Camping

It took us all summer, but we finally made it camping on the last weekend before school started. Thanks to the Gillmans and the Paulsens for letting us tag along! We all had fun riding the Rhino and four wheeler, eating treats, roasting marshmallows and twinkies, making tonka toasters, playing games, and swimming.

Everyone loved riding in the Rhino, and Ethan got a personal ride on the four wheeler. After her first ride, KK wanted to ride everytime. She loved it!
Movie time! The older kids were in the tent trailer and the little kids were hanging out in the Gillman's trailer. Reed, Bennett and K (all about the same age) were giggling while watching Max and Ruby. It was all fun until K got locked in the trailer and couldn't get out. SO sad! All the adults were outside playing Sequence while the kids were being entertained.

Katelyn ended up in the momma's sleeping bag sometime in the night. I had retucked her back into hers several times, but she kept wiggling out and she was freezing. Once she was all warm and cozy she stayed asleep until morning. But I was up early with a sore arm and hip. She's so cute though- and those eyelashes!
It was chilly in the morning when we woke up. The kids preferred staying wrapped up in their blankets.


















Erin all cuddled up. We ended up drinking hot chocolate to help warm from the inside out. (Thanks Hillary- always prepared!)

Katelyn finally braved it away from the blankets and onto her scooter.

When we were packing up the gear and the tent Katelyn was so sad. She did not want to go home! We tried to distract her by letting her watch Dora on the Ipod. No luck. Still sad. We need to head out at least once more before it cools off. It was such a fun trip!

Bowling for Dollars

We went bowling about a month ago for Family Home Evening. The kids were really quite good at it. It had been a while since our last trip to the lanes.

It was not quite as entertaining as the 70's game show Bowling for Dollars. But if you want to check that out first, go here. Check out the fashions, daughter Melissa, and the legs behind the pins. Hillarious!
**Our kids got paid out, not by dollars, but with a gum ball at the end.

What do you do when you are waiting for it to be your turn to bowl? Ethan liked spinning the ball on a chair. Katelyn preferred climbing on stuff, and being surprised every time a ball would come out of the return. She stayed there most of the night catching balls and being entertained by the air puffer. Erin was the cheerleader for everyone.

Here are some action shots of the night:

And of course- Dadio Padio is the family bowling champion. I got smoked by my three year old despite the fact that the bumpers were up the whole time! Maybe next time I should use the rolly ramp thing too. It just might do me some good!

And of course a few videos of KK. She wanted to do it "all by myself." So I have about 10 more videos like this first one:

And success at last:

I think we need to return sooner than later so I can unseat the current champion. Too bad bowling isn't as easy in real life as it is on the Wii!

K is Three

T- This is my baby girl, Miss K, or KK as she calls herself. She spells her real name K.T.L.Y.N. She turned three about two weeks ago. My baby is officially not so much the baby anymore.
H- Heart. She has a giant piece of mine, and her smiles melt mine almost every day. I love her so much.

R- Reasonable? Not so much. Everything she likes needs to be hers. She says "NO". A lot. But, she is really good at sharing gum.
E- Every girl needs some purple. And Dora the Explorer. I love that K has opinions on how everything should be. She had been planning her third birthday party for months. On the list of requirements was a Dora cake, and a friend party. Both successfully accomplished.
E- Excitement. K makes life exciting. She has a spunky personality. I can't get enough of her cuddles and hugs. She wants to be bigger than she is and I am willing her to stay little for just a bit longer. I love being her mom!

And lots of pictures for all the die hard fans of all the present and party action. K knew exactly what to do this year. She didn't want any help opening her presents, or with the candles on her cake.

The purple Dora cake- per request of course-

Some present action:

And some of the party guests- including Londyn, Aunt Carol and Uncle Ken Busbee, Grandma and Grandpa Petersen, Uncle Richard, Uncle Mark, Aunt Suzy, Cousin Jack and of course Ethan and Erin too.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

We had the opportunity to attend the open house for the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple last week. It was a great experience to be able to be in the temple with my family. I am grateful for the blessings that the temple brings into my life, and for my eternal family.

Growing Up

Erin lost her first tooth on July 20! My Bearto is growing up! She had it pretty wiggly for a while and had me keep checking to see if it was loose enough to pull. We tried three times the day before, and it finally came out on the second try the next day. She was so excited to wrap it all up and get it under her pillow. The tooth fairy came and brought her a dollar. Now we are just waiting for the other bottom front tooth to fall out too. Any day now...

Before-The last picture with all the baby teeth.
After- You can clearly see the first tooth hole.
All packaged and ready for the Tooth Fairy.

Zoo Fun

Our zoo pass expired at the end of June, and I wanted to get one more use out of it for the season, so I packed up the kids and we headed to the zoo on June 30. Nothing like waiting until the last minute! We packed a lunch and got there early to beat the heat. We saw all of our usual favorites and of course had to ride the train too. Some pictures from the day:

After we had enough fun at the zoo we headed up to Ogden to see my grandparents. They took us for a yummy lunch at Lagori's Pizza and then we headed back to their house to visit for a while longer. The kids played in the apple tree and with the few toys that are left around the house. Grandma and I looked at old albums full of pictures that I now want to scan and preserve. It was a wonderful visit and I'm glad my kids are old enough to have some memories of their great-grandparents.

Fourth Festivities

We had an awesome 4th of July this year. The festivities actually started a few days earlier at the Hot Air Balloon Launch. Ethan and Erin got the chance to go inside the air part of a balloon before it was all the way inflated, and Ethan "piloted" a balloon by pulling on the burner a few times. It was awesome to see all the balloons up on the ground even though they couldn't take off due to wind conditions. Our favorites were Smokey the Bear, Tony the Tiger, and all the Red, White, and Blue!

On the night of the 3rd, we headed over to the Sidewalk of Fire, hosted by two awesome families in our ward. There was a children's parade, treats, rocket launcher fun (candy, rockets, glow sticks- thanks honey!) and then a fantastic legal fireworks display. The city had fire trucks driving through neighborhoods making sure people were safe. When they got to ours they decided to stay awhile. They said it was the best party they had seen all night.

And for the FIRST time ever (I know, really, the first time) we took our kids to the Grand Parade on the morning of the 4th. It was fun, and made more awesome by the fact that a friend saved us some spots close up to the street. Favorites were the fire trucks, royalty floats (Erin), the zooming tank (Ethan), helium balloons (K), and the LDS missionaries float. The kids were done before it was all the way over, but we made it to the end anyway. Just a bit too hot and steamy. I don't anticipate the parade becoming a tradition, but we did go. I'll leave it up to the kids next year.

Later in the afternoon we took the kids downtown to check out the booths and pioneer recreations. K fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep in the stroller for most of it. Erin got her face painted with a sparkly butterfly and Ethan purchased an awesome bow and arrow set. Ethan tested out a pillory, and we also had to buy some snowies as it was sooooo HOT.

It was a fun holiday this year. I'm glad we got out and did all the things we have been wanting to do for the past 10 years but never did. I hope you all had a great holiday too!