shirts that were signed by everyone at the reunion. All of the signatures managed to fit on Evelyn's little onesie.

Oh, and I'd better not forget to mention the wildlife! There were buffalo everywhere, often stopping traffic. You can hardly blame people for wanting to stop and look though. We saw a couple elk too, and I didn't mind not having any bear or wolf encounters.

Now you can see where Evelyn gets her eyes from! I've been a little obsessed with close-up photography lately....

Evelyn spends lots of time standing up now. She can't get into a standing position by herself, and she needs something to hold onto for support, but she sure likes it! Falls are inevitable, but she is good ad making a soft landing.

She is getting more mobile too. I'm not sure whether to say she can crawl or not.... She kind of just scoots backwards, but she can get around pretty well that way. She doesn't seem to know where she is going and will usually just scoot around until she finds herself backed into a wall (and then she will cry for help).

Clarisse, Evelyn, and I stopped by the Chalk Art Festival at the Gateway Mall yesterday. Most of the pieces weren't finished yet, but it was fun to see the artists at work. The ones that were finished were covered in plastic to keep them fresh for the next day's judging.
This one's for you Dad. I hope you can recognize your favorite blue hero through the plastic.
I was excited to see Carl Bloch getting represented. This piece gets my vote!

Hi, I've been slow updating the blog.... It was sure fun seeing the family from Tucson a couple weeks ago! Thanks for making the trip. Here's Evelyn with Streeter grandparents, aunt, and uncles.

Well, all of that is kind of old news by now.... I'll just tell you about our recent visit to a "sculpture garden" called Gilgal.

It used to be the back yard of an artistic fellow, and now it is a public garden. The sculptures are all scriptural and have a sort of cryptic symbolism. The body parts strewn about in the picture below are a representation of the statue from Nebuchadnezzar's dream after the stone rolled over it.

This guy with a rock for a head is supposed to be the "captain of the Lord's hosts" who came to Joshua before he marched against Jericho. In front of the statue is a circle of 12 stones representing the 12 stones that the Israelites took from the bed of the Jordan river after it parted to let them pass through. The Israelites called their pile of stones Gilgal, and that is where the garden gets its name. The man who designed it was drawing a parallel between the Israelites' entrance into the promised land and the pioneers' entrance into the Salt Lake Valley.

The most famous statue is of a sphinx with the face of Joseph Smith. It seems like a weird combination.... We read that the sphinx represents "riddles and mystery" and that the statue is meant to suggest that the only way to find answers to life's questions is through revelation.

This piece here is inscribed with Ecclesiastes 12:7. The cryptic images that surround it make more sense if you read verses 6 and 7 of the same chapter. If you're bored, you might see if you can connect the objects with these verses.

And here are some pictures of spring flowers from the surrounding garden. Perhaps not very interesting, but I've been on a picture taking kick since getting this camera....

It's been a rainy week, but it cleared up enough on Friday for us to have a picnic dinner at the park. This wasn't just any park though; this was the hippie peace park (formally known as the international peace gardens). The park is divided into plots to represent different countries.

Needless to say, some countries were represented better than others. I think Switzerland was the winner. Constructing a huge concrete mountain peak takes the cake.

The Jordan river runs along the side of the park. There were no ducks to be seen, but Evelyn liked watching the water flow by.This is a little mermaid that Evelyn had fun socializing with. She kept touching the face, and I hope she wasn't expecting a response! I thought she might also like to look at a bust of an English queen, but when I held her up to see it, she completely freaked out! It took a while to calm her down. I guess she isn't fond of disembodied heads.

The funnest part of the park was seeing Evelyn's reaction to the grass. We had never set her in the grass before, and she was enthralled with it. Trying to pull it up kept her entertained for a long while.

Spring has finally arrived in Salt Lake. I think the high was in the 80's yesterday, and it felt like summer. There are flowers blooming everywhere, and people are out mowing their lawns.

We take Evelyn out for a stroll more often now, and she seems to get really absorbed in the sights. It really mellows her out, any way.

Here she is in her stroller looking ponderous....

We went to "The Gateway" with her on Friday evening, and she loved seeing all of the people. The Gateway is a big, fancy outdoor mall in Salt Lake. It's a neat idea, but I wouldn't want to shop there in winter! It was fun looking at all of the artsy decor in Z Gallerie, and the store owner was quite charmed by Evelyn. Evelyn ended their conversation by spitting up on the floor, but the owner was sweet about it. We thought it was fun that the main patio at the Gateway was a sort of fountain that shot up jets of water periodically. There were tons of happy kids running around in the water, but I am not sure that their parents were thrilled.

We would like to wish our moms a happy Mother's Day! Thanks for all you do for us Leslie and Robyn! Where would we be without you?

Hi everyone! Just a quick update.... Evelyn is much better at sitting up now, and she is much more playful too. Recently I was holding her on my lap facing away from me, and she kept arching her back and leaning her head back in order to look at me upside down. She would crack up every time she did it. I've never seen her so wound up before!

Now that she can sit up on her own, we have started using her highchair. She seems to enjoy being able to look at us while she eats. She also seems to like how the trey holds things where she can reach them. Sometimes we will put some balls on the trey, and she will roll them around with her hands until she has rolled them all off.

As for other things going on in our lives, I have a final on Wednesday, and then I will be done with classes. From that point on, it will be just research. Clarisse was able to see her parents on Friday, and they had lunch together. They were on their way back home from the resort in Idaho and had some thoughtful gifts from Allen and Giovanna.

We are looking forward to seeing the Streeters LATER THIS MONTH!!! Love you all!