First Steps

We have another walker in the house. I love watching him take those first steps with his arms wide and that big smile on his face.

Family Hike

We sat down a few weeks ago and planned out some fun family activities for summer. One of the things the girls wanted to do was to hike up to the Y. Danny and I had done this hike when we were dating and we knew it was a difficult one, so we have been putting it off for years now. We finally conquered it on Friday. We knew Tyler would not make it, so we borrowed a second baby carrier backpack and Danny and I each wore a kid on our back. We thought we were in trouble when about a minute into the hike both girls were struggling. We didn't think either would make it to the Y. They kept pushing through each of the 10 switchbacks until we finally made it to the bottom of the Y. We tried to talk them into going to the top, but Alyssa was done. So we split up and I took Ashley on the additional 3 switchbacks to the top of the Y. She was so happy to have made it.

Alyssa was perfectly happy to have made it to the bottom. I don't think she moved from this spot until we were ready to head back down the mountain.

There is Alyssa at the bottom and Danny walking up the Y with Tyler.

Danny and Tyler eventually made it to the top, as well, and we took this picture. Camden was so happy to be out of the carrier, even if his only surrounding was dirt. I was too exhausted to care that he was eating it, which is why he has a dirt mustache in this picture.

Going down was almost as hard on our bodies as going up. We were all very dirty and tired afterwards. But at least we don't have to do that one again until the boys are old enough to ask for it(and hopefully by that time they can walk it themselves to give mom and dad a break).

Tyler's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated Tyler's 3rd birthday last week. Instead of having a big party, we decided to go swimming, something Tyler loves to do. It was even better because the outdoor part of the pool was open again for the summer. After swimming, we went home and had cake, ice cream, and presents. Tyler loves Spiderman and Toy story. We went with a Spiderman cake because it was easier to design. It was my first attempt at making a cake with fondant. The only disappointment was that my writing icing smeared and the fondant didn't taste very good.

After cake, Tyler opened his presents. He loved getting new toys and clothes.

We got to celebrate his birthday again on Sunday with extended family. He received a few action figures and they immediately became his friends.

He loved having so much attention on himself. He is 29.2 lbs and 36.4 inches. Both about the 25%. He's a little guy, but oh so cute.

Island Park Getaway

The girls finished school on Friday, May 27th. We left almost immediately for Island Park for a Memorial Day weekend getaway. The kids did really well for the car ride. We pulled in a little after 8 that night, unloaded the car, and went to bed. On Saturday, we introduced the kids(and ourselves) to geocaching. We didn't come on our trip prepared with prizes to trade and Ashley was quite upset after our first find, to realize that we didn't actually get to keep the treasure. The first treasure we found was called angry birds, although nothing inside of it was related to angry birds anymore.

Our second find was a book cache. We just looked at it and celebrated for finding it. The third treasure hunt came up empty handed and Ashley finally understood why we can't just take the treasure when we find it.
On Sunday, we decided to make the Sabbath a delight by heading to Yellowstone to enjoy the beauty of God's creations. It was a beautiful day. We explored different parts of the park than we had last time we went(two years ago). We still saw geysers...

but we also saw some pretty amazing waterfalls.

Tyler's favorite thing to do was to throw rocks into any body of water.

We came across this pay phone and asked the girls if they knew what it was. They didn't. Oh, how times have changed in the last 20 years. I didn't even know that these still existed.

 On Monday, we packed up, cleaned, and headed home. It was a fun getaway.