These 2 are always falling asleep in the car.
June 1, 2015
Daddy doesn't mind the extra cuddles with Olivia when she's sleeping.
June 1, 2015
Unlike Ashton at this age Olivia is great about staying in bed and not getting up. But this night she came downstairs to cuddle for a minute. I didn't have the heart to make her go back upstairs right away since we never get time at night with just her since she's the first to bed. She must not have been feeling well because a couple of hours after going back to bed she threw-up in her bed. Always makes for a long night when you have a sick kid. But she was fine the rest of the night.
June 1, 2015
We went to Vernal, UT for a trip with Matt's family. The kids were excited to try out the hotel pool the first night.
June 3, 2015
The next morning we went to
Fantasy Canyon. It took awhile to find the actual place because the signs weren't the best and the GPS kept telling us different ways to go but we eventually found it.
June 4, 2015
There were so many cool rock formations and they were labeled with what some of them were shaped like. Here's grandma and grandpa with some of the grandchildren. The others didn't arrive in Vernal until later this day.
Perfect place for kids to run around and explore.
Overall it was really impressive and the kids loved looking at everything and following the different trails. We then stopped to take some pictures of the cactus flowers that were in bloom.
That evening back at the KOA campground where Matt's parent were staying we rented some of these bikes for the kids. They loved taking turns riding around the campground.
Olivia really liked her cousin Brea's pink chair and thought it was her chair.
Just hanging out waiting for the dutch oven lasagna to cook.
The little kids liked riding on the back of this bike.
I even tried out the bikes and they were fun to ride.
After dinner all the kids and some of the adults went swimming at the KOA pool.
The next day was our trip to
Dinosaur National Monument. Here's our group of 18 (minus me) taking the shuttle to the quarry.
June 5, 2015
They were just getting ready to start a guided tour where you walked down a trail to look at other fossils and so we decided to do that first before looking at the quarry. We were always the back of the pack with Olivia.
Plenty of lizards along the way to keep the kids entertained.
After a couple of stops Olivia wasn't happy to sit and listen to the guide and wanted to keep walking on down the trail so we ended up splitting off and following the trail back down to to where the shuttle was. She was having some meltdowns along the way not wanting to walk so this is how our photo's were turning out. She would be crying and then I would have to say something to make her laugh so we could at least pretend she was having a good time.
This was at the end of the trail looking at some petroglyphs.
Luckily as we turned the corner the shuttle was just heading up and stopped for us so that we could head back up to the quarry. Olivia enjoyed the ride and was happy to not be walking.
I hadn't been to the quarry at the monument since I was little and it was fun to see the dinosaur bones and just how many there were in that one area.
Kaleb enjoyed looking at all of the different bones.
Olivia wanted to climb the wall and was mad we wouldn't let her.
The new building was nice and the kids liked looking at all of the displays.
After finishing up at the dinosaur monument we stopped for lunch.
We were eating right by the river and the scenery was amazing.
After lunch we decided to go see the petroglyph's at
McConkie Ranch. It's private property, unmanned with a suggested donation of $5 per car and they even had walking sticks to borrow.
Olivia had fallen asleep on the drive there and so after having 15 minute nap she didn't wake up very happy. It was steep and rocky and she was mad we had to hold her hand so she cried off and on the whole time and I had to carry most of the way to make sure she didn't fall.
But it provided for more photo opportunities like this!
Matt showed Olivia this caterpillar. She didn't like it and wanted to be far away from it.
There were so many petroglyphs and it's amazing to think they're from 1-1200 AD.
The little shed that you made a donation in also had drinks in a fridge that you could purchase (honor system) and you could leave a note so we signed a post it note and stuck it to the wall with the others.
As you left McConkie Ranch the cliff wall had this painted on it, "Remember the Maine" and a huge American flag that was painted about 100 feet up.
The park across the street from the painting is called Remember the Maine Park so we stopped for a minute so that the kids could run around.
