The Great Outdoors

Randall  was very obsessed with excited about camping and fishing this summer (as usual).  Fortunately, we were able to spend A LOT of time in the great outdoors.

Vernon Reservoir

Randall threw together a day trip to Vernon Reservoir pretty much as soon as the snow melted.  I stayed home with Emma and Savanna, and they picked up Grandpa Stewart and headed for the lake.  Unfortunately, they got skunked, but everyone had a good time anyway. 

Sunday Drive up American Fork Canyon

In our quest to find new fishing/camping spots, we explored American Fork canyon one Sunday afternoon. I have to say, I did NOT enjoy the drive up to Silver Lake. The view was AMAZING, I'm just not a fan of NARROW dirt roads with EXTREMELY STEEP dropoffs. Especially since there were a TON of cars going up and down and there wasn't really enough space for two cars to pass each other. My stomach muscles seriously hurt afterwards from being clenched the entire time.  (Apparently I still have a stomach muscle or two after having 6 kids.  I wasn't sure.)  I DID really enjoy our picnic by the creek however, and so did the kids.

Payson Lakes Camping Trip with Grandpa and Grandma Stewart

The late sleepers.

This is a picture of Jill saying, "This better not end up on your blog!"  ;)  Love you Jill! 

 The kids loved making flower bouquets -

 gathering and breaking up wood for the fire -

 going on "hikes" -
(Is it still considered a hike when you have to stay within viewing distance of the firepit?)

and of course, FISHING! -

 Meleah caught the biggest fish of the day with the good ol' Dora pole.  You can kind of see it straining in this picture -

She was very happy to pose with it, but she did NOT want it to touch her. 

 However, by the time she caught her second one, she was apparently okay with all the wiggly sliminess -

 Carter requested that I take this "explorer" shot.  Gotta love it. -

Savanna and Cameron didn't end up catching anything that day.  That's quite possibly because they were bored after 12 seconds of holding the pole, and chose to wander around and eat snacks instead. 

 Emma and her ususal suckin'-in-her-bottom-lip face -

Randall's proof that our whole family DOES fit in his truck.  Savanna was a little tired after fishing.  Can you tell? -

There were TONS of these beautiful yellow flowers EVERYWHERE up there.  It was GORGEOUS!

Manti Campground Trip #1 -

 I wanted to take Randall camping for his Birthday this year, but it was still pretty dang cold and most of our favorite campsites were closed.  So we came up with a compromise that we would swap Birthdays.  We'd go to the Anniversary Inn for his Birthday (my favorite thing), and go camping for my Birthday (his favorite thing).  We decided to go to the Manti Campground that we've gone to with my family a few times, and we brought Bob, Jill, Jackie, Casey, and their kids with us.  It was LOTS of fun. 

My kids LOVE the playground and the pool that they have there.  (Even though the "heated" pool is always FREEZING!)  I didn't take any pics at the pool, but as you can see, I took PLENTY at the playground!  ;)

This is also the trip where Savanna decided to wander off in the middle of the night.  I guess it's good that the campground is fenced in! 

Bob and Jill are SO sweet.  They brought me one of Bob's famous home made chocolate cakes for my Birthday.  It was DELICIOUS as usual.  I'm pretty sure Bob got the numbers of my age backwards though... ;)

We also took them to our favorite fishing spot up Fairview Canyon -

Savanna's first fish!  She LOVED catching it, but wasn't too thrilled about getting close once it was out of the water.   

Manti Trip #2 - Stewart Family Campout

Since we had so much fun in Manti the first time, we decided to plan another trip and bring more of Randall's family.  I wish I would have taken more pictures, but we had a GREAT time! 

 

We managed to squeeze the massive baby swing in with all of our stuff, and I'm SO glad we did.  It made this trip and the cabin trip SO MUCH BETTER! 

Lydia's favorite place to be - with "Buster."  (His name is really Rex, but every time Savanna sees him she yells "Buuuussss-ter!)

Cabin Week 2013

We were SO lucky to be able to spend a whole week up at the cabin this year. We ended up going straight there after our Stewart family trip in Manti, so we were camping for 10 DAYS IN A ROW.  I admit that I was ready to go home to my bed and my shower once it was over, but we had a BLAST!

Randall's favorite thing to do at the cabin is fishing or reading, mine is playing games... We didn't spend much time together that week!

