Camping

For my birthday this year we went camping with my family. It was such a great adventure and I couldn't have asked for a better birthday. When my dad first approached me about camping over my birthday I was a bit leery. I do love to camp, but I know how much work goes into a good camping trip and I wasn't sure that was how I wanted to spend my birthday. After asking Brook and the kids about it I knew that I had to go. My kids have never been on a real camping trip. Sure, we had set up the tent my parent's backyard about a year ago and camped out there, but I really wanted to take them up into the mountains and take them real camping.

The day we left for the camp snuck up me and despite my promises in the weeks before that I would get everything together early so the day of I would just be able to pack the car up and go, I ended up spending the day getting things ready to go last minute and if it wasn't for Ben going to preschool that day I don't know if the prep work would have gotten done.

After leaving only about 20 minutes after we said we would take off we were on our way to our camping adventure. We met my mom and sister and caravaned up to the camp site. My dad had left earlier in the day to get set up so between the 7 of us all going to the same campsite we took 4 cars! The campsite was really great and by the time we got our tent all settled it was time to grill hot dogs and go to bed.

That night Sabrina decided to sleep in bed with us and there was one too many people in our two person tent. I never sleep well when I go camping, and if it were not for our air mattress I wouldn't sleep at all. Between being cold all night since I married a cover thief and arthritis pain from sleeping on the ground sleep alludes me while we are camping. Ben and my sister seemed to play musical cot all night and switched back and forth all night long. Ben was cold because he refused to sleep in a sleeping bag and only wanted blankets. Come morning we were all tired and we still had another night to go. I was so tired that when Brook woke up in the morning and wished me a happy birthday in the morning I had no clue what he was talking about.

The day started out with my dad making an amazing breakfast and then my dad and Bean taking naps while the rest of us explored the lake, saw a moose, set up the canopy over the table, and triec to stay dry as the rain set in. When the rain got to be more than what we wanted to sit in we decided to all pile into our car and drive thorough Nebo loop and into Nephi. The drive was beautiful and I only got car sick once! The kids loved the drive and Ben even took a nap with my mom in the backseat. We drove past the house that my great great grandfather built and my grandma grew up in, and then we drove past the cemetery that my grandma is buried in.

By this point we were all starving and drove into Santaquin and ate at this amazing little restaurant called Family Tree something. Anyway it was amazing and they had the best scones and honey butter. If you ever happen to be down that way you MUST stop by. I love finding restaurants like this and it is my dream to one day hop on the back of a motorcycle with Brook and eat my way across country! Hopefully someday when the kids are grown we will have the opportunity, but for now finding jems like this are a highlight, especially on my birthday.

After this we needed to go to Walmart since the meat for that night's dinner had mysteriously never made it to the campsite (turns out my parent's dog ate it when my dad was packing up the food). By this point it was raining fairly hard in the valley and we were anxious to get back to camp.

We got back to camp to discover that the canopy had broken and knocked over and broke the lantern and emptied the propane to a seriously low amount. While everyone focused in getting that mess cleaned up I decided to check out our tent. It was wet! Not seriously wet, but a couple of sleeping bags got wet and our air mattress was wet on one side. All of our dirty clothes got wet but that was no big deal. Then we went into my parent's tent and it was flooded. My mom's sleeping bed and sleeping bag were beyond soaked as were all of her clothes. It was at this point we knew we could not stay another night and decided to break down camp. Three hours later we were on our way back to my parent's house.

That night we roasted marshmallows on my parents stove and made s'mores, all took showers(!), and had a good and warm night's sleep. It was such a fun weekend and I have been fielding questions about when we are going camping again since we got back. My kids got dirty and clothes were ruined so I would say all in all it was a success. And instead of putting away all the camping gear I decided to blog about camping instead!

Long Story Short

So I have been a bad blogger again. Long story short... We have been insanely busy people. Instead of boring you with all of the details I will just inundate you with a bunch of blog posts (some of which have been written for months) and insanely cute pictures of my kids! Thanks all!

First Day

Ben had his first day of preschool last week. He loves school so much. That is all he talks about now and he loves the days that he gets to go and every day he asks if it is a school day. I am so excited for him and I love watching him grow up and he is becoming such an amazing person.

Washington and the BIG 3-0!!!

Warning: This is a long post, so if you want to skip it I have put the pictures first :)

 Me getting to read in peace.

 The trampoline was a huge hit (he is begging to get one at our house).

