Stake Pioneer Campout

We went to the stake pioneer day family campout last weekend. It was the first camping trip I've been on with kids. It was surprisingly easy and enjoyable. Of course they both went to bed late, but for the vast majority of the time they were happy all evening, and once they were asleep (about 11:30pm) they slept all night. In fact, Benny slept in until 8am. (Granted, he woke up and snuggled beside Jed at about 6am. Sounds sweet, but it's rather uncomfortable in a sleeping bag. He's a good dad. I pretended to be asleep still. I'm a bad mom.)

Benjamin also got to shoot a bow and arrow. Just like Nephi, except Ben's bow didn't break. Atleast that's what he tells us.

We had delicious hotdogs for dinner, and lots of roasted marshmallows and smores at the campfire that night. Benny just loved running around with the other kids, playing in the tents and shooting off the little rocket launcher we brought. We also got to do the popbottle rocket in the morning, which was fun.

Here are a bunch of pictures from the big bonfire we went to that night.

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Our friends....
The Davises and us

The Golds and the Aanderuds

Mornings around here...

Eliza is proficiently rolling around now. She is starting to explore the sounds she can make - "oooh-oooh." She is grabbing at everything, loves to eat paper, and gets stuck sometimes as she tries to roll into the furniture legs. She's on a great schedule. She takes 3 naps a day. She has her 'dinner' sometime between 7pm - 7:45pm, and then goes to bed about 1 hour later. She sleeps until about 7am - 7:30am in the morning. I love it.

Jed had to change the breakpads on the car the other morning, and of course he had his devoted helper out there with him. He is Jed's official sidekick. Benjamin is becoming more and more self sufficient. For instance, he just noticed a magazine on the table and declared, "I need some scissors so I can open this, Mom." Then he got out the big pair of scissors himself. Hmmmmm.... I traded him for some kid-scissors. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

He can dress himself (underwear put on backwards still counts), get out of the house himself if it's not locked, strap himself into his carseat, help himself to food from the fridge, 'read' to himself... He's actually really good at entertaining himself in general. His favorite is when Jed and I both hang out in his room. He loves having us in his room - he shows us his toys and how he can run fast from here to there... It's cute.

Our two morning cuties. Don't you love that strangled look on Eliza's face? haha! She's used to the uncomfortable hugs from her big brother. :)

Roar on the River

We went to a city event two weekends ago called Roar On The River, at a nice big park nearby. It's a big jet ski/water ski/hydroplane competition. It was really fun to watch the races on the river. This is what they looked like (see photo). On the first loop of the race two of them crashed, so they started the race over after they took care of it. When it began again, on that same first loop, there was an even bigger crash, where one of them actually flew up in the air and flipped over. It was crazy. The competitions were held on Sat and Sun but we only saw one of them on Saturday. We went with our good friends and after the race was over we were just hanging out together. Well, we felt a few splattering of raindrops, so we thought we better call in the kids and pack up. No sooner than we had the thought, the clouds just emptied on us. It was a very intense rain storm! We were running through sheets of water, pushing the double stroller. Benjamin was soaked in the front seat, but Eliza stayed comparatively dry in the back seat. Talk about an adventure!

Some of my great friends, Christina, Chantel, and Anona.

Here's Ben and Garret playing in the construction fencing. All the kids enjoyed throwing pebbles into the water. I swear that activity could entertain children for hours on end.

Guess Who's POTTY TRAINED?!

Need I say more? haha! This kid is so goofy - I love it. He thought the idea of sporting underwear on the head was entirely his own. His creative little mind just loves coming up with silly things to do, to get a laugh out of us.
Honestly, his potty training went SO WELL. He was perfectly ready to make the transition, which made it a million times easier for us all. He still has a few accidents here and there, but he has the desire to go in the potty. So when he has an accident, it truly is an accident. He's getting to be such a big boy.
Way to go, Benjamin!

Big Day for Little Girl

Eliza's first taste of solid food! The momentous day was on July 11, at 6 months old. :) I had forgotten how messy spoon feeding can be, so I didn't have a bib ready. Hence the burp cloth.

Aren't her little feet with her curled up toes cute?

It's a PARTY!

We had a FUN birthday party for Benjamin on July 11. With 10 kids running around, and 4 moms holding one baby each, how could it not be crazy fun?! :) We had an outdoor POOL party and a blow up trampoline for the kids to jump in. (See the picture below and to the right? Benny's swimsuit was falling off as he was jumping in there with a bijillion kids. haha!) Jed came home early from work so that he could join in on the mayhem. We brought out the water balloons and the kids had so much fun with them. Anona and I toiled away at the hose passing out water balloons; we couldn't keep them coming fast enough. Jed harrassed the kids to the point that they were all trying to hit him with their water balloons... until he went inside and came back with a pitcher!

Time for cake and icecream! Benjamin wanted a firetruck cake. He decided this atleast a month in advance and we had been talking about it ever since. I frosted the number 3 on the cab and B E N on the truck. He really liked that. A few days later he was telling me, "It had a 3-B-E-N for FIRETRUCK." :)

Opening his presents... This is so exciting! He's had lots of fun with his toys ever since. Thanks, everyone!

