walking on sunshine

huzzah! on sunday, at fourteen and a half months exactly, afton took her first steps.  the video camera came out shortly thereafter, and the following clip is of steps 15-25:

daddy daughter date

a new wheeler family tradition is born.

so while momma went out and enjoyed herself immensely at the relief society broadcast on saturday evening, bryan stayed home and tended to the wee ones.  and though his responsibilities were pretty straightforward and lowkey (as well as specifically typed up and printed out -- c'mon, i'm nothing if not neurotic), he decided to up the ante and took the girls on a little excursion (his first! outside of trips to the park) to the grocery store.  there, the girls picked out a special treat: their very own pez dispensers.  our babes thought these were about the coolest inventions of all time (and they just might be), and summer gave them her utmost seal of approval by taking both to bed with her.

when we're helping

we're happy, and we sing as we go.

and we like to help mother, for we all love her so.

where we live

you're totally jealous, i know.

ready for bed

right before bed, the girls love to pile on

momma and drink their white gold.

(psst: momma loves it, too.)

good night!

a toast!

as a parent, sometimes i'm amazed at the nonsensical string of words that comes out of my mouth as i try to explain the finer points of life to my children.

like:

"summer, when someone cheers's you, you need to clink.

little miss monkey

summer is afraid of heights.

afton, it seems, not so much.

(nope -- still not walking).

do the puyallup

the wheeler's adventures at the puyallup fair:

(to remember summer's caricature, go here.)

national day of service

if i can stop one heart from breaking,

i shall not live in vain;

if i can ease one life the aching,
or cool one pain,

or help one fainting robin

unto his nest again,

i shall not live in vain.

--emily dickinson

above/right: bryan participating in the national day of service with the big rock ward at acres of diamonds, a transitional house for homeless women in duvall.

progress reports

so i know that school has started for most of the older-kid crowd. and though my lovelies are not yet beholden to institutional learning, i still can't shake the spinster teacher out of me. so while summer and afton are a bit far off from toiling over dotting their i's and crossing their t's, here's where they stand on the developmental milestones they have been working on:

summer, potty training: nearly complete

yes, it's been awhile since i've updated on her comings and goings (which i'm sure her sixteen year old self will just *love* that the entire world wide web knows about), but after we got back from our trip to utah, we started potty training anew. she has taken to it quite well with little effort on my part and stays dry 98% of the time (the 2% accounting for nights which we have yet to tackle). she still refuses to, uh, eliminate solid waste in the potty and instead requests a diaper every time she has to go. but hey, that works out just fine for me -- definitely not going to look a gift horse in the mouth here.

afton, walking: not quite

now, i understand that not walking at fourteen months is still well within reason, perhaps even average. but it is my personal belief that afton can walk, she just won't. (bryan and i, we breed 'em stubborn as mules). anyway, she can go up and down stairs faster than summer, she loves to stand, she loves to squat (and in fact, she really loves to stand-squat-stand-squat-stand), she is a master at cruising and climbing and a regular mario andretti maneuvering a walker. but i have never, ever, not once seen her take or even attempt an unassisted step. even still, she can't pretend to be unable to walk forever, and i feel we're getting closer everyday to outing her secret ninja walking skillz.

a sunday psalm

i wish you could hear the beautiful music the girls help
bryan play while waiting for mama to get ready for church.

For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart;
yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me,
and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.

Doctrine & Covenants 25:12

oompa loompa

our little baby sure eats like a little lady.

cookie dough for breakfast

parents of the year!

little miss-chievous

no, she can't walk yet.

but it seems she can climb to the top of the toilette.

for your amusement

okay, one final family adventure to share from our desert trek, and then it's back to the races. (though, if bryan ever deigns to grace the blogging world with his presence, you might hear about some utah biking excursions.)

so for ken buds' big birthday, twenty-four style, we headed to amusement central: lagoon.

summer's first ride.

nothing can capture that girl's attention quite like water can.

summer's second ride.

having had her fill of the "kiddie" amusements,

she tries her hand at something a bit more exciting.

on the timeless logflume. love emmelie's action hair.

as always, we enjoy our share of physics lessons.

what goes up:

must come down:

(that's right, bryan, scream like a man!)

on a side note, sometime during the day, summer and i were separated from the group without a cell phone. and while i shan't bore you with the hairy details, let's just say that when we met up again with the fam, a certain someone who is not afraid of "public" confrontations and a certain other someone whose defense mechanism is to laugh when his wife is upset had a pretty volcanic one-sided exchange outside pioneer village (if you were there at lagoon that day, yes, that was us). tears were shed. maps were ripped up, crumpled, and thrown. and there was a general weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

then my dad bought everyone icees, and all was well and right again with the world.

