You Sly Dog!

The other night I was tucking Seth into his bed.  His legs were hurting, so I rubbed them.  Then I rubbed his arms to help relax him.  He started rubbing my arms (he was getting a little bit silly) so I put my hand on his hand.  Not even a second after I held his hand he said, "You sly dog!"  This is a quotation from a Peanuts Collection movie where Peppermin Patty said that to Charly Brown when he touched her hand. I was so impressed by his comedic timing.  I had a good laugh.  Thank you, Seth- you are awesome!

Willes Family Camping Trip

I survived going camping twice in one week.  I was exhausted and nearly didn't go to the Willes camping trip, but I am so glad that I pushed through the tiredness (and the post-migraine fog) and went.  It rained a lot while we were there- the sun only peaked out of the clouds for a few hours over the weekend (which made drying things out rather tricky) but it was a nice, relaxing camping trip.  The rainy weather forced us all to take it easy and just spend time together.

Once again, Daniel stayed home with Jane and I took the boys.  I'm not too positive that Jane will come with us next year, but I'm sure that she will want to come!

I was surrounded by photo ops, so I took a lot of pictures. After working on my Dad's 70th birthday book, I was left wanting to have more pictures of my family.  I was struck by a feeling that I never know how much longer we will be granted time together, so I took advantage of the time we had. 

I captured people helping each other:

Grandpa helping Seth make a bow for his arrows

Marci brushing Klayre's hair

Grandpa helping Paul take down his tent

Uncle Dan fixing Seth's scooter

People playing together:

Mark "breaking" an egg with Randy

Kevin, Tanner, Seth and Cooper exploring the forest

Jessica and Blake playing the hand slap game

Paul and Wendy playing Chinese Checkers

Seth and Klayre

Dan and Klarye

 People hanging out:

Klayre, Kaitlyn, Mom, Kim, Jessica (Dan is asleep in the background)

Marci and Denise (baby Hailey is asleep in the background, but I'm not sure if you can really see her)

Mark and Cooper (who are very good at being 12 years old)

After our camping trip earlier in the week with Shelley,  I decided that we needed more room in our tent.  We were just too snug in there and the smell of boys was a bit to strong for me.  With the weather looking rainy, I thought that it was a good time for us to not be touching the sides of the tent.  We bought Mark and Paul their own pup-tents.  They were excited to have some space of their own, and I enjoyed the extra space in the big tent,  It was almost as though Seth and I went camping by ourselves at night and first thing each morning (because we were the only ones up and about). 

I taught Seth how to start a fire.  We used the fire starters that I made out of dryer lint and wax in a paper egg carton.  It worked beautifully! 

 

We were surrounded by beautiful purple flowers. 

  After we packed up camp a few of us went to Hidden Falls. 

Wendy and Randy

 I spent a few minutes talking with my brothers, Dan and Randy.  I couldn't help but be grateful that Randy was here with us.  Randy was in a rappelling accident 18 months ago.  It wasn't just that he is alive, but that he is healthy enough to come hiking with us that made my gratitude bucket overflow.  I love you so much Randy!

Dan, Randy, Sherron and Seth

 Coming home with wet gear takes a lot of work- we had to find places to set things out to dry out all of our sleeping bags, pillows and tents.  I cannot express enough how much I love my instant tent.  It took all of the energy I had left to put it up to let it dry, but if it had been my old tent I would have seriously considered waiting until the next day and risking letting it mold.  The garage was a mess, because that is were we hung everything.  It was a good place, though because it motivated me to get it put away, once it dried, so that I could park the van in the garage again.  Our van got a well-deserved deep-cleaning after that muddy trip! 

I think that we are done camping this year, but I would still like to go on a day hike and perhaps a sunrise hike.  I love spending time in the mountains.  We are so lucky to live so close to them! 

Two Weeks of Summer

We have had two weeks of summer break so far.  We have been super busy and I am super tired.  Since I haven't written about anything, this will be a long-ish picture-post to cover almost everything. (I didn't get pictures of the water park)

Seth made a "Summer Bucket List" and we have crossed off 9 of the 10 activities! We are getting ready to go camping today with my family for two nights. When we get back and rested for a few days, we'll go somewhere to make sandcastles.

1. Swimming
2. Camping
3. Sandcasle
4. Posycle
5. Watermalin
6. Water park
7. Water fight
8. Silly string
9. Mountin
10. Cavin

We filled the big pool with water.  The kids had fun playing in it while it was filling up.

Jane had a blast (she was rather disappointed when the pool was filled the next day and was too deep for her to touch bottom)

We have had friends over to swim nearly every day this summer.  We have had a lot of fun with this pool!

Mark graduated from elementary school. Here he is at the faculty vs 6th grade softball game. (faculty won)

Paul watching the game

The 6th graders watched a slide show of the class pictures.  He decided to sit in the recycle box. 

I pulled Seth out of his class (they were watching a movie) and had him help with the 6th grade party. 

Mark and Seth

We rented a cabin for two nights up in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Daniel doesn't enjoy camping, but he doesn't mind being in the mountains, so this worked well for us.  Jane had a rough week- four molars coming through will do that to anyone! She discovered that she can get out of the play pen, so she didn't go to sleep until 2 a.m. the first night.  While the girls took naps the next day, the boys went on a hike to Twin Lakes. 

Seth made eggs for us.

Daniel and Paul

Mark started that book at the beginning of the trip.

We invited Madeleine and Ed to spend a night with us.  Jane got Ed to read a book to her.  

Eating breakfast

On the way home from the cabin, we stopped for a little hike to Hidden Falls.  It was short climb to the falls.  It was the perfect way to end our family trip.

Who is that devastatingly handsome couple?

This is what Jane did the majority of the trip- throw fits.  Thankfully for everyone's sake, she is feeling better.

The boys were 'holding up the rock'!

That night Paul, Seth and I went with Shelley and her boys to the parade.  It was hot and Paul wound up not feeling too good, but it was a fun time.

On the 4th of July, we went to see the fireworks.  It was Seth's first time and he loved it!  We were able to see the fire in Alpine from where we were sitting.  The boys were a bit worried that the fire would get to us, but it was pretty far away. 

On July 9th, we went camping with Shelley and her boys. Daniel stayed home with Jane.  Daniel doesn't enjoy camping and I don't enjoy camping with babies, so he stayed home and it was the perfect solution for us.  Jane may not agree- but it was best for her to stay home!   We stayed one night and had a great time (except for when we were being attacked by flies- they were everywhere!- and when our neighbors ran their generator and stayed up late being loud) 

We went on a hike to Lake Mary in Big Cottonwood Canyon.  The hike proved to me that I am out of shape and getting old!  The boys had far more energy than I did!

Lake Mary

Carson, Seth, and Parker made a little 'fire' in their hide out.  I am so glad that the three of them get along so nicely!

There was a stream behind our camp.  We spent a lot of time throwing rocks in the water.

We went to Hidden Falls on our way home

Thursday we planned on going to Trafalga to play Laser Tag.  I wasn't feeling well, but Aunt Wendy took Mark and Paul with her.  Thank you so much Wendy! 

We only have 12 days left of summer.  I don't know that we will be quite as busy as we have been for the first half of our short summer, but we will have fun!