My baby, Finn, turned 2!

Yesterday, this handsome little man turned 2. I can hardly believe it. He is so fun, and become such a crazy little character. 

He was so happy to get to sit next to the birthday sign, since I usually won't let him touch it since he tries to break off the ballons. Of course, he is holding his Mickey Mouse clubhouse decorated cup of milk. He is a huge fan of Donald Duck and also of milk.

The other thing he is totally obsessed with is Cars. Especially the Cars 2 variety. He has been watching Cars 2 several times a week for the past 6 months. If you try to put on the first Cars movie for him, he will argue and let you know that he does not like that one as much. He talks about cars constantly, and needs to have some handy to drive on any surface that he can find. His other obsession in the car territory lately is "Monster Trucks" He thinks that anything that even resembles a truck of any size is a "Monster Truck". Highway driving has become one of his favorite parts of the day, as that is the best place in town to spot big trucks.

 This guy seriously talks up a storm. He sometimes confuses us with the garbled big words he like to try out, but we can never mistake him asking to play a phone or iPad. He has a technology fetish that we are trying to curb quickly, and even knows how to unlock his Mom's iPhone. He also loves to talk about his brothers and whatever they are doing. Even tho he has proven that he can say "Gavin" quite clearly, he still calls him "GaGa." And he loves to do things that GaGa and Henwy are doing. He also loves when we tell him to go and tell his brothers to do something. Being the boss is right up there on his list of favorites.

 Since this was only his second time, he was pretty confused by the whole birthday thing. He liked that people gave him toys, but didn't really want to open any presents after the first one, since he just wanted to take it and go play. He was also very unhappy about the fact that people kept singing to him. When Wyatt and I started to sing at breakfast he yelled "Stop It!" And when we sang over cake he tried to run away. Maybe next year he will be more comfortable with this attention.

Finn also really does love all kinds of music. It is hard for him to hear a song without starting to dance or sing. His favorite songs right now are "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons, and "The Hairbrush Song" from Silly Songs with Larry. He gets pretty mad when anyone else sings when these songs are playing since he wants to hear every word. 

This week he started sleeping in a new big bed, the bottom bunk and only took a couple of days to decide he was ready for the change. He has taken up the new habit of screeching, which makes my least favorite list, right up there with his attack biting. Here't to hoping these things are short phases he is going through.

A hike and A boat trip... kind of

Our other events for the Independence day weekend ended up being a bit of an adventure. 

The first was an attempt at a hike on the 3rd. We headed up to the Catherine Pass trail for hike one of our favorite spots. We were just over a mile away from the trailhead when we saw the road blocked by a gate and a sign saying that the road to the trails would not be open until July 4th... like 12 hours later. We cursed the late snows this year, and then got out and decided to wander around the mountain. About 30 minutes later, it started to rain pretty hard.

Finn was a pretty big fan of the colored licorice, even though he did not eat it with any speed.

 We had packed a picnic and stopped on these rocks to eat, and luckily things were still dry while we had our dinner.

 We did get to see this very awesome double rainbow on our way back to the car. It was a high point of our wet time.

 Our second adventure of the weekend has only one photo, but plenty of exciting details. We tried to take out the inflatable boat that was a Christmas gift to us. Up to this point it had been sitting in it's box. The first fun part was that the box said a pump was included in the bag with all the other details, so Caleb did grab either of our two battery powered pumps... and the pump that was included was a hand pump. By the time it was inflated, we had already had our sun umbrella blown down about 4 times, and had discovered that lakes in Utah do not have anything that resembles a beach, even if it claims to.

We only own 4 life jackets, so we suited up the kids and headed toward the water. As soon as the boat was in, Gavin and Henry hopped in and Wyatt and Finn both started to cry and panic. We finally coaxed/tossed Wyatt into the boat and got him seated by Gavin in the middle. Finn was clinging to me like some kind of wild monkey, so we pried him off and I climbed into the back and took him on my lap while Caleb got in the front. The first thing we realized is that it was extremely windy on the water and also that we probably need 4 paddles the size of the ones that we had in order to get anywhere on the water. Also, we probably needed one less 2 year old sitting on my lap in the boat screaming his head off in terror.

