The house rises from the dust...

Mac and I recently returned from a late summer vaca to visit grammy and see old school friends. Upon our arrival home we discovered that we have some semblance of a new home standing in place of the enormous hole in the ground that we had left behind. Here are some pics of the vacation and the beginnings of our new home.

The Dunster Funsters Reunite in Deer Valley

Mac preps himself for a nice dip in the (not)hot tub.

He takes a moment to consider the situation...

And then decides he wants no part of it.

Lest you think I'm some crazy mom who dunks my kid or tosses them in not knowing how to swim, he's been in pools dozens of times and I was holding the silly little man the whole time. For some reason he decided that it was more fun to have mom continually take him in and out of the tub and when that ceased he let me hear about it.

Oh the joy, Mac discovers an electronic tractor in Park City.

Dad also deems this to be an excellent toy and suggests that we find one on ebay for the backyard.

These next two are a pre-vacation pics of Mac after he decided to try drinking dirt out of his bucket.

Finally the new front door is finished (minus paint).

Making way for the new house.

Digging a hole for the new house.

And finally the beginnings of a new house!

Farm Land

We spent the weekend up at Cameron's parents farm for a mini family reunion. We ate like kings thanks to Grandma Joy and the plentiful supply of fresh pork products on hand; ham, bacon, ribs, you name it we ate it. Mac loves the farm more and more each time we visit. This trip he conquered his fear of riding the mechanical horse, played in the sandbox for hours with his cousins and just ran around until he couldn't keep his eyes open.

The little puff of smoke in the distance in this shot is from the tractor that Mac got to ride for the first time with his Grandpa Jeff.

Mac deciding he wants a closer look at the cows and ending up loosing his shoe into the pen.

The Hatch homestead.

Once owned by an Amish family but now complete with electricity and indoor plumbing, thank goodness.

And finally what better way to cool off after a long dirty day on the farm than a nice bath in the great outdoors.

No help needed, thanks

Mac has officially rejected any parental involvement with his eating. Yesterday he took charge of his spoon and probably got about 1 tbsp worth of yogurt in his mouth, but looked so happy doing it that I couldn't deny him the joy. Lunch with a fork and pasta was much more successful so I'll just have to avoid any runny foods in the near future.

In with the new....

I've been feeling a little frumpy and style free lately so I finally made the dreaded hair appointment and low and behold it actually turned out really well, huzzah! Here's a quick pic taken outside the casa after the cut (and yes that is a lovely green port-0-potty off in the distance accenting the front of our property, we keep it pretty classy in this neighborhood).

And here's the only slightly less successful self portrait taken a few moments before.

Goings on

Mac and his buddy Lucy have both officially joined the world of walkers and are loving the new found freedom. This week they took turns pushing each other on a neighborhood stroll and loved pushing and being pushed equally well.

This Friday we went up to the farm for raspberry picking with cousins and friends. I've been counting down the days until we could come stock up and enjoy some delicious raspberry pie. Mac was in heaven with all the animals and even took a trip into the mini cow pen to check things out.

Ah the many joys of having a tractor in your side yard! Mac has been provided with hours of entertainment and enjoys nothing more than walking through the dirt pointing at the tractor and looking for rocks and sticks.

And finally on Evan's last weekend here we took a trip to a small lake in Idaho to cool off from the extreme temps. Mac's two great loves, water and dirt, were in abundance so he was all smiles (until the car ride home when mom started playing with his hair).

Familia

We've been hanging out with family a lot lately which has been great and Mac can't get enough of his cousins or the potato chips and popsicles which usually accompany these get-togethers.

All the Hatch grand kids looking like quite the adorable motley crew.

Mac enjoying singing Yankee Doodle for the hundredth time that night, it never fails to bring a big smile.
Today we met up with the cousins at the park for some water fun and a picnic. I love seeing Mac interact with his cousins and they're all really sweet with him even when he steals cheetos right out of their hands.