First day of School

Gosh, another year beginning. It is amazing how the time does fly. Both Hailey and Brayden are in school now and I can't believe they are growing up so fast. They sure looked sharp on their first days. Brayden started a week after Hailey and it was really the longest week ever, but they are both really enjoying their new teachers and their classes. And I of course am getting caught up on my blog while it is just me and Lindsey at home. Happy days!



What good kids I have. I am truly blessed.

Idaho

I am still playing catch up, but have been so excited to do our vacation to Idaho. We don't do elaborate vacation, but we sure have a good time going to Idaho. We went up to our cabin in Island Park for the first half and did all our favorite things like four wheeling, riding and walking around the loop, playing in the water and eating lots of good food. I don't know what it is about Island Park, but it always fills my heart with such joy. We have been spending summers up there for as long as I can remember. And I am so grateful that my kids are able to go now and enjoy the beauty of it. My brother and his girls and grandma were there as well. Jeremy rented wave runners and we had a great time. Sterling is seriously a little kid when you get him on a toy with a small engine. I tried to get some pictures of him whipping around on the wave runner but obviously always got the after shot.

Lindsey loved the water too and playing in the sand. She had sand in places you don't want sand by the end of the day, but was still having a great time.

I enjoyed hanging out in the shade and showing Sterling how to really ride the toys, he thought I was little crazy doing the cookies on the four wheeler and feared raising our children on his own. I am a country girl and have done a cookie on almost anything that will go, no worries.

I loved this picture of Hailey. Oh the beauty of the place, it really just does something to me.


Speaking of little kids on toys I have to tell of the mishap with Aspyn, my nice. She wanted to drive the four wheeler but I worried about her so I told her to let Sterling drive and we would go find some fun trails. We separated so we wouldn't have to follow in each others dust. The trails comeback together but we never saw Sterling and the girls again so Brayden and I rode around for a while more before we headed back. When we got back to the cabin Sterling was doing first aid on Aspyns knees and I worried about what happened. Sterling was of course so calm and said, "oh, Aspyn just bounced off." My whole point in letting Sterling drive was to keep Aspyn safe. Sorry Aspyn, Sterling is kind of a kid on them too. The funny thing was that Sterling had prepped Aspyn with what to say if someone asked her about her knees, so when anyone asked she would reply, "I don't know, but uncle Sterling had nothing to do with it." That probably said it all right there.
Here are a few more pictures of the wonderful weekend.

Two cuties. These two are really inseparable. Little Lindsey just loves her daddy to death. It makes Sterling so happy because the other kids have always wanted mommy, but this one has really got him around her finger.

This is Brayden's best pirate face, ARRR MATIE.

Brayden spent so much time making this sand castle out of things he gathered along the shore. He was very intent on making it and would get so frustrated if Lindsey came within 20 feet of it. She only wanted a cool stick too.

Hailey was like a fish, she hardly came out of the water. Her and Aspyn swam around all day. They are such good little buddies.

Brayden had his turn too, but surprisingly was not a big fan of the wave runners.
The second half of our vacation was spent in Rexburg. We of course did lots of visiting and hanging out with family. Brayden hung out with Grandpa at the farm and I helped my sister paint her kitchen. It turned out so good and I am so excited for them in their new cute house. Dennis also made us amazing food everyday too, does he know we are trying to keep girlish figures. At least it is only for a few days at a time, if I ate like that everyday I would be as big as a horse. We love our family and are so grateful they are close enough to visit often. Thanks for making our trips so wonderful!

The Big City

We loaded up the family wagon and headed into town one Saturday. I love that we live far away from the city that it feels so laid back, but close enough that we can make a trip in and make a day of it. You big city people are probably snickering at my small town girl mentality but Salt Lake is a big city to me. Anyway, we had a great day taking a tour of Temple Square, watching the Joseph Smith Movie, going to the church history museum, playing in the fountain at the Gateway Mall, and going out to lunch. Big fun for our little family. They had a children's display at the museum that the kids had such a good time at. Lindsey loved all the little babies and packed them all over even though they weighed about as much as her. What a little cutie.




I love this picture of Brayden, it really captures his spunk. How is playing in water so much fun. We need to remember the simple things and find that great pleasure in them.

Seven Peaks

Yes, we actually went back to seven peaks this year after Brayden got the yuckies there last year. I just hoped they had made all the necessary changes to avoid any new outbreaks, and they had, we didn't get sick anyway. My brother Jeremy and the girls came down for a couple of days. We had such a blast. My kids would live in the water if they could. Hailey told me while we were floating around the lazy river, "I am one of the lucky kids, who can say they have been to seven peaks." They think it is one of the really special things not everyone gets to do. We usually only go once a year so they think you have to be pretty neat to get to go. Lindsey even had a great time. I was kind of surprised they let little kids ride on your lap on pretty much all the slides. So we had a good time. Sterling was at girls camp for two days, so we were really glad we had the cousins to keep everyone happy. They do a great job at that.




Lindsey had just as much fun on the tubes out of the water as she did in the water. Put a snack in her hand and she is happy doing anything.

The Great Outdoors

I am so behind on the blog. This summer has really flown by. With Sterling doing summer school we weren't able to go too many places but we still had a great time. So I will try and catch up on some of the fun things we did this summer.
We went camping up near Provo Canyon. What beautiful surroundings we have so near us. The kids had a great time. We went with some friends so there was a bounty of kids to play with. I am just glad no one got lost because they were all over the place. I had a great idea to put a whistle around Brayden's neck just in case and I explained to him that if he were to get lost that he needed to stay where he was and blow the whistle until someone found him. I also stressed not to blow the whistle unless it was an emergency. It was only about 15 minutes that Brayden was allowed to wear the whistle. Everyone around us was ready to yank the whistle from his neck. I kept reminding him to only blow it if it was an emergency. He kept calling back to me, "just testing," or "but I found a bug." I kept calling back, "that's not an emergency." So, needless to say, the whistle didn't last long around his neck, but I am glad he didn't get lost.
Speaking of those bugs. They were caterpillars and they were everywhere. That is all Hailey and Brayden did for two days was collect caterpillars. They each had a bag full. Hailey let them crawl all over her and Brayden kept one on his shoulder the whole time. When it go dark Brayden put his 'secured' bag on the tent and when I walked over to get something later I couldn't tell in the dark what was all over the tent. I found the flashlight and about freaked when there were like 40-50 furry little caterpillars all over the tent.....Gross! I called Brayden over and made him pick them all off.


We did have a great time. We have great little kids and we love their enthusiasm for the small creatures of the world. And Sterling didn't even freak out over all the bugs....good job honey!