Random July

Mosey, in her eternal way of giving, brought us a gift. She's so generous!

Jr Jazz game fun

My mom came to visit and brought her bike along for the trip. She'd been riding quite a bit and found that she enjoyed the Jordan River trail. She woke up at 4AM or so and couldn't get back to sleep so she decided to go on a long bike ride. She didn't tell us, so when we woke up we wondered where she was. We tried calling and didn't hear back. She finally responded and we found out she'd gone on a "short" 100 mile bike ride. Since it was raining I started driving in the direction she'd be coming from and found her. I had to wait for her to get in until she officially hit the 100 mile mark. :)

Hanging out at Nicole Sterzers community pool with our cool airplane pool floaties. :)

Camping in the Uintah's

In mid July we went camping with our friends the Anderson's. We had planned on camping near one of the many lakes in the Uintah's but apparently everyone in Utah had the exact same idea. Luckily we found the perfect spot in the Yellow Pine campground. It worked out even better because we had a lot of space and the kids got to run wild. (Which they did) :)

Our kids and the Anderson's kids, Drew and Kaidence, get along great. They always have a lot of fun together which is why I don't know why we don't get together more often. :) The first day we just set up camp and hung out. The kids had fun covering themselves with ash from a burnt stick. They also used the hatchets to try and cut down a dead tree in our campsite. Surprisingly, they got pretty far even though they didn't fell the tree.

On Saturday we went fishing at Washington Lake. We found a great spot and everyone settled in. The kids were all able to catch at least one fish. When we were done the kids asked that they be allowed to gut the fish. Mike and J let them help out. Tiffany cooked the fish for dinner and there was enough for everyone to have a little nibble. :)

Adam loves to gather sticks. Lots and lots of sticks. 

On Sunday we packed up early to head home since we were going to Spokane, WA the next morning. The kids got in a few rounds of "truth or dare" while the adults put away the gear.

Tiffany and I both took pictures, but hers are WAY better, so if the picture is in focus and creative, all credit goes to Tiffany.

Happy Birthday Buddy Boy!

On July 10th we celebrated five years with our awesome little Adam. If you've talked to him anytime in the last three months you'll know that he was VERY excited for his birthday. It's all he talked about. He woke up every...single...day asking when his birthday was. We decided to make a paper chain so he could visualize it better. Taking a link off it each morning was a highlight of his day. He showed it to everyone and counted it regularly. (He won't mind me posting a picture of him in his underwear, right? It's basically just a European bathing suit. ;)

Even though it was family parties only this year he made sure to let all his friends know they could still get him presents. Surprisingly is worked and two friends bought him Skylanders. For his party we went to see the new Minion movie since it opened on his birthday. Coincidence? I think not. He didn't want to wait until his party to open his presents, so we got a couple hours of farting noises from the fart gun Amelia gave him. She always give thoughtful gifts. :)

Here are all the cousins. My mom drove from Colorado with Jewel and Angelina, so she wanted a kid picture. Steve and Lynette were of course in attendance as well.

After the movie we went back to our house for cake and ice cream. Adam wanted a Skylanders cake so I took to social media and collected the McDonald's Skylanders figurines. The cake is supposed to like like a portal with the good vs evil guys. The important thing to remember is that he liked it. :)

There is so much to love about this kid. Here are some of the things that make him special:

He is hilarious. I wish I had written down some of his Adamisms, because he's so funny. He's very frank and he'll say something random while doing this cute shoulder shrug and it's just so him. He loves to tell jokes even though they don't make sense.

He is very honest. (At least he was when I started writing this post. This past week or two he's tried to lie a few times but he's terrible at it and smiles) Whenever he does something wrong he'll come tell on himself with an adorable, humble look on his face.

He's grown A LOT. I think he'll be our tallest kid. He's taller at five than Steven was at six, but kids can go through growth spirts, so we'll see.

He's in a boys only phase. One of his bff's is a girl named Brooke, BUT most days he only likes to play with boys. Unless it's a baby girl. He can be rough with kids his own age but he loves babies.

He is my baby. I probably shouldn't call him baby anymore, or baby him so much, or dote on him so much, but I love it. He is my thumb sucking cuddle boy and I love him.

He has his own sense of style. Adam is quite particular about what he wears and how he wants his hair cut. His clothing of choice is still pajamas, but I can at least get him to wear regular clothes when needed. He also loves to wear his Hawaiin outfit with matching shirt and shorts. He likes to have "cool" hair and although we got rid of the rats tail he's now sporting a mohawk fauxhawk.

We love our little Adamus Maximus and are eternally grateful he's a part of our family. Happy Birthday Buddy Boy!

Lake Powell

A couple weeks ago we went to Lake Powell for a few days with my parents. Lake Powell has always been one of my happy places. I loved going there when I was younger and some of my best teenage memories are from vacationing there. On our first day I had an unsettling realization. I am the same age my mom was when we took all those memorable trips. This was the first time in my adult life I could pinpoint exactly how my mom was at a certain age and how I am at that age. (shudder) :) My mom was way more fun than me for sure.

The first day thee was spent getting the boat on the water and finding a good camping spot. Lake Powell is HUGE and there are a lot of canyons to explore. We found a nice little inlet to let down anchor for the night.

Can you see Steven?

In the morning of Day 2 the kids woke up early and took out my parents canoe. We slept under the stars, so we woke up pretty early. We then went tubing, which the kids would do 24/7 if they could. I wish I had a camera good enough to take pictures of the night sky. It was so beautiful. Venus and Jupiter were more bring then I'd ever seen them.

Day three was our waterskiing day. I hadn't been up since high school, but thankfully it was like riding a bike. My parents boat is kind of big so I didn't feel like venturing outside the wake. :) My arms got tired just from hold on amid the choppy water. I was impressed that my almost 60 year old dad got up and skied much better than me. The kids went tubing some more and got worn out. Sarah is a very cautious child, but not when it comes to water sports. She LOVES to get tossed around on the tube. She wanted to try water skiing but all we had was a women's performance single ski. She still insisted on trying and tried eight times before throwing in the towell. I was impressed by her determination. We'll have to find her some kids skies soon.

Sarah giving it her best

The biggest excitement on day four happened when my dad and I were looking for a new camping spot. We were traveling down a promising canyon with a lot of nice nooks when we crashed into a rock island that was hidden from our view. My mom had been sleeping so she quickly came up to see what had happened. Two boats of people stopped to help out and we finally got it off the rock when one of the boats started doing doughnuts in front of our boat because the wave would temporarily lift it. My mom called her boat repairman to ask for advice and he said the hulls are so think we're fine. Once they got it home the took it into him and found out it wasn't fine. There was a large crack that went all the way through. Thank goodness for sump pumps!

As I was getting ready to blog day five I realized that this was the day Sarah attempted to water ski. Oops! My dad went skiing again and we did some tubing. It was a great trip and I look forward to going again next year. The kids were a little wiped out. :)