Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Fall Break Day 2: Bryce Canyon National Park

Day two of fall break we went to Bryce Canyon National Park!
 Of course if there is a skull on display mommy needs a picture, plus it was of a dinosaur so the boys thought it was really cool too. 

 Beautiful view overlooking the hoodoos, or the rock formations

 Baby Jett loved the hiking backpack, he was just happy as a clam in the backpack!




 Then we started the hike, and went all the way down and back to the top, about five miles round trip.
Jonathan was officially the toughest as him being the youngest that wasn't carried for more than about ten minutes. 

 Our whole family taking a little rest. 

 A couple of cool tunnels through the rocks




 Jordy being so cute in a little cave :)

 A whole hoodoo garden that we also added to

Jett got comfortable :)

 We didn't stop for naps, and he still got one anyway.  
All the boys were troopers!


 Then started to go back up to the top.



 At least 25 switch backs to get back to the top

A great day!

First night at Bryce

After we got to Ruby's Inn at Bryce Canyon Nathan got the Wee-Hoo set up on his bike so he took Jack and Jordan out.  The first kid even gets to pedal.  

They went all the way to Fairylands at Bryce Canyon 


 These boys were great, five miles round trip!  

Jack's second front tooth was so loose
 The kid was a snaggle-tooth and didn't want to eat any of the apples we had brought.

Bedtime stories!

The middle brothers all slept up top, it was warm, sort of like a bed of snakes, haha!

Fall Break Day 1: Fish Lake

 Fall Break, woot woot!  Nathan said this year, we are renting an RV and going somewhere, and we did it with all FIVE!!  Cruise America was great, and the boys loved it.  First night we stopped by Fish Lake, UT and stayed in the largest living organism in the world called Pando.  It is a 107 aspen forest that is all one giant clone.   It is also one of the biggest, and oldest, known organisms on Earth.



 It was so beautiful, but also so cold.  

Headed out to the lake the next morning

 Then in the morning we got to check of a bucket list item for Jonathan...
 ...fishing at a lake!  We didn't catch anything, but still the kids loved it. 

Jack and Jonathan finding fish eggs

 Jack has so much patience, he could have sat and casted over and over again all day.


 Nathan was great and untangled lines, redid bait, and tied hooks over and over again.

 Jett and I took a walk while the boys fished, and we walked to a large beaver dam on the side of the lake.  Then we found the beavers workshop.  After going back to the boys, we even saw the beaver headed back to his dam!! 

Walking along the lake, see how we all have on snow coats.  Seriously so cold!  
But then we went to back to the RV, made hot chocolate, and then drove to southern Utah to Bryce Canyon to our next camping spot. 

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

February with Five

February with Five boys...it just keeps getting busier.  I'm running on E around here most days.  But then they pull out a face and I'm like "Wow, they are so cute!", then it is usually back to the chaos that is five boys close in age who are growing up to be best friends.  
#3, he can be the the cutest and also the most impish (which they just learned what an imp is...)
But that face right?  CUTE!

 #4 and #5 in matching jammies.  I love these brown bear ones.  I remember them with James and Jack.  It is so fun to pull out clothes and they are at the same season's as #1 and #2.  Jett is almost too big for a lot of the 6mo jammies (he's mostly wearing 9mo clothes) so I'm trying to match them as much as I can each night.  

 Of course this is the normal right here.  Jonathan loves to be in and helping with Jordan and Jett.  And they love him for it. 

 Jordy with the space jammies, hanging out and drinking my boba drink.  He has gotten so much better at talking this month!  I do love it!  The screaching has subsided a lot(not all the way but mostly), and because of his new communication skills we can reason with him now, too.

 ~Potty Trained~
Someone asked for the secret to potty training boys, and here it is: I don't. 
Meaning, when they do it then they are ready.  Jordy could go all day without pants and always make it to the little frog potty.  We can't live that way forever though, so I took about two days at home, with pants but not underwear, and gave him cadbury mini eggs everytime he went pee.  Then if he'd go pooh I'd give him a kinder egg.  Well he figured that out in no time flat.  We went to a friend's home for dinner two days into this, so the deal was all the boys would get a kinder egg if Jordy didn't have an accident.  Everybody was motivated for him to do well, and it worked great.  Going on two weeks now, and he's only had one accident.  
So maybe chocolate is the secret?

