Yellowstone 2013

What a fun trip! I was pretty bummed because we had planned to do our final camping trip of the year up at Yellowstone, but it was too dang cold! There was snow all over the mountains so we nixed it but Saturday rolled around and we decided to head up just for the day. It was free parks day and since we had nothing else planned we went for it. It was chilly, but not bad, Sam was SO good and the kids had a blast. The animals were so active that we were able to see several bison and elk up close including a 12 point bull and 2 grizzlies! They were beautiful and actually got a little close for comfort, you can see in the movie that the grizzly encountered a buffalo which was kind of cool. We had never seen a bear in all our Yellowstone trips, so that was pretty neat. There's just something magical about that place and every time we leave we say we are going to go more often, it truly is a wonder of the world. We are so glad to live so close to it! It's definitely a tradition I hope continues on for many years with our family.

Tomorrow will be better

I needed this little reminder. My sweet softhearted Claire wrote me this note after I got upset about something stupid. She is so easy to forgive and to ask forgiveness. I hope I can be as Christlike as her someday. My Savior is there for me and tomorrow will always be better. 

My girl

I love these people.

the 4th

WOw, we had a whirlwind of a weekend! I'm still trying to recover. My brother and his family came to stay for a few days and we packed in the activities! My sisters were able to join us for parts of the time as well so it was a mini reunion I guess too. On the 4th we went to the parade in Idaho Falls and then decided to drive up to the Tetons and do a little day hike. It was beautiful up there. We took the Devils staircase trail and we decided to stop at the river and skip rocks and dip our feet and then we talked the kids into taking a "shower" in the waterfall. We decided that Jake needed an indian name because he is our little native boy, so his name is "goes with the wind" because he just goes wherever his little body takes him, without concern for safety and without fear. I truly do love that about him, but it's scary as a mother. I can't wait to see what he does when he's older! He kept climbing up these super steep climbs, I think his body was just made for nature.
After our hike we headed back to Idaho Falls for some BBQ and fireworks. The yummiest food and fun company. The fireworks were delayed an hour because of a drowning at the river (sad :() but we had fun playing "guess that movie quote" and the show was as spectacular as ever. It didn't seem as crowded this year which was nice. The next day we packed up and headed up north. We had to take them to one of the only great restaurants in the area-- Big Jud's. Burgers and fries to die for and the onion rings were amazing too! Then we went up to Mesa Falls and stopped at this little spot to feed fish. After that, our trip kind of went downhill, but we still had fun and it will definitely be memborable! We wanted to head to Henry's lake for Crayfishing, but we hit a crazy storm and ended up heading south to the Sand dunes where we had planned to make a fire and play, but we got stuck in the sand and had to have someone pull us out and there were no fires allowed so we continued searching until we FINALLY found some place to make dinner at 8:30pm. The kids still got to play at the dunes and we still got to make smores, so despite all the driving, I think we still had fun. After we got home we did our fireworks show. The next day we decided to head to Craters of the Moon, which was fun and ended the day with more BBQ and Reed's dairy.
We had a lot of fun and I'm so grateful for my family and that we enjoy spending time together.

Sam I Am

Oh this little boy! Getting big so fast, it seems like his vocabulary has just exploded in the last couple of weeks. Either that or I'm understanding his gibberish better! But I wanted to write down what he is trying to say at 16 months: he says hi, momma (most of these are mimicking) dadda, uh oh, hot, want some (when it comes to chocolate chips haha), Claire, no. He loves to make boy sounds, animals, cars etc. when I tell him his food is hot he will blow on it, so cute. He is my most snugly so far. He know I demand kisses and hugs so he appeases me. He will stick his cheek out for me to kiss it. He LOVES balls and will make baskets for a good 10 minutes, it's so cute because he does this little ritual where he says 123 and then shoots, or at least that is what it sounds like. When he sees basketball on tv he watches them shoot and puts his own hand in the air and acts like he's shooting and then says ooohh! When he's poopy he will pat himself and say poo poo. He says night night and will wave good bye. He still takes his binky, much to Chris' chagrin. He loves chocolate and learned how to open the chocolate chip bag, he's also learned how to climb on top of the table which makes for crazy messes. He's had a squealing problem that has mostly been eradicated with the help of a spray bottle. He has 12 teeth and the sweetest little smile, he reminds so much of Chris in his facial expressions. He loves his Claire and reaches for her to hold him. He's 26 lbs and in 12-24 month clothing. He seems to be my lightest child at this age, but I guess I don't know that for sure, but he's getting tall and can now reach stuff off the counters. We just love this age and can't wait for nursery, which will be a process because he's pretty attached. We have taken him in a couple of times to get used to it. But that's our Sam, we love him so much!

Structure of the Day

In case this never happens again, I thought I would at least document our trial of "Structure of the day". I have struggled with keeping the kids engaged in wholesome activities for a while. They get bored easily, don't want to do the things that I suggest, get sucked into watching too much tv, etc. etc. I could go on and on. I was getting really nervous about the summer time because of this. The kids want to spend every waking moment outside, playing with friends down the cul-de-sac where I can't see them. It's been frustrating to say the least and I was getting really worried. I was talking with a group of friends and we were all kind of sharing our good ideas and one of them said they do "Structure of the day". Kind of like a little mini schedule, because kids crave routine and need to know what's happening for the day. I thought it was brilliant. I can "schedule" "screen time" and "friend time" instead of them thinking they can get on the computer or tv or play in the front any time they want. I really thought they would fight me on it, but they haven't so far. *knock on wood!
It's also been really good to teach them about time and another brilliant part of it is that if they are misbehaving I can erase a fun activity. Today was a struggle in that we are still trying to nail down rules about certain "times" of the day. We have activity time, chore time, etc. You can look on the board for all of our summer activities and times of the day. The kids had fun helping me draw the board and come up with summer activities too! This probably doesn't seem like a revelation to anyone else, but I really struggle with the whole parenting thing, It is not one of my talents and I have to work very hard to find it rewarding and to stay engaged, but yet I know how important it is. I am hoping to use it as a tool to be a better mommy. I am really hoping that I can have enough patience to keep this up because I know it will be better for everyone. Thanks to my good friends and their wonderful example to me!