Savanna after throwing a fit because Dad pulled her away from the lake so that she wouldn't fall in while he unhooked her fish.  Don't ask me what Cameron's doing, because I don't have a clue. 

She was really happy reeling in the fish before Mean Old Dad had to go and ruin everything.

Randall went "man fishing" almost every day, but we only took the kids this one time.  Carter didn't even come because he wanted to stay back and play with his cousins at the cabin.  I was worried that it would get dark before everyone could catch a fish, but we were only there for about an hour and everyone caught one.  Best fishing spot ever!

I told Lydia that Dad would take her up to the rock one time, and one time only this year.  I'm too afraid for her (and Randall's) safety to let them go up and down that steep hill every day.  She was SO excited when it was finally time. 

 It's hard to see, but my cute little Savanna baby got attacked by some wasps or something.  She had  a bump under her eye and several "owies" on her pinkie.  It swelled up big time.  Fortunately an ice pack, and Tara's oils made it go down pretty quick, and she woke up from her nap ready to play.

 Emma had PLENTY of cute little kiddos that were willing to entertain her all day. 

My kids obviously didn't inherit my aversion to dirt.

 I don't know what she was begging Grandma for, but this is definitely her "Please! Please! Please!" pose.  My guess is gum. 

We made the kids dinosaur grilled cheese one of the days.  They loved them!  We told them that the crusts were dinosaur bones.  I guess they thought that was pretty awesome because the "bones" were gone before the sandwiches! 

 "Fa-ther Abraham, had seven sons.  Seven sons had Faa-ther Abraham!"

 Magic Potion!

 This doesn't seem like the best picture since Cam's not facing the camera, but it kinda captures his adorable, bouncy, flexed arms, tight-fisted run.  I love it!

 

We've had SO much fun in the great outdoors this summer.  I've been able to endure all the dirt, and even enjoy the tent camping.  It WAS a lot of work, but totally worth it to make memories that will last a lifetime. 

Emma Baby

My sweet little Emma is 6 months old. 

6 MONTHS OLD! 

I'm really trying to enjoy every moment since she's most likely my last.  But I've found that in doing so, I'm kinda making myself miserable.  I keep saying things like "this is my last tiny baby...last one month old baby...last fully nursing baby," etc. to ensure that I appreciate every. single. moment., but the constant reminders are a little bit depressing.  How do I give special attention to the moment, without highlighting the finality of it all?  What a conundrum.

Well anyway, my little cutie patootie is six months old now, and she's just as adorable as ever. She's my little hummingbird, because she's constantly making humming noises. Not singing-humming, just a hmmm-mmm-mmmm sound. She makes it when she's happy/laughing, and also when she's starting to get upset. It can be a little confusing until she starts full-on crying, and then I know what's going on. She's doing all kids of cute things...blowing raspberries all day, rolling that chubby little body of hers all over the place, biting Mommy with her two little bottom teeth (got them at 5 months like Lydia), letting out high pitched happy squeels at restaurants and church, scarfing down graham crackers like there's no tomorrow, and pursuing a never-ending quest of seeing, touching, and yes, tasting absolutely anything and everthing that she can find. 

For being my smallest baby she sure looks like a chubby little munchkin.  It's all in the CHEEKS!  In fact, if the word "cheeks" didn't bring to mind two different things, I would probably make it her nickname.

They always like Mommy WAY more than Daddy until they grow up and discover that Mommy's the mean one that makes them do their chores, finish their homework, get to bed on time...  Then Daddy becomes the hero.

 So tiny!  I bet she couldn't even fit in that little bucket thingy anymore!

Her hair Au Naturale -

Emma loves her swing.  She actually even takes all her naps and sleeps through the night in it.  Well, at least she USED TO sleep through the night a couple of months ago, but then she stopped for some reason and is now waking up in the middle of the night and joining us in bed.  Oh well.  Let them be little, right? 

Savanna always makes sure she has some entertainment while she's in her swing -

Emma is such an active little thing.  Constantly kicking, squirming, rolling, and all the while making farting noises.  It's pretty impressive. 

As you can see she's not much of a smile-er.  She will flash a small smile every once in a while, but you better have a fast camera or you're going to miss it.  Even though she doesn't do the big, open-mouthed, grin-whenever-someone-looks-at-her smiles, she's still a very content baby. 

