The Jessi James Gang

Gateway Mall - August 1, 2012

Sometimes James and Lincoln will get a bit stir-crazy at home and decide to leave the apartment and meet up with me after work. Today, we explored at the Gateway Mall. We spent about an hour at the Hansen Planetarium which has some fun space and weather learning exhibits. Lincoln loved exploring the moon-scape.

Exploring Mars was fun too. Have you ever seen so many rocks!?!

Then we met up with Kurt and Carlee and kids and spent some time at the Olympic Plaza. It is an outdoor patio area with a water fountain. Tyler (in the grey shirt, black pants) didn't hesitate to get wet on the first day of August.

So wet, Tyler!

Then we met up with Kristen, Emma and Aspen for dinner and some more exploring. Here are all the cousins. Jake, Christy, Rachel, Aspen, Emma, Lincoln and Tyler.

We love it when cousins come to town!

Lincoln needs a nap, so James and Lincoln go hiking. July 30, 2012

James and Lincoln went hiking at Brighton Ski Resort. James got the backpack on and took this self-portrait partway up the trail. Mostly to see if Lincoln was awake or sleeping. Sleeping.

Plenty of wildlife to see on this hike. A curious ground squirrel.

The guys stopped to give Linc a wiggle-break and to share an orange. Linc loves to get out and explore.

Then a picture in front of the lake. James and Linc went to four lakes today. Dog Lake, Lake Mary, Lake Martha and Lake Catherine.

And on the way down to the base, they saw this mama and baby along the trail. (Almost a week later, we'd see this same pair of moose at the LDS Girls Camp where we had a family reunion.)

Lincoln slept most of the hiking, both uphill and down. He must've needed a good, long nap.

Mountain Biking Albion Basin - July 28, 2012

James took a Saturday afternoon mountain bike through Albion Basin in Alta Ski Resort. Some of the pictures he took..... James wants one of these. Can we store it "up the hill" at McCalvys?

A view of Albion Basin. The wildflowers are beautiful this time of the summer.

One of two large bull moose that James spotted during his ride.

A perfect first ride of the summer. Now he just needs to get out again!

Bees Baseball - July 26, 2012

We took Lincoln to his first baseball game today. He played with the tickets.

Posed for a picture with Bumble.

Watched the action from Daddy's shoulders.

Tried on Daddy's hat.

Flirted with the little girl a few rows behind us.

Watched Daddy juggle baseballs.

Sadly, the Bees lost to the Sacramento RiverCats tonight. We'll have to go and cheer for the Bees again another night.

VIDEOS of Lincoln standing by himself and walking in the grass

Silver Lake - July 22, 2012

For our Sunday Drive this week, we drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Brighton.

Then we walked around Silver Lake which is very close to Brighton. The walk around the lake is about a mile. We didn't have the stroller or a backpack, so Lincoln got to walk some. He walked about 1/3 of a mile. He stopped to look at grass, to pick up sticks and to watch people as they passed.

We saw a young moose in the water near the boardwalk. He certainly made people stop and stare.

We're getting better at understanding Lincoln. At least on a walk. If he wants to be carried, he walks into your legs and holds both arms up. When he wants down again, he just wiggles and squawks.

On the far side of the lake, the reflection of the sky was really pretty. We also saw some deer, some ducks and ducklings and not very many mosquitos.

Twin Lakes Pass Hike - July 21, 2012

Today we decided to go up to Alta Ski Resort for a hike. The wildflowers in July are really pretty and hopefully it won't be as hot as in the valley. We chose to hike to Twin Lakes Pass. We hike to Twin Lakes from the Brighton side quite a bit, so we were looking forward to seeing the lake from a different perspective.

At the trailhead. Only 1.75 miles (according to the trail map) or 2.1 miles (according to the wooden sign at the trailhead) to go...

Hiking at Alta is very different than hiking at Brighton because of the huge mining history. The trail James is on just wandered through two huge piles of old mine trailings (rocks that were removed from the mines and then crushed, then just piled up in big piles).

We stopped to check out a big rusty box.

And a cabin?

About 1/3 mile from the pass, we stopped to wait out a rain shower. This clump of trees sheltered us from most of the raindrops. Lincoln had extra clothes and James had a rain jacket (which we didn't use), but I was not prepared for rain at all. But I was prepared for lunch. We ate our picnic while watching the rain.

After the rain delay, family photo at the pass! You can see the lake by our knees.

This is Twin Lakes - it used to be two lakes, but the dam (at the far end) turned it into one lake. We've skiied to this lake and hiked to this lake from Brighton. A couple years ago, we hiked there on the 4th of July with Tia Hermana McCalvy and saw a mama and baby moose. Today, because of the thunder and more rain headed our way, we just looked at the lakes from the pass. We did see quite a few deer, but no moose this trip.

James and Lincoln - my outdoorsmen!

On the way back down, we stopped to wait out another quick rainstorm in another clump of pine trees. I did have long pants in the backpack for Lincoln, but even in the rain, it wasn't too cold and we just put on his 'knee' socks.

What do you think about hiking in the rain, Lincoln? His backpack came with a sun/rain screen, so he didn't get too wet when we did hike in the rain a bit.

See the lighter colored piles of dirt? Mine tailings. The rusty old box we stopped at on the hike up was on top of the lowest of these rock piles. And up on the next pile of dirt was another rusty old box. So we decided to check it out.

It's not a "box"! It's a dump truck!

It has three axles, so I guess it had 6-wheel-drive?

Lincoln thought the engine was pretty interesting.

And finally back at the car again. There was a replica mining box car, just the right height for Linc to stand in it... Where's Lincoln?

Peek-a-Boo!!!

With rain delays, we hiked 3.7 miles round-trip and it took us 3 1/2 hours or so. Yay for us!

Videos! - July 20, 2012

Some videos of Lincoln over the last few weeks. We like this baby! (You might need to go to the blog in order to play these... jessijamesgang.blogspot.com)

July 7, 2012 - Pony ride at the McCall Idaho grocery store (19 sec)