Hiking!

Last year, Stephanie (my friend and neighbor), took me and the kids on such a wonderful little hike.  We loved it and so we did it again this year.  This time, since it's not quite Fall yet, it wasn't near as cold up in the mountains so it was really enjoyable to sit and eat some dinner and then go on the hike.  The colors are just starting to change up in the mountains so I would love to do it again throughout the Fall.  The changing colors will be beautiful!

They were checking out a dead butterfly in the water.  It was laying so perfectly with it's wings spread out.

Everyone Smiling!

Ok, so it's sooo hard to get a good picture of my kids with everyone smiling.  I finally got one!

 

 

Now all I need to do is get them to all look in the same direction and not blink, and I just might have a shot at a perfect picture.... maybe someday!

A Visit From Grandma and Grandpa Scorsone

We have never really spent time with Joe (Mitch's Dad) and prior to this summer, we have never met Maria (Joe's wife), so it has been quite extraordinary to spend so much time with them this summer.  I mentioned in a previous post that we spent a few days camping with them and they continued on to have a vacation in Idaho.  On their way back home, they stopped and stayed with us for a few days and it was a wonderful time.  The kids had so much fun playing with them and it was fun to take them blackberry picking.  Maria and Joe seemed to really like it here and I'm so glad.  We all had a good time cooking together and Maria helped me to get back onto a healthy eating schedule.  I'm so bad at keeping a healthy eating schedule.  I'm a breakfast skipper, which I've learned makes for some really random eating patterns throughout my day.  It has been a challenge to become a breakfast eater, but since I've been sticking with it, I've found that I do have more energy than usual and it does regulate my eating... a lot!  The kids were sad to see them go, especially Kayla.  It will be nice when we can all have a good visit again.

 

 

 

 

Watching Frozen.  Joe and Maria have never seen it.

A visit from Jared

Jared came out to Salt Lake for a wedding and on the way he and his girlfriend stopped and stayed with us for a couple of days.  Being that he lives in Colorado, we don't see him very often.  It was a really nice visit and the kids just loved being around him.  It would be good if we could see him more often.  His girlfriend, Jess, has two kids ages 6 and 8 so she certainly knows how to relate to children.  My kids fell in love with her and were sad when Jared and Jess left. 

Jenna is doing Jess' hair.  She was trying to make her look like a princess.

Kayla's in Kindergarten!

Kayla officially started Kindergarten!  This girl was so excited!!!  Kindergarten is half-day, just like it was with Jaxton and I'm glad.  A whole day is too much.  Kayla has the same teacher that Jaxton did, Ms. Richardson.  She is amazing and I'm glad she could swing getting Kayla into her afternoon class.  Kayla had no problem just bipping into her classroom and getting right to it.  Jaxton's class was letting out for lunch as we were leaving and his lunchroom is right next to the kindergarten class, so he went in to give Kayla some well-wishes for her 1st day.  It was so cute.  She couldn't have been happier to see her big brother.  She felt so special!  I picked her up later that day and she had a wonderful day in class.  She sits next to a little girl named Addie and Ms. Richardson said that they are two peas in a pod.  This is going to be a good year!

 I can't leave her very first day of school without a picture of her and her teacher, Ms. Richardson.  I don't think Kayla's smile could get any bigger.

...And It Happened

I'm actually surprised that it took this long.  I thought it would've happened by now.  Jaxton broke his arm.  Poor little guy was trying to jump off of Mitch's utility trailor and his foot got stuck. Down he went and tried to catch himself with his hands, I'm sure so that he wouldn't take the concrete with his face, and the pressure just destroyed his poor little forearm.  The bone wasn't sticking out of his skin, but it was visibly broken... kind of like jelly, just drooping weirdly.  I happened to have been babysitting my neighbors kids at the time because she had just had surgery that day.  Luckily, one of my other neighbors happened to have been outside with her husband doing yardwork and they both heard him scream and saw him on the ground.  They immediately came rushing over, grabbed all of the kids and said they would take care of them and feed them dinner.  Gosh, I love my neighborhood.  We are so blessed!  Also, it just happened to have been Mitch's day off of work, so Mitch was able to drive while I sat in the back with Jaxton.  Once at the hospital, they gave Jaxton some morphine and took some xrays.  It turns out that he broke both bones in his forearm and one of the bones was bent so bad that they had to straighten it out.  Hence the reason his arm just sagged really weird.  The bent bone also caused his fingers to go numb and he eventually lost all feeling and movement in them.  He was so scared about it... poor little guy!  We tried to reassure him that the doctor would fix it and it will be better.  They put him in this really weird, loopy sleep while they straightened the bone and when he woke up, he was able to move his fingers again.  He was so relieved!  This happened on a Tuesday evening and he was supposed to start school on Thursday.  That didn't happen though, and he was so disappointed... not to mention the fact that he came to the realization that he couldn't ride his bike or his scooter or do all things crazy that a 7 year old boy likes to do.  He had a bad day!  They weren't able to cast him until the following Monday, so he started school that following Tuesday.  I have a feeling that it's going to be a long 5 weeks with this cast!

