Wall Lake

Well hello! 

It has been a few years since my last post.  It's actually been 4 years to the date.  Crazy! Last week I thought I would read my old posts and it re-motivated me to start up again.The kids looked at the pictures while I read the posts and they thought it was so much fun.  They laughed and "oh'd" and "ah'd" at all the right places and made me think, "I should do that again." So, here I go again. 😉

Rich and I decided to take the kids on a backpacking trip. Knowing that they couldn't do too big of a hike, we went to Wall Lake.  It is a great hike for kids.  It is only one mile hike from the parking lot.  It was all uphill, but super gradual so nobody noticed. 

Here are the kids, packing in all their stuff. (If only!) 

 And here is Rich packing in only his stuff.  💪😂

 Here I am. Sophia was my photographer in this one.  She is so great!

This is the campsite that Max chose.  It was a great spot, away from all other sites and with some fire wood already stacked up.  Max felt so proud of himself and always asked Rich, "Wasn't that a great campsite?" I think he literally asked him that a hundred times.  Sometimes even now (weeks later) he will say, "Remember that campsite? Wasn't that a great spot?"

Rich packed in all his fishing supplies and we were able to fish a couple times.  He caught this trout on his second cast in.  It is always so fun for the kids to catch a fish. (Please note Sophia's face in this picture.)

Sophia and Max both held it while it was squirming around but Owen would not touch it.  He was just fine looking at it, thank you very much.  When Rich killed it by hitting it on a rock, all the kids were horrified.  Sophia's exact words were, "That must have hurt so much!"  My heart broke a little bit for the fish after that. We took it back to the campsite and Rich cooked it over the fire.  Max loved it.  I can't remember if Owen tried it, but Sophia and I agreed that it tastes like it smells, fishy.

This was the first long camping trip we took.  We spent two nights here and the thing I didn't really realize is how much down time there is.  I packed a couple books for the kids, but when I wasn't reading to them I was bored out of my mind.  I brought Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to read to Sophia, and a Nate the Great book for Max.  He's not super interested in stories though so he would listen politely (or sometimes not so politely), just waiting until the chapter was over.  Reading Harry Potter to Sophia was actually one of my favorite memories of the trip. But, next time I will plan a few more activities for the day.  

One thing we decided to do was build "fairy houses".  It was actually pretty fun seeing what everyone came up with.  

Here is Max and Rich's masterpiece. I love the walkway.

Here is mine.  It doesn't look like much, but the idea is that the stump is a part of the house.

And here is Sophia's.  She worked on it for a really long time.  When we tried to get her to leave to go on a hike (because the rest of us were finished and bored), she was so upset.  As soon as we got back, she continued working on it.  Her fairy house came with a TV and table.  The two most important pieces of furniture, I guess. 

I should have taken a picture of Owens, but I will paint you a word picture.  Imagine a pile of dirt.  That's what it looked like. It was funny watching him build it.  He would find rocks and leaves that were important pieces of his fairy house and would then cover them with dirt.  Ha!

This girl... We were all pretty dirty, but she was out of control! I love it.

Here is the hike we went on.  We got rained on so it got cut short, much to Sophia's delight.  She had a fairy house to build, after all.  The boys did great hiking so much.

The kids wanted lots of stories.  Scary stories.  If it wasn't scary, it wasn't worth telling.  Rich and I were exhausted from telling them.  There are only so many endings I could come up with that are scary but not traumatizing.  

It got really cold at night. I was actually the only warm one.  (Mom guilt! 😬) The kids had their big feather blankets and those just weren't cutting it.  I tried having them sleep close together so they could share their blankets, but they would be too squirmy to keep them on.  Rich shared his sleeping bag with Max, and Sophia and Owen ended up sharing their two down blankets and that seemed to keep everyone but Rich warm.  We ended up putting the cover on the tent and then we were able to stay much warmer.  

I am really glad we went on this trip.  I love creating memories with the kids.  Next time we will do things differently, but it was a great trip, all things considered.  I hope we can go again next year.

Weekend

The weekend was hard for me to blog... I think it's because I didn't take too many pictures and it just didn't seem worth it. Anyway, here's what we did.

Friday morning, I took Sophia and Max on a walk again.  Sophia wanted to ride her bike again, but didn't last too long. We ended up turning around and going back. (At least today she rode on the sidewalks this time!)

We then we to one of our favorite friends' house to play. I didn't take any pictures. Baa! But it was fun, up until Sophia pee'd her pants in their house. (It has really been about 3 weeks since she's had any accidents, but today she was just so busy playing, she waited too long. Argh, it makes me mad though!)

I'm not sure why I took this picture... but Max sure is cute with this little dog!

