Utah Trip Part 2

Eli with his cousins Ben, Crew, and Ollie

 There were so may things that we didn't break our camera out for.  We did however get a few pics of the boys at Bridal veil with my two sisters' boys.  They have these massive trout at the bottom and food that you could feed them with.  The boys LOVED it.  I think we spent all of a dollar fifty on fish food and the boys were entertained for at least an hour. Well worth it.

Just a darn cute picture of my boy!

 Shiloh has been asking for months to go fishing.  We don't even have a pole.  My dad, Pop Pop, is an avid Fly fisherman.  He also had his days of cast reel fishing too.  Shiloh asked Pop Pop to take him fishing.  I think they were both as excited as the other to go.  There is this little place in Payson, UT called Spring Lake Trout Farm.  My dad used to take me and my siblings here to fish as kids. We looked it up, and it was still there.  Basically you go and fish in a small, ultra stocked pond.  They provide poles and bait.  They also clean and filet the fish.  They do this by a reasonable by the pound fee.  Really quite wonderful for little people.

Shiloh Caught EIGHT fish in an hour!!! Amazing!  He is so independent that he thought he wanted to do everything by himself.  Kenny and Pop Pop convinced him that they should help him cast out, but that little guy pulled most of  them in himself.  Kenny said that you could tell it was a struggle, but if there is one thing that Shiloh has, it is perseverance.  Eli was less excited about fishing, but I guess he had a blast playing with a puppy that was there.  I guess that makes it a win win.  E did end up pulling in two.  All of the boys enjoyed themselves, young and old.

Shiloh spotted this chair across the pond and walked over there to fish "by himself" I love all of his funny little ideas and plans.

Toward the end, Pop Pop convinced Eli to fish. The minute he could see it coming he would run away though.

Shi reeling one in

One of the fishies Shi caught

They came home and we grilled up the fish. Shiloh loves fish so it was good!  Thanks Pop Pop for teaching Shiloh the ropes of fishing... or reels rather.

Utah Trip Part 1

I have a weird affinity for goofy pictures.  I almost always choose them over traditionally posed ones.

During the middle of June we visited Utah.  I have to admit,  I was a bit nervous.  I was feeling sick, I had a 2 and a 3 year old who were going sit in the car for 2 and a half hours, then go through airport security, and then be on a plane for 2 hours.  I knew once we actually got to Utah things would be great, but I was pretty skeptical about the actual getting there part.  We had a miraculous voyage out.  The boys didn't cry once the whole time.  Did you get that? No crying the. whole. time.  It was amazing.

Now on to more exciting things.  We got there on a Friday night, fairly late.  We crashed at my parents house.  The next day, we saw most of Kenny's family.  First we went over to his sister Rachael's house.  She was, unfortunately going to be at girls camp for most of the week while were there, so we wanted to make sure and see her family.  Then we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Jensen's house for dinner.  

One of Ken's sister's families couldn't make it this trip. So sad, but we got all of the cousins that could make it in a group picture.  I just loved the funny faces in the picture above so I had to put it.

Maya and Camille with E

Spencer and Shiloh playing a game.

The two peas in a pod, E and Becca

Shi eating ice cream with the cousins

The boys had soooooo much fun with their cousins.  I have always said that Shiloh thinks he should have been the youngest of seven so that he could have a bunch of older people constantly paying attention to him.  Needless to say he was in heaven.  There was never a lack of older girl cousin attention to be paid to him.  Eli had a lot of fun too. He and Becca hit it off!  They had each other giggling and giggling.  They would hide under tables, play cars, and throw balls at each other.  They seemed to be quite well matched.  It never ceases to amaze me how kids can just become best friends in 5 minutes.  I love it.

I just loved this pic of me and my SIL, Janelle

E eating his cupcake

 

 

 

Spencer blowing out his birthday candles

I actually didn't get many pictures of the rest of the people that were there. I am horrible at wanting to stop having fun so that I can take a picture of the fun.  I really need to get better at that, because I always regret not having more pictures of our events and the people we saw.  We had such a fun time, and the fun was just beginning.

Back Track to th End of May: Eli's Birthday

 So I failed to document a very important mile stone in Eli's life.  He turned 2!  For the past 4 months, I have been in nauseous, Morning Sick oblivion, so blogging hasn't necessarily been a high priority.  Eli had a very low key Birthday, for the above stated reason.  We opened presents in the morning, and then for dinner, Kenny brought home a Papa Murphy's pizza (in which Eli ate half of a large all to himself!) and Ken also had the goodness to buy some of their cookie dough and a #2 candle so that we could still have a treat and I didn't have to worry about making anything.  That is one good man! Luckily for us, Eli is young enough and easy going enough, that he didn't notice how low key everything was.

Eli opening some gifts.

Nanna and Pop Pop got him a sand set

Eating the cookies before he blows out the candle.  I love toddlers!

