Camping at Affleck Park

Somedays I wonder if I would plan anything fun for my kids if it wasn't for my friend, Caryn. She seems to be much more busy than I am and yet she never gives up on planning and carrying out fun activities for her kids, and somehow I scramble to try and tag along and once in a long while come up with a creative idea of my own. We have done some fun things this summer and even though I was pretty worn down by the 97 degree days all week, I was coaxed into coming on an overnight camping adventure to Affleck Park.

It turned out to be a great time, and much more relaxing that I usually assume that camping with my kids will be. This campground seems like a perfect one night destination, since there is no running water and therefore- pit toilets. Lets just say that neither parents or children are fans of those stinky things.
The boys also loved that we went with friends. With my kids, their cousins and friends are the equivalent of super-stars.
We had a great hot dog roast for dinner, Gavin was the only one that dropped his and that was when he thought a bee was going to attack him. Since he was stung this summer he has been having a hard time being outdoors in the Beehive State.
Wyatt, Parker and Gavin sitting around the fire.

Heisoung (a girl from Korea spending the month with the Willardsens), Josh, Henry and Gabby patiently cooking their own dinner.Wyatt loved getting super dirty and having his own chair to hang out in.We spent plenty of time around the fire trying to come up with stories to tell. Some not very scary and some a little more morbid that we would have asked for, and then there was a whole period of time when the kids got into telling stories about peeing... can always count of the bathroom humor to show up in a group of kids.Parker, the fire tamer.

Just to show how Henry's life goes, he was the only kid who fell into the stream and got wet up to his waist. They were supposed to just be throwing rocks with the dads, but no big surprise, he was in his pajamas pretty early.

I packed light so the boys had to run around in their pajamas until we went home. Wyatt was the only one who cared, since we wouldn't let him on the ground.It was a fun little trip and maybe we will get out camping again before the warm weather ends.

First Day of First Grade

And now Gav is off to rock the first grade...

Here is his cute little locker, he was pretty excited about this part. In Kindergarten they just had hooks.I feel like we had the best luck and got the greatest First grade teacher. All of the kids and parents really love her, and the rumor is that she keeps a very structured class, which I think will be great for Gav.

Admittedly, I am far more nervous about this new transition that he is. Starting into a full day of school seems like a huge deal. The Lunch, the recess, the new friends, the days when I have to work that I will hardly get to see him at all. It all just seems so sudden after a fun and busy summer. I hope that it all goes well for both of us. I'm pretty grateful that they have an early out these first few days, and at least I have Henry around for another week before preschool. This is all happening too fast for me.
What a grown up handsome guy.

The Funny Thing about Babies

There are a lot of things that just crack me up about babies. Like the way that they start mimicking adult behavior... like when they look right at you and are so serious and just babble away with some intense bit of gibberish as though you should totally understand what they are saying. Or the perfectly timed courtesy laugh like they get the joke. The way the head holes on their shirts are almost as wide and the shirt is long. So funny.
Of all of the fun little things the one that always makes me laugh out loud is how short and little their arms and legs are. It isn't always super noticeable, but when I come in to find Wyatt sleeping sprawled out, I always just laugh. Babies really have the shortest arms and legs. So stinkin' cute how they can barely even touch the top of their heads. If you want to have a good laugh, put something on your babies' head and then watch them try to get it off. Wyatt loves when we do this and laughs so hard, which I guess is good since we are always laughing at him at the same time.
Perhaps, you all know what a weirdo I am, but I know you are all laughing at that sleeping photo.

Happy Birthday Caleb

With all of the waiting to make the blog private, I forgot to blog about Caleb's birthday. He was a real humbug about the whole birthday thing, and so I invited to Loos over for dinner, so that he would have to be social and not sulk around all day. The weekend before his birthday, we were out and needed to stop for a few groceries, like milk and bread. I was debating whether or not to go to Smiths or Sams, and Caleb said, "Don't go to Sams, I don't want to have to get a giant pack of 100 oreos." Um... what? No one said anything about oreos. So I proceeded to make fun of him for days about how grocery shopping to him means stopping for oreos or ice cream.

The result of this conversation was that the boys and I decided to make Caleb an oreo pie for his birthday. It was seriously rich, but very good. I even found an oreo crust and oreo cookies and cream pudding. Very yummy.
Hopefully despite his negative attitude towards the whole thing this year, he managed to have a Happy Birthday. (he is smiling after all)

Catherine Pass Hike

So can you tell that we were super excited for the road to Albion Basin to finally open at none other than the end of July... yep, we were. The day after we went to Red Pine and the day off the road was finally clear and good for driving, we headed to Catherine Pass with our fab friends the Willardsens. We had a beautiful and invigorating Hike. I really love this one.
One of the many great views.

Great looking hikers.

All of the kids in our group... the Park family (some friends of Caryn's) came with us as well. Lots of kids running around.

Caryn and I cracking ourselves up. Mister Wyatt loves watching the other kids and all of their constant silliness.

The brothers "in real life." Except not actually... Josh and Henry.

Red Pine Lake Hike

A few weeks ago as some of the Iowa family was getting ready to leave and others were arriving, we rounded up a bunch of people and went on a hike. Caleb chose the Red Pine Lake trail, and we did something that I can't remember us ever doing on the Wasatch Front, we went hiking in the afternoon. The weather wasn't too bad and the hike was beautiful, but there was a serious bug problem. There were flies of all sizes that would come up off the trail to land on us, and the higher we got on the fairly steep trail the bigger and more numerous the mosquitoes became. When we would pause with Grandma and Henry for a little break we were attacked by some huge mosquitoes. Gross. Needless to say it dampened our spirits a bit and Grandma and I turned back with two of my boys and a few of the girls while the rest went up higher to have a snowball fight. I spent most of the hike back using Wyatt's hat to shoo the bugs off him while he was in the backpack behind me. I went to bed that night and had a dream about trying to get flies off of me. Aside from this damper on my mental psyche, we had some good times and enjoyed the more beautiful parts of nature.
My four favorite hikers...

