Trial Camping Trip

A couple of weeks ago we were invited to go camping with our friends, the Graffs. Both of us were novice campers when it came to bringing kids along- since neither of us had gone since the kiddos were born! It was sure to be an adventure for sure! We found a campsite in Payson- exactly 2 hours away- where we later learned about 3 bear attacks that had happened in that area the year before....yikes! We were pretty nervous about meeting any wildlife ;-) though thankfully nothing happened!

 I decided to make our young ins little rednecks out there because I wasn't going to bother dressing them up in their Sunday best so they could roll in the dirt. I figured this was the one and only time I was going to allow them to wallow in dirt and mud- might as well let them get good and dirty! The kids loved it- did great- Jared and I always anticipate the worst when it comes to our kids and vacations/ different routines, and we all had a great time! Dallin basically had a hay day with throwing rocks into a small pond, and spent any chance he could, finding objects to toss in there. Boys! I pulled up a chair since he was literally there FOREVER!

Spending only one night there was a lot of work, but was a perfect amount of time for our trial camping trip. The kids slept on the way there, and passed out on the way back too! Honestly  it was great being out in nature, spending time with our friends who are moving soon, and letting the kids get dirty and just play! I think will actually do it again!

Good pic of Jared

Good pic of the kids...you can never get everyone at the same time!!

A few things to remember- for next time:
1. Aubrey, don't forget to bring tennis shoes!
2. Bring a ton more wood for fires if it will be cold! (4 bags at least!)
3. Bring toys for the kids.... in case there is no puddle of water to occupy the time

Mr. Expert Camper....glad he knew what he was doing! I sure didn't!

Nothing has Changed

We've had a lot of changes within our little family. New jobs, new homes, new additions to the family, new challenges, new trips, etc. the list could go on and on. But there are some things that just haven't changed...

Adelyn at 10 months old

Now

Dallin at 10 months old

Dallin now

Addie is still the same book worm she used to be. A lot of times the house will be quiet and I think, "Uh oh what is she getting into?" and 99% of the time she's just in a corner reading books to herself. I think she's passed that book love onto her brother- but he doesn't have quite as much passion for quality book time- instead he spends his time perfecting the climb. Even at a young age, it was evident that boy was going to be a climber. When he gets older, I have every intention of putting that kid in rock climbing lessons! Unfortunately  he's taught his talent to his sister so now we have two crazy monkeys in the house who love to climb up somewhere and laugh their heads off together! Despite giving me a heart attack- I'm happy when they're in cahoots with each other and getting along splendidly.....there are a lot of times where it's not all laughing between the two of them lately. Love, hate relationship is the best description of our kids right now!

There have been a lot of different stages each have gone through, but it's funny what wasn't just a stage, but a personality trait and has truly stuck around.

~RANDOM~

One night when I went to check on the kids before heading off to bed, this is how I found little mister. Yup! He somehow managed to rip his shirt off before going to bed! Not sure how since he'd never done that before nor since then! This silly boy has to go to sleep with the three B's.....blanket, binkie and book. All of which are shown in the picture (his fabric book is cut off a little in the pic). He has really gotten a hang of language lately and actually communicates pretty well! It's nice not having the grunting and guessing to work with. He repeats almost everything I say (yikes!) so his vocabulary is really growing lol :)

Oh boy! Our little ms. Diva! She insists on dressing herself and if I try to persuade her to wear something a little less awful she replies with, "Mom, but that doesn't look beautiful!"....well I guess she would know! :) This girl sings, dances, and gives me advice all day long. Her recent thing is knock knock jokes and she tells them something like this, "Knock knock knock, who's there????..........stinky banana!!!!". That's her favorite one but it's usually something stinky, so don't get her started! She is also the family police and will reprimand Jared and I whenever we say a naughty word (hate, gosh,...). And heaven forbid I ever raise my voice because then it's time out for me! :)

And check out this beauty we found at a garage sale for $32 bucks! Brand spankin' new!! We were super stoked since we'd been wanting one FOREVER.......But don't let their charming faces fool you. This was before we started biking. THEY. HATE. IT. Just our luck :/

Oh! And if you hadn't heard the news already, our bundle #3 is going to be another boy! This picture was from 16 weeks, I feel pretty mongo already, but we are super excited and looking forward to another personality to add to our bunch :).

