Outings in May

We've been busy this month doing all kinds of fun things.

 

At the beginning of May, my mom and brother came to visit us. We took them to the zoo and went on a train ride.

Dallin and Connor had a blast.

Dallin keeps asking when Grandma is coming back.

***

 

This one actually happened in April, but we went to Purdue Spring Fest. It's a big outdoor fair and all the colleges set up tents and displays.

The best part was the insect petting zoo. Dallin got to hold a tarantula.

It didn't last long but I'm proud of him for trying.

 

Connor fearlessly went right for a hissing cockroach but freaked out a little when he discovered it could crawl up his arm.

 

 We stopped at Taco Bell after Spring Fest for some lunch. We had to really convince Dallin to try a bite of cinnamon twist.

But after the first bite, we couldn't get him to stop eating them. 

***

 

We went camping with some friends. While the adults set up the tents, all the kids climbed into the car.

 ***

 

 

 

 Dallin's friend had a "Halloween" birthday party. In May.

The boys had a lot of fun. Everyone dressed up in costumes. The 4 closest neighbors knew about the party and let the kids come trick-or-treating.

 

 And then everyone had cupcakes and played under blankets.

 Oh the simple joys of being a little kid!

Busy weekend

We decided to go camping with some friends last weekend. The weather has been getting cooler and we wanted to camp one last time before it gets too cold. I planned for cool weather and brought lots of layers to keep everyone warm. What I didn't account for was rain. The weather forecast said it would rain, but I figured it would be a light drizzle and we'd all survive just fine.

We were one of the first families to arrive and we set up our tent. As we started working on a fire to cook dinner, a light drizzle started. 

The boys didn't seem to mind.

Then a heavy downfall of rain appeared just as we got a good flame going. Other families had arrived by this point. Some had set up tents already, some had the smarts to just stay in the car.

 I ran to our car with the 2 boys.

 After a while of sitting in the cold rain and kids being uncomfortable, we decided to call it quits. The plan was to ditch our tents, go out to dinner somewhere, and come back for the tents in the morning. (Luckily, we weren't camping too far from home.) As if the rain hadn't "dampened" our spirits enough, one of our friends couldn't find her car keys. We searched in the torrential downpour for a while, but to no avail. So we ditched the car along with our tents! The only (working) cars left at that point had one seat each, smashed between two car seats. We took our friend's son in our car while she road in the other.

 The 3 boys were pretty cozy in the back seat.

And then we drove to Pizza Hut! The boys were all passed out by the time we got there.

We were a sad looking bunch when we arrived. Five adults, five kids ages 3 and under, sopping wet and smelling like smoke. Some people changed into spare clothes (pajamas) which helped with comfort but not with our level of ghetto-ness. But there's nothing like warming up your cold hands on the heating lamps of a Pizza Hut buffet.

 It was an exhausting night, but we managed to have a few good laughs. We woke up early the next morning so we could stop by the campsite and take down our tent. Amazingly, it hadn't floated away in all the rain. We found the missing keys and everyone was on their way. 

We made towards Indianapolis to attend a Williams Syndrome Family picnic. It was no longer raining, but it was pretty cold and windy. That didn't stop the kids from playing on the playground.

 We had a great time seeing old friends and meeting new ones.

Connor crawled all over the place with no fear for swinging bridges, slides, or sudden drops off the edge. He is very daring, and he managed to kick off both his shoes in his adventures.

Even though it was a very busy weekend, we had a great time with our friends. And it was nice to sit and relax once we got home and not have to worry about dinner, since we had uneaten foil pack BBQ Beef sandwiches from the night before.

Mother's Day

We went camping on the Friday and Saturday before Mother's Day. We had a lot of fun and it was a nice break from regular household duties; that's my favorite way to celebrate Mother's Day!

It was our stake family campout. It's normally the weekend they do a Father and Sons campout, but they invited the whole family this year. Both the boys did very well while camping. They slept well and we all stayed warm in our tent.

 This picture makes me laugh because I don't think there have ever been so many conflicting fabric patterns in one picture.

Dallin had a blast running around with all the other kids there.

 

And petting the dog.

Dallin loved the fire (as any young child would) and couldn't stand that everyone else got to play in it.

So we let him play in the cold ashes. 

We did a lot of sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.

There was a great Frisbee golf course there. Mckay practiced his "putting."

Connor discovered the pocket knife.

Dallin pushed Connor around in the stroller.

It reminded me a lot of when we went camping at Eagle Lake in 2009 when Dallin was just a baby and my cousin Stori was pushing Dallin around in the same stroller.

 See? Almost identical pictures.

On Mother's Day we made Steak Fajitas for dinner and Mckay did the dishes for me. I got to snuggle with my sweet boys.

 Dallin and Connor got me some knee length shorts and a cute necklace with matching earrings.

Mckay put a lot of thought into his present for me. He heard me mention months ago that I wanted a nice dress to wear to church, but it's really hard to find one that is long enough, covers enough, etc. but is still attractive. He spent hours online searching and bookmarking websites that had modest dresses. He narrowed down his top picks and then showed them to me so I could make the final pick. Because we had to wait for the dress to be shipped, I didn't get to wear it on Mother's Day, but I did get to wear it yesterday and I think it looks pretty cute.

Mckay did a good job. I am such a lucky mom.

Celebrating our Independence...

...by camping! For the weekend of the 4th of July, we went camping at Eagle Lake in northern California. My mom's side of the family goes camping there every year and we decided to join them. The drive took about 11 hours, which wasn't bad considering it was supposed to take 10 hours. Dallin did really well in the car, much better than our trip to Denver when he was 4 weeks old. My sister Sarah drove with us and I think Dallin liked having someone to play with and look at for the entire trip. Although, when we got close to the lake, Dallin could not stop starring out the window at all the huge trees by the road.

Dallin did really well camping. With a lot of great aunts and uncles to hold him all the time, he was a pretty content baby. And he likes being outside a lot, so it must have been a treat for him to live outside! He slept well and didn't wake anyone up in the middle of the night (except for me...). Our campsite was really close to the lake and we walked down to play in it everyday. Mckay and I went on a little kayaking trip on the lake one day. My uncles brought two boats along for waterskiing, tubing and overall general merriment. I didn't do any waterskiing this time, but Mckay and I did some tubing. We were both out at the same time and our tubes kept hitting each other. One collision was so big it knocked me off the tube and sent me flying into the water, causing me to almost lose my swimsuit. That was the end of my adventures with tubing. We had a lot of fun playing with cousins and seeing a lot of family that I don't have many chances to see often. We were driving back on the 4th of July, so we actually spent our Independence day trapped in a car, but we did get to see a few fireworks here and there along the highway. It was a really fun trip and I'm glad we were able to go. Here are a few of the pictures I managed to take.

Next to the lake. Notice our awesome boats in the background.

The water was a little cold for Dallin. Right then he was just enjoying his hand and hadn't noticed the water yet...

...but as he got deeper he got more concerned.

lounging on the beach

Joseph (my brother), Dallin (cousin not my son), and Ryan(cousin). 3 cousins around the same age getting ready for missions.

teaching my little cousins how to start a fire with my glasses

this is all we could get burning

playing Settlers of Catan, a traditional Eagle Lake pastime

My cousin Stori loved Dallin! She was always looking for him and wanting to hold him. She would run grab a tissue whenever he had the slightest bit of drool on his chin. In the picture, she put her blanket on Dallin. I think the stroller ride was a little rough and Dallin was trying to figure out who was driving.

We found this huge gross bug under our tent!

Mckay playing frisbee with my cousins. Mckay loves frisbee and my cousins were always wanting to play too.