The next day we headed up away from the beach, and into the hills above Santa Cruz to go to the Roaring Camp Railroad. Chris was pretty impressed with the train, and was really excited to go for a ride on it. Here are some pix from our fun day there.

Mommy's little Pumpkin

and the Scarecrow

a little red barn for the little man

Mommy and me on the train

the train going around a turn on the bridge

Little man showing off his moves in front of a BIG Redwood

"Mohawk and a gun" as he said

Letting off some steam!

one of the cars

a caboose

and a close up of the little man

checking out the ducks....what a QT!

Monterey Bay Aquarium

In August Christopher and I took a trip out to California, mainly Santa Cruz and Monterey. We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium one of the days we were there. I haven't been back to the aquarium with Chris in a little over 2 years. It was really great to take him there again.

Checking out some fish

Some beautiful jellies.... they probably aren't as beautiful if they are stinging you

CHEESE!!

Getting comfortable watching all the different animals in the Outer Bay Exhibit

"Zuga" the sea turtle... she's a character from his Diego movies

The Hot Pink Flamingos... he thought these were very cool

Looking for Nemo

"I found Nemo, Mom"

there was a cool little cubby hole that the little kids could sit in and look at the turtles

The other side of the window that Chris was looking thru

a new friend

another new friend

Mr Cheeser again

Checking out the sea dragons, these are so neat looking!

petting a sea cucumber, Chris thought this was very cool. I had to finally take him away from it when he started squeezing it instead of just petting it

a baby penguin.... or so he said he was

this exhibit had water crashing down over the glass, it was fun watching Chris sit there watching the water rush over him

checking out the kelp forest

Preschool Level 3 Swim Lessons

Preschool Level 3

Now it's time for preschool level 3. Chris' teacher for this class was Kelly. He didn't like her as much as Dallin, but he was still good for her and did all the stuff he was supposed to do.

He had to "dive" down and get these little toys off the bottom of the pool, they called it "scuba diving"

Getting ready to jump in

Hanging at the side of the pool. This part was too deep for them to reach the bottom and this is where they would jump into the water.

Swimming to his teacher!

Jumping off the side to his teacher, then swimming back to the wall

Passed Preschool Level 3!!! Next summer I think we will do Preschool level 3 again for a refresher class, then he can move to Level 1!!

Preschool Level 2 Swim Lessons

PRESCHOOL LEVEL 2

After passing Preschool level 1 we moved into preschool level 2. Chris' teacher's name was Dallin, and Chris absolutely loved him as his teacher.

They did a lot more exercising going under the water so we got the little guy some goggles to wear. He couldn't wait to wear them, so he was wearing them in the car.

Dallin getting Chris' life jacket on. The last two days of class they took them to the indoor pool, and let them go off the diving board.

Getting ready to go off the diving board

Going off the diving board with Dallin

Going again

Passed Preschool level 2

PreSchool Level 1 Swim Lessons

This summer we put Christopher into swim lessons. He did three different sessions, Preschool Level 1, 2, and 3. He did such a good job in all of his classes. When we went to Hawaii in March he saw the surfers out in the water, and he said he wanted to go surfing. So I told him that if he took swimming lessons and learned how to swim, then next year when we go to Hawaii we will learn how to surf. So the little guy took his swimming lessons....so now I guess I owe him surf lessons next year.

PRESCHOOL LEVEL 1

Doing kicks with his teacher, Miss Andrea

hanging in the water with his classmates (they were all girls)

Learning to do back floats

His Certificate for passing the class!! Yeah!

BBQ Time

Christopher's Uncle Will and Auntie Janice came out to Cedar City to do some family pictures before Uncle Will deployed to Afghanistan. Here are a few picture from the BBQ we had at Auntie Mary's house.

Christopher taking Mutley for a walk

Auntie Janice and Baby Ashley

Uncle Will, Baby Ashley and Tristan

Little Surfer boy

Some Summer Fun

Just some summer fun. The other day we went to the Living Planet Aquarium here in Sandy Utah. Its not much compared to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, but its pretty good for being in the middle of a high desert in Utah. Chris really enjoys going there and seeing all the fish. They even have a little sting ray pool where you can pet the sting rays as they swim by. Here are a few pictures of our latest trip.

Checking out the puffer fish

Wow, if looks could kill.....

Aww, there's the nice smile

Going on a canoe ride entering the South America exhibits

EEEWWW, what are these??

The newest edition to the aquarium is their penguins

Chris loves to play in the sprinklers in the back yard. He couldn't wait until he went and got his swim trunks on, so he just stripped down to his undies. He has a ball just running back and forth in the water. What a goof ball!

and a close up of the cutie boy

Me and Mommy