 Jett is sitting in the highchair now!  I love each stage and milestone they reach. 

 Am I right? SO CUTE!  He'll come up to me many times a day to give me a "huggie".

 Jordy has become clingy and doesn't want to go to nursery.  Well, I dropped him off, and said "come get me if he cries for ten minutes".  He FELL ASLEEP!  in Anna Marie Jones' arms, who, fun fact, was my nurse who helped me through his hard, un-medicated labor. 

 4/5 on the mini Mickey couch (which I pulled from my neighbors trash btw), watching a nature show Life before church. Nevermind the other two couches... 

 More matching clothes for #4 and #5 (and this was our no-pants-at-home phase).

SO.MUCH.SNOW.
 Seriously, one of the most in the 8.5 years up here, maybe the most.  
Epic snowball fights in the front yard.
Snowball in the face to James from Jack. 

 Even Jordy wasn't crying in the snow.  What fun to play (also still rocking the owl hats!)

 We just let them take each other down...

 Jack was the boss at the snowball fight, he even got one perfectly into James' mouth, ha!

 Valentine's day I got this gorgeous bouquet, an updated bracelet from the vintage pearl with all my boys names and birthstones, AND a cleared driveway from the snow BEFORE he drove on it!  
That is my love language right there.  Nathan got to go biking in St. George guilt free.  
It really is what we both wanted :)

 This little guy gets so distracted this is how we are feeding right now.  
A bottle propped in the swing.  So we have out an exer-saucer, swing, and highchair...
see why I like hitting milestones?  Hopefully we can take down one of those three things soon. 

 Jett is SITTING UP on his own!  It has made bath time much more enjoyable.

 These three decided to get dressed and head out at 6pm to play in the fog and coming storm...
 My 6th son Kellen over with Jack and Jordy.


Hawkwatch at the planetarium for Legislator night!  So neat to talk to state officials and their families about why STEM is important and needs funding.  There were over 25 iSEE booths there to talk to.  Informal Science Education Enhancement (iSEE) is a collaboration among nonprofit informal science education organizations in Utah aiming to spark students' interest.
 Brandon and Tessa also there with me, along with Kotori 

 Wanting to be like his brothers is how Jordy potty trained at 2.5 years exactly.
4/5...can't wait!

Bald Eagle Days at Farmington Bay!  
 Walking around with the three was cold, but not too bad. 
 Jett is bundled to the max.  

 The Golden Eagle Chrys who was there that we learned about (and the newest ambassador with Hawkwatch).  He is a big boy, and we'll see if I become subpermitted on him in the next year (it takes about a year of training to handle him...and I can see why!)

On the same day up the mountain...
 #1 and #2 enjoying the snow with ski lessons at Snowbasin!  
They got to be in the same group this time, and it is awesome to see them do this activity together. 

This cutie!
 7 months, over half a year!

 Jack's date with the parentals...out to sushi

 This little!  I love the pictures from bathtime!

 
We had lost his steggie for over two weeks.  I was freaking out more than he was.  I even ordered another I had found on eBay.  We tried to have him find the new steggie, fluffy steggie he was dubbed, in the piano bench where Jordy has been known to hide the original steggie.  He picked it up, looked at it, then chucked it and said "I want steggie!".  Jordy just kept saying that "steggie was hiding".  Seriously I looked EVERYWHERE!!  Even the garbage.  Our favorite sitter, Bailey came over and with in 15 minutes she had found it!  I know I had looked where she found it before, maybe steggie was having adventures?  Either way, now we have two :)

 This little motorcycle, a favorite of Jordan's right now. Photo cred: Jordy

 Family Home Evening matching game

 Baby Jett is still a fav over at the Beckstrom's.
Shawn here loving on the baby

 And Jett and Jett :)

Valentine's dinner (a few weeks early) at Papa and Grandma's house.
 Cousins!  That's a lot of cousins

 He's even cute when he sleeps!

Cousins coming up to go sledding!

 Richard and Finn make the long hike back up.  
But it was a great day of sledding.

I started working out again, and have been going to a lady's home in the morning with the kids.  They get an opportunity to play with friends, and I get an opportunity to work out and do hard things with friends around here. And I'm home by 9:30, and saving money on gas (and just shopping in general) because I'm staying up here.  This cute picture wasn't even planned, but the boys tried out the bikes after class one day :)