Hiking at Sweet Creek

We went hiking last night with Amanda and Jed. It was a blast! We went to Sweet Creek Falls and it is just about the perfect hike with kids. We had dinner there at a picnic table, then hiked in and swam for awhile in the FREEZING COLD water. Then we hike out and on the way home we saw a bear. It was running along the road just ahead of us. When it saw us it went in to the bushes. The kids were really excited to see a bear, but Katie was terrified of it.

Here's Katie at the beginning of the hike ready to go. She insisted on bringing her swimsuit, life jacket and towl and swimming in the cold water. The funny thing is she brought that life jacket all by herself, I didn't even think about needing it.

Everytime we go somewhere I try to get a picture of all the kids together. This one didn't turn out to bad!

We went on a little path that we thought was "Sweet Creek Falls." It just led us to a parking lot with this at the top. The kids saw this and asked, "Is this Sweet Creek Falls?" That was a long hike for this view!

Charlie plays on the rocks, but he's very careful not to get in the water. He keeps telling us it's because he can't swim. I think we need to get him some swimming lessons.

Sydney is actually quite adept at scaling the rocks. Although, I'm a little nervous the whole time that she's going to slip and hit her head. She doesn't seem to be worried at all about falling.

Jed was trying to get Katie to actually swim in the water. It was FREEZING! She got close but would never get all the way in.

Here is the crawdad that David, Jed and the kids caught. Don't you think David should shoot pictures for National Geographic?

SLEEPING!!!

I got the camera out to take a really cute picture of Audrey sleeping but when I took the picture I found out she wasn't actually sleeping like I thought she was. Go figure!

Audrey fell asleep on the rocking chair watching Dora. Isn't she cute?

I came home to this one morning after paper route, they were all so cute I had to get a picture!

Company Picnic

David had his company picnic at Emerald Park this year. We assumed that they changed the location to closer in town because of gas prices. Smart move! We had a fun day, the weather was great, the kids had tons of fun and came home with lots of cool prizes. Here are some highlights!

I had told Sydney time and again not to pick the paint off of her arm. In this picture she is actually trying to hide from me so that I don't see her doing it. Little did she know I WAS watching and got it with the camera.

They always have a clown, and the kids love to have her make ballon objects and paint their faces.

Audrey found somebody else's chair that she really liked, she kept going back to sit in it. She was also showing off that paint that the clown did on her arm. She's very proud!

Katie figured out how to hula hoop on her own while we were there. She's actually quite good at it. When that girl wants to learn something she figures out how to do it.

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Trip to the Zoo

This last week we went to the zoo. I took the kids all by myself and met Toni and my mom there. We went to Toni's house and then rode the Max to the zoo. That was an adventure. It was 2$ Tuesday so the zoo was "a zoo." We had a great time. Toni took the older kids and that was great because the babies were a little slower looking at all the animals. That is why I don't have many pictures of Charlie and Katie. They all had a blast and asked when we could go back. The zoo is definitely one of our favorite places to visit! I thought I capture a rare moment.

Audrey was concerned about the Cougars sleeping right next to

her on the other side of the glass.

Katie petting the goats. We stood in line forever to do this and by the time we got in the fence we all knew the rules by heart. No running, Don't pet the goats head, no loose clothing or paper, wash your hands when you leave!

Audrey trying desperately to see the giraffes from her stroller!

Audrey after a full day at the zoo. We have a picture of me just like this at

the same age at the Portland zoo. I'll have to find it and post it.

Sydney wearing Grandma's sun hat.

Sydney was very upset when it was time to go home, she had gotten a map of the zoo and was trying to tell us all the animals that we didn't see. My mom said we'd better take that map away from her before she gets too upset. We just had to assure her that we would come back soon.