The next day we decided to check out some of the museums in town. First was the
Utah Field House of Natural History which had so many exhibits and interactive things for the kids to do.
June 6, 2015
Olivia enjoyed trying everything out.
There were glow in the dark rock exhibits, fossils, bones and outside were large dinosaur models to walk around and see.
After we went over to the
Uintah County Heritage Museum to walk around. There were many indian artifacts and exhibits from the pioneers. It was fun to look at the clothing how intricate it was. Outside we took a picture with all of the grandchildren.
We didn't have anything planned for that afternoon so some of us made the drive to the
Flaming Gorge Dam. They had a free tour that you could do that took you down the elevator to the bottom of the dam that we did.
It's amazing to think how much concrete and man power it took to build the dam.
At the bottom you could feed the fish and the kids loved this part of the tour.
Being that it was the last evening in Vernal after dinner we had s'mores and everyone talked about their favorite part of the trip. Matt touched his roasted marshmallow to Olivia's head so she had marshmallow in her hair for the night.
Matt with his parents and brothers.
Every time we drove through Vernal Olivia loved the pink dinosaur that was by our hotel. So before we drove home the next day we had to stop and see it up close for her.
June 7, 2015
We also stopped at the temple to walk around and look at it.
It was next to a church building and people were walking to church so a lady offered to take a picture for us. It was a fun trip and the kids had so much fun with their cousins.
Her favorite place for taking a nap.
June 9, 2015
Olivia hit her head on the corner of my desk and had a goose egg on her head.
June 10, 2015
Matt took the kids to get ice cream at Macey's one evening.
June 11, 2015
After they went to the park to play.
Olivia loves swimming and this day she had cousins there too to play with.
June 12, 2015
Our ward had our annual ice cream social that evening and they had a taffy cannon explaining all of the kids hands raised up in the air trying to catch the falling taffy.
The next day we were able to finally meet the newest member of the family Austin. He was still so tiny and Olivia loved holding him. She loves babies.
June 13, 2015
He even gave me a behind the binky smile.
I love seeing all of the blackberries growing on our plants. Right now we have tons of them that are ripe and the kids are picking bowl fulls at a time.
June 13, 2015
Just got home from church smiles.
June 14, 2015
We had cake at Sunday dinner for Kaleb's birthday so I had to sneak some trick candles on his cake. The kids thought it was hilarious. I know I say it every year as they get older but I can't believe he's 11 now. For his actual birthday we went to Leatherby's to celebrate. He's such a good kid with a kind heart.
After Sunday dinner Olivia and Marley put on a dance show for us. I know Olivia will love taking dance lessons next year. We made Ashton also get up and do his Groot dance. He loves dancing like Groot does at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy.
Olivia was sitting on my lap and I was admiring how long her hair was. It doesn't show very well in this picture but it's light blonde at the ends and darker on top now and so I've had a couple people ask me if I've colored it but it's just how it's grown out.
June 15, 2015
Another day trip up to the cabin with the Quinney's. She loves giving out kisses.
June 20, 2015
The kids are loving the kayak and so are we. It was a little windy this day so it made paddling more work than usual but it wasn't too bad.
After the lake we roasted hot dogs, had s'mores and played games. It was a fun evening.
This kid is just like his dad and loves licking the beater/bowl out after I make desserts. This time it was brownies. And I love that he's wearing his headphones that aren't even connected to anything.
June 21, 2015
Kaleb has always had issues with what I thought was his sinuses. He is always trying to blow his nose at night, snoring and trying to make breathing easier while sleeping. I just figured that since Matt has sinus issues he was cursed with the same thing but he never really gets sick. So for years he's had tissue boxes and tissues by his bed as evidence of the nightly struggle he has to breath through his nose. I knew he had big tonsils (not as big as Ashton's) and I even asked his doctor when he was 3 about taking them out because he snored so bad but he said they don't really take them out much anymore.
