Pretend Play

The other day last week, Carson and I had some fun building a "fort" with our couch cushions. Carson already is developing a really great imagination, and loves to play pretend with his dinosaurs and farm animals. He will make them talk to each other and play games and even have snacks (something tells me that is more for him). I really need to videotape it because it's so fun to watch....and join in! However, if I do something he doesn't want the dinosaur to do, he doesn't hesitate to let me know! This particular day we pretended we were camping, and Carson had many animals come to visit our fort.





Some of our visitors =)

Climbing the "mountain" to get to our fort

I made it!

Carson and Uncle Ryan

Just a couple of pictures of Carson with his Uncle Ryan that I thought were cute.....Carson still asks for Ryee! Good thing we're making a visit to Kansas soon - hopefully either the end of September or beginning of October. I'll keep everyone posted!

Take me out to the ballgame....

This past weekend, Carson experienced his first baseball game. Although it wasn't major league, it was still a lot of fun to watch the Tucson Toros defeat the Victoria Seals 13-12. Our friends, the Hooper's, met us at the game. Their son, Mason, is just 2 months older than Carson so they had a great time eating nachos, running up the down the aisle and occasionally checking out the game. =) Not much can beat a beautiful Arizona night at a ballgame with friends.

Mason and Carson in their baseball shirts

Intently watching the game

Tuscon Toros Stadium

Me and Elizabeth

Carson and Mason playing around in the aisle

Carson and Mason flirting with some girls

Carson trying on Mason's hat.....my son has a big head!

Carson plotting something...haha. =)

Towards the end of the game....we left around 10:30pm and Carson stayed up the entire game!

Let's Bowl!

After a yummy dinner at Joe's Crab Shack one night, Jason, Ryan and I decided to challenge Carson to his first bowling game. Although it was right around Carson's bedtime, he had a blast at the bowling alley. He thought it was really cool to put on his very own bowling shoes and pick out his very own bowling ball. Of course at the end of the night, he also wanted to take them with him. =) Carson 's final score was 34, which was almost as good as I did that night! Ryan, on the other hand, bowled his best game to date, and Jason was somewhere in the middle. Jason and I used to bowl all the time pre-Carson, so it was fun to introduce Carson to the game. I'm sure there will be many more bowling nights in the Heffel family future.

Carson in his bowling shoes

Jason giving Carson instructions

I love this picture...

Waiting for his ball

He loved carrying his own ball

Giving it another go with mama

Getting some encouragement from dada

Uncle Ryan showing off his bowling skills

Jason going for gold

Mount Lemmon

I have been wanting to head up to Mount Lemmon for over a year now, and finally I took the opportunity during Ryan's visit to check the place out. At 9000 feet elevation, Mount Lemmon is about an hour north of Tucson and is actually a small ski resort during the winter months. The highway leading up to the mountain provided us with beautiful scenery, including tree covered cliffs, large rocks jutting rocks and windy roads. Towards the top, it was like a little piece of Colorado tucked into the Arizona mountains. There, we ate at a little cafe overlooking the mountains and then we took a ride up the ski lifts. I was a little worried about taking Carson up the ski lift, but he really enjoyed the ride and liked looking for animals in the trees. We explored the mountains and the surrounding towns, then decided we had better head back down the mountain before it started to get dark. During the drive down, we found a bunch of camping spots, so our next trip up we plan on pitching a tent and staying the night.

my little nature boy

Some beautiful houses in Summerhaven

the ski lift

Ryan, Carson and Jason before we headed up the ski lift

Jason and Carson heading up the lift

Carson and I heading down the mountain

A few views from the ski lift

My brother

Me and Ryan heading up the ski lift

Carson playing with a rock that had water running from it; from his expression you can tell he thought it was really cool =)

The road

Ryan and Jason in the mountains

Carson throwing a fit on the trail; it lasted all of 1 minute before he found a rock that interested him =)

Carson playing around

Our trusty driver

Some cool rocks we saw from the car

A picture I took of the place where a fire burnt much of the mountain; for some reason it turned out kind of blurry, so I think it looks really creepy.