Road Trippin' to Utah!

We made our annual pilgrimage to Utah a little later than usual this year. The kids had a great time staying at Aunt Shannon's, playing on Uncle Todd and Grandpa's farm, and BBQ'ing with the cousins.

Besides the hike to Timpanogos Cave that nearly put Janae into labor (okay, so Brendan forgot how steep the trail was), everything--including the hike--went well and we all had a great time. It was hard to leave, and we already look forward to our next visit.

One of the highlights of our trip for the kids is always the endless pool parties in Aunt Shannon's pool. These four little fishies have tons of fun!

Shannon and Kevin and the kids took us up American Fork Canyon to have a picnic and ride 4 wheelers. Needless to say, the kids had a blast. Connor and dad even got very close to some deer while riding.

The kids love playing with all the animals, especially Grandma's dog BeeBee.

Carter thinks Bryce's dog looks thirsty. He'd better help him get a drink.

Uncle Todd has lots of baby Alpacas on the farm this year.

Look, Connor found a baby Alpaca that matches his hair!

4th of July Fun!!!

Only in the Pacific Northwest can you go for a casual day hike and run into snow...lots of snow. we went for a fun little hike with the Heacocks and Weeks to Boardman Lake. There was plenty of snow, and when we got to the lake, it was still frozen over! Afterward we went back to Heackock's for our annual fireworks display. It was a great day. We're so lucky to be able to spend time with family.

Okay, so we aren't very consistent at this blogging thing yet. we'll try to do better. Carter turned 4 in July. He thinks he is pretty big stuff now. He said he felt taller now that he is 4. its amazing how much of what he can accomplishes is attributed to his 4th birthday! he also got his first buzz cut. That was his idea. He said his hair was too long and it was making him "feel hot and disgusted." Here he is blowing out his candles on his cake that mommy made.

Connor's Special Day

Connor recently turned eight years old. With that came his baptism. He was so excited. He said, "This is the most exciting day of my life." It went very well and was well attended by his family on the Carter side. We are very pleased with what a good boy he is and what a fine young man he is growing up to be. We are proud of you Connor. We love you buddy!

Campin' in the Great Northwest

Our Stake held its Aaronic Priesthood Commemoration (a.k.a Father & Sons) campout recently at Cascade Park. Of course it involved rain. Making delicious hot s'mores, playing in the fire, throwing rocks in the river, and getting downright dirty were just some of the highlights. Oh, and one of Carter's favorites was brushing his teeth outside and spitting toothpaste in the grass. Not sure why that was so cool, but it's the only time he's ever voluntarily been excited about brushing his teeth, so much so that he had to brush them again first thing in the morning before he had even had breakfast. But the best part of the campout?? Playing with Evan and Miles who also attended since we are in the same stake!

Mommy's Big Helper

There are two things Carter absolutely loves to do. Help Mommy, and play in the water. As you can imagine, he is a huge help when it comes time to wash the car, and Mommy always gets done so much faster when he helps. The first thing he did was manage to get his shirt soaking wet. Then he proceeded to chase his sister around and get her soaking wet. Soon the shirt came off, and he attempted to get himself in between the hose and the car as much as possible. The wetter the better is his motto! Ah, to be a kid again.

Hangin' with the Alpacas

We're a little late posting pictures for this one, but we had a surprise opportunity and pulled the kids out of school to visit with Grandpa Robinson, Uncle Todd, and Uncle Andrew in April. Uncle Todd was in Washington on business to pick up a few hundred more Alpacas to be shipped to Utah to add to the growing herd on the farm. Here are some pics of them shearing the animals. Todd says this is necessary so they can fit more of them in the large semi trailers and the animals won't "overheat." After we watched them with the animals for a while, we all went out to dinner together to celebrate Grandpa's 70th birthday, which was that very same day! If you know Grandpa, Todd, and Andrew, you can only imagine how much craziness and fun accompanied dinner! It was good fun, great to see them, and very hard to say goodbye. We look forward to visiting Utah soon.

Heck, what's one more besides a little more chaos (and a lot more happiness!)

Well, for those of you who haven't heard, we are expecting our fifth little munchkin. After months of both being weighed upon heavily by the Spirit (and not telling each other about it), the truth came out. Scary. If we would have talked about our impressions months earlier, we could have gotten this show on the road sooner. We surely aren't getting any younger! Lessons learned in life. We should be welcoming the newest addition to our family just in time for Christmas! The kids are out of their minds with excitement. We shared the good news with the family on Mother's Day. Lauryn is excited to share her birth month with a sibling. Of course, with this new life-changing event for the kids come numerous questions...some easier than others to answer as I'm sure you can imagine. We were a little taken back when Karley came to us four weeks before she even knew and told us she had a dream that we were having another baby. We won't tell you what gender it was in her dream.

Here are a few cute things the kids have said...

Lauryn -- "What do you think we should name the baby?"
Carter -- "Um, Chacho!"
Carter -- "Richie Sexson!" (Seattle Mariners' First Baseman)
Connor -- "Ichiro!" (Seattle Mariners' Center Fielder)


Carter -- "Mommy, does the baby have clothes on?"

Carter -- about every 10 minutes -- "Mommy, when is the baby going to come out of your tummy?"

Carter -- "How long does the baby have to stay in the hospital?"
Janae -- "For a day or two."
Carter -- "Aaaw!" he says impatiently.... the same response he gives over and over every time he is told he has to wait until Christmas time to get the baby.

Happiest Place on Earth - February 2008

We went to Disneyland in February for a week. The kids had a blast. Carter is a bit of an adrenalin junkie we have decided, as he was more than happy to go on every ride, and was quite upset when he wasn't tall enough. Janae had to drag him kicking and screaming from Tower of Terror. Karley and Connor liked California Screamin' roller coaster the best. Lauryn liked the Big Bear River Run. One of the high points of the trip was getting to spend time with our friends and former neighbors, the Woodruffs. We miss them, and had a great time visiting with them.