Just Say No

I'm not talking about drugs (although you should still say "no" to those too).  I'm talking about taking an 18 month old camping. We decided to go camping to an actual campground (and not just the backyard) before summer was over.  So we packed up and went to Monte Cristo.  It's beautiful there but don't be deceived by Kate's innocent face....she was a little terror.  Into everything, not listening, NO sleeping.  I think we'll just stick to the backyard for now.

 The kids did pick me some beautiful wildflowers (too bad I was totally allergic and couldn't breathe the whole time.)

 We went on some fun hikes.....

 And saw the most amazing trees I've ever seen. 

 You may think this is cute.....

 

But look how high he actually is!

 Rach and Josh did pretty well, but there were a few times Rachel's attitude would make any teenage girl proud.

 It really was breathtakingly gorgeous up there.

 Here's my man cookin' the bacon.

 And this is what happens when you don't sleep AT ALL the entire night.

 Looking back it was fun (Key words:  Looking back) but Kate has been officially banned from the daddy-daughter camp out in a few weeks.  These two are troopers though and played more games of hide and seek in two days than most kids do in a month. 

 

We also took the kids fishing to the ponds by our house.  Kate only lasted about 10 minutes before I took her home. Banned from fishing too....hmmm.....I sense a theme going on.

 Josh was very excited to go fishing even though he wouldn't touch the worms.

 They ended up catching 4 fish!  They let them all go but were so excited with so many tales to tell when they got home.

 

Then last week we went to the Davis County Fair.  I guess we were trying to pack it all in the last week of summer.  The petting zoo was pretty cool.  They had ponies, cows, goats, a turtle, a camel and even a zebra!  Josh doesn't look too impressed.

 The two that haven't been banned from everything got to ride on a few rides...

 This is my favorite picture.  Too bad the lighting is horrible.  They were laughing so hard at themselves making jokes.  They do that a lot.  I don't know where they get it from.  Ummm......moving on.

 And last but definitely not least, Rach started first grade today!  She was so excited and I know will do so awesome.  It's going to be so weird not having her around all day.  She's getting so grown up. 

Raptors, Hawks, Frogs and Fish

Our household has been swarming with wildlife lately (in addition to the 3 monkeys that we already have)  To start it off we went to an Ogden Raptors game.  Josh LOVES baseball and this was his first game to ever go to.  Here's most of the gang.  Yeah front row!!  Despite a little difficulty getting there (yeah, both alternators in both cars died within 2 days of each other.  We had to borrow Trav's brother's car to get to the game.  I don't even want to talk about it) we had a lot of fun.

 

This is how Kate had to watch the game

 Josh brought his mitt just in case.  And it's a good thing......

 Uncle Gary caught a foul ball and let Josh keep it!  This face made it all worth the trouble getting there.

 Then last week we (minus Trav) went to my parents cabin with my mom and sister and kids.  It was gorgeous.

 Here's Josh and his buddy/cousin Jack.

 Why is her belly always showing?

 The kids literally spent about an hour running up and down this little hill.  They laughed the whole time and I was laughing on the inside...this is totally going to wear them out and they'll go to bed early.  Joke's apparently on me.  Why don't they ever get tired?

 And for the past month or so we've had 2 Cooper's Hawks (is it hawkes?  I don't know) living in our yard.  It has been so awesome to watch and listen to them. Trav has been dive bombed a couple of times and the population of smaller birds has greatly diminished but I still think it's cool.  Here's one sitting on our deck.

 And if you look closely both of them are in this picture in a more natural habitat when we were in the stream today.  There's one right next to the tree trunk and the other one is about 2/3 the way up in the middle.

 Like I said about the wildlife....we have fish and frogs in our stream this year!  I don't remember having any last year. I tried to get a picture of the frogs but they're too fast and my camera's batteries were too dead.  But the kids have discovered catching baby fishies and skeeters is a fun afternoon activity.

 And here is our giant fish.  Yeah, this sucker is like a foot long and the stream is only deep in like 1 spot so he's pretty much stuck.  Rach keeps asking if we can catch him and eat him.  You could probably catch him with your bare hands.  There's others too but this one is the biggest by far.

 Here's the kiddos trying to catch the fishies.

 And I pulled the camera out yesterday right after church.  This is the 2nd time we've "done" Kate's hair in an onion top for church and it actually stayed in the whole time.  And yeah...first day in nursery.  She did awesome and now I might have to actually bring scriptures to church or something.

 The cutest kids I've ever seen.