Sophia had "quiet time" downstairs and I let her take some stamps and markers (*washable*) down with her, with instructions to ONLY color on the paper. When she came up, she was very proud of the coloring she did all over her body!  We then went to Target with her looking like this because I didn't have time to bathe her.

Both the kids were super grumpy when we got home. Luckily, a cracker made them both pretty happy.

The rest of the night was very low key. We just stayed home and went to bed early.

Saturday, Rich re-seeded our lawn. Max and Sophia love playing outside and watching Dad work. Max got into the dirt and dumped handfuls all over himself.

Sophia surprised me by finally touching a bug! Usually when she sees one, she FREAKS out and runs around screaming until it's dead or she can't see it anymore.  But now she loves "rolly polly" bugs. She tries to get them to roll up in her hand. (She did squish one or two in the process! Whoops!)

This kept her busy for a long time. (Poor Rich was busy all morning with the yard. He has blisters on his hands from raking all the grass up. That is one hard worker!)

I then took Sophia with me to pick out fabric for a R.S. activity we are doing on Tuesday (making throw pillows). She had to try on all the Halloween hats she saw.

And then for being so good in the store, she got to pick out a sucker. She was thrilled with the ring pop!

That night for dinner we got Cafe Rio and went up City Creek Canyon and had a little picnic. It was such a beautiful evening and it's so pretty up there, we were in heaven!

Yum, yum!

Rich helped the kids throw rocks into the water.

Then we played an exciting game of hide-and-seek. Where are they??

Today we had regional conference- which was so good! It was at the Conference Center, which was fun. Then we had grilled cheese sandwiches (made by Rich on the grill... SO GOOD!) with Rich's parents and my brother Jason. Sadly I didn't take any pictures, but it was a great day today.

Side note: The other night, Rich was going to put a screen in his parent's upstairs window. He got out this tall ladder and leaned it against their house. When Sophia saw what was going on, she ran over to him, yelling, "Dad, you are going to KILL yourself!" It was so funny, we all had a good laugh about that. :)

Biking and football!

This morning I decided to haul Sophia's Strider bike up to the capitol for our daily walk. She got this bike for her 2nd birthday and has literally used it (maybe) 5 times. She just hasn't been able to get the hang of it. Although, living on a super steep hill doesn't give her much practice. Today, I was very impressed with her perseverance She rode it all the way around the capitol (which is almost a mile).  She even rode it up the hills and down the big one and was always working on her balance. I finally felt like this purchase was worth it! :)

She was funny because for some reason, she wouldn't ride it on the sidewalks. Every time we crossed a sidewalk, she got off and walked it. When I asked her why, she said, "sometimes my bike gets really fast".

At one point, I looked down at the stroller and saw this cute little face looking up at me. Hi, Max!

 Here is Sophia trying to balance as she rides down the hill. I'm so impressed that her feet are off the ground. Sometimes she would get going really fast and it made my heart race, but she did great.

We then went to the library for story time and then home for lunch and naps/quiet time. Then we ran some errands. I actually ran the van through a car wash, which Sophia usually loves watching, but today she fell asleep on the ride over. Max HATED the car wash today. I think he usually gets a little nervous but Sophia is awake to laugh and talk to him and I think it keeps him calm. As soon as we pulled in, he started screaming. I checked on him for a little bit and it broke my heart, how panicked he was. I could see the wild look in his eyes, poor kid! I held his hand and tried to calm him down, but he was a wreck until we were out.

Once we were home, the kids played quietly in the living room. Sophia kept running into the kitchen and getting towels. She said that today was my birthday and that she was decorating. When she was done I came and saw her creative work.  She was so proud of herself!

Tonight was the first football game of the season... I was so thrilled because I've been wanting to watch some football. And it was my Seahawks playing! Rich had a softball game so I told Sophia we would make popcorn and watch the game. She LOVES it when we make popcorn and couldn't wait to show dad. Here she is, taking the popcorn to him to show him what we made.

The kids were just so darn cute, watching it. I love how Sophia is shoving popcorn in her face. Max thought it was fun too.

The would both start clapping when they heard the crowd cheering.

And here we are. I wish Rich were here to watch with us, but he took one quick picture before he left. (Max knows the drill... see the camera and smile.)

A typical Wednesday

Today was Sophia's second day of dance class. All the parents are now banished to the hallway and can't watch anymore. I was able to snap this quick picture of the girls before I left. Aren't they cute in their little dance leotards!

After dance, we came home for Max's nap and lunch. I just recently learned of a new lunch idea from that website, chopchopmag.org. I think they call it a One Eye'd Jack. You take bread and cut out a hole (we used a bear shaped cookie cutter) and then fry it in a pan and crack an egg into the hole. Then you also toast the middle part of the bread you cut out. Sophia loved helping me make it and I was super excited because I have to stop feeding her ramen noodles.  Anyway, she ate the toasted middle part.