So after a few minutes of frantic paddling by Caleb and I, and after I had already smacked Gavin in the head once with the paddle while trying to switch sides with Finn in my lap, we had gotten about 20 yards from the shore. Wyatt had calmed down by this time and even tho any amount of wake from bigger boats seemed to startle him, he wasn't crying... at least not until I was trying to paddle on the other side again with Finn having a tantrum on my lap, and I smacked Wyatt in the head with my paddle! With only one of us paddling from the front of the boat (Caleb) and one of us wrestling the angry monkey and accidentally hitting people with paddles in the back of the boat (Marci), things started to deteriorate pretty quickly. We were being blown ashore a ways down from where we got in the water. 

We finally decided it was time to call it quits and we let ourselves wash up in a nice dirty swampy areas and got all the younger boys out and started walking back. 

Caleb and Gavin did try to go out on their own another time, but with the wind and the short paddles, they washed back up a little farther down in an even muddier spot and then carried the boat back.

It was not a boat adventure that we will soon forget, but after it was over we got some good laughs and packed up to head out, just as the sun was beating down and all of the gross bugs were coming out to prey on us.

Our Independence Day

July 4th in our neighborhood is so fun.

It starts off with a neighborhood parade featuring all the cutest kids and their parents, walking, riding and cruising around the streets. All of my boys love it. Gavin had a bike mishap in the first half block, involving the pedal coming off his bike. However,  after he dropped the bike off at home a few minutes later, one of the neighbors, and a dad of Gavin's friend, picked him up on a 4 wheeler to finish the parade. It probably goes without saying that he later confessed to be a little glad that his bike came apart.

These two were my cute passengers.

 Henry chose his scooter as his mode of transportation.

 There is always a short flag ceremony and program after the parade. Gavin was asked to participate in the flag ceremony and he took the occasion very seriously. He was joined by his two closest friends, Matthew and Sam. They did a great job.

 After a bit of a fiasco trying out our new raft in the morning, we spent the end of the day hanging out with neighbors and lighting sparklers and other fireworks in the street. The boys absolutely loved it. The weather and the company were great. The day really made me count the blessings that are given to me by living in this country.

What Happens in Cottonwood Heights... Stays in Cottonwood Heights

We had the pleasure of hosting the youngest of the Turley cousins for a week! Morgan and Miran turned out to be excellent house guests and even quite helpful kids to have around. I decided that since they needed a place to hang out for a week while their parents were at home working in Vegas, that I would make the week into a fun packed vacation for them and stay-cation for my kids. We definitely lived up to that plan and packed in the fun.

First on the list was a restful Sunday filled with church and legos, and a great walk to the ravine near our house to run around and throw rocks in the creek. It was my first adventure out of the house with all of the kids.

 

The next day, I still had to go to work, but we started the day with swimming lessons and then the kids got to be lazy and hang out with my great babysitter and get their fix of the backyard and video gaming.

Tuesday, we headed to swimming lessons again and then went straight to see "Croods" at the summer movie clubhouse. Then we headed home for a picnic of Chik-fil-a was some friends. After a couple hours of rest we headed to the pool, where Morgan took advantage of being the only 10 year old in the group and the fact that his age made him able to jump off the diving platforms. He probably jumped about 15 times while we were there. 

Wednesday, we met up with the Willardsen boys (and Caryn) and checked out Red Butte Gardens. It was a beautiful day, and fun to run around on the trails and then spend most of our time by the pond feeding the ducks and trying not to fall in. There was plenty of racing around and trying to find things to climb. After the Gardens we headed to the pool again for more diving and plenty of time of the slides. The day ended with Pack Meeting for Gavin and him receiving plenty of awards.

The day ended with Pack Meeting for Gavin and him receiving plenty of awards.

