So long Summer

I am always sad to see the long days of summer come to an end. We had an exceptionally fun summer this year which makes it even harder to say goodbye. I will miss letting the boys run outside ALL day with no shoes, no jackets, and soaking up the sun while enjoying the pool and slip n slide. Summer is the best. Here are a few pictures to highlight our last few weeks of summer. We got a lot of rain in August and the boys loved playing with theses umbrellas. They were great entertainment for such a long time. The boys are in there somewhere! :) Camdens summer was made when our very sweet neighbors offered us this tractor for free. Seriosuly, free? Ya, so nice of them. They had it for their grandkids who have now outgrown them and were just looking to get rid of it. Camdens life revolves around cars, tractors, trains, garbage trucks. It was such a great thing for him. It took him a good few weeks to let anyone else ride it. And I am not kidding, he had a really hard time sharing it. He loved it so much and continues to love it and ride it when it is nice enough. Ryland also learned how to ride his bike without training wheels! Yay! He had been so nervous to try on his new bike he got for his birthday. We took the training wheels off his bike to try and encourage him to try but he never would. We ended up taking the training wheels off his old bike that was Camdens bike, and having him try to learn on the smaller bike. It worked like a charm. He felt more comfortable on it because his feet were closer to the ground to catch him when he fell. Anyway, his great neighbor friend Karleigh who he played with a lot this summer, was so nice to help him a lot too. He loved riding bikes with her all summer. As soon as he mastered the smaller bike, he jumped on the bigger bike and never looked back. He loved his bigger bike because he could go so much faster. It was only took a while to adjust and we only had one minor fall and he was good to go. It was rather funny when he did crash. He fell right into our neighbors fence. Lance ran over to help him up and had a little father son moment with him. He told Ry, this is one of those moments in life when you fall, you just gotta get back up and keep going. He had tears in his eyes, but wasn't really hurt and jumped back on his bike and rode back home. Anyway, fun moments for parents to watch your kids learn new things and find success in things they set out to do. So happy Ry learned how to ride! We went on plenty of bike rides in the weeks and months after he learned to ride. And Cohen loved this little cozy coupe! Both the boys played another season of soccer and loved that. Ryland has improved so much this year and did great. He was SO proud of himself when the ball finally made it into the goal. Cohen was the best little cheerleader for many soccer games. Ryalnds coach Kyle was great with the boys. Such a fun little team! Ryland and one of his best friends Austin who he has played soccer with since they were 3. They are great little buddies and had a great season together again! Cam tolerated another season. I am still not sure how much he really likes it, but he gets out there and says he wants to play so we do it still. He definitely did better this season compared to last so were happy about that. His coach Ambre was so SO great. The boys loved her and she was really good about making sure everyone had a chance with the ball. It was great. And of course they were all so excited to get their medals at the end of the season. Great job Camden! I love this little moment I captured between Ryland and Cohen at one of Cams games. These two have got such a special bond. Love watching them play together. Ryland takes such good care of his little bro. Cohen loved sitting in the big kid chair to watch them play. We have loved spending summer at lagoon as well. We have spent countless hours there. Our passes were well worth the money. The boys had a great time every time we went. Cohen was finally old enough so we bought him a few ride tickets and he loved getting a chance to ride. He didn't know what to think at first on the whales, but once it got going, he couldn't stop smiling. Hanging with Dad The cars were a favorite this summer Cohen loved it! And Cam and Co loved the boats too. Ry was too big for the boats this year. Can't believe how fast that boy is growing! Cohen rocked out most of his summer doing his favorite thing, turning in circles. I love it! Ha ha! So long summer days, we will miss you!

9 months

Cohen hit the big 9 month mark in August. Can't believe how fast those 9 months went. Here a few highlights of Cohen the last little bit. He weighed 21 pounds 11 ounces and was 28 1/2 inches long at his check up. He is 75% for height, and 65% for weight. He continues to be our smallest boy, but still not too small. We don't know how to do small boys right? 9 months never looked better! I just love this guy so much. He loves to cuddle and gives the best hugs. I just want to squish him every time I see him. Co discovered a love for tomatoes the last couple of months, yes tomatoes. He LOVES them. He has eaten more then his weight in tomatoes the last few months. Seriously! It was not uncommon to see him taking a whole tomato and eating it up. So proud he ate the whole thing! Tomatoes are pretty much his favorite food. He loves to be outside and loves hanging out in the cozy coupe. And he loves balls! He finally figured out how to crawl around when he was about 9 months old as well. He did the army crawl thing forever. Those legs just didn't make it up for the longest time. It was pretty funny to watch him get around like this. I put him out on the grass one evening and I don't think he liked the feel of the grass so up those legs went and he crawled like a normal baby for the first time. Yea! I was happy he finally figured it out. It took him a couple days to figure out that crawling with his hands and his knees was much faster then his signature drag, but he caught on eventually. He loves the freedom of crawling! This kid is so happy to sit with a box of toys for so long too. He will play for quite a while as long as he can empty a box of toys. And he loves to sleep just like this. Face plant. Looks comfortable. He loves trying all kinds of new foods as well. He has been such a good eater. You can also see his 2 bottom teeth cutting through here. I just love this baby so much. Can't say enough good about him and can't wait to see what the next years bring for him. Happy 9 months Cos!

