Wecome, Summer!

Usually I don't pay much attention to when the seasons are supposed to change. For example, I have never thought that winter actually starts on Dec. 21st, to me it starts way before that and it lasts longer than March 21st. However, I have to admit that summer seems to have started right around the summer solstice this year. We have had a very cool, VERY wet spring but last week the weather turned warm! So we got out our wading pool to celebrate. I didn't think Micah would like it because the water was cold but he loved it.

We invited some friends over and had fun getting wet

Conner was in a really bad mood that day and didn't want to be around anyone else. He sat in this car and sulked for quite a while.

Along with the warm weather and fun comes some less pleasant aspects of summer:
Micah eating his first mouthful of dirt.

Mosquito bites. The mosquitoes have been out in large numbers and they seem to love Conner's blood. Unfortunately Conner reacts to them. In the picture below he got a bite right below his eye and it made the whole area under his eye swell up and turn purple and red (the picture really doesn't do it justice).

Sunburns. I didn't get a picture of this one but Alan got a really bad sun burn on his back and shoulders. I put sunscreen on his neck and face but then he took his shirt off while I was feeding Micah and I didn't remember when I was done to put sunscreen on his back. Ouch!

Family Vacation

Reed took last week off of work so we got to have a family vacation. First my parents and Drew came on the weekend for a visit. We took the boys fishing and we enjoyed playing games at night. My mom finished Micah's blanket and gave it to him:

Conner reading with Grandpa

On Tuesday we took off to go stay in a cabin. Reed found out that you can rent the forest service cabins for a reasonable rate so we decided to try that instead of tent camping (We have found it difficult to camp with a baby). I am so glad we did - when Micah would cry we could take him into the main room and rock him and I didn't have to worry as much about him getting too cold. The cabin was about 2 hours away, way up in the mountains.

Packing up is very tiring. Conner came and told me he was tired but we were almost ready to leave so I told him to play for a little while. After a couple of minutes I checked on him and he was fast asleep on the couch and he was nose to nose with his little raccoon toy.

When we got up there I was surprised by how clean and nice the cabin was. The boys were very excited about the bunk beds. We realized we forgot one of our food boxes so we went down to the nearest town (White Sulfur Springs) to replenish our supplies. On the way back we saw a ton of deer and elk. It was really cool to see so many just grazing near the road. The next day the boys hiked around the cabin and then we went to a reservoir and went fishing. Then we went to town and got ice cream cones and played on the park and then it started to rain so we went back to the cabin. We played games in the cabin and made a yummy dinner in the dutch oven. After that the rain stopped and we were able to go out and make smores.

Making the dutch oven dinner

Yum!

finger-lickin' good

Micah enjoying being held by his dad

Conner preferred to eat his chocolate plain (and as a side note: his hair does that by itself. It stands straight up on top no matter how we comb it. It only started doing that after I buzzed his hair really short.)

The boys in front of the cabin

Here is a view of the inside. You can see the back door, the entrance to the bedroom and the wood burning stove with the wood box, which is how we heated the cabin.

This picture is taken standing in the doorway of the cabin. It had a kitchen table and chairs and a propane stove

This picture is from the doorway looking into the bedroom. There were 3 bunk beds.

The cabin was much nicer than I expected. It was very clean when we arrived and we cleaned it really well before we left. We highly recommend that form of camping, especially if you have little ones to worry about at night!

Happy Father's Day!

Reed with his boys

We started father's day by having the boys help me make french toast and juice. Then we served Reed breakfast in bed. Then he got ready for church and left to attend his meetings while we started preparing for dinner. I mixed all the dry ingredients together for his dessert pumpkin roll and then the boys came to help. I turned my back for minute and when I turned around Conner was eagerly dumping baking soda into the bowl of dry ingredients. I decided I couldn't handle any more help and I sent them off to play while I started over (I let them come back and help at the end). Reed got lots of goodies at church and when he got home we made his requested dinner: steak, baked potatoes, garden salad with homemade ranch dressing and a pumpkin roll for dessert. It all turned out really yummy!