 Eli is a wonderful little boy.  He definitely lets you know what he wants, but he really is a happy kid most of the time. He loves pizza. He loves cookies. He loves cheese.  That might be it.  Getting him to eat is one of our largest frustrations with him.  He loves to do anything that Shiloh is doing, much to the chagrin of his older brother.  They are starting to play well now that Eli talks so well.  Eli has the amazing ability to play with one or two things, by himself, for an hour or so.  It is quite nice.  He is very good at keeping himself entertained.  He loves to get into things.  He loves animals. He loves trains and tractors and pretty much anything that moves.  I think his favorite thing in the whole world though is to go play in the sand box.  We love you E! We are glad that you are in our family!

Garden Colors

The garden has come to life and we are tasting it's fruits...and vegetables.  We have been eating green beans, summer squash, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, kale, peppers tomatoes, tomatillos, and peas.  Here are a few highlights of the colorful garden.

Painted Acorn squash.  Tastes good and looks good

Purple cauliflower, which is more like purple broccoli.  Shiloh picked out this plant and planted it himself.  He was proud of his purple cauliflower.

Cushaw Squash.  These baby's get huge ad they are producing like crazy!

Spaghetti Squash

Pumpkins are starting to turn yellow

Patty Pans, our favorite summer squash.

White Pumpkins

Awww how cute, the three melons are all cuddly.  We actually have some large watermelons this year.  That's a first for us.

We are tasting new heirloom tomato varieties every day.  Shiloh is our big tomato eater.  He will go out to the garden pick a tomato and bite right in. 

This one is an evergreen tomato.  Huge, green, and ripe

The mullberries are dropping, get out the tarps and shart shaking!

Almost every day the boys and I take our rounds in the wagon or "blue dragon" as Eli calls it. We check the chicken's food and water, then the peas, then the greens bed, then Britt's flower bed, then the herb bed, and the blueberries bed  and so forth around the "farm" until we check up on everything, but the whole time we are going around all Eli can think about is MULBERRIES.  If we are picking strawberries or smelling chocolate mint he is saying...Ummm cai ha some muberries.  For weeks we had been watching for the wonderful day when the mullberries would be ripe and finally it came.  The first few days you have to hand pick them.  The boys can eat them almost as fast as I can pick, so at first we don't get too many to save, but soon they started dropping.  Then we get out the tarps and start shaking.  It's like berry rain. 

This was our berry cleaning party from our first shaking. We froze 4 gallons of berries, because the boys love them frozen and they are great in our green smoothies. 

This was our first batch of jam.  We froze some strawberries and made some strawberry jam too. 

The Garden is growing rapidly, Green beans are close to picking time, little tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos are growing, squash are beginning to flower, and we ate our first cabbage head. 

We Love Missouri: Rock Bridge State Park

 

We decided that we needed explore the state we live in a little more thoroughly.  We always say to everyone that we love it here, and we do, but we realized we hadn't done much exploring.  So we have a goal to see more of what Missouri has to offer because, well, we want even more reasons to love it.   The first place we decided to check out is Rock Bridge State Park.  It is just about 45 minutes away from us, and we couldn't have picked a more lovely day to go.  We also didn't even see the half of what the state park there had to offer, so be forewarned, we will probably be revisiting this title down the road.   You can see the main attraction  in the above picture.  It is this massive rock bridge (duh!) in which a stream goes through.  The really amazing part about this whole place is there wasn't a "Stay on the designated path" mentality.  There were paths, but park rangers said to feel free to go under the bridge and explore off of the path as well.  If you know me and Kenny at all, you know that is definitely the way we like it.

Before we started our trek, we had a picnic lunch.  A cute fuzzy caterpillar joined us as well and was a highlight for the boys.

There was a little stone plaque right by the picnic area that the boys got all sorts of use out of while Ken and I finished eating.

Here is a view of us heading into the tunnel.  The boys had a blast throwing rocks into the water and keeping their eyes opened for bats!

We decided to have a go with some of the boardwalk paths.  What you don't see in these pictures...there were soooo many stairs, sometimes 20 or so at a time and they went up and down and up and down.  Eli loved it!  Which is great.  He didn't want to stop.  He wanted to just keep going.  No nature admiring for him, just pure climbing and energy disposal.  Needless to say, he kept me warm and a little out of breath.  Notice cute Shiloh's walk and how big he was carrying his own backpack and both sippy cups.

The story that you can't see from this pic:  Shiloh having a freak out just prior and Eli rolling his cup off of the boardwalk for attention, and me, daringly mind you, climbing over the fence and onto the mountainside to get the cup to avoid further screaming from Eli.  We lucked out because a tree root stopped it from rolling off the twenty or more foot cliff into the stream below...  The things you do for your children and, maybe more importantly, for a little peace.

Just outside the Devil's Icebox, a very chilly cave with bats.

Shiloh in the cave.  He got to see a few bats and was very excited about it. I didn't go in.  I have seen enough bats in my life that I was content to just let them alone.

This is a view looking up from Devil's Icebox. The walls were covered in moss and ferns and it was just gorgeous.

We loved this outing.  The boys had a blast, Ken and I had a blast, and we got to discover more about where we live.  I am actually really excited to see more of this state park and to explore the other state parks that are close by.  Stay tuned for more posts about why we love where we are.