Zions

We took a quick trip to Zions the end of August. My nephew Eric was getting baptized and we decided to make a weekend out of it. We brought my other nephew Thomas down with us and had a great weekend together. We took a long detour to get down to St George that ended up not being the best detour ever but we did get to see a little of the outer area of Bryce Canyon. It was beautiful. The boys loved all the rocks! We hiked all over Zions on Friday. All the boys hiked over 5 miles throughout the day. We maybe pushed them to their limit ends, but I think they had a good time. Up until the last mile meltdowns! :) They did great! They loved hangning out in the water at the bottom of the Narrows. Family Pic. Zions is just so beautiful! There is nothing that compares to the amazing things you see there!! Fun times! We hit the baptism on Saturday morning. It was so fun. I love that my boys have older cousins setting such a great example for them. Ryland loves Eric so much and was so excited to see him be baptized. He talked about it for weeks and can't wait until he can be baptized too. Congrats Eric! It was a special day for sure! It was so fun to spend time with the family. We headed down to Mesquite shortly after the baptism to spend some time with Lances mom and step dad. We were also able to see Aunt Annabell too. She was kind enough to let us swim in her pool again. It was a perfect afternoon for a swim. The boys wanted to stay in the water forever. Little Co was a little tired from the busy weekend. :) We enjoyed an amazing ravioli dinner with them that evening, thanks guys! It was fun to spend some time with Lances family as well. And then it was on to home. We had a great quick get-a-way!

A camping we will go

Ryland and Camden had begged us all summer to take them camping. There is just something about sleeping in a tent when you are a kid that just sounds super fun right? They really wanted to go and we finally had a free weekend near the end of July, so we packed up and went. Thankfully my sister Kellilyn wasn't busy that weekend and joined us on the quick get-away! She is the best and is always so great to be a helping hand for us. We found a nice little spot just east of Pineview Reservoir. It was perfect weather for camping and we had a great time. Our camp spot had a nice little trail down to the river. The boys could have spent all day and night right here. Ry and Kelli wading out to the rocks, see what I mean about an awesome extra set of hands! Such a perfect spot for a little photo! Cos and I hanging out on the shore, oh and eating rocks. Yep, he couldn't stop putting every rock he saw in his mouth. And as you can see, there were a lot of rocks here. Seriously! And then he makes this face when I tried to take them away. Those eyes just can't figure out what was so wrong with eating rocks! That boy! It didn't take long for Cos to get his feet in the water too. He was loving it! Cohen and Ryland have such a great connection. Cohen worships the ground Ryland walks on and loves it when Ry gives him attention. And Ryland loves his little brother a lot. He is so good to him. Here is just a small sample of how much they love each other. Cohen copies everything Ry does. I blame Ryland for teaching Co how to scream! :) We enjoyed a yummy hot dog roast over the fire for dinner And of course smores. The food is the best part of camping, delicious! And to say Cohen LOVED his first camping trip would be quite an understatement. He had such a great time! Camden couldn't get enough of the fire. Ya, he thought it was great. Sticks, dirt, fire, all boy right there! Love these people! Everyone slept pretty good through the night. We had a rougher time ignoring our drunk neighbors so we could sleep than anything with the kids. The joys of camping right? It worked out okay but we were glad when morning came. We headed over to pineview to swim for a while that day. It was so SO perfect for swimming. The water felt great, not cold at all. It was also super crowded, but we had a great time. Camden loved the sand. And Cohen graduated from eating rocks, to eating sand. Yep, onward and upwards. :) The boys loved being in the water. They would run from the shore into the water ALL DAY! So fun! We were so sad to say goodbye to our little camping adventure. I wish we had more free weekends to spend camping. The boys loved it and we had such a great time. Thank you wonderful outdoors!