It was a fun week. We started it off by going to Snow Canyon State Park for Presidents Day. It was a little warmer than we though it would be, but still fun. We hiked the Petrified Dunes. I want to go on all the trails at Snow Canyon this year, just to check them all out. I've mostly spent time in the caves and on the dunes, but I want to see all of it. Rylea loves to hike, she can't quite keep up with her brother, but for most of the hike she refused to be held.
It's always a joy to me to see my kids out in nature and loving it and having a good time. There were parts of the hike when they were losing steam and got a little whiny, but for the most part it was great.
We got done with the hike a little earlier than we though we would and had plans to go have dinner and games at Grandma's house for Jaron's birthday. We went over early and played games and then ended with pizza and root beer floats in the backyard, it was an awesome day and an awesome way to celebrate our Jare-Bear.
I couldn't pick just one photo of Rylea and my mom. There is definitely a special connection between those two. If I even say the word Grandma at home Rylea runs to the door and keeps asking for Grandma all day. She loves Fridays when Grandma comes over for piano lessons. :)
My mom has always been so selfless with her love for her children and grandkids. I hope I can measure up and love my kids the way she loves hers.
This one with Rylea's smile looking up at Grandma is my favorite. Rylea adores her Grandma.
Instead of wrapping presents we did the grab bag method...which I'm quite fond of now. I took all his toys out of the crazy packaging and put them all in a bag and then he got to pick out the presents one at a time. No mess, no paper everywhere, and Jaron was as happy as he could be. I loved it.
Jaron is my happy go lucky kid and can almost always bring a smile to your face. He can be a stinker though and loves to steal food from the kitchen and pantry if I ever leave anything out that he likes. His belly laugh is contagious and it's hard not to smile when he laughs and runs away. Of all my boys, he is the most forgiving. Of course they fight, but when the others apologize or ask for forgiveness, he never hesitates. I love that about him.
It was taking to long to re-order the pictures, so they are a little out of order on the hike, but oh well. Here's a few more from our hike at Snow Canyon.
It's really hard not to take a lot of pictures of her and even harder to decide which ones I like the best. :)
This family of mine is so amazing. I love them each in their own special way! I can't imagine my life without them.
Logan was our pack mule for a while. This sweet boy offered to carry all of the boys camelbaks when they were getting tired. We didn't even ask him to, he just saw that we could use help and went for it. Of course, later he had to show off all the muscles he got from carrying all the packs. :)
I was the pack mule in a different way. They really did great, but we under estimated how far it would be to get back to the truck and they were pretty tired by the end of the hike.
Logan took a selfie after taking a picture of my holding Jaron. Just a little farther on, Tragon was ahead an standing by the side of the trail...which happened to be next to the road...and was just going pee. Luckily no cars came by while his pants were down, but our favorite line came from Logan who chimed in with "Yeah, Tragon, you shouldn't be doing that, people will take pictures or video and then you'll be famous on Facebook for something bad."
And now back to Grandma's with the birthday boy. We played a few games, but mostly when all the kids get together, they just want to be left to their own devices and the weather was awesome and they had a great time.
We went to the park fro playgroup this week and Ryle can climb all over the place and go down the little slide by herself, she's getting so big.
Rylea is addicted to my phone...I know, sad, I said I would never just give my kid the phone...well, I'm guilty, I do, but usually when I'm trying to get my hair done, or do something that needs my attention. She doesn't nap during the day hardly ever now and she is a very busy girl. Anyway, in trying not to always give her my phone, I've been pulling out random stuff here and there to entertain her.
This day, it was buttons, I had two small containers of buttons and I think she spent a good hour (literally) dumping buttons out and putting them back in then going somewhere else to dump them out and put them back. It was awesome and she was pretty good at staying in one location, so clean up wasn't too terrible.
Her next distraction was getting all the tuna cans from the pantry and building towers.
Logan built a Mars Rover out of recycled goods for scouts this past week. He loves scouts and I love that he loves it. I think he thrives on the structure and "rules" of it. Everything is very clearly laid out.
And our entertainment comes from jumping off things upstairs.
I finished the Book of Mormon for the second time this year and I have one left to go to finish the goal. My pencil started out mostly new and is down to itty bitty now. This has been a really neat experience and I feel like I'm really starting to see more of the whole picture of the Book of Mormon and understand it a little better. It's amazing how things that I already knew just become more solidified as I'm reading.
Saturday was Damon's day to pick and activity and we thought about heading to Zion, but in the end decided that we would just go check out the local bike path. What we didn't anticipate was how long it would be.....5.3 miles later we finally finished. The boys did great. We had a neighbor friend with us too and there was basically no complaining. We had a couple scooters, a couple bikes, a wagon and a stroller. I was wearing horrible shoes and my feet were killing me by the end, but we made it and I was so proud of the kids.
Whew, it was a busy and fun filled week. I don't think I even covered the majority of it, but I got some of the best parts. I love seeing our family grow together. Until next time....
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