Peacock Park

A few weeks ago the Mommy Preschool that Addie and I have been doing, decided to take a field trip to the Saharo Ranch Park (aka Peacock park...which is what my mom always called it when i was growing up). But because of complications, miscommunications and the like, it only ended up being Shanna with her kids and us. Which ended up being somewhat funny because around the same time last year, we'd made the same day trip. It was fun to take a picture of her oldest and mine in the same spot we'd taken it last year...what a difference a year can make! And this time, the younger siblings were old enough climb around too!

Last Year

Last Year

Peacock park is so neat because it has really old buildings, tractor equipment and a lot of land to explore. Not to mention there are peacocks running around! We usually just hear they're eerie calls (sounds like a child yelling, "help!"....creepy, right??) but before Shanna showed up, Dallin ran away from me taking pictures and we came across a peacock standing there strutting it's stuff! Crazy to see it so up close and it didn't mind us one bit! It was really neat to see with those long, colorful feathers!

I was glad we got to go there again before it got too hot and before the Graffs leave! It was a fun outing :)

One, Two, THREE!!

Yes! We are excited to announce that we will have a new member of the family coming between September 29- October 6th. Those were the two due dates I was given...which never seem to matter much anyway- babies always come when they feel so inclined! But we are excited for this fun news to share!

Desert Botanical Gardens

Ever since we'd moved here from California, I'd heard about the neat butterfly exhibit at the Desert Botanical Gardens at spring time. We'd never made the trip there for one reason or another, but after we'd read a Fancy Nancy about butterflies- Addie declared she wanted to go do that too, so I was determined to make it this year! We got free passes from the library and grabbed our good friends the Graff's to come along with us, and away we went! 

Honestly, I don't care for cacti much and that was mostly all that was in the Botanical Gardens (a misleading name in my opinion....by the name of it I had my hopes set for a luscious garden atmosphere- which wasn't the case) but the butterfly museum made it worth the trip!

We also got to see these neat statue faces. There were four, and one to represent each season. Pretty neat concept because they used a lot of flowers and fruit/vegetables to help express the season. Addie's favorite was obviously spring.....since there were tons of flowers all over that one. She is really into claiming her favorite things lately.

It was a really good time to make the trip since it got up into the mid 90's the rest of the week and the Graff's will be moving come June- so I'm glad we got to go enjoy that together! Thanks for coming with us!!

Trip to the Zoo

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up some zoo passes from the library so that we could go to the Phoenix Zoo for free (our libraries are cool like that here in AZ)! This was Jared and Dallin's first time going and Addie was Dallin's age last time I took her, so it was fun to go back. All Addie kept wanting to see was the elephants and when we'd ask her what she wanted to go see next she'd exclaim, "Umm..let's go see the elephants!" super random- not sure where her sudden interest in elephants was all about! One of our favorites was probably the exhibit where you can be in the same enclosure as little monkeys. It's neat because they will jump and hop wherever they please, even if it's close to your head. Dallin thought they were pretty neat and wanted to take off after them in the "restricted sections". Which, thinking about it now- that kid sure climbs like a monkey so maybe we should have just left him there! lol Just kidding people!

 Only regret, Adelyn didn't see any dancing or singing zebras singing, "Afro circus"...this idea that they would be at the zoo was inspired from Madagascar 3. Bummer lol ;)

 Jared spotted some wild big horn sheep on the distant "mountain". Pretty cool, right? I was impressed- you don't see that every day!

It was a fun outing- and naturally the kid's favorite part was the carousel at the very end...duh. :)