Fall Festivities

THE PUMPKIN PATCH:

ZOO BOO:

...doing the "hokey pokey" at ZOO BOO

The Great Outdoors

We have been LOVING Pittsburgh in the fall! Our eyes have been dazzled by the symphony of colors so generously orchestrated by the surrounding trees: fiery reds, goldeny yellows, brilliant oranges, all contrasted by glorious pops of lingering green. Look at me, waxing all poetical! As one of my friends often says "Fall inspires me." It's just that California deprived us of a good solid fall for far too long. It really has been awesome though. The air has turned crisp, Halloween decor is creeping out onto neighborhood porches, and suddenly we are craving cozy homemade soups with corn bread and honey butter! Feel free to pass on your favorite recipe. We'll love you forever :).

So, we still have yet to make it out to a fall festival, pumpkin patch, apple picking type activity. But, don't you worry, we certainly don't plan on missing out on any of those quintessential fall experiences.

HOWEVER, we DID go camping...sans our air mattress...with the ward...and the raccoons...in the rain (in spite of how that sounds, we had a blast!!!).

AND, Bryce and I went on a retreat...without Isaac...at a gorgeous lake house in the Appalachians...could have been romantic...if it weren't for the twenty other people and the beer keg a few of them visited one too many times. The retreat was for Bryce's residency program and we really did have fun even if we did stick to our Sprites and didn't participate in ALL of the shenanigans that were going on there. I enjoyed getting to know the people Bryce works with and some of their wives. Best of all we got to go hiking (I LOVE LOVE LOVE to hike). In the evening we went to a haunted house (upon entering the house of terror I quickly remembered that I don't especially enjoy haunted houses, more particularly people jumping out of dark corners unexpectedly. Someone please remind me the next time I am invited to a haunted house that I'd rather wait outside and drink hot apple cider). As a reward for making it out alive, we got to go down a mountain coaster (similar to the Alpine Slide in Park City). That's more my kind of thrill anyway(I could've done that twenty more times)!

Anyway, this wouldn't be a very good post without some good pictures. Honestly, when I'm blog stalking I usually just look at the pictures.

THE WARD CAMP OUT:

This looks posed but I promise it's not, he's just really this cute.

Our humble abode...and Bryce goofing around with Isaac

Taking down the tent.

Isaac ALL DAY LONG...looked EXACTLY like this...a blur running excitedly from place to place.

THE RETREAT:

Hiking...it made me smile inside.

AND...this made me laugh out loud.

E-I-E-I-O

Isaac and I met up with park group at a local farm today...Huckleberry Meadows (isn't that such an idyllic name?!). It was absolutely glorious to be outside in the fresh air with wide open spaces to explore. Isaac seemed to enjoy every minute of it as well. It was fun for me to watch him discover the world around him and have new experiences like touching a fuzzy caterpillar, going inside a chicken coop and getting to hold a warm, fresh egg, touching wool from the sheep, and having chickens running wild all around him. We even got to pick a few fresh flowers and vegetables! Being there made me nostalgic for all the good times my brother and sister and I had visiting my grandpa and grandma's farm in Eastern Idaho. I miss my grandparents! They've both passed on now, but the memories are still very much alive for me. I think my love for the earth and the great outdoors began with them.

August Activities

What have the Callister's been up to over the last month??? I can't say we've been on any super sweet summer vacations or really done anything too noteworthy (with the exception of Bryce--he's delivered baby after baby!). Sorry friends, this is going to be a pretty boring post. It's okay if you stop reading now and just want to look at the pictures!

Bryce spent month of August on OB service, working five 12 hr. days and a 24 hour call shift on the weekends! What a trooper! He still had the energy to play with his little boy and spend time with his wife. He IS A-mazing.

Now that we are down to one car, Isaac and I have had to get creative to keep ourselves entertained. We take lots of walks around the neighborhood, stopping along the way to practice saying words like grass, car, bush, sidewalk, fence, dog, cat, and birds. We go to the park nearly everyday. Sometimes we pop down to the zoo (the zoo is down the hill from us--awesome exercise for me and so much fun for Isaac--he LOVES the polar bears and the sharks). We do little art projects, sing songs, have dance parties--just the two of us, and read books. We are also really blessed to have a neighborhood full of fun friends to get together with.

So anyway, here are some pictures from the month:

One night we were eating dinner and we heard TONS of bagpipes coming up the street--It turns out that our little neighborhood has its own small community parade! I guess it was the kick-off event for the bazaar thrown by the Catholic church in our neighborhood. We ran outside and watched with the rest of our neighbors. Isaac was soooo excited and got candy and Mardi Gras necklaces (no, he didn't have to flash anything to get them).

AFTER THE PARADE:

So then a few weekends later, I heard this reverberating roar getting louder and louder and closer and closer to our house. Isaac even came running to me wide-eyed and frightened. We looked out the window and...what did we see??? EVERY motorcyclist in Pennsylvania (so it seemed) riding down our neighborhood street! What the heck?!! I still don't know why. We seriously watched the bikers come through for twenty minutes. It was EXCITING.

BIKER RALLY DOWN OUR STREET:

Isaac has lots of friends around to play with and for some reason he likes inviting them to sit with him inside the TV hutch.