And took one tiny bite from the side and left the rest. *Sigh*. (Side note: Rich said he and his cousin thought up this idea years ago and called it Campers Egg... he should have copyrighted the idea!)

After naps and quiet time, we ran some errands and then had dinner and played outside for a bit. Max has been walking all day today. I'm so happy because I am so tired of walking him with my fingers! It only took him 16 months to figure it out... better late than never, right!

Sophia likes to photo bomb my pictures of Max. As soon as she sees the camera pointed at him she tried to jump in with a big smile.

Here we are playing on the trampoline. Sophia also jumped right into this photo. Silly girl!

Rich just got called into the Stake Young Men's and so we thought he'd be gone all night at an activity. They ended up not needing so many leaders, so he came home and mowed the lawn.  Sophia loves getting blown away with the blower.

She's super helpful too, blowing the grass for dad. Thanks, honey!

Jumping and ducks

Today was such a beautiful day. We were going to start out with a walk, but Sophia asked if she could go jump. What a good idea! Here she is... hair done, yet still in pajamas. This girl would wear pajamas every minute of every day if I let her!

Max is starting to get to the age where he does not like being left out of anything fun. He has to get on the trampoline if Sophia is on. It gets ugly if he can't.

After jumping, we went on a walk around the capitol. That is one of the things I love about living right here... I can go on this great walk, where I can let Rocco off the leash, and let Sophia run around safely. It's so nice!

When we got home, Max was ready for his nap. (He only takes one these days. He is just now making that transition. He will sleep for 2 or 3 hours, starting at 10:30 or 11:30.) Sophia is getting really good at entertaining herself. I was able to menu plan and make my shopping list for about an hour while Sophia did this... I swear I put those books back on the shelf every single day!  (It usually doesn't take me that long to menu plan, but today I was perusing a website I found that has tons of cool recipes that are "kid friendly". I don't really think they are "kid friendly" because it's all pretty fancy food, but they had pictures of kids eating it, so I'm hoping mine will too! The website is called chopchopmag.org)

While I was writing my menu on the chalk board, Sophia found a cool new coloring app that she wanted to play with. This kept her busy for another half hour and I cleaned the bathroom! Ahhh! It's a luxury to get some cleaning done uninterrupted! Thank you technology!

When Max woke up, Sophia was having "quiet time" downstairs. (This is where I force her to watch 2 hours of TV in the basement... is that good parenting, or what!!)  Anyway, Max is in love with this stuffed dog. Sophia's cousin, Kate, gave it to her when she was younger and Sophia would bite and tear out some of the dog's hair. It is bald on top and bald on the tail, but for some reason, Max thinks it's the coolest thing... right up there with his blanket!

Seriously... look at this!

When quiet time was over, we met up with some friends at the park. Sophia dressed herself and put on this "beautiful headband". She hates headbands and took it off as soon as we got to the park, but in the car, she loved it.

So, the "ducks" turned out to be geese. But it was fun, nonetheless. We met up with some friends and chatted, while trying to help our children avoid stepping in (or eating) poop. Blech!!

Max was loving it. He fed them the longest and also tried to get them to eat out of his fingers (scary!). He really likes birds and ducks. He will always point them out. We even have a block with a duck on it and he always knows where that exact block it. He will say, "du" and clap his hands while saying "qua, qua". It's pretty cute.

These friends are great to hang out with because my friend Kellie has a daughter Max's age, and Shawna has a daughter Sophia's age. Plus they are pretty cool girls themselves. :)

See, still feeding the geese, long after everyone else had lost interest. Cute boy!

Look at how brave these geese are. And Max, too! This is why he tried hand feeding them.

He was funny to watch because he was giving the geese a piece of bread and then would eat one himself. One for you... one for me. :)

The rest of the day was pretty mellow. I went grocery shopping and made dinner. I bought some straws today because I read that it's easier for kids to drink smoothies with straws. Sophia was pretty excited about them. When we got home, I gave her a cup of water with a straw and during dinner, she put the straw up her nose and sniffed. It was so sad, but also really funny because she got water up her nose and she was kinda shocked. She asked to be excused from dinner so she could "go get this out of my nose". I think it's one of those "you had to be there" moments, but I got a good laugh.

After dinner we went outside and visited with Rich's parents and played in the backyard. Rich and Sophia kicked the ball and then that turned into dodge ball. Rich would throw the ball at Sophia while she was running away and every time it hit her (most of the time) she would just laugh and laugh. What a good sport. I'm going to miss summer evenings!