Splish Splash

Since summer is in full swing now with the 100 degree weather that has been predicted, we decided to get the kids a little pool this year. They have loved it! And I have loved that they have loved it!!! Its so nice to just put them in and say "play!". I sit in the shade with my book and read, while observing of course. As you can tell, we don't fill it up completely because they have just as much fun in 6 inches of water as 2 feet, so see my point? Saturday afternoon we set it up and after naps they played for awhile. Cody took some great shots of them just being the silly little things they are. Anna doesn't look very enthusiastic in any of the pictures, but she really was happy. So happy summer days everyone!

This is Jake trying to get a mouth full of water. He thought he was being funny by teasing us and just leaning over a little to see how long it would take us to say NO! but then he slipped and really did get a mouthful! He only choked for minute!

Deseret Peak

Saturday Cody went to hike Deseret Peak with fellow scout leader and friend Dallin. It is south of Tooele and the highest peak in Tooele County, summit elevation of 11,031 feet. Cody was amazed at how much snow there was still! This is him "running" down the mountain after they had reached the summit. I'm just glad I wasn't there when he stopped at the bottom; there were actually no injuries to be had!

And this is Cody imaginary skiing...

On their way up, he was grateful to have the trekking poles.

In front of the summit

This is Cody standing on the trail, which is underneath about 20 feet of snow. There were huge snow drifts all over like this.

Cody and Dallin at the summit.
Cody at the summit.
He had fun and it was a nice day for hiking!

Family Reunion in Moab

Hooray Moab!!! We spent last weekend down there with Cody's family for a reunion and we had so much fun! Friday morning everyone got together and went into Arches National Park to hike and have lunch. Here we are hiking Park Avenue...






After that, it was lunch time so we all drove over to Parade of Elephants side of the park and had lunch.

Anna and Jaxson...

We then drove up to Sand Dune Arch and hiked to it. Pretty awesome, just an arch sitting on the ground in the middle of these walls.

Cody had fun "exploring" and doing what he does best..climbing without any gear or a helmet perhaps!?!?! He actually climbed all the way up this wall and got on top of the arch itself.

Anna had to settle for the kiddie walls, which was just fine with me. Notice how Jake isn't in any of these pictures? That is because he is in his backpack which is on my back; there was no way I was letting him down to climb. I already have to watch out for his dad!

Cody on top of the Arch.

Saturday morning we took the kids to see Landscape Arch. It got really hot really fast, so they didn't last too long.

We went back to have lunch, then we took our truck for some off-roading. Chad and Maria rented a jeep so we all went to go see Gemini Bridges. It was a really bumpy ride and I was anxious to see how the kids would do, but they loved it! They laughed and giggled the whole time. Jake didn't last very long; he fell asleep within 15 minutes, which I don't know how because that road was so rough. His little head was bobbing everywhere.

Here we are in front of one of the bridges. You can actually walk across it, which Cody did, but I'm a freak when it comes to heights and there was no way I was taking the kids over there. It drops off (I don't know how far because I didn't have enough guts to get close enough to see) on both sides.
Cody and Chad on the other side of the bridge.

This is where we waited while Cody took pictures and walked around. As you can see Jake was happy when Daddy came back, with the camera on...

It was a fun trip and we were glad to spend time with family and see everyone.

Reading Time

Anna and Jacob both love their bedtime stories, but we also have 10 am stories and 1 pm stories and any other time of the day that they want to read. So we were playing in Jake's room and he picks up a book, walks over to his sister, hands it to her, turns around and plants his little bum right in her lap. It was so cute! Anna just kind of sat there for a minute not knowing what to do, then she opened the book Jake brought her and read to him.


Of course the attention span of a one year old is about 10 seconds, so he was off before she even turned the first page. But he did manage to lean back to give her "loves".

Then he decided he was content to just stand by her and watch her turn the pages.

Eventually he decided he wanted his own book, but he still just watched Anna read her book from across the room. It still amazes me how quick they learn just by watching everyone else around them. Hopefully they'll always be interested in books!