Sunday, July 24, 2016

A day in our Life...

Ever heard the phrase, "the days are long, but the years are short"?  So, so, true. I've been realizing more and more lately just how quickly time is passing.  A large part of me is cheering saying-- yes!!  Let's be done with diapers and tattling and potty training and tears...lets move on to driving and real conversations and life skills learned.  But, a large part of my heart knows I will miss these long days full of cleaning and whining and children trailing like little baby ducks.  How I love these little people and how thankful I am to remember these little moments. 

Brielle made me this video from some footage I took of our day. Not every day is like this--Mike is usually around a bit more (not much!) and we only doing swimming one week of the summer, so people usually have more clothes on.  But--there is ALWAYS so. much. cleaning and laundry and did I mention cleaning?  And the house is most ALWAYS a mess.  And we spend a lot of time trying to figure out what to eat for snacks.  And we spend a lot of time in the car.  But, we also work hard together, play hard, laugh a ton, and love each other.  

"If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly." -President Monson

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Family Pictures

As always, the talented Chelsi Mae does it again! It's amazing to me that she can take such great photos--and be in half of them herself! :)





























Sunday, July 10, 2016

Yellowstone

Where to begin!  Certainly the almost 1000 pictures we took tell a story of fun, success, and awesomeness!  Now, to weed them down to something manageable!
We left on Saturday morning and made the drive to Montana to spend the weekend with Andrew and Elena.  Such a great decision!! The kids played nonstop with very little fighting or sadness.  They were in HEAVEN!  We enjoyed Church on Sunday and had a water filled at home 4th of July.  It was great!


 




We headed out for Yellowstone Tuesday morning and spent 5 awesome days camping in the park. Nobody was eaten by bears and nobody fell off any cliffs, so it was definitely a success! ;)  We came in the North entrance and by the end of the week we had pretty much covered the whole park. The kids hiked like CHAMPS and we got to see some really neat things. They slept in the cold awesomely and handled the hours of driving and traffic wonderfully.  Camping in the park was definitely convenient and was not even NEARLY as dirty and awful as I worried.  I would certainly recommend it!








We saw FOUR bears! 


 






















Fishing in Yellowstone was a huge hit! We fished right on the river by our campsite and loved it--although we didn't catch anything on the river.

We did get up early one morning and drive the hour to the lake. We enjoyed breakfast on the beach and spent the morning fishing.  We caught something here--way to go Josh!  Patience pays off!






 






Iconic Yellowstone experience...stopped by Bison crossing the road. Awesome!





Lady slept amazing, and Josho lost his second tooth!!









 We climbed Uncle Toms trail--300 + steps down, 300 + steps up. The kids did AWESOME!! It was so worth the view!



The whole crew! I wish I hadn't already changed Little Miss out of her blue shirt! 


Ben fell in the fire one night. It was quick and scary.  I know there are guardian angels protecting our boy, and it's evidenced by the fact that he came out unscathed.  Our own miracle.






Luke and Luke!


 He's my favorite travel buddy!