Noon Day Trail

The day after the 4th of July David, Charlie and I went with Brett, Amanda and Jed on a 4-wheeling trip up the Noon-Day trail. David has been wanting to go ever since we went last year. It was tons of fun. Amanda and Jed had trouble with their Jeep on the way up (we must really like their company because they have car trouble on every trip we go on). Once we finally got that taken care of we arrived at the trailhead at about 12:30 pm. I was nervous of course (not sure if I wanted to go again after the last time). It was worse this time because I knew what was coming. We had to stop every 2o minutes or so to let the Jeep cool down so it wouldn't overheat, but we actually made it through the trail in about 2 1/2 hours. David and I had to be pulled out of the snow (can you believe we hit snow on the 5th of July?) about three times, and we actually had to pull the Jeep out once (Amanda was driving). We couldn't make it to the top because of the snow, but we had tons of fun and can't wait to go again!

Check out my Slide Show!

Charlie's Thoughts

Here is what Charlie told us today at the company picnic. Somebody came by and said they were surprised by how many kids David had. When she left Charlie said, "Mom, how many grandkids do you want?" I replied with, "I expect four kids out of each of you." Then Charlie said, " I'm only making three babies (where did he learn that?)! Well, it depends on what kind of wife I have. I'll have to ask her how many kids the wants."

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July...here's a quick recap!

I tried really hard to get a picture of all the kids. These two were the best I could come up with. It's really hard to get them all looking at the camera at the same time, let alone smiling at looking at the camera.

What a cutie!

Our ward had a 4th of July breakfast and celebration. The kids did a parade with their bikes in the church parking lot. They loved decorating their bikes and showing them off in the parade.

We went out to Fern Ridge with my family and Jed's family. It was fun to relax around the lake. We played games had hamburgers, and chased the kids. The fireworks at the lake lasted forever, just when we thought they were done and started to pack things up, they started again. David, my dad, Charlie, Katie, and Sydney took the canoe out in Fern Ridge. I don't think they really liked it because they went just a little ways and then came right back. David said it felt like it was going to tip the whole time, and the last time my dad went out in it, he did tip it. We need to get them a sturdier boat, and one with a motor!

Rodeo

At the last minute we decided to go to the rodeo, it was lots of fun! The kids really like the animals. Charlie asked tons of questions, Katie was excited to get a Rodeo Princesses autograph, Sydney wanted to go home the whole time, and Audrey especially loved the fireworks. Overall we loved going, the rodeo has special meaning to David and I, David took me on one of our first dates! Boy have we come a long hard road since that day! It's strange to look back and think about not having children. Here is Amanda and Katie enjoying the show together.

Audrey loved the rodeo (whenever there was actually something happening). The in between times were a bit of a challenge. We felt like there were ants crawling all over us. Audrey clapped when everyone else clapped.


This is Audrey's way of showing that she's excited! She does this about a lot of things, but this time whenever the animals came out she would put her hands straight up in the air and then did a little wave with her hands, I tried to capture it on camera, but it's just not the same.

I had to post this picture of Carson (Jed's brother). I just thought he was adorable. When I asked him to show me his huge belt buckle he did this pose that looked just like a cowboy and I had to capture it on film.

Bad at Updating

Since I have been so bad at updating, I thought I'd just do a quick post to showcase some of our pictures and what's been going on in our life. We have baseball updates coming and some more summer fun!

I was getting complaints about not enough pictures of Audrey. So her you go. This is her at Charlie's baseball game. She loved to walk up and down the edge of the field.

Notice she is carrying shoes, they are her new favorite thing. Audrey has a fascination with shoes (like her Aunt Amanda). Her new hobby is putting on everyone's shoes. She usually has a different shoe on each foot, and she'll walk around that house like that all day.

When I was teaching Katie's primary class as a sub I took pictures of all the kids "being reverent." This was such a rare moment and such a beautiful picture that I had to share it!

This is the view David got through the kitchen window one night when he came home from the store. They were enjoying themselves very much. This was all because Audrey had an accident with a cat, or rather that cat had an accident ON Audrey.

This is Charlie's idea of an after school snack!

Sydney at her Teens n Tots graduation. Notice she's eating her breakfast,

dry cereal in a plastic bag!