The Zoo

Darryl worked 2 weeks straight so he was in need of a break from work so he decided not to go to work today and wanted to take the boys to the zoo. It was such a great day. The boys had so much fun playing and seeing the animals. We got to see the elephant show where the elephant did some fun tricks. The whole time we were there Clint kept begging to go on the ride, meaning the merry-go-round. When we finally got on he was screaming and kicking not to get on an animal. The kid has issues and it's all our fault. We seriously traumatized him when we took him to Lagoon. Here is a picture of how he rode the merry-go-round. Afterwards we went on the train, which he didn't scream or cry about! Yea! Then we went to a little animal show. They asked for volunteers and Kade got picked. He was beaming. He was so happy and proud to be up there helping out. The lady had them show how a few animals moved. Kade slithered like a snake, stomped like a lion, and flew like a bird. You can see his excitement in the pictures. He cracks me up how excited he gets about life.

Swimming With the Cousins

All of the kids were so worn out so this outing wasn't as great for some, those that are use to napping-- namely Kade, Clint, and McKylee. Of course they all wanted to go swimming but they just didn't have fun like they would have if they weren't in need of some sleep. Kade was so brave and swam around with just arm floaties in the 3 ft. section. He wasn't about to go anywhere but the baby pool but we talked him into trying it out and then he felt SO big. His life jacket would have been great here. I hadn't been to the Salina pool for. . .???? 12 years maybe? It was such a trip down memory lane to sit and watch the kids and remember when my friends and I would have underwater tea parties on the bottom of the pool. And when we would see how could stand on their hands the longest. Cartwheels off the low dive and eventually off the high dive. We'd lay out on the cement edge 'working on our tan' which always seemed to burn. We had no idea how long we were laying there-- we figured the longer the darker the tan right? Those were fun times.

First Horse Rides

Kade was so excited when Uncle Buzz asked if anyone wanted to go ride "Shorty." He was even more excited when he found out "Shorty" is a horse. He kept getting right in my face and saying, "We're going to ride a horse Mom!" He couldn't believe it. Clint didn't want to ride though. He's still suffering traumatizing effects from when we took him to Lagoon, so he doesn't ever want to do anything anymore. However, once we got him on the horse just for a picture he decided it would be okay if they didn't go, "too fast." After Buzz walked the horse around a bit Clint loved it and was anxious for his second turn. When I talk about their horse ride now Clint intuerrupts and says, "And remember I loved it?" Kade and Clint were so funny on the horse. They were saying, "Giddy up horsey! Ride 'em cowboy. Yee Haw!" Kade wanted to grab the reins and take off. I was glad Buzz was so patient to walk all 7 kids around-- twice! Click on the pictures to see their cute faces-- especially Porter's that kid kills me.

Children's Pioneer Parade

Aurora does a pioneer parade where the kids decorate their bikes and ride around the park. My mom got a handcart for the grand kids and we had 9 kids with the cart. Boy were they sweet children-- ha ha. It started out fun, but soon everyone was being grumpy because someone wasn't pulling hard enough or someone wasn't pushing hard enough, or someone got to ride the whole time, etc. They made it about half of the way and we turned them around and called it good. I must say they were the most authentic looking pioneers.

ChiPmuNKs

We were on the road again this week. We spent some time with my folks while Darryl was in Chicago. My sister's boys were there along with my brothers girls--except Logan :_( We had a little barbecue one night and Clint started stuffing his cheeks with grapes-- I think he was doing it so I couldn't get them and take them away until he finished his hot dog. He looked like a little chipmunk. The picture doesn't show it very well. Kade had to joing in the fun.

Sleepover with Dad!

Kade has been wanting to have a sleep over the last few days. I tried to meet the need with having Clint 'sleepover' in Kade's room. Well once they were both in the same bed they decided they just wanted to sleep in their own beds by themselves. (Clint wanted to sleep on the top bunk but that seems like too big of a jump to go from a crib to a top bunk. Yes, Clint still sleeps in a crib. If he doesn't try to get out why give him a bed? We'll convert it to a toddler bed shortly so he can get up and go to the bathroom by himself). With the sleepover need unmet I tried to find a solution again-- a sleepover with Daddy in the tent! Kade was SOLD! The boys were so excited to be in the tent. They didn't fall asleep until after 9:30 but Kade slept solid until Clint woke everyone up at 6 AM. Clint woke me up a few times during the night because he'd get out of his sleeping bag and come and lay on me. Next time I think we'll just do a Daddy or Mommy, and Kade camp out.

Playdough!

One of the boys favorite morning activities is to play playdough. They're always so cute to listen to while they make things and "cut" them up. Today was another super cute day. I should have videoed this because the boys were both signing their little hearts out while they played. I love these little guys!

My baby is 3!!!

I know technically he's not a baby but I have a hard time believing he's not a baby anymore. Not because he can talk well, because he can do big boy things, or because he's fully potty trained, but likely because I don't want him to get older. Maybe that's why I only took one picture of his birthday-- I must be in denial. We had a fun day. We put balloons in his room and when he woke up we all went in singing Happy Birthday. He and Kade played with the balloons in his crib all day(they still play the game at least once a day-- see pictures below)










Then we opened up his gifts. Granny and Grandpa gave him a baseball mitt and ball, and a soccer ball. He was so excited to have a BALL! We gave him a viewfinder with Dora, Nemo, Incredibles, and Clifford discs. He liked it but Kade loved it! After Clint figured it out he decided it was pretty cool. We also gave him a game Dog Bones that turned out to be harder than I thought it would be so we had to modify it. We had Angel Food cake with bananas and pudding. Clint just ate bananas and pudding, and Kade just ate cake. They're a great match. Here's a picture of Clint saying, "I'm 3!"