One night after Kaleb woke up saying almost through tears "I just wish I could sleep good" I looked again into tonsils and adenoids. I had no idea what adenoids were, I thought they also were in the back of the throat or something but after reading about having large adenoids the symptoms were Kaleb exactly. Literally every main symptom he had and I had horrible mom guilt at that moment because for years I basically had him suck it up thinking there was nothing we could do. So that day I made an appointment with our ENT to be seen. Sure enough his tonsils were big, but only a 3 out of 4 unlike Ashton's 4+ but his adenoids were huge. He had to stick a noodle-like camera up Kaleb's nose to see them which didn't feel good but he did great. So we scheduled surgery for later that month.
Here he is after getting an IV with a blanket over his arm hiding the needle. He was so nervous for the IV and didn't want them to do it but he was brave and let them do it. Ashton was younger so they just do it in the OR but with Kaleb being older they like to get the IV in first.
After surgery he was still tired and we asked him if he was okay. The first thing out of his mouth was "I can tell I can already breath better." I couldn't believe in that moment that's what he was thinking about but it must have made a big enough difference that he noticed it. He enjoyed eating a slushy and watching cartoons for an hour until we were able to go home. His recovery wasn't too bad but it was more painful for him than it was for Ashton to eat but he was good about keeping on top of his medicine. I'm just glad that he can sleep so much better now.
I hadn't done Olivia's hair in normal pigtails in awhile since her hair was getting so long but she requested them (and was mad when I tried to do messy bun pigtails) and she loved smacking herself in the face with them.
June 24, 2015
That evening we went to Golden Corral to celebrate my grandpa's 91st birthday!
June 24, 2015
Kaleb wanted to sew a heart pillow for Olivia. She was so happy when he gave it to her.
June 25, 2015
Olivia also loves taking selfies.
June 25, 2015
Olivia loved watering the garden at my parents house and then watering herself.
June 26, 2015
I was lucky enough to get to babysit Austin for a little bit one Saturday. He's so cute and looks just like his daddy.
June 27, 2015
Later we went up to the cabin and all 3 kids took a nap on the way up there. I'm sure Kaleb's was from the pain medication but still, it was cute to see 3 sleeping kiddos in the back of the car.
The kids had fun playing with the dominos.
There was a deer that hung out under the neighbors porch in the shade most of the day.
Ashton and Olivia were "surfing" on our dollar store floats/kayak seat cushions.
The boys brought their squirt guns and there were some kids on the shore and the parents told the boys to shoot them so of course Kaleb and Ashton did as they were told!
Matt took them all the way to the other side of the lake so they were gone for over an hour and I just sat and relaxed enjoying the nice weather and scenery.
Olivia managed to get some sticks and branches along the way to bring back with her.
Here we are waiting for Ashton at the bathrooms.
The scenery never gets old. And the cute kids help too!
Olivia doesn't mind the cold water at all. She loves playing and throwing rocks.
June was a busy month but a good month to start out summer. Unfortunately on June 30th I came home for the first time all day at 8:30pm and our house had been broken in to. I was just with Matt and had left my phone with him since I was going to be leaving in a minute and didn't need my phone so I ran to the neighbors to use their phone to call the police. The last couple of months I just had a feeling that if someone was going to break in to our house it would be through the back door and so I started making sure everyday when I left that even the screen door was locked hoping to deter anyone and make it harder to get in but they forced their way through both locked doors to get in. It's horrible to know someones been through all of your stuff and taken things that you've worked hard for or are sentimental to you. And to steal from children, I just can't comprehend it I guess. It could have been worse though and I'm just thankful we weren't at home when it happened. I just feel bad for my kids who were scared and still are, especially Ashton. He's always asking me hypothetical questions about robberies, "Do people break in to...." so I know he's always thinking about it. So not the best end to the month and it created a headache of paperwork and things to fix for July but overall June was a great month and we created many fun memories!
