Where To Start?

Bensen had his first taste of baby oatmeal...he loved it!

 The kids love to stack stuff on top of Bensen.  They call it "taking care of him", I wouldn't call it that. :)

 On June 10th Jaycee got her ears pierced for an early birthday present.

 Jaycee had her birthday party at Debbie's pool.  We had a blast! Bensen liked this nice warm pool much better then the freezing pool in St. George.

 It is hard to believe that Jaycee is 7! When did that happen?

Jaycee is such a good helper.  She is always packing Bensen around.  If he starts to cry, she is right there talking to him, making him smile.  She is such a good big sister. She even helps Wesley occasionally.  She likes to tumble and play soccer.  She is the biggest tease in the world! She is goofy and she likes to make people laugh.  We love her so much and we are so blessed to have her in our family.

 We slept in our house for the first time on June 14! We had a camp out in the living room.

 A big mess that only got worse! Don't worry it looks much better now.

 To this day, Jaycee's room is the only one that is truly unpacked and finished. Don't worry though we are working hard at getting thing put away.  This is by far the hardest move we have ever made. We have so much stuff.  That's the hardest part is going through all the stuff we have collected over the years and throwing it out.  Some of the boxes are things we never unpacked in Hooper.  My guess is I probably don't need anything in those boxes.

We went to Star Valley.

 It is so beautiful.  I think this was at Cottonwood Lake.

 We love cousins!

 These pictures don't even do the beauty justice! But look at those cute kids.

 This water was freezing!

 We were able to ride the Snake River! It was a lot of fun.  Some got to do two runs, those with babies only got to do one.  Here we are waiting for the first group to come by.

 There they go.

 After Jaycee saw this she told me she didn't want me to go because she didn't want me to die! Side note, Amber told the kids to stay away from the river, that if they fell in they would die. I'm pretty sure that is where that came from.

We had a lot of fun and everyone stayed in the boat this year. :)

 

 Only the adults and Josh and Parson were able to ride the river, so after we took some of the kids to the Teton National Park and let the kids paddle around in String Lake.  The kids loved it.  We had to force them to get out. 

 It was a little windy and rainy but that didn't stop the kids from playing in the cold water!

 We eventually had to make the kids get out of the water.

 Colton only slipped into the water like twice!  This kid is crazy, he cracks me up!

 My sweet Bensen just loved being outside.  He didn't seem to mind the breeze or the rain.

 My handsome boys.

 Just look at that face! Bensen is seriously the best baby ever.

 Cousins on the 4th of July.

We took our kids to their first rodeo...I liked it.  The kids got a little bored. It was a cattle ranch rodeo, so they did events that happen at the ranch.  It was different.

 Here they are getting excited for the fireworks.

 Right before we went home some of us played kick ball. Here is our cheering squad. Jaycee did come out and play soon after I took this.

 This is how Wesley rolls!

We had such a good trip, it is so beautiful there.  I love it.  Next time I would like to try going to Yellowstone.

Since we have been home Bensen has been rolling all over the place.  He has been able to roll from his back to his belly for a while.  Then he would be stuck on his stomach.  In the last couple days he has mastered rolling from his belly to his back. 

I guess it is time to put up the baby gates!

Summer!

We love summer! But who doesn't...right.  Jaycee finished first grade on May 30. She had her cute program on the 27.  

 She worked hard all year! Hopefully we can keep it up this summer.

 Jaycee's whole class was so cute. Jaycee had a little crush on the boy in the front row, second from the right.  His name is Kane.  She said she liked him because he is funny.

 She was lucky to have Mae in her class this year.

 We loved Mrs. Toomey.  She was such a great teacher and the kids loved her. We even got to play soccer against her a couple times.  That was fun.

We were lucky she had such an amazing teacher. You could tell she really loved her kids.

On the 31st we were off to Cedar City, then St. George.  We were supposed to go to Vegas on the 29th to visit Mike's brothers family, but Wesley came down with step on the 28th. Ellie, Colton and Tyson had all had it a couple days before.  Lucky for us, and for Andrews family, any time Wesley has ever had strep his hands break out with a rash, so once I saw it he was on antibiotic.  He didn't even get a sore throat, we caught it so quick. The kids were so sad that we didn't get to go to Vegas we decided to go to Cedar City.  The kids went swimming, we went to a movie, "Sherman and Mr. Peabody" it was pretty funny. We went to a park.

 

On our way to St. George we stopped and went on a hike in Kanarraville and met up with Amber, Tyson and co.  It was a pretty good hike. It was hot but the kids did so good. 

 For the first part of the hike we were on a dirt road, then we came upon a creek.  Once we decided it was ok to get our feet wet we had a lot more fun.  And we were much cooler.

 Bensen did so good.  He even stayed awake for most of it.  He fell asleep right before we got to the slot cannon, and woke up when we came back out.

 It was really a beautiful hike.  When I read reviews on it several people said they had seen rattlesnakes, so I almost decided not to go. Amber talked me into going, she said she has seen rattlesnakes up Waterfall Cannon.  I'm glad I listened to her.  And no we did not see any snakes...thank goodness.

 It was right about here that my Dad caught up with us.  We must have been moving pretty slow, because we had a pretty good lead on him.

 So Bensen doesn't look thrilled, but he didn't complain at all.  I was a little worried about taking him.  It took us probably about 3 hours round trip.  He was a trooper.

 We finally made it to the slot cannon!

 And to the Fall!

 This is where we stopped.  As you can see, you can keep going, up to another fall. In the review I read it said it got harder the farther up you go.  So for us this was a good stopping point.

 It reminded me of Lake Powell! We haven't been since Jaycee was a baby.  Makes me want to go back.

By the end the kids were pretty worn out.  Mike had to put Wesley on his back a couple times, and a couple of us had blisters from our wet shoes, but it was totally worth it. I think we will definitely go back to this hike.

After our hike we were all ready for a swim.

 Well, all except Bensen.  This was his first experience with a pool...he did not love it.

 On Sunday we went to the St. George Temple.

 Look at all those cute kids!

 It was super hot and we were all trying to stay in the shade.

 

  Bensen loved the Temple too.

 

 

We also went to the Brigham Young house and took a tour, then drove out to Gunlock. It was too hot for us to walk across to the dam, so we took the scenic route back to the condo, along with my parents and Trevor's family.  Trevor's car actually got a flat tire just as we got to the lake.  Jaime and Ambers families went across to the dam.  The lake was pretty low.

On Monday we went to Fiesta Fun.  That was fun, and did I mention that it was HOT! It was so hot that we had to go for a swim again when we got back.

Overall, it was an excellent family vacation.

I love my family so much, and I love that we get to spend so much time together.  I wish Joy and Spencer's families could have joined us.

Some people might think it weird that we spend so much time together.  I love it, I can't imagine spending my time with anyone better.

Bring on the summer fun, we are ready!