After the party, I discovered both boys in our bedroom... totally crashed. They slept until nearly 6 pm! Parties sure can wear you out! (Of course, Jed is worn out from working a ton and studying a bunch, and then coming home early that day so he could run around with a pack of kids in the back yard - he deserved a nice long nap!)

Ben's Birthday and 4th of July in Maine (vacation part 4)

We celebrated Benjamin's 3-year birthday on the 4th of July. (His bday is actually the day after, but we were going to be traveling back to NJ that day.) We started off the doubly special day with a kayaking expedition! Ryan took the six of us kayaking, and it was SO FUN. It was the first time Benny and I had been kayaking.
He's ready to get started. He probably would have enjoyed a free ride to the shore, but he wasn't that lucky. :)

Jeremy and Jenna rode in one kayak, Benjamin and Ryan rode in one, and Jed and I shared the third. The guys at the kayaking shack gave Benny a mini paddle. It was a great toy...

And look, he's helping Ryan get a workout. Adding a bit of drag to his kayak...

We landed on a beach up an inlet and pulled our kayaks onto the sand so we could walk around. Ryan treated us to some famous Maine icecream served on the beach. We found a few horseshoe crabs in the shallow water. Jeremy's holding one. Cool, huh?

After awhile Benjamin discovered that the water was salty... So he would hang both his arms overboard and then suck on his hands (below). How funny!

On the way back, Ben joined us in our kayak. It was so fun having him join us on our adventure. Thanks for taking us, Dad!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BENJAMIN!

His birthday cake consisted of a batch of cookies, so he got to blow out three candles stuck in some icecream. He got to have his special birthday cake at his birthday party once we got back in town, so he wasn't deprived. :)

Opening up presents from his Grandma & Grandpa and all his cute cousins.

Eliza and her special buddy, Shane.

4th of JULY FIREWORKS!

We watched the fireworks from the steps of a courthouse. It was fun to be there with everyone. We had to bundle up - it was a little chilly.

Maine (vacation part 3)

Visiting the Comins in Maine was so fun! Jed's sister, husband, and family live in Maine, right on the coast, and we stayed with them for about a week. (Everyone has a funny face in the above picture because they are all "chewing" on grass. :) )

As soon as we arrived, Jenna and Kiersten called dibs on Eliza. Isn't this picture cute of the three girls? It was taken only 2 or 3 minutes after we walked in the door.

Benjamin just adored his cousins. Here's Jenna reading to them all. Jenna also played blocks with Benny upstairs a lot during our stay. He LOVED having a dedicated playmate. He could go on and on playing with her and would beg her to stay if she needed a break. :) What good cousins he has!

The first place they took us was to this quaint lighthouse on the coast. The coastline is beautiful in Maine. Every day we would pack a lunch and take all the kids out to the beach or some place fun.

Here we are, below, at a beach that had all kinds of neat things among the rocks. There were tons of snails, lots of hermit crabs, crabs of all sizes (I'm holding the biggest one we found), little eels that would flap like mad when we lifted the rocks that were hiding them, clams, and even a small lobster. It was fun. Everyone is showing the camera something cool they found in the picture below.

While we were driving home from the beach one day, Eliza was feeling sad. She kept making her sad puckering face and starting to cry. But every time Shane leaned forward and talked to her she would smile and be happy. As soon as she couldn't see him, she would start to cry again. He was a pro at making her happy. He played with her a lot during our stay and he never failed to get a smile out of her. She loved him!

One evening we went to their landlord's home for a lobster dinner. This was true Maine dining! We started out the meal with "steamers" - a whole pile of yummy clams on each plate. You break the shells apart, take out the small clam inside, remove and discard the dark part, and then dip the rest of it in clam juice to 'rinse' it and then in garlic butter. And then pop it in your mouth. Yum yum! :) After we were stuffed full of clams, we started cooking the lobsters. That gave us some time to make room for more Maine seafood. :) These lobsters were fresh and locally caught. And they were huge!

Benjamin and I are looking at those monster lobsters on our plates and wondering how to use the shell crackers on those things... and Shane has already dug in! Look at that face. He LOVED this meal. :)

MORE BEACHES.....

One of the beaches we went to was a 'pebble' beach. The sand was still sand, but it was very coarse, and it kind of hurt to walk on it! But it was cool in the way that it didn't stick to you like regular sand does.

This is the last beach in Maine; as you go North, there aren't any more beaches like this, just rocks and cliffs and coast. (That's what the national park manager told us. We had a long conversation with him since he rear-ended us and we had to wait for the police to do a report! Ironic, huh?)

There's Kiersten, Ryan (Jed's Dad), and Cerissa lounging on the beach in the picture on the right.

Jenna and I decided to stand still on the beach and let our feet sink as the waves washed over them. Although you can't see in the photo below, our feet were totally covered in the sand. This water was COLD, by the way. It hurt for awhile, but when this picture was taken, we were numb and couldn't even feel the coldness anymore. :)

Shane found this tidal pool at the top of the one of the rocks. It was full of very warm water, and helounged in it like it was his personal jacuzzi. It was hilarious because Michel and Cerissa were both telling him how gross that bacteria-ridden water was, but he didn't mind one bit!
He was a good sport to let Benny borrow his toy, show him how to fill it, and then let him shoot the water at him. :)