No baby yet - this is what we do in the meantime

Thought it was high time to make a post. Life is kind of on hold as we wait for this baby to come. One of JT's favorite things to do is to go on hikes with me. It's a good opportunity for some father/son time and for me to get some exercise. Our favorite trail is the "Wild Rose" trail up by Eaglewood golf course. It's 2 miles away so we take the bike. It's about 750 feet of elevation gain to the trailhead (that's almost 2 Church Office Buildings). The portion in red in the picture below is the bike portion of the trip. Once there, JT is ready to hike. Every time we go, he hikes farther and farther. Last time we went, he hiked the first 3/4 of a mile, and then he hiked another 1/4 of a mile on the way down. The trail follows a canyon at the beginning and is very lush and cool. After a bend, it climbs up the south side of the canyon and spits you out at a lookout point. At this point it's more of a desert hike. Below is a view of the normal path of the hike that we do. Below is a view of the total trip if you were to look at it from an airplane 2 miles directly above the Salt Lake Airport (Google Earth is too much fun!)On our last hike, we saw 8 hawks, one snake (non-poisonous), and about 350 million grasshoppers. The grasshoppers love the desert portion of the trail and when you walk, there are literally 40-50 at a time that you stir up. It's quite an odd sensation. Also, we saw and heard one other animal, but it was in the lush canyon and I didn't get a good enough look at it to be able to tell what it was. I thought it was a raccoon, but JT thought it was a skunk, and that's what he told mama. I meant to take the camera on the hike, but I forgot to ask Angie to put it in my bag when we left. Thus, we have a before picture and an after video (and hence the need for Google Earth). Below is the pic of us leaving.

JT's favorite thing to do on the hike is pick a flower for mama. I scout the whole trail on the way up, and on the way down we choose our favorite. After we pick it, JT doesn't let it out of his grasp until he hands it over to his mom. This method has only failed us once when back in May he ripped all the petals off the flower. He has since learned that the petals are what makes the flowers pretty. Anyway, my favorite part of this whole thing is just seeing how excited he is to give the flower to his mom. He talks about it the whole way down. When we got to the house, I hurried and grabbed the camera just in time. I just love how proud he is of himself. Enjoy.

Off topic JT videos: This is JT singing his abc's.

Here's JT drawing fireworks.