Camping at Pine View

We have great friends in our neighborhood, and it feels like forever since we have seen them. This weekend a bunch of us got together for a quick camping trip. Friday night we loaded up and went to Pine View. Porter and Trace had a blast playing with all their friends, and Chad and I had fun laughing and talking all night. Saturday we woke up and headed down to the beach.

The boys on a Bat Hunt!

Mabey we are keeping Trace awake too late?? He was so tired.
Fun in the water and sun.


Ryan, one of our friends has this great paddle boat... The kids had a blast taking it out and back.

Lunch with Grandma and Grandpa Great

On Wednesday my Grandma invited me and the boys over for lunch. We love to go spend time with them! Grandma fixed some fry bread with the best homemade jams... Porter and Trace love to go see them because they always give us a thing of root beer and Porter some cheese. This time they fixed us up a few extra things... Rasberry Jam, Black Berry jam (which is the best thing we have ever had, infact, it is almost gone already), pudding, and yellow squash. It's good to have people you know love you no matter what!

CABIN

Okay, so i was a little camera happy this weekend... lots of fun, with way too many pictures.

My family all had this weekend planned to go up to Grandpa Lee's cabin. Last year we were all able to go up, but this year was a hard weekend. My brother Shayne's boys all are really busy with football, so they weren't able to come at all. Danny and Tash had to work so they missed out on most of the fun too. (Danny came up for a few hours on Friday before we got there) Dusty and Kelsey came and stayed the weekend with their dog Buela. Since we had such a small group, on our way up to the cabin we decided to invite our good friends, the Garners. Last min. they packed their bags and joined us Friday night!

The cabin is one of my favorite places to go in the summer, because it is beautiful, relaxing, and usually cooler. My boys love to spend time in the mountains. Add all of this with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Dusty and Aunt Kelsey... They know they are in heaven.

As always, after the sun comes up in the morning it gets warm enough for a swim in the freezing river. Porter, Hunter, and Chad were the only ones willing to jump in from the bridge. Dusty and Trace taking a brake from all the tubing.
Porter loves playing with his Daddy. If Chad tells him something is cool, he is usually game. This trip they snorkeled under the bridge and saw some big fish.



Trace and Samantha playing by the river... I'm afraid this might be the beginning of a love story!!
Chad was able to sneak away a few times for some bow hunting. Most of the time Porter snuck along. They love being together!

Catching "Bowl Head" Fish. Porter said that they are called Bowl fish because they are small enough to fit in a bowl... Pretty clever!
Seriously, Trace LOVES his grandpa!! He is my dad's little shadow. If "Pa" goes outside, Trace goes outside. If Pa goes anywhere or does anything Trace follows. They are great buddies. They floated the river, looked for shooting stars, played by the river, built fires, roasted marshmallows, and played and played! Trace's Hat Show...

The only bummer of the trip were the HORNETS. They were everywhere. I've never seen so many in my life. Trace was the first to get stung. I felt so bad for him. He acted like he was so sad that they would hurt him... What did he do to them? (besides trying to catch them?...) Porter and i both got stung too, and I can't believe how much it hurt. In fact my sting is still bugging me. It made me feel even worse for both of them knowing how stinking much they hurt!


And after an exhausting weekend... Trace was pooped!

Trace...

My two year old is pretty hard to understand still... in fact, neither Chad or I can tell what he is saying unless we are looking at what he wants, but he is trying lots of new words. It's so fun hearing him try to put more than one of these "non-understandable" words together. On Sunday we were at my parents for dinner with my two brothers. Trace loves playing with both of them... He was trying to get Dusty's attention and I heard him say: "usty, mmm, on" (meaning: "Dusty, Come on."). Pretty clear for his usual ramblings. I smiled. Yet again a proud mom.
Today I got out some licorice treats for the boys and Trace started begging: "Trea-eat, Trea-eat". (all of his words have two syllables). I ask him if he wanted one or two, and he kept saying: "uh-unch". After about 22 times of him repeating the same thing over and over (which he does all the time, and gets very frustrated that we don't know what he is talking about) I realized that he was asking for a bunch! Laughed for at least 5 minutes.
Just before bed Porter and Trace were jumping from the couch onto the ottoman. Porter kept moving the ottoman farther and farther back. One time Trace jumped and landed just in front of the ottoman... pretty hard. He looked up at Chad and very surprised said, "O, mi-issed, aw-wh." I'm laughing about this one as I'm typing it. Kids are too much fun!

Family Reunion... Again.

Well I think this will be the last family reunion for the year. It seems like every Saturday we have been heading off to a family picnic... but who can complain when their family is so much fun to hang out with??


This weekend was Grandpa Lee's family so it was a little extra special. For those of you who don't know Grandpa Lee... Grandpa Lee is Chads mom's Dad ( did you follow?). He passed away this past spring, and we will always miss his hugs, smiles, and all the fun times we had with him. Anyway, we had a good time, with lots of good food. Do I talk about food all the time?? I do more than just eat -PROMISE! One of Grandpa's brothers has this tradition of filling big inner tubes full of water until they pop. Both my boys were a little hesitant about playing on it, and even though i knew they weren't going to be happy when it popped and they got soaked with cold water, I kept talking them into playing on it. I know, I'm probably the meanest mom around. I felt bad when, just as I predicted, they both were crying and scared to death. Here are a few of the pictures.

Janet was in charge of the kids games this year... The kids always have fun playing with all of grandma's toys. She had them playing bunny tails, tug of war, Frisbee's, and even playing with a parachute. Over all it was a great reunion.

Wild Girls

Maybe a little too wild.

Every summer/fall Chads sister and sister in laws, and his dad's side girl cousins, all get together for some fun girl time in Park City. When I say fun "girl" time, I mean it. We all act like we are in Jr. High School... but we have soooo much fun.

This year we ate at a small pizza place that was really good. I think the name of it is the red banjo pizza. After dinner we went for a ride on the Alpine Slide... In the dark. Before we headed down the lady working said that they are much faster when it is cold, ( and it was a little chilly) so to be careful. I asked if any one had fallen off that night, and she said, "not tonight, but there were a few during the day!" Yikes... I started to think that a pregnant girl probably shouldn't be doing this, but to late for that. It was a blast.

That evening we played games, ate treats, and laughed our heads off! It was 3:30 in the morning before we decided to call it a night... and we all know I'm usually not the best night owl.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast at McDonalds (looks like the starting of a tradition). Then we went shopping at the outlets for the kids. It was such a fun weekend.

Chad was off trying to shoot a big buck with his bow, so my mom kept the boys. They had a blast as always. Chad didn't get one, so lucky for me, there will be more hunting to look forward too... wish him luck!