Primary Activity

While I was at YW camp the babysitters-- Hayden and Mason McDonald took the boys to the primary activity at the park. Kade was pretty excited about a picture he made but he said they wouldn't let him keep it :{ . I explained to him that they were going to use the pictures for Fair Days and then maybe they'd give them back to him. He then proceeded to tell me about the awesome slip and slide. They put a large piece of plastic on the park hillside and slid down it. I guess Kade and his little friend Abby went down together most of the time. Here are a few pictures our amazing primary pres. sent me.

Camp FIT

Well it was another week away from home. This time it was for Young Women camp!!! There is just nothing like it. I love to be in the fabulous mountains with the girls. This year our camp director wanted everything to be a surprise for everyone --leaders included. This made for little work for us but a TON of work for her. I felt so bad she was doing SO much but I have to say it turned out so great and it was fun to be surprised. Our theme she picked was camp FIT-- Faith Increases Testimony. She wanted to get across the point that the world focuses so much on physical fitness right now, which is important, but spiritual fitness is just as important. She talked about how we need to do things (exercises) that will keep our testimony strong. It was such a great theme. We went to Rockcliff campground at Jordanelle. It was beautiful but and our first night was rather interesting. The girls were shockingly asleep by 11:30. The leaders however didn't get to sleep until after 3:30 due to some pesky raccoons. We had been told to duct tape the coolers and such shut. Well we thought the raccoon may come climb around and leave, but oh no! They scratched and ripped at that duct tape until they could get the lids open. We got out of our tent to reinforce with more duct tape a couple times. The raccoons would walk right up to our feet-- stomping, clapping and yelling didn't deter them. You had to bang on something to get them to run away; they would still return a few minutes later. One raccoon finally got a hold of a bag of bagels and then I was really scared because I thought he'd get really defensive. We used more duct tape. That didn't stop them they started pushing coolers around and over. We finally went out and stacked the coolers, putting the super heavy coolers on top of a lighter cooler. FINALLY we got to sleep-- for a short while. We were suppose to wake up for our hike at 6:30. We did wake up at 6:30 but it took us a while to get on our hike. It was a nice hike around the lake.
The next night we stacked the coolers under the metal picnic table. The raccoons came but left soon after. Ha Ha!!
Camp was so great. There was a newer girl that we didn't know super well and so it was so fun to get to see what she was like-- she's such a fun cute girl. I'm so glad she went.
I'm not sure how we didn't end up at the ER because we had one girl that about picked up a couple snakes that were rattle snakes, luckily she spotted the rattles just in time. Then there were a couple girls that didn't understand the danger of muskrats. They were almost petting them a couple times. YIKES! We did have two wasp bites that didn't amount to much and so I would say we did well-- aside from the millions of mosquito bites.
Tracy, the camp director, had made books for each of us that had our bishops testimony in them and testimonies from our family members. It was so neat to get those and be able to read them. However, it made me cry and miss my guys at home. The final night was the night the bishopric came up for dinner. We cooked ribs, and potatoes in the dutch ovens. I didn't realize how large the rib pieces were going to be and or I would have suggested we start them really early in the day so needless to say they weren't done when everyone got there. Tracy was so stressed about it but it turned out great. Everyone had a chance to sit and visit while it finished cooking and then we ate and had testimony meeting.
I only took a few pictures. :( I haven't been doing great at getting my camera out. I can't wait to get the pictures from everyone else.

Done?

While the boys were at the grandparent's houses Clint was potty trained, but every time we were around he would occasionally go in his diapers. So today Darryl decided it was time to just do underwear and forgo the diaper option. Could we be done with potty training? I sure hope so, otherwise I'll have stories for the blog that I'd rather not be dealing with.

4th

Some friends from work invited us over for a little 4th of July celebration. I can't believe I only took a picture of Clint sitting in the "baby pool." They had blow up slides(both wet and dry), a blow up jumping castle, a kids slip-n-slid, and an adult slip-n-slide. There weren't any adults who wore their suits so it was mainly for the older kids though all the little kids loved it. The kids had the time of their lives playing in the water and running around all day and we even took the paper rocket launcher for even more fun. We had a little barbecue and then a firework show. They started it off with a firework that said it would launch 56 parachutes. The kids were so excited to chase after the parachutes and catch them so they all lined up ready to race after them. All the adults were lined up on the other side watching. He set the very large fire work on the grass then lit it, the first of 7 parachute shots launched and the firework tipped over. We all watched the skies for the parachutes and then it dawned on the adults that the firework was pointed at us and it would be launching another packet soon. Rhett ran over but was too late and a packet shot at the adults. Rhett tried to stand it upright with his foot but it fell over and shot one at the kids. He finally got it up right for that last couple cylinders to go up. No one got hurt so it was quite the comical event. The best thing is that his wife caught the whole thing on tape. It was funny to watch everyone scream when the firework would point at them. Funny, funny moment.