Evelyn enjoys having a yard to play in. She is always happier outside than inside. Perhaps she is an outdoorsey person by nature. She also likes natural toys more than man-made ones. If we give her a leaf or a flower, she's entertained for hours (Well...I don't think anything could literally entertain her for HOURS). Sometimes I take her out in the front yard and hold her up so she can see and touch the roses. She never seems to get tired of it.

We went to the fair yesterday and had a good time showing Evelyn the animals. She thought they were funny, but she was wisely cautious about getting too close! I think that she enjoyed looking at the people just as much as the animals.

Here we are looking at kangaroos in a tent featuring Australian wild life. There are actually two darker colored wallaby things just to the left of the kangaroo Ev is looking at, and there is an albino kangaroo in the background on the right.

I thought I'd just take a minute to show you the house that we are renting. Here's a happy Evelyn in her new bedroom. We took down the wallpaper and painted the walls and the trim. It was way too much work--I don't recommend it!
The carpet in Evelyn's room is very retro: it's shaggy with alternating patches of green, orange, and yellow.
This is the living room. The house was already furnished, so some of the furniture here wasn't ours originally. We still haven't tried to use the big TV.
This is the exterior of the house, and as you can see, there is an Evelyn crawling on the lawn.

This will be a short post.... Evelyn is getting more grown up every day. She likes to sit at the table with us now and eat the same food that we are eating. She does pretty well for only having four teeth.
She's an OK self-feeder too. She can put a piece of food in her mouth as long as it's big enough to not get lost in her little fist.
Here's a rare shot showing her teeth. Glimpses of them are rather fleeting. The other difficulty is that Evelyn likes to move so much that pictures of her are usually blurred. Perhaps I could find an action shot feature on my camera....

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....