Yosemite

The boys helping Grandpa get ready to go.































First of only a few family pics
since chase slept most of the trip.















my little love bug!
















yummy ice cream treat...
thanks dad!




































getting our bike ride started.








































chase's first cheetos!! yum, yum.







































this was a little rock cave we found
off the bike path. blake said this was his
favorite thing of the trip...easily ammused.




















chase asleep...such an easy baby.
















grandpa's famous peach cobbler.




















a giant seqouia that had fallen over.

We just got back from a fun and relaxing trip to yosemite. We went to yosemite in chris and diane's motorhome. It was a quick trip we drove down on Thursday morning and came home on Saturday afternoon. Thursday we just hung around the KOA and set up camp and made dinner and went swimming in the pool. All 3 of the boys loved the pool, it had 3 sections one was 1 1/2 foot deep, one was 3 feet and one was 5 feet, Chase especially loved the water. He definetly is a water baby.

Then on Friday we drove to Yosemite first thing in the morning and seth threw up on the way in on all the curvy roads. Then we took all of our bike and road the trails in the yosemite valley and were able to take in the scenery at a kids level. It was nice and cool and just right for the boys to cruise on their bike to get all their energy out and chase slept in the bike trailer the whole time! It is so beautiful up there, we especially like all the big waterfalls and decided in a couple of years we'll go back and hike the falls. We all decided the highlight of the day was when we stopped for lunch by a rushing stream and I started handing out sandwiches and they we all got ATTACHED by mosquitos!!! Ryan has over 20 mosquito bites and i have 10-15!! And we only stood there for 5 minutes before we got the heck out of there! But other than that we enjoyed our day at yosemite. And then Seth had to puke on the way back to the campsite too, poor guy he just gets so carsick just like me. Then went back to the campsite and had another evening at the pool and grandpa Elmer made his famous peach cobbler in his dutch oven (that he forgot and we had to stop and buy one on our way). As he was heating the charcoal to cook it and it had that campfire smell, Blake says "Now we are camping!" It took it till the second night to actually be camping :) it was cute.

Then saturday morning we went back to yosemite and went to the giant sequoias. The are so huge, it was fun to see. Then we headed back home. It was a quick trip but it was fun and actually a little relaxing with 3 boys, but i guess we did have 4 adults :)

Sweet Anna

So yesterday i got to have a girls day with Anna (10 yrs old now). She loves to invent different recipes and just be creative. So since i enjoy cooking as well we decided to get together and have a cooking day. We sat down and went through all my recipes and decided to cook: twice baked potatoes, italian ranch chicken strips, and chocolate bark. It was all sooo good, she did an awesome job making it all. So here are some pics of our fun cooking girls day...sort of w/ 3 boys too :). We decided we want to do this each year but next year I am going to have to keep her brother J.O.E. so the boys have someone to play with, because it was a lot of the boys whining that they wanted to help. It was hard for them to understand I just wanted to take 1 day a year to do something w/ a girl! They cook with me almost everyday and it is still not enough. I guess i just need to be grateful that they want to spend time with me, because that may end in a couple of years. :(

scary

So blake had a birthday party yesterday for one of his kindergarten friends at bounce town. Then all of a sudden we see one of the boys (6yrs old) sitting in a chair he had jumped/fallen off of the side of one of the bouncer/slides and hit his head on the ground which is practically cement with a thin layer of carpet on top. He kept saying he couldn't see and had a glossy look on his face. Clearly something was wrong so they called and ambulance and they came to take the boy to the hospital. He looked so tiny on the huge stretcher it was so sad to see. I think the scariest thing was that it could had totally been blake. He ended up having a concussion and had NO memory of even being at the party...the accident happened about an hour into the party! He was then told to do NO physical activity of any kind for 3 WEEKS! I can't even imagine trying to make sure my kids didn't do anything for 3 weeks especially in summer. They go back to school in 6 weeks that is half the summer! It was so sad, but we are glad he is going to be fine. I guess it made me realize that something like this could happen at anytime and i really need to appreciate all the good times with my boys.

9 months

Well my baby is 9 months...yesterday. This makes me a little sad, he is growing up way too fast. I wish they could stay little forever...especially the last. So the other 2 i was already done nursing by now but w/ Chase knowing he is the last I don't seem to mind as much. He is down to just a morning and night feed but for me the mid day was hard to get rid of..mentally. He wasn't very happy either since i replaced it w/ a sippee cup, and he is such a cuddler so he didn't appreciate it. But then I look at him and think he is so big why am i still nursing him! Knowing for sure he is our last just puts a whole different mentality in your head, and you just want to get every possible second out of each moment.

So he is starting to stand pretty good on his own and can walk around w/ walker toys and stuff. We'll see when he starts cruising. Blake and Seth were 10 months when they were walking we'll see if he's different. Once again being the last he just gets held a little more, cuddled a little more... i know we are going to have baby issues w/ him probably as he get's older. So hard not to baby the last! I love you chase....thanks for being a mommas boy! I needed it, now more than ever.

Summer Fun

Today was the first really nice day since blake has been off of school. So off to grandma's house we went. We enjoyed some swim time in grandpa and grandma's pool. They boys finally learned that they can stand in the shallow end and blake's swimming is getting better every time. Seth is doing better and better every time too. He has a ways to go before he will actually be able to swim on his own i think. But every day is an improvement.

Silly Boys

Chase giving Blake a push...he was REALLY pushing him!

Chase was doing pull ups on the table trying to get to get to Blake's calculator.

It's exhausting!

So here are some fun pics of the boys.