 All that crazy kicking makes for an exciting bath time!

First pony tail -

At this stage, I had to hold her hands down if I ever wanted a picture without her chewing on them!

Emma is OBSESSED with her feet.  I remember trying and trying to get Lydia to grab her feet (because it was a milestone Kids On the Move wanted to cross off), but she was never interested.  Not a problem with this one.

She also is ALWAYS sucking in her bottom lip.  I'm actually surprised how many pics I found with her lip OUT, because until she got her bottom teeth, it was constantly in there! 

 Lip in and playing with the feet again!

Looks like someone's been spending lots of time playing with her brothers!

In case you couldn't tell, that was a Jedi robe that's just a few sizes too large. ;)

 You probably won't be surprised to hear that she's a really good eater-

As you can see we've been having SO MUCH fun with our little Emma baby.  She's SO sweet, and even though it makes me sad to see her grow up, it's awesome to start seeing her little personality come out.  Love, Love, Love you Emma!

Back to School...ALREADY?!

I'm not done with my summer blogposts, but I'm going to go ahead and throw in my back to school post so that it doesn't end up coming out in November.  Here are my little cutie-kins before school this morning -

Carter looks pretty happy considering that he kept saying today is "the worst day of his life."

 I had to take several of this shot because Carter kept making silly faces

 like this -

and this -

Aside from the massive trip on thin air and fall on my face with my camera shooting 10 feet out in front of me that I performed this morning, I'd say first day drop off went pretty well.  Emma slept in so I could use 2 arms to get everyone ready, it took me less than 5 minutes to convince Meleah that we had to do SOMETHING with her hair (rather than just leave it "long and blonde"), the little ones didn't cry after we dropped them off.... And fortunately, my fall was actually better than it could have been.  I just suffered a skinned knee and one Dad laughing out loud at me (can't blame him, because I would have been laughing too).  Everyone else was kind enough to pretend that they didn't see me.  PLUS my camera still works.  Not too shabby. 

None of Carter's previous girlfriends are in his class, so it will be interesting to see who he has a crush on this year.  Also, don't look too closely but I CUT HIS HAIR myself!  As a public service announcement, I'd like to say that it's NOT a good idea to head out at 6:45 pm to take your son to get his hair cut on the day before school starts.  You will be told at 3 different locations that they are not taking any more clients because they are booked for the day.  Just so you know.  Apparently I am not the only procrastinator in the world.

It may not be perfect, but I do think it's a slight improvement from this -

This is a picture from when Carter brought me breakfast in bed that he made all by himself a couple of weeks ago.  He made eggs with cheese and bacon bits (Not a single shell, and bounce off the walls rubbery - just how I like them.), along with yogurt.  He even brought me a baby spoon because that's how I like to eat yogurt and pudding.  And it was all done and delivered at ten to seven...during sleep-in summer.  It was very sweet.  ;)

Meleah was so excited after the "Meet Your Teacher" yesterday that she wanted to go to bed right away so that tomorrow would come sooner. That's why I was a little surprised to see these slightly teary eyes when it was time to line up.  I think she was just a little overwhelmed, but I'm sure she'll be fine this afternoon. 

I don't know if it's cause my little Meleah was a bit sad or what, but I am SO bummed out right now.  I remember DREADING the first day of school last year, but when it came I actually appreciated how peaceful my house was.  Of course, I was also in my morning sick pregnancy phase so the kids were totally bored all summer, and at each other's throats.  This year I've been able to keep them pretty busy with parks, play dates, camping, etc. so the fighting has been pretty minimal.  I just seriously can't believe how fast the summer flew by!  Hopefully the school year will be just as fast and it will be summer again before we know it! 

"Da Red Bwankie"

My kids are OBSESSED with this beautiful red quilt that my Grandma Jensen gave me for my High School graduation.  They fight over it ALL THE TIME.  We have at least 50 - 60 "blankies" in this house (Not. Even. Kidding.) and yet they all want the one that's completely falling apart.  I can't blame them, though.  It IS an AWESOME blanket.  And Grandma would want it to be used, and not stored in some closet. (Safe from all destructive children.) So, I guess I'll let my kids snuggle up in it's warmth and tell them that it's like they're getting a hug from my sweet Grandma Jensen.  I would LOVE  to have another warm hug from her right now... I guess I'd better go get in on all that fighting!