ISAAC & CLAIRE:

FOR JULIE: I promised my friend Julie I'd do another art post since she couldn't find the book "First Art Experiences for Toddlers and Twos" at her library. Isaac invited his friend, Claire, over to paint with him. We explored making marks with different tools like cut up pieces of sponge, popsicle sticks, strings, and blowing the paint with straws (use a pin to poke holes in the straw so that the kids don't accidently suck the paint up). We used watercolor and also made paint by mixing equal parts of glue and shaving cream then coloring it with food coloring. Claire loved the puffiness of the shaving cream paint.

MINI PICASSOs or PICASSITOS:

Bryce won tickets to a STEELERS pre-season game!!! What an experience being surrounded by people who are passionate about their team! We had a great time and now feel like we've been officially initiated as Pittsburghers.

STEELERS GAME:

Isaac and I go to park group most Fridays. One Friday we met at a park that had a super fun blue slide. It's long and fun to slide on with a piece of cardboard.

Thanks Bethany for the picture!!!

BLUE SLIDE FUN:

Bryce and Isaac have a sweet relationship. When Bryce is home, Isaac loves to be everywhere his dad is. He likes helping Bryce with projects, wrestling, and sharing "treats." Last night they watched "CARS" together and split a bowl of popcorn.

SHARING A BOWL OF SWEET SWEET COCOA PUFFS:

TAMING THE JUNGLE THAT IS OUR LAWN:

This last month I've been trying to create some abstract family portraits to decorate our family room.

WORKING ON ISAAC:

And finally, Isaac has been learning to sing so many songs. It is adorable. Here's a video of the Alphabet Song from a few weeks ago.

Isaac's First Art Experience

I checked out First Art Experiences for Toddlers and Twos from the library the other day and have been so excited to share my love for art with Isaac. Today we made "Feelie Goop" with cornstarch and water (2 parts cornstarch to 1 part water). Isaac loved playing with the soft powdery cornstarch until I put the water in and everything began sticking to his fingers. We experimented with dropping food coloring into the goop and swirling it around. I had so much fun using my fingers...Isaac preferred to stick with a spoon. I was way more into the whole experience than he was! Can't wait until next time when we immerse ourselves into "Rubbery Flubbery Dough" or "Squeezing Rainbows" or "Dibbidy-Dab Draw!" So many fun ideas! I think I need to buy this book :).

H20-aholic

After several months of careful observation, the results are in and it's official...Isaac is a true California boy through and through. We cannot keep this kid out of the water! He was born a fish or maybe a future surfer...
I think the evidence speaks for itself:

-He insists on standing under the watering can as I water the flowers in our yard. I've resorted to interchangeably watering him and the flowers so that he doesn't trample my pretty blossoms in his frantic attempts to get wet!

-He sneaks into the bathroom every chance he gets...climbs up on the toilet...stands on his tippy toes...and reaches across the counter to turn on the faucet so that he can wiggle his fingers in the cool, refreshing dribble.

-Shower time for me is quite the maneuver each morning. I usually try to get Isaac interested in a movie or a story or his toys...ANYTHING and then I book it to the shower hoping that "maybe this time" I'll get through it before he finds me. But the minute I turn on the water I hear a clammer of little feet eagerly making their way across the wood floor and he's there before I can even get the shampoo in my hair. Then it become a battle to keep the shower door shut. He's always got his toes up on the porcelain top of the tub, ready to hurl himself over the edge at the first opportune moment. Sometimes he gives up but then he makes a beeline for the top of the toilet...straight to the sink...and my shower immediately loses water pressure and becomes uncomfortably warm.

- He enjoys sucking a mouthful of water out of his sippy cup, spitting it back out on the ground, and splashing it with his hands.

- Whenever I take him to the small park behind our house, he'd rather SIT in the little sprinkle fountain in the corner of the playground than swing or go down the slides. He seriously will sit there for like 10 minutes...just sitting, his little smiling face upturned into the mist of water.

-HE CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF THE SPLASH PARK HERE IN PITTSBURGH! We've been twice before and today I finally got pictures of how funny our boy is about water. I couldn't even catch him to get his swim diaper and sunscreen on. I had chase him down and drag him out kicking and screaming so that I could get him ready to play in the water! It is so fun to watch him running through the water having the time of his life!

Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix

Saturday, we spent a few hours at the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. Car lovers must have felt like they had died and gone to heaven with thousands of Classic European and American cars on display. I sure wish I knew more about cars! Still my ignorance over engines and horse power and special feature doohickies didn't stop me from enjoying the overall aesthetics of the beautiful cars we saw AND I got my first peek ever into a Rolls Royce (although I must say, aside from the nice leather interior I was a little disappointed. What makes these cars so special anyway? I was much more impressed by the kitchenette I spotted inside an old VW bus!).

Watching the cars race by ended up being very exciting. They were all so loud and unique looking. I felt as though I had jumped into one of the old Love Bug movies and half expected to see Herbie zip by! Isaac could barely contain himself, he was so thrilled to be there. He'd flap his arms up and down and squeal "Whaoh" as each car passed.

Adding icing to the cake, we got free hot dogs and ice cream before we left. FREE!!! Now that's something to get giddy over!