Thursday more great friends joined in to help me take this crew around and after more swimming lessons, we went to the Discovery Children's Museum with Anne. It was great to have Katy and Skyler around to help keep an eye on everyone.

The big finale for our week was meant to be an overnight at the Spruces Campground in Big Cottonwood Canyon. We got everything ready in an hour after getting home from the museum and headed up the canyon. We were in two cars, since Caleb and Finn didn't plan to spend the night, and there were some dark clouds that had been lurking around for a few hours, producing nothing, but wind.

We got to the campground and Miran and I drove around until we found a picturesque stop. Then we all start to lay out the tent and get set up. Almost immediately rain drops started to fall... after 15 minutes it stopped and we got the tent all the way up and the camp chairs unpacked as the Willardsens arrive to join the fun. That was when the real rain started. We all go under a large pine tree and stayed dry for awhile, until the lightning and thunder started... we rushed everyone into the cars, and decided to leave Caleb and the truck to wait out the rain and take down the tent. By this time there was a nice river running directly under the tent and into the camp site. 

Needless to say, we ended up at home safely, and threw our food on the grill and had a nice BBQ followed by a giant slumber party on the family room floor with a movie. There were no smores, but the night was still a success, even if it took 2 days to dry out the tent.

The last day before Schatzy arrived to put up her kids, we did some house cleaning in the morning with my wonderful amount of child labor and then the kids relaxed until we went to the zoo for our final afternoon. With ice cream and a stop at the gift shop, our last big outing was a success.

My kids were so lonely after the weekend ended, luckily we got together with our cousins in town for a couple shorter visits to keep up our cousin fix. We missed the Turleys all week though.

Turning 35 on Father's Day

My kids are so lucky to have such a great Dad. Sometimes, we all call him a "Candy Nazi", but when that is the biggest complaint that kids have about their dad... I would say things are pretty good. He gets to be the fun one that takes them on adventures where their mom would otherwise be concerned with injury, and he still manages to do a great job of keeping them safe. He also is great at listening to them and teaching them so many of the things that they need to learn so that they can be great Dads some day too. We love him.

This year I shared my birthday with him on Father's Day, and it was a great day, though not without some excitement. We went outside to leave for church and discovered that the stroller had been stolen from the back of the truck while I was shopping the day before. Then while walking to church, without a stroller, Finn stopped walking and threw up in the middle of the street. So Caleb and I split the time at church to do the things we needed to, and got Finn home to rest. Things calmed down until after dinner when Finn gagged on some meat and started throwing up all over the kitchen, and continued to throw up until there was a gigantic mess. No exactly an ideal day, but at least we were both around to work together on the messes and still manage to get some time to relax.

 Gavin took this great candle blowing action shot to mark the occasion.

Olympus Basketball Camp

Gavin and Henry got to attend a fun basketball camp the week after school got out, and the best part was that they went with some fun friends. It was a great kick off to summer and they both seemed to learn a lot and have a lot of fun.

Gavin also said he was going to pretend that it was basketball camp at Mount Olympus (home of the Greek Gods) rather than just Olympus High School.

We love to play dirty! Dirty Dash 2014

The Dirty Dash was such a good time this year. The adults ran it with a great group of family and friends, and that of course meant cousins and friends to run with the kids.

We had a lot of great swag, so we had to put some on before the race.

Caleb's pre-race hair style had nothing to do with swag, but it was awesome nonetheless.

The course changes every year, and this year included a lot of wading through large muddy swamps... which meant plenty of falling down in the same muddy water. The weather was pretty perfect, and we had the blessing of having older cousins and friends to help keep all of the little kids happy and safe while their parents were running. It was nice to be up there and have fun as a family.

Our DBNTax team... Callors, Cardons, Cardons, Royblers and Oylers

Caleb ended the most nasty of the group.

These three ready to plunge in to the finish line.

 The super strong and dirty kids.

Even the kids that didn't do the race managed to get pretty dirty.