 Sabrina loved the swing in the backyard.

 Sabrina in the adorable dress my friend made her!

 Sabrina and Daddy at dinner

 Fun in the park

 Sabrina and Uncle Parker

 Ben and Grandma

 Sabrina and her Uncle

 Brook with his siblings

 (Brook's Birthday dinner)

Our trip to Washington this summer was FABULOUS! Between Brook getting his birthday off from work and one other holiday-combined with weekends- we ended up with a nice long 17 day vacation with Brook only having to take ten days off work. It was wonderful and I can not wait for our next trip up. This trip I really wanted to do lots of things that we hadn't done before. On my list was go to the  beach, spend the day

at the Lake, take the kids to Leavenworth (the local Bavarian Village), go to Seattle, and hike Saddle Rock. We were able to get everything on my list accomplished except for hiking Saddle Rock.

First, I have to say that my kids did AMAZINGLY in the car. It is about a 12 hour trip with just two adults and two stops for gas, but with kids that 12 hours is usually closer to 15. The way up we split it up into two days with a night spent in Boise. The kids did awesome and we only stopped a total of four times! They were so excited to see their Grandma and Grandpa and once we got to their house I hardly saw them except for meal time and bed time. They have so much fun playing with their aunt and uncles that mom and dad become obsolete. My mother-in-law is amazing and loves to be with her grandkids, so anything that needs to be done she usually does it before I even know it needed done in the first place.

The day after we got there we took the kids to the beach, but the water was not all that great that day so we ended up just staying in the sand and picnic-ing. The kids had a blast and Ben could not believe that Grandma lived so close to a beach. He thought it was the most amazing thing in the world.

We were also able to go to Lake Chelan for a day, and while we didn't actually go to the lake, we hung out at the pool all day, which my kids LOVED! The pool is kind of a special thing for us to do and it was the only time that we went this summer (in my defense my kids get sick EVERY time I take them to the public pool and it is not worth the four days of puking for the one hour of fun).

One of Ben's favorite things that we did was go to the Bavarian village. Why? you might ask. Well... Ben got to see something that he has wanted to do for six months (which is forever in kid time)-- He got to go and see a real honest-to-goodness tattoo shop. He is obsessed with shows like Ink Master and Miami Ink so getting to see a real shop was his dream come true. He has definitely decided that when he grows up he is going to be a doctor and tattoo artist. I think it is great that he had so much fun-- also of note was the beyond cool toy store where we picked up these amazing wood puzzles for the kids, and the ice cream store where each kid was able to get an ice cream cone that was over flowing with ice cream. We took my sister-in-law Madison with us and it was so nice to have a helper with us and I wish I could have brought her back home with us!

Since my mother-in-law is so amazing she took the kids for TWO WHOLE DAYS so Brook and I could go to Seattle. We had an amazing time just the two of us. We were able to go to Brook's favorite electronics store as well as some other shopping. We were able to go out shopping for five hours with no kids and that may have been my favorite thing of all. The next day we went into the city and while it was great to look around I would not want to live there. I am too much of a cheapskate to live in a big city like Seattle. Since I was too cheap to do any of the attractions (but seriously they wanted almost $50 so we could ride an elevator to the top of the Space Nettle) Brook took me to see Red 2 (and even that was $11 a ticket for matinee tickets). It was good to go, but also good to get back.

After we got back it was Brook's birthday. I put together a surprise party for him and his parents took us all out to dinner. I can not believe that he is 30! It will be my turn next. I love his birthdays for the same reason that I love Father's day. I get to spoil him and I feel like I did. He got a new tablet from me, the kids got him a remote control helicopter and the game Risk (which I am now obligated to play), and he got some weights for the gym (if and when we ever get it set up).

All in all it was a great trip and while it is good to go, it is good to come home too.

Fourth of July

This Fourth of July was pretty mellow. My parent's bought new furniture so Brook and my Dad spent the day going to RC Willey and then putting the furniture together. The kids and I were able to hang out with my Mom and play all day (and do some minor decorating, which is one of my favorite things to do in the world)! The most amazing miracle of all is that for the first time in his little life Ben was not sick on the Fourth and was able to enjoy the day. He loved doing the fireworks. His favorite was putting off the smoke bombs in the kiddie pool that we had set up out in the back yard. All in all it was a great day (and I would maybe remember more of it if it wasn't so long ago). Since it was so long ago and I have a terrible memory here are pictures of the kids that pretty much tell the whole story.

