Little Boy Cousin Fun

While the older kids headed off to school, we have tried to pack in some fun with two of our favorite guys, Jaren and Tyce. We had a great sleep over with all the Cardon cousins last weekend, but the little guys are the ones who require most of my attention and give me the best photo ops.

We also took an awesome trip to the zoo, with great weather, no crowds and lots of active animals. It was pretty much perfect, and the 4 year olds demanded that they get their pictures taken as often as possible.

Love the expressions in this one. They really liked this giraffe statue.

 Finn needed a turn too.

 Jaren had run away just before I took this one because he thought the elephant was going to spray water on him.

 Being so brave to ride carousel animals that move up and down. Finn thinks it is no big deal, but Wyatt is still not so sure about it.

 Wrestling the Rhino.

 Pretending to hatch from the eagle's nest.

 The polar bear was awake and swimming! It was great to watch.

 Just a shot of our awesome slumber party before starting to watch "the Music Man" which the kids endured and some actually enjoyed.

 Lots of fun for these two in the wagon, though getting them to look at the same time, not so easy.

 After trying to make a home for a snail they found, these two decided to try and climb onto the deck. They were struggling, so finally Wyatt went around and said, "Jaren, give me your hand and I will pull you up." He did manage to get him off the ground, but that is about it.

Back to School- 2nd and 4th grade

School has started again... and even though we are all sad to see our super fun summer vacation come to an end...

Both Gavin and Henry actually really enjoy school and were very excited to see their friends and I was pretty excited to get back into some kind of routine.

Caleb insisted that one of his favorite things as a kid was going school supply shopping and getting to pick something new to wear for the first day of school. So, even though we had waited until the last minute, I took each of these guys on a date and let them pick out a new outfit. They were very excited.

Gavin headed into the 4th grade. (Gasp) And I can hardly believe how old he is now. So far he loves his teachers and is so happy to see the friends he missed. He has also jumped back into Chinese like a pro, always shocking me when I hear him speak without hesitation to a teacher or friend.

Henry is now in the 2nd grade and having a blast. He has been looking forward to having the 2nd grade teachers since he was in kindergarten and Gavin had them as his teachers. He also didn't miss a beat in getting back into his academics and has already started requesting that I reserve books for him at the library that he is finding out about in class.

 Just a little glimpse of what they leave behind every morning. 

August Rain Storms

The month of August has been a strange one in the Salt Lake Valley. The temperatures have been much cooler than normal and we have had many thunderstorms and quite a lot of rain, both uncommon things for our area. The first few downpours were greeted with some excitement from the boys, and they rushed out to have some fun playing in the rain. 

 After wearing his boots for most of the summer in dry hot weather, Wyatt was loving tromping around in the water.

 Thank goodness for large deep gutters near our house, making for great puddles.

The Kids Favorite- Fishing and Throwing Rocks in the Lake

Even though it happened mid week on a wonderful sunny afternoon, the boys most talked about part of the reunion was getting to go fishing. They love the idea of fishing and the casting and reeling in of the line. They could have done it for days and they did do it for hours. Henry  was a bit wilder with the hook and line, but only ended up hooking the back of his shirt and no other body parts of his own or anyone else. We did have several cases of tangled lines with some many great fisherman close together. Sadly, no one caught anything, but that could have had something to do with all of the rock throwing that was going on, not to mention the wading and the lack of patience. My favorite part is that Finn was so happy to throw rocks for 3 solid hours that his arm was basically sore, and I loved watching Gavin and Mallory put worms on their hooks while discussing what was so gross about worms.

 

Tatum had a similar love for rock throwing that Finn had.

 

Mia was trying the wading technique, without waders.

Caught these teenagers hanging out without them being able to turn away from the camera.

The little cousins just adored their time with Kelbie.

Wyatt decided to get brave and go in Papa's kayak with Dad. Much better experience than the boat.

Grandma and Finn people watching and rock throwing.

These two pro fisherman. Searching out the biggest worm.

Tyce was tired enough to sleep on the rocky ground.

Reunion Fun Never Stops

One amazing thing about this area of Colorado is that there are trails everywhere, both dirt and paved. It made the exploring so fun. We did manage to go on one short hike between rainstorms and other fun.

Two year old Finn also not the greatest hiker. Crossing my fingers for next year.

Gavin... championship hiker. He only slowed down to walk by me because I was carrying candy.

Even on a short hike the views were amazing. It is worth the shortness of breath to be able to see all of this beautiful country. These boys were great to stop playing with sticks and check out the view.

The middles... that is what these 3 and Claire were designated during the reunion. Being "middle-aged" is the best.

We had the fun adventure of trying to take a large family photo during the trip. It was hard to have everyone ready at an early hour, so there did end up being a few lighting struggles, but hopefully we end up looking amazing. I took advantage of my kids being cute to catch a few shots.

Just Dad and his first boy.

Finn yelling again, but he does look handsome.

Just watching Finn run on the driveway while they wait to head to the photo spot.

I have the best looking men in my life.

Oh Claire. So pretty.

Plenty of time to chew long pieces of grass like a farmer and find giant sticks in between photos.

These two four year olds were in heaven all week. They played so much and had so much fun and only had a couple of disagreements. It was so fun to watch them and get to hear all of their crazy antics while they rode around in cars together and just found their own adventures. They are such a fun pair.

We had one evening when the Grandparents of all these kids stayed home to babysit and all of the siblings and spouses loaded in the Cardon bus to go to dinner and wander Breckenridge. Of course the rain hit and we could only find a place to fit us all in outdoor seating, but we stayed mostly under umbrellas and witnessed some amazing rainbows. The food was ok, but the company was wonderful.

In other random hang out fun... Caleb got to participate in several of Caden's demonstrations with card tricks. Caden has some pretty impressive skills, both with tricks and card throwing.

Grandma gave all of the younger kids these fun games and they played them for hours, almost like they were playing video games. Glad to see they can still love the simple things in life.

I can across this view on one of my morning runs. It makes it worth the early morning and tired legs. I could look at these mountains all day.

Making sandcastles at a park.

It was a funny sight to see these two humming and doing some meditation with Uncle Brennan after they had just been wrestling and jumping all over him a few minutes before.

There were moments that I missed with the camera. One of the best was a bike ride along the paved bike trails to Frisco. Henry and I got separated from the rest of the group while he was getting used to his bike, and doing a bit of crying. We finally got going and had a great time together. When we finally stopped to try and find someone to tell us what time it was, Caleb had turned around to head back and told us where everyone was and gave us money to get drinks. He went on with a trailer full of cranky little boys, and when Henry and I finally got almost all the way back to the bike rental shop, more people caught up to us. We ended our ride and discovered that all of the kids under 10 had gotten in the van and were driven back to the start. Henry was the only one to complete a 12 mile bike ride that day. Not too bad for someone who started out in tears.

To add to all the random moments... Another rainbow on our last day.