Really….The End of May Right?

I hate waking up to this.  In May.  Especially at the END of May!!!  Can I cry.  Not just because it is cold, wet, and icky.  Not only because I had to drive to the Post Office this morning in it.  (Dan, you owe me SO big!)

Nope.  I want to cry because I am afraid for all my plants and trees.  Logically I know they will survive.  It is just hard to visualize it right now!

  

Dan was sweet enough to run out this morning and put some kind of cover on my tomatoes.  Unfortunately this stuff is so wet and heavy, the tarp has completely collapsed and I am just praying that it is not smashing my tomato plants.  Bring on the 70’s.  I am so ready for it!

Campground Bathrooms

Okay, I have been camping enough to know not to expect much out of a campground bathroom.  This last trip stretched things a little for Alicia.  Have you ever peed behind a fence?

On the good side it was probably the best smelling vault toilet I’ve ever used. 

Bad side, NOT fun to use during a rainstorm!  Oh, and you could totally see who was using the bathroom when you were standing out there waiting.

Side note-Connor totally did not need to pee, he was just doing a goofy dance, and when I clicked the picture this is what I got.

Corona Arch

On Saturday we spent the morning hiking to the Corona & Bowtie Arches.  I found the hike in a pamphlet I picked up at one point on a previous trip to Moab.  These arches are located along the Colorado River west of the main highway that goes through Moab.  The trailhead actually ended up only being about 4 miles from where we were camping.

It was about a 1.5 mile hike in, and a complete blast.  There was hiking on slick rock, sand dunes, and regular trail.  One of the fun parts was the steps that they had carved into some slick rock to get up a big hill.

The kids were pros.  Connor was excited to get to hold the GPS and tell us a play-by-play of which direction we were going.   We loved this arch.  It was pretty, and the bonus of having the Bowtie Arch right next door.

The view from one end of the arch to the other.

Connor and Daniel climbed up underneath the Bowtie Arch.  We would love to be able to do this hike again.

Luckily we found our old snugglie buried in the trailer, so Daniel and Garrick were a little more comfortable for this hike.  Garrick still wasn’t so sure about the whole thing.  Dan was just grateful to be able to have his hands freed up a little bit.

After hiking, we ended up taking off home.  We had to speak in Church Sunday, which cut our trip short a day (well, probably only about a half a day).   It was a great little trip though, even if it didn’t go the way Alicia expected it too.

Moab Here We Come

We took our annual May camping trip last weekend.  We decided to go back to Moab and enjoy the beautiful weather before it got too hot.  It was perfect for hiking and running around.  The rainstorm on Friday didn’t even dampen the boys spirits.  They thought it was great that Heavenly Father made it so their fire didn’t go out in the rain.  Ahh, the simple faith.

We spent almost all Friday at Arches National Park.

I had originally been planning on hiking out to the Delicate Arch this year.  Alas, we forgot to pack the hiking backpack.  So we spent the day doing the shorter hikes.

Garrick had a blast playing in the dirt and rocks whenever he could.  It is a good thing he has decided he doesn’t like to eat dirt anymore.

  

A little bit of rock climbing during lunch.

Haden was actually the go-getter on climbing up this rock.  Then Connor decided he couldn’t let his little brother beat him out.  Dan was more than willing to let us go at this alone.

After lunch we went exploring the back area of where we had our picnic.  We managed to find a back way to the campground and the Skyline Arch.  The boys thought it was a great adventure.

The longest hike we did was out to the Broken Arch.  After that I took the boys on a quick detour to walk to the Sand Dune Arch.  They thought the sand dunes were great!

Connor ended up walking the rest of the way back to the car with bare feet.  He thought he was pretty tough after that.

It was a long and exhausting day, but overall a success.  The boys did everything to get their Jr. Ranger badges before we left.

Boy we tired them out, but they were so proud of those badges!

Book Review: The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Completely and Utterly  Fascinating.  Didn’t agree with his philosophy, but still had trouble putting it down.

Surprisingly, I would consider adding this to my collection.

Mother’s Day is AWESOME!

My boys love me!  I love Mother’s Day.  My boys really got into it this year.  They pooled their money and got me a pair of fuzzy, colorful slippers.  Connor has been talking about my breakfast in bed for the last month and couldn’t wait to get started.  Granted Dan got smart and had the boys make me Eggo waffles, so they really felt like they made my breakfast.  I was really lazy about pictures, so not much to share.