as a bonus, we have now originated the saying "pulling a lagoon." which i think refers to that same certain somebody's tendency to, uh, not remain calm.

who, me?

psst: yes, afton *was* at lagoon with us. she just spent most of the day being pushed around in the stroller by opa d, resting her pretty little head.

another day, another zoo

it's true: the wheelers love zoos. astute readers may have noticed that wherever we go, we go to a zoo.

so, in keeping with that tradition, here is our visit to the mighty hogle zoo in utah (and its two main attractions: the carousel and the bird show).

summer circling the carousel to be sure and pick

just the right animal on which to rest her precious little hiney:

hang on, cousin kellyn, we're moving at light speeds here!

afton petting the giraffe. i think her baby camelopard likes it.

summer awaiting the bird show with anxious trepidation:

but in the end, (and after a few shouts of "don't eat me!")

she liked it so much that she donated another dollar.

(for a brief recap of her first donation, go here.)

packin' heat

huh.

not really sure that's what the boppy is for.

plus, plus

here are some more graduations pics

for those of you who are in to that sort of thing:

pomp and circumstance

a central reason for our westward journey was to attend the college

graduation of my middle brother, kenny, and his wife, emmelie,

who are now off to law school at the university of chicago.

congrats, grads!

but graduation, while important and all, came in a close

second to byu bakery's hot bread and honey butter.

yum.

hit the road

did you miss us?

we just returned victorious from our summer vacation in utah.

much more to come on our adventures.

like this one:

at the beginning of our 14 hour trek down south,

summer vomitted in the car (not but 20 miles from home).

good times.

alki beach

ah, july 31st. never a day that i really worry about the weather.

i can almost always guarantee that it will be sunny on my special day.

even in washington.

but not this year. fuh-REE-zing cold.

still, alki is a lovely beach (as pacific northwest beaches go).

but with the winds and the waters so chilly, we only lasted about an hour.

then, we de-sanded for thirty minutes

while our little ladies explored the back of the pilot.

and then, i spent the next four hours at the spa.

the warm and cozy spa...

seventeen again

let's travel back ten years to a time of prom and parents. boybands and britney and blue (da ba de). youth and beauty (SIKE -- what's up with that perm?) it's the year 2000, end of junior year, school's out for summer, and lisa and i (sorry about the picture cut, yo) spend our days baking and decorating ginormous cakes.

seventeen-year-old emily sits on the above left with twenty-seven-year-old emily by her side. a decade of difference between them. (i.e., seventeen-year-old emily wore only mascara; twenty-seven-year-old emily wears mascara and eyeliner. where *does* the time go?).

and if these two rather bodacious babes actually met, what would they talk about? what would they still have in common? what could they learn from one another?

perhaps their idea exchange might go a little something like this:

from emily the younger:

read your scriptures every day -- the fire of faith takes fanning the flames

eat ice cream for breakfast every once in a while -- just because you can

keep dancing -- you are a fiiiiiine booty shaker

give more people the benefit of the doubt -- a little guilelessness never hurt anyone

from emily the elder:

stay out of the sun -- your creamy pale skin is delicious

love the mole -- pretty soon photographers will start editing it out, and that will make you sad

for heaven's sake, eat less greasy food -- your digestive system can't handle it

don't cry so hard when you don't get the Hinckley Scholarship -- you will marry into it

and puh-LEEZE give your parents a break -- raising kids is friggin hard

now hug it out ladies and go your separate ways. seventeen-year-old emily to be frozen in stretch mark free (yet ghastly coiffed) perfection forevermore, and twenty-seven-year-old emily to infinity and beyond!

turning twenty seven

that's right, folks. i'm now well into my late twenties.

more to come on this year's celebration

(plus, emily's reflections on her growth and development).

in the meantime, check out my candle-blowing/baby-making skillz:

twenty-five and twenty-six.

denny creek rock slide

our first family of four hike.

about a mile and a quarter to a natural rock slide

(complete with ice cold mountain water)
that the girls just loved.

what we failed to capture on film was emily carrying afton in front
and bryan's ginormous backpacking pack on back.

'twas a sight to behold, i'm told.

special delivery

handsome aksel james wheeler was born july 26, 2010 (a full month early!)

to proud parents james and michele.

a special welcome to the brand-newest wheeler!