A few other people who were good hiking company as well
Crystal, Kelbie and Lauren

These two making hiking look good-
Caden and Rich
Some of the group on one of the bridges along the way. You could really tell it was a wet year for all of the random streams along the trail that usually wouldn't be there at the end of July.A nice view.After the hike the rest of the family came up the canyon to meet us for a cookout.
The cousins hanging out together. It was a fun day that we will look back on and remember the bugs. :-)

Sparkling Cardons

Just a few photos of our pioneer day festivities. We had a great BBQ at Nathan's and a few Iowa Cardons were here to celebrate with us. We mostly just hung around, but then decided to try and burn through the stash of sparklers that Stacy and I have ended up with over the past couple of summers. There were quite a lot, but everyone had a good time. Now that Utah allows aerials we also just got to hang out on the lawn and watch other people's money explode in the air above us. Pretty enjoyable.
Libbie getting the party started.This is probably my favorite photo, just a great little shot of sweet Mia.

Grandma helping light multiple sparklers at a time.

Brennan preparing to do something dangerous, probably. The boys love playing with Brennan, especially Henry. Though since he and Rachel left town I keeping finding myself saying the words, "Just because Brennan does it, that doesn't mean it is safe for you to do." I can't wait for those two to have a baby so I can teach it to say naughty things, hehe.

Nathan helping Claire.

Gavin doing a sparkler dance.

Henry with Papa in the background.

The time has come...

In the past we have had a few unwanted visitors to our blog, and they have been returning. Finally I have made the difficult decision that I want to create as much distance between them and myself as possible and protect both my own children, as well as the other children in our life that we love.
So Yes, you probably guessed it... We are going Private.
We love having almost anyone check our blog and read about what we are doing and share in our fun, so please comment with your correct email address if you would like to be invited to be a viewer. I hope that we won't miss anyone, as I have loved the connections that we have formed by having a public blog. It is frustrating to me that because of the few, we are all up against a wall. And even though the blog is a small thing, it is one way that we can show that we are willing to protect and fight for what is ours to save.
In an effort to also maintain your privacy- I will not be publishing your comments containing your email addresses, but I will save them and send out an invitation to our viewers soon.

One year old Wyatt

First the stats-
25 lbs 5 oz
32 inches
and let's just say he has the Cardon head.
No walking yet, he seems to be refusing, though he will stand and loves to dance.

He knows how to demand the attention that he deserves, both from his parents and his brothers. And he adores his brothers. He wants to be doing anything that they are and be wherever the action is. He's pretty good at entertaining himself, but seldom has to since there is always someone around to make him laugh.

His belly laugh is incredible and he already has such a fun and boyish sense of humor. He is so determined and intense sometimes and so jovial and silly at other times. His favorite thing is to wrestle with the boys and he seems to have the idea that going through or over something is always better than going around.
He is the messiest eater I have ever met, but he has such pride in being able to bite things off with his teeth or cram 6-8 pieces of watermelon into his cheeks until his mouth is so full he has to spit it all out. Sometimes he just stares at us like he has something very important to say, but he just can't find the words.

Wyatt is such a great addition to our family and has taught us a lot about patience and slowing down the pace of our life. He seldom does quite what you would expect and I am starting to really love the surprises.

Happy #1 to Wyatt

Happy Birthday my little Wyatt. What a whirlwind of a year it has been.
First Cupcake

Weekend in Vegas- Part Two

Of course we had to make a stop on the Las Vegas Strip while we were there. We decided that any time spent there with kids had to be quick and not move around much between casinos. The Turleys really like the Bellagio fountain show, so we headed there. And checked out the Conservatory. Very cool, and even a bit pretty.

These two are quite the pair. They were my little buddies to help care for Wyatt everywhere we went. It is safe to say they were pretty obsessed with him.
Rachel was Wyatt's nanny for the trip. Everywhere he went, she went too. She was even dutifully by his side and holding onto his leg with two hands when he kids and squirmed away from her to log roll down half a flight on Tia's stairs. Luckily he was fine, and I think she was more shaken up about it that he was.Wyatt enjoying the crowded view.

Hannah's best librarian look. She is one tough cookie.
The original "Nieces". They have come a pretty long way.Cool Art made out of flowers.

More from the Bellagio Conservatory, Everything was made from plants and flowers. It smelled so good in there. Probably the only place on the strip that this is true.

Look at all those cute cousins... of course, there are always some who aren't looking.

Sisters.Ahh...Sunflowers.

We got the chance to go on a triple date on Saturday night. Cheyenne and Laina babysat all of the other cousins. They even got Wyatt to bed with very little screaming. We headed out to a great resturaunt "The Firefly" and had a fab dinner and then headed out to check out a few locations at the Strip and do a little people watching. I would probably be ok with never going to the Strip at night again in my life, but we had a good time together. You can tell that we tend to head for family friendly locations. We went to my store.
The Party Girl with The Party M&M

Proof that we were really in Vegas.

Sassy.

We spotted this store while walking through a mall between casinos. My handsome husband was nice enough to pose in front, even with crowds of people staring at him. As soon as everyone saw it, they told him it was the perfect store for him, so it had to be done.