The best present was Dan’s gift.  He is taking me to NYC in July for a combination Mother’s Day/Birthday.  Yippee!!  Now I am busy figuring out how much we can cram into the trip.  I can’t wait.  Wow, I still can’t believe it. 

Connor’s kindergarten class had a special Mother’s Day Luau on Monday.  It was fun getting a chance to spend time with Connor.

The class performed a hula, and then the kids got to teach it to the Mom’s.

Then they made candy leis for Mom.  Unfortunately it fit Connor better.

I can’t believe how grown up he is getting!

   

The final gift was a plate for Mom.  Still not much better than the last plate (wish I had a picture of it).  This time instead of the teacher spelling his name wrong, Connor spelled his name wrong.  Oh well, I still love it.  Thanks for a great day boys!!

Everyone’s Your Friend…

In New York City!!!

Our Song (Really)

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU,  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU Daniel!!!!

Random Picture

So a random picture that I found in Garrick’s stash of birthday pics.  For some reason I love it.  Too sweet.

I think I should thank Jacqui for it, since I am pretty sure I did not have the camera at this moment.  Thanks!!

Time to Party! Part 2

Sunday we celebrated Garrick and Aunt Tiffany’s b-day’s at the Harwards.  Lots of chocolate cake…It was great.  Garrick started catching on to the whole birthday idea. (definitely helps that he was wide awake this time)

He is desperately trying to walk.  Unfortunately he is running before he walks.

The cake went much better this time around.  He still didn’t like feeding himself, but did dive in a little easier.

 

I love the look of concern while stuffing your face with cake!  Hard to believe my baby is growing so fast.  It will be a fun summer!

Time to Party! Part 1

Just realized that I hadn’t posted anything about Garrick’s b-day.  It was a busy weekend (and week).  Then I started putting this together.  With 2 families to celebrate with we will have to split this into 2 posts---so bear with me.

Saturday we celebrated Logan’s baptism with the Preece’s.  I brought a cake and we threw Garrick’s b-day in the mix.  Unfortunately right after lunch we had this:

It was so cute I didn’t want to interrupt.  However, we did and this was what he looked like while opening presents:

We finally got a smile out of him:

Then there is the cake, where he has absolutely NO idea what to do.

 

He was fine if you would feed the cake to him.  Which the cousins were more than happy to do….as long as they could be swiping handfuls themselves.

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Then we had to do a clean-up.  He had spent most of the time wiping his dirty hands on his legs.  Definitely does not like being messy!

Thank goodness Aunt Kathryn has a huge sink!  It was easy clean-up!  Thanks everyone for a great party!

Teacher Appreciation

Our PTA is doing Teacher Appreciation week this week.  Somehow I got roped in, and ended up decorating a door for one of the teachers.  Here is what I came up with:

It turned out better than I thought.  I put over 25 ways of saying thank you.  Seemed to work out okay.  Oh, and totally Connor’s profile.  Thank you cub scouts with reminding me how to do profile drawings.  I had a cute saying to go with it, but I totally didn’t want to cut out all of the letters, and was too lazy to go to the school to do the cutting, so she just got a simple thank you.

Anyway, thanks to the great teachers, and all the people who help my children in their growth!

It’s been a Year??!!

Can you believe it!

This is a version of the invitation I put together for grandparents.  We are taking it pretty easy with birthday parties, but I like to try and do a nice invitation for the 1st birthday. 

Garrick is getting so grown up, sometimes I feel like I don’t recognize him.  Some recent milestones:

* Can go down the stairs – if someone turns him around at the top.

* Stands by himself

* Takes a few steps on his own – but still really hesitant

* Has almost broken through his top 2 teeth

* Says Mama and Dada

What a goofball.  We love him so much and are grateful he is part of our family!!

New Toys are Great

We have been working on spring cleaning at our house.  Boy we love this time of year.  Well, Alicia loves this time of year, Dan tolerates it, but is great about helping out.  Anyway, with the spring cleaning we found a toy of Garrick’s that had not yet been opened.  (Yep, from Christmas, so now he is kind of getting it again for his birthday.)  All the boys love it!

What is it about a baby’s grin that just wants to make you grin??  I just love his smile!