Our silly boys admiring the dessert

The boys absolutely adore their father. They love to run and give him hugs at the door when he gets home from work. They like to do anything with him. Sitting next to him at the dinner table is something they really enjoy:

They each scoot their chairs as close to him as they can (Micah and I stick together at the other end of the table :)

Reed is a great dad and we love him!

The difference a haircut can make

I have put off giving Micah a haircut for as long as possible because it is really hard to cut a baby's hair and because I liked the way it looked. However, his hair was starting to get in his eyes so it was time for a haircut. So on the 18th I enlisted Reed and Alan's help in distracting him while I cut his hair. He wasn't very happy with me but we got it done. I can't believe how different he looks. He really looks like a new baby. We went to church the next day and I had a couple lean over say that they couldn't figure out whose baby I was holding.

Here are the before pictures:

All of the dark hair is from when he was born

The after pictures:

His hair is a dark blonde color but his tips were dark brown so he looked really different after I cut those off.

Such a cutie!

Cousins!

Last week the boys and I headed over to Billings to visit Shelly and her kids plus Grandma and Grandpa Bassett and Jacque and her boys. Getting over there was trickier than usual -floods closed my normal route so we had to take a slightly longer way. At one point we came to a part where water was flowing over the road. There were guys there flagging the traffic through so I started to drive through it. As I approached it Alan suddenly blurted out in a very nervous voice "What are you doing?!?!" As we drove through, sheets of water splashed up to the top of the van and the boys thought that was pretty cool. We made it safe and sound and had a very fun time visiting with cousins. Here are the highlights:
1. Hiking - at least that is what Alan called it. The kids all collected walking sticks and then we would walk down the hill in the back of the house and cut over to the road. Then we would walk down to the swampy area and beyond. We did this all 3 days that we were there. One day we walked down to the bridge just before the turn off to the Bassett's house. The creek was running pretty high and we let the kids throw rocks in and have stick races.

playing in the swampy area (you can see all the walking sticks)

Our 6 hikers - Chase, Alan, Jordan, Caden, Kailyn and Conner. I should have taken a picture of Shelly and I and the hitch hikers (Ava and Micah).

2. Making cookies with Grandma - each of the kids was given an ingredient to be in charge of

Grandma, Chase, Kailyn and Jordan
Grandma helping Caden measure his ingredient while Alan guards his egg

Grandma helping Conner and Chase measure their ingredients

Micah maneuvered his way around the floor by pushing with his hands so he slid backward. Here he pushed himself under a chair:

3. A girl's night out. Mom Bassett, Shelly, Jacque and I went to town one evening and got dessert and just chatted. We got babysitters and I was surprised by how well the kids did (we put them all to bed before we left but I was surprised that they actually stayed there).

4. A wiener roast. The last night we were there we started a fire and cooked hot dogs for the kids and chicken packets for the adults. Jacque, James and Baer came out to join us. The kids had fun helping me start the fire and cook their food. Then everyone got a smore - what a yummy, sticky mess:

Micah enjoying a back pat by Grandpa
Alan trying to cook his hot dog over the coals.

I also enjoyed staying up late and just chatting although Conner and Micah didn't sleep very well (one of them always woke me up between 3 am and 4 am and then we were up and down the rest of the night) so I ended up quite tired.
On Thursday morning we said our good byes. It was so fun to see Shelly and watch my kids play with their cousins. I wish we lived closer together so that we could do it more often.

Caden and Alan

I thought this was a fun comparison. I took this picture 2 years ago of the same kids. Here are the kids in the summer of 2009:
And here are the same kids (plus 2) now:
l-r: Micah (8 months), Chase (2), Conner (3), Caden (4), Alan (5), Jordan (6), Kailyn (7), Ava (3 months). Amazing how time flies!
Thanks for the visit!