And the morphine is setting in at this point

He's enjoying watching the medicine come through the tube while he waits for it to kick in and put him to sleep.

 

 

Jaxton slept with me, and Mitch graciously took the guest room for about a week while Jaxton had no cast.  Poor little guy had such a hard time sleeping.

 

Our First Family Camping Trip

We haven't been camping since we've had kids. There has always been someone too little, so we've grown accustomed to backyard camping.  Well this year was a little different.  Mitch's Dad and new Stepmom (Joe and Maria) live in Mexico and were visiting the States, so a few weeks ago we had our first family camping trip. I wasn't really thrilled about going.  Jenna and Owen are still little.  Jenna doesn't sleep through the night as it is, and Owen is still in a crib.  Getting him to just lay down anywhere and go to sleep is not an easy task.  Also, I wasn't really excited to see the melt-downs of cranky kids because of lack of sleep and cranky adults because of stubborn power struggles. However, Mitch rarely sees his Dad or brother, so the camping trip was on.  It went A LOT better than I expected.
Mitch's brother (Anthony) has a boat and an RV parked at Echo Reservoir so that's where we camped.  The kids had so much fun!  The adults went with the flow a lot better than I expected, as well.  Jaxton and Kayla stayed in a tent with some of their cousins and Anthony attempted to sleep with Jenna and his daughter (Stella), while Mitch and I slept in the back of the Tahoe with Owen.  All was going pretty well until Anthony gave back Jenna.  We tried to warn him that she was not a good sleeper.  After about an hour into bedtime, he realized we were right.  Needless to say, Mitch, Owen, and I didn't get a good night's sleep AT ALL.  We tweaked the sleeping arrangements on the next night and it seemed to work out a little better.  The big kids slept great in the tent and I was so happy!  We had lots of thunderstorms while we were there and I thought for sure that it would make for some scared kids, but it didn't even phase them.  All of the cousins quickly became good friends and Jenna could've just rode on the boat forever.  She fell in love with it.  It was a lot of work with the little ones and I still think that they are too little, but it went so much better than I expected and the kids had so much fun.  At least now we know it can be done.


While we were there, we celebrated Joey's birthday.  He turned 10!

Jenna's so cute being all wrapped up cuddly warm!

The big kids are in the tent and ready for bed!

Jaxton and his cousins, Joey and Alex

Jaxton had fun fishing

Jaxton sure didn't mind relaxing on the boat

Joey is an expert at being pulled behind the boat.  Kayla had so much fun doing this with him!

    

Owen hated his life jacket.  I was able to catch a quick pic of him smiling before the whining started.  He's blinking but it's all I've got.

 

The kid's found this swing close-by, hanging from a tree.  They couldn't get enough of it.

Grandma and Grandpa Scorsone are getting a kick out of Owen waving at the camera.  Waving is one of his favorite things and it is so cute.  He is very passionate about his waving.  

We were stuck inside during one of the rainstorms.  Stella and Kayla are enjoying making some jewelry.

Jenna hates loud noises more than anything.  For some reason when she is afraid of anything, she must think that a loud noise will follow, because she always covers her ears... even if there is no noise.  In this particular instance, she was afraid of being in that tube... so of course, the natural thing to do would be to cover her ears.  Funny kid!

Jaxton and Joey made up a handshake and they thought it was hilarious that it ended with them pointing at their butts.  Jaxton was in heaven with another boy to be obnoxious with.

A trip with kids is not complete without at least one meltdown.  Owen was super mad that his sleeves came unrolled and were too long... and then Jenna touched him.  She was trying to pet his head to make him feel better, but he just went into a downward spiral from there.

 

 

All in all, it was a good trip!