Happy Birthday Andrew

Andrew at Grandpa and Grandma's, waiting to open his presents.

Emma on a ride at Peter Piper Pizza.

Grandpa is a kid at heart :)

Andrew and Jeremy shooting hoops.

Andrew focusing on "Deal or No Deal"

Grandma and Grandpa playing games :)

Eli

Andrew turned 7 on Friday. He didn't think he would ever make it to his birthday. Such torture to wait for such fun! He did make it and had a great day. They had a fall party at school, then we picked them up and headed to Peter Piper Pizza. My parents treated us all to a party there for Andrew's birthday. We had a great time. The boys won more tickets then we ever have before. Although I am sure that is mostly because my Dad spoiled us with lots of tokens :)

Andrew is getting to be such a big kid. He is in 1st grade this year and doing great in school. He is reading way beyond first grade level. He is so proud that he has almost finished the first Harry Potter book. He loves sports. He is a big Suns and Cardinals fan. He will practice shooting hoops for hours. He also loves his new motorcycle and will ride until he runs out of gas! He is getting really good at it. Andrew is so much fun. He is always making us laugh. We are so proud of him and his accomplishments. Happy birthday buddy!

Fall Camping

We walked around Lake Mary for a bit. It was really cold and windy, so it didn't last too long!

This was the funniest thing of the weekend. The boys made a "ride" out of one of the fallen pine trees. Eli could ride it the best since he was the lightest. They bounced up and down. It was pretty springy!

It's our camping tradition to bring a puzzle to work on. Jeremy and Andrew are my puzzle boys. They both love them. The rest of us ... well we find a piece or two and that's good enough!

We cooked all of our meals in the dutch oven. It was so much fun! They all turned out pretty good. One of our desserts was too gooey and chocolaty, but the peach cobbler was yummy!

Poor Ethan. The jeans I bought him in January don't even come close to fitting him! Did he really grow that much??? I have to buy him some new ones before it gets cold enough to need them. He had some serious highwaters going on!

My boys.

We took a walk out to the middle of the lake in all the old marsh reeds.

Ethan was reading the information about Stoneman Lake to Eli. I think the sign is outdated. There was no water and definitely no fish! Not sure how long it has been dry, but it seemed like a while. The boys were a bit disappointed there was no water, so we headed out to find a "real" lake.

What can be more exciting for little boys than poking sticks in the fire?

Eli was tired of walking, so Ethan said he would carry him the whole way back. I think it lasted about 100 feet or so. Nice of him to offer though!

Eli found a dandelion to make a wish on.

We try and go camping over fall break every year. We missed last year, so we were extra excited to go this year. We went up by Stoneman Lake. It was beautiful up there, but very cold! I figured it would be nice and cool, but wasn't expecting to freeze. We had fun making campfires and talking walks. Unfortunately, Ethan and Eli got sick the second night we were there. We packed up early the next morning to head home. No fun camping for them. Emma had come down with a fever by the time we got home. Our trip was short, but we enjoyed spending time together in the forest.

An Evening at the Park

I was able to get everyone together long enough for a quick picture.

We tried for a cute group photo on the slide, but it didn't work out so well.
They kept sliding into each other and weren't too happy.




Eli.

Andrew and Ethan were playing football in the grass.

Andrew loves to make me laugh :)

Ethan is getting really good at rollerblading. He was going pretty fast and loving all this concrete!

Emma's favorite was the slide.

My boys on top of the big "spider-web" play thing.

Ethan loves to give me a heart attack with his backflip dismount on the swings!

Andrew was goofing off on the swings.


Last Saturday we dropped Jeremy off at the church for his Priesthood meeting, then headed to the park for an evening of fun. The weather was perfect and the kids had a blast. It was so nice to be outside and play. We spent two hours at the park, then topped it off with a pizza on the way home!

Splash Park

Emma enjoyed her bucket of water.

Eli and Emma had a great time at the splash park this morning. Eli had a birthday party for one of his preschool friends. We got to play in the water and on the slides and swings. It was great fun. Warm enough to still get wet, but not hot enough to melt into a puddle :)