The rest of Summer

It's time to play Blog-Catch-Up!  Instagram has ruined me for recording things in any other manner, I'm afraid.  But my parents don't "do" instagram, and so the blog must be kept current!  I'll try to do at least one post a day until we're back up to date.

 In the summer we  had some baby bunnies.

 I  made some hair clips.

 We went to the Fair, always a favorite!  We went with Roma and kids this year, and all 8 children had a blast!  They are grinding flour in the above picture.

 Posing with Mom's favorite farm animal, the alpaca!  Victoria is Clara's best friend.

 Feeding (ahem...poking) goats.

 Making things out of clay.  The girls made a bird and a nest, and Hyrum made a volcano.

 Sam is just chilling in his stroller at the Fair.

 At the end of the summer we went to Camano Island with the Muglestons.

 This little "pond" was created on the mud flat behind the beach, as the tide came in.  The boys didn't seem to mind the weird scum bubbles.

Family Reunion-izing

In August we had a semi-family-reunion.  We went to Ensign Ranch for a week.  Last year Matt and Caitlin came, but Christian and Shannon's family didn't, and Josh couldn't come.  This year Matt and Caitlin couldn't make it, and Christian had to stay home for school, but Shannon and the boys came, and Josh and Darcy and their kids.  So ALL of the grandkids were there, and we took some pictures with Grandma and Grandpa.  Sadly those are the only pictures we took.  Having a 3 month old while camping is harder than  I thought it would be.  I still love Ensign Ranch, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to someone with a small baby.  It's harder to partake in the activities.

The kids had so much fun riding horses, playing games, going on the giant slip and slide, playing in the forest, and roasting marshmallows and anything else they could stick in the fire.  And I loved having so much family there, I wish I lived closer to them.

Before the reunion, we (our little family) made tie-dyed shirts for everyone.  I love how they all turned out!  Tie-dying is oddly addictive.

From oldest to  youngest we have: Cassie (10), Mary (9), Brielle (8), Hyrum (6), Aubrey (6), Tyson (5, but one week away from 6), Evan (5), Clara (3), Austin (3), Neal (11 months), Sam (3 months).

We had many contenders for the "Caitlin Camper Award" this year.  Aunt Caitlin always seems to have terrible things happen to her every time we take  her into the wilderness, she's had a spider bite that swelled up her entire hand and wrist, freezing sleet and hail while exploring Yellowstone (a mile from our cars, not on boardwalks but with a private guide, and geysers, hot vents, and mud pots on every side that we had to avoid.), that sort of thing.  This year the top three contestants for the "Caitlin Camper Award" were:

1. Josh.  He had just purchased a new, and expensive, FitBit, which he took off before helping the kids swing on the rope swing into the lake.  Clara came along, saw the Fit Bit with Josh's things, picked it up and tossed it out into the middle of the lake.

2. Austin.  Austin (age 3) didn't like the water.  To go on the slip and slide he'd ride on Grandpa's back, so the water couldn't touch him.  Grandpa convinced Austin to go in a canoe with him, and as they went under the bridge, Grandpa stood up (to move a branch?) and the canoe flipped dumping Grandpa and Austin into the lake.

3. Sammy.  The first night we had a makeshift bed for Sam on the bottom bunk.  We put down several blankets, and pillows on the sides to make a little bassinet area.  I came back from the bathrooms the first night and Sam was fussing.  I picked him up (he was tightly swaddled) and he was still writhing and whimpering.  I leaned down to kiss his cheek and a large spider the size of a quarter crawled up from Sam's neck onto his cheek.  It upset me so much, I didn't put Sam down the entire rest of the week, and he slept between Russell and I every night.