How do you eat a bagel?

Or maybe I should ask, "How do you eat the cream cheese off a bagel?"

And just for fun, I took this picture of Benson today. He is such a good baby!!! He recently (like, during Sunday School) figured out how to growl and it is so darn cute! It makes me laugh!

Our First Real Camping Trip

So, last weekend we went on our first real family camping trip. Why we waited until we had four little kids to do this . . . I don't know. . . :)

We had a lot of fun! The drive was a little further than we anticipated. . . in fact, I made Bryson stop and turn around when we saw the sign for Deadwood Resevoir --40 miles, when we had already been driving for over 2 hours already and this next 40 miles was going to be on a narrow winding dirt road up the mountain. So we found a nice campground along the South fork of the Payette river.

Here are the kids at the beginning of the trip. . . all excited!



Kayla zonked out about 30 seconds after we were on the road.


Our gourmet camping dinner of roasted hot dogs. :)

The kids had a fun time playing in the river, even though it was a little chilly!

I just love this picture. Lily and Kayla are becoming such good friends! It is fun to see them playing togeter so much. Especially now that Nathan is gone at school all day.

Surprisingly, everyone slept great! Except for me, I don't know what my problem was--no kids were keeping me awake, but I just couldn't sleep! Oh, well. It was pretty cold in the morning, so I got the kids to stay in their sleeping bags until 7AM, then we got up and made a fire.

Bryson did an excellent job of cooking pancakes and sausage over the fire!

I realized that Benson needs his own warm fleece blanket. . . I grabbed Kayla's for him. . . he will probably complain about being wrapped in a purple blanket in this picture when he is older.

He was great, though, just keeping warm by the fire in his bouncer chair!

On our way home, we stopped at Lucky Peak, just outside of Boise and had a great time playing in the sand and water!

Lily got pretty brave in the water!

Bryson buried Nathan in the sand and he loved it!

And then they were all buried in sand!

They look like they are going on a roller coaster here. . . :)

So, overall, I would rate our camping trip a success!! It did take a LOT of preparation, packing, unpacking, and LAUNDRY. I am still recovering. . . a week later. But we sure had a lot of FUN!

Eagle Island State Park

Saturday we spent a fun afternoon at Eagle Island State Park. What a fun discovery that was!! We hadn't been there before, but we will definitely be going back!

We brought a picnic lunch with us, so we ate and then a park ranger guy came by and gave us a free frisbee (score!) so Bryson played frisbee with Nathan and Kayla (who retrieved the runaway frisbee) while Benson, Lily and I chilled in the shade.

There is a lake there with a nice beach and a big swimming area. The kids had fun playing in the water for awhile, but I didn't get any pictures of that. . . bummer.

After playing in the water, we found a nice quiet fishing spot. Here are Bryson and Nathan picking out the perfect fat worm.

Kayla is against smiling for pictures, so I just had to say her name and snap the picture before she could refuse. :)

Cute Lily. :)

And we caught fish number one!

And then fish number two !!

All the kids wanted to touch the fish (yuck). Even Kayla!



At the end of the afternoon, everyone was too tired to walk out to the car, so Bryson gave Nathan and Lily a piggy back ride (one at a time), while pushing Benson in the stroller. What a guy!

And here is Nathan, asking me to take his picture while drinking water. Silly kid. :)


It was a super fun day!

Hight Priest Group BBQ

So, after being Elder's Quorum president for 2 1/2 years, Bryson got released and got called to be the Stake Clerk (3 1/2 months ago. . .I think that's what put me in labor--Benson was born just hours after the call. :)

Anyway, so we got to attend our first High Priest Group activity. The reason I post this is that it seemed more like a Primary Activity! There were so many kids!!! The group leader works at a rental place and set up the big blow up bouncy water slide. There are quite a few young families in the group, so it was kind of funny to think of it with like 40 kids--most of them primary age. Not your typical activity for old folks. :)

Here's Nathan and his best friend, Nathan. They had a lot of fun going down the slide together.

Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of Bryson going down the slide with Lily. But I know others did, so I'll have to snag those pics. Anyway, it was a super fun activity!

Weekend in Walla Walla

This past week, I took the kids and headed up to Walla Walla. Bryson came up for just the weekend. During that time, I taught my mom how to can chicken and steak, we helped paint my parents house, celebrated my Grandpa's 92nd birthday, and made 10 batches of freezer jam. It was a very productive week!

Jana and Brad came up for the weekend, also. It was fun to see Benson and Brooks together again!


They are sure growing up fast!! 3 months old already!


Nathan, Lily, and Kayla had lots of fun at my Uncle Jim's-- where we had Grandpa's birthday party.

I think most of our eyes are open in this picture. . .

Grandpa Gilbert (92) and Benson (3 months)

We had such a great time that I ended up staying an extra day. :) It is good to be home now, though and back into our routine (or trying to get back into it).

Happy 9th Anniversary!!

Bryson and I are celebrating our 9th anniversary today! Wow the time flies!!! I dug up some pictures to post of our dating and engagement. Fun stuff. :)

I love you, Bryson!!

Our day in Cascade

Last week Bryson had to go to Cascade for work (about 2 hours north), so we decided to make a little family day trip out of it! We got up there, dropped Bryson off at the courthouse and then had a picnic at a nearby park. Bryson walked over to meet us when he was done (no, he didn't wear shorts and a hat to court). After lunch we all played at the park for a little while.

Then we found a little pond to go fishing in. It was so pretty there.

Bryson has taken the kids fishing a a few times lately, with no luck.

But they finally caught their first fish!!

And a second fish!! Yes they were small, but they were fish and the kids were excited! :)

(we put them back so they can get a little bigger for next time)

We love the sweet boy!

And here's a picture of all the kids. . . happy!!