                                                     Sabrina sitting in her "special chair" at Nana's

                                          Sabrina with my sister-in-law's Mom (who she finally decided was OK).

                                               Happy and Healthy and excited for Fireworks!!!

Father's Day!

To say that I love Father's Day is a little bit of an understatement. It ranks right up there with Brook's Birthday, and my anniversary. My reason? I love to spoil Brook. If it were up to me every day would be a special day that I could spoil him and give him presents (I LOVE giving presents). So this Father's Day was no different. We started out the day with letting him sleep in until 10:30 (which is practically unheard of in this house), and then we took him his breakfast in bed. The kids got anxious to give him his presents (translation: I got anxious to give him his presents), so we barged in on him while he ate and made him open them! The kids each got to pick out a present for him: Ben got him a movie and a bunch of candy, and Sabrina got him a book on the history of guns (she had a little help from mom picking her present, but the end decision was hers). As for me, I really wanted to get him a grill, but he saw a weed trimmer that he wanted so I ended up getting him that and a patio furniture set (that the dog has already chewed on)!After opening presents it was time to call our dads. My dad was driving back from a week long vacation in Las Vegas and so my conversation with him was pretty short, and Craig was at work so we talked to Brook's mom for awhile instead (Brook got to talk to him for a bit later that night). After that we went on what Ben likes to call a "family date". We went to Target and the book store, I bought another Lalaloopsy and a book, and Brook got a bright orange shirt that fits his personality perfectly. When we got home I did some minor cleaning and made the worst lasagna I have ever made in my life. I don't know why it turned out so bad, but it did. My brother-in-law and his wife joined us for dinner. Everyone ate what was on their plate, but no one went back for seconds and I can not blame them :). After dinner we hung out together outside and enjoyed the beautiful day until my sister got off of work and came over to our house to watch the kids and spend the night. Brook and I were able to sneak off and go on a date. We went to Walmart to get him some motorcycle gloves and me some reading glasses, as well as drop off our redbox rental. Did you know that without kids, it is possible to get in and out of Walmart with what you need (as well as a fair amount of looking at stuff you don't need) in under a half hour? It was amazing. Then, after a quick stop to the gas station to fill up the bike (oh yeah, we totally took the bike, and it was AWESOME!), we were on our way to the bowling alley. Both Brook and I love to bowl, but never get out to do it. Brook is a very good bowler, as he has natural athletic ability, whereas I am the worst bowler on the planet. I ended up with a 59 (my highest game), and Brook bowled a 152. It was a lot of fun! After that, we went and got a late night snack and headed home. It was a great day, and we had so much fun together as a family and celebrating Brook and what an amazing dad he really is. Our kids are so lucky to have such and amazing father, and I am lucky to know that my kids are so loved by their dad (plus, I get the amazing husband to go along). I loved spoiling Brook and I am so excited that his birthday is just six weeks away and I get to do it all again!

Walking

(From sometime in mid-June)

Something happened last week that I am not sure I was really prepared for- Sabrina started walking and life in this house will never be the same. At first, I was really excited for her to start walking. Those first few steps were so exciting, and the look she had on her face every time she fell on her butt was absolutely priceless. I have to admit I encouraged all this walking and even rewarded her with fruit snacks when she would take more than two steps in a row. Now it has been nearly a week since I have seen her crawl and I am wondering why the heck I thought it was a good idea for her to start walking. Now it is getting hard to keep up with her and she is finding more things to get into. Plus, when we leave the house to go to the store she thinks it is her right to get out of the cart and walk around. Now I also have to make sure that I put shoes on her feet, but she hates wearing the shoes and then end up getting taken off and ultimately thrown at me. She is still trying to master the art of walking in shoes, and can not seem to quite catch the hang of it. The end result? A frustrated little girl because I insist she wear shoes in order to walk when we are out of the house, and a frustrated mom because the little girl just will not wear her shoes (plus getting hit in the face with a shoe is not all that fun after the millionth time or so). Sabrina will no longer sit still because she would rather be walking (like at the movie theater where mom only got to see twenty minutes of the movie and then spent the rest of the time wandering up and down the hallway with a very curious baby). I do not remember the transition from baby to toddler being this difficult with Ben, but maybe I am selectively forgetting how hard this particular milestone has been for me. I am saying goodbye to my baby and hello to a big girl and I am not entirely sure I am ready for that transition, but it is too late now!