Camping

We finally had our first camping-as-a-family-of-four experience. It was fun. We camped on the ranch, on one of the meadows that is quite close to the houses, just in case. Trev's parents, and several of his siblings were camping out too. We camped for two nights.

Our tent is tiny. (see pic below- ours is the little red one) But how much room do you really need for sleeping, anyway? Probably a tinsy bit more than we had, but we all slept fine.

Here's Trev with our nephew, Taven. The babies sure seem to have a thing for his chest hair.

There was plenty of delicious food to eat. Luke kept on going back to the grapes :-)



Lainey and her little rug-buddy Taven. The babies were really so good, I was quite amazed. I think that even the little ones like to be outside, and there's always plenty going on to look at.

Trev's youngest siblings, Annie, Jessie and Zack. To be fair to them, I did take this picture first thing in the morning.

The yummy dutch-oven peach cobbler made by Trev's dad, Kelly. It really tasted delicious.


Whereas Luke is happy with just a simple tomato.

It's a shame the summer is drawing to a close, so there won't be many more trips like this. But when they do happen, they really are fun. I just love to relax with my little family, enjoy good company, great food and beautiful surroundings. That's when life feels complete.

This and that

Here are a few things we've been doing over the last couple of weeks.

Lainey has been working on a new skill. She hasn't mastered it completely, but she gets better every day. Of course it'll be a while before I'll be able to leave her sitting unattended- her big brother does like to sabotage her attempts at independence!

I just love my little girl!

Luke had his first go at painting. It took quite a while for him to grasp the idea that he was supposed to paint the paper instead of himself. I'm just glad I had the foresight to strip him down to his nappy first :-) I think we'll make this a regular activity.

Isn't this just mischief personified?!

We finally made it to one of our Stake's softball tournament evenings. Trev's friend Cade and his wife organise the event each week, so it was fun to go and support them.

I just like this picture of Lainey after she took her bath the other night.

Trevor's sister and brother-in-law, Katie and Jared, came to stay for a couple of days. They have a little boy, Quigley. It was fun to get together and we had a fun afternoon at the park, with a little picnic. I love picnics. I remember when my family used to go on picnics when we were younger. We always had cool food for picnics, and there was always extra stuff like hard-boiled eggs and sausage rolls. Plus there is just something special about eating outside.

4th July outfits

4th July stuff- simple shorts for brother and sister, and a last-minute felt star for Lainey's head.

I really need to get on board with the whole bow thing. People are always thinking Lainey is a boy.

It's picture time again!

We had our photos taken by Dani. We like her work. Here are a few of our favorites.

Girls' weekend

Each year, the men in Trev's family (his dad, brothers and brothers-in-law) go on a trip of some sort. Last year it was a pack trip up in the mountains, this year it was Lake Powell. Since they are men, we don't get to see many pictures of what they get up to- they are having way too much fun to remember to document it. But while they're gone, us girls get together (with the kids of course) and have some fun too.

Day one-swimming.

Luke and his cousin Braylen are all ready to go.



Grandma watches over some of the little boys.



Trev's sister Katie with baby Quigley.



This is my nephew Corben. I love this little guy!



Luke had a blast.



That night, we bathed the older boys together. If you look closely at Luke's face, you'll see that he really didn't enjoy sharing his bathtub! That night, we all slept at my apartment. Six women and 6 kids in our little apartment. Luckily, we were all pretty tired and slept well.



Day two- Bear Lake.

Quigley and Lainey at the start of our outing.



Luke and Corben enjoyed the water.



And we all took rides in the little inflatable boat.



Lainey likes the feel of the sand between her toes, and watching the boys having fun.



Corben catching some rays.



Day Three and Four- chilling at the ranch.

After two fun days out with the kids, we were ready for some downtime. So we went out to the ranch and just hung out. We baked, talked, played, slept, ate and just enjoyed one another's company.

Luke has decided that he likes wrestling. Corben is the cousin who is closest in age to him. Corben is two and Luke is 18 months, but Corben is a little bit smaller, and doesn't like to wrestle. We had to assign Braylen to play with Luke, because Luke can't really hurt him (he's 4)


And in the babies' corner, we have Lainey and Taven. Taven is just one month older than Lainey.

Lainey got to spend a little time with her great-grandma.

We all ate crackers, cheese, meat and fruit for every lunch. Luke tried cherries for the first time and they were a big hit!

And of course, the boys had to have several rides on the four-wheeler.