A Camping We Will Go

Every year for my Dad's birthday we head up to Oneida Narrows for our family camping trip. It is one of my favorite times of the year. I complain about how much work it is to get ready and how stressful it is with two toddlers around water, but it really is so fun once we get up there. This year we borrowed the family trailer which is about 30 years old, but it is in perfect condition. It used to belong to Tyler's Grandma and Grandpa and they would take it all over the country and then come home and figure out what they could add to it to make it better. So pretty much the trailer has everything you would ever need and more. It became the joke on the trip that if someone forgot something they should look in our trailer because it was probably in the vintage 1980's trailer. 

Most of my pictures of the trip are in the trailer because that's the only place I remembered my camera, so here's a lot of pictures of us hanging out. 

 Sadie was so funny on this trip. One night I made mac and cheese for the kids because they were starving and Sadie wanted some. She told Meg later that it was "the best mac and cheese she has ever had!" I'm just glad the little kids like my cooking. 

 When we weren't hanging out in the trailer, we spent our time at the lake. Oneida Narrows is like the best kept secret of Idaho. There are rarely any boats on the lake and the kids can spend all day catching fish and crawdads, and swimming by the dock. Here's some pictures of us at the lake.

Gage loves fishing and that's where he'd be every minute of the trip. He caught this huge fish with just a little hook at worm. The fish was almost as big as he was!

 We also spent a lot of time on the boat. My family grew up water skiing and we all love it.

 Darren is really good at wake boarding

and Ryan is really good at skiing on one ski

 and then there's me. I have tried for years to ski on one ski, but I just can't do it, so I just show off my moves on two skis.

 Hannah tried to get up on water skis

But this is usually how she ended up. 

One year she'll get it. It just takes a lot of practice. 

At night we would have dinner together and then hang out around the campfire telling stories and laughing. The only bad thing was that we all got eaten alive my mosquitoes.

 The kids played in the sand box and got really dirty, but they had so much fun.

 Brayden made a "toilet" and he wanted me to take a picture of it.

 I didn't get pictures of this, but we all got to go floating down the river a few times. The only scary part was that Gage got away and almost went down the second half by himself. Ryan tried to catch him, but he couldn't catch up. Luckily a guy was in his truck and saw him. He drove down the river a ways and then got in the river to catch him. It was so lucky he was there or I don't know what would have happened.

Now that we're back home, it's back to reality. I'm spending the day today washing and trying to get things unpacked. Even though I'm complaining about the laundry now, it was so worth it to spend time with our family!

15 Months

This Handsome little guy had his 15 month check up the other day

Here's his stats:
Weight: 20.6 Pounds (15%)
Height: 31.2 Inches (50%)
Head: 17.9 Inches (15%)

He's a little guy, but he is sure full of energy.

At 15 months Caden:
-Walks all over the house
-Loves to make messes
-Waves when you tell him to say "hi" or "bye" to someone
-Says "woof, woof" when you ask him what a puppy says
-Will only eat grapes, strawberries, grapefruit,  peanut butter and honey sandwiches, mac and cheese, toast, and hot dogs.
-Has to have his blankie and binkie when he sleeps.
-Gets beat up by Makayla a lot, but instigates a lot of the fights.
-Has learned how to cry and whine to get attention.
-Loves to swing and go down the slide all by himself.
-Gives the best hugs, kisses, and snuggles.
-Nicknames: Cader-tot, Handsome, Little Man, Cader-bugs.

Yup, we love this little guy more than anything and love that he is a big part of our little family!

A Sparkling 4th of July

We love the 4th of July and this year we partied for 4 whole days! It started out on the actual 4th of July on Thursday when we went to my parent's house for a bar-b-q and fireworks. 

Here's my cute mom with 9 of her grand kids. 

 My family was ready for the fireworks.

 Ryan and the boys were stoked. Can I just tell you how cute Ryan is with his boys? And the boys just love him to pieces.

 and Darren and Meg's family

 And of course my cute Mom and Dad.

 Sadie and Makayla are the best of friends. Makayla just follows Sadie around and Sadie is so nice and considerate of Makayla.

 My handsome little man with his sippy cup that he cannot let go of... ever.

 I personally enjoy Tyler photo bombing this one.

 Before it was even dark the kids were begging to start fireworks, so they started out with some smoke bombs.

 Then it was on to sparklers.

 This was Makayla's first time with sparklers and she enjoyed them at first, until it burnt out and she accidentally grabbed the end of it and burned her hand, so she didn't like it after that.

 Hannah takes such good care of our kids. She's like their mini mom. Oh and thanks Caden for photo bombing this picture.

 After fireworks we drove up to the Land. It worked out perfectly because the kids got to sleep the whole way up. We had so much fun up at the Land. Some of the high lights include:

Dancing to every possible campfire song. This was the cutest because Makayla would dance in circles singing an Caden would rock back and forth with his version of "dancing". After Tyler was done playing a song Makayla would say, "Nother song, Daddy".

 Makayla and Grandpa got some sleep after reading books.

Makayla was in 7th Heaven with Grandma and Grandpa reading to her

And Caden loved his snuggle time with Grandpa

 Tyler and I ran the Tabiona 5K again this year. I was so excited because I have been training all year for it. I just didn't want to come in almost last place like I did last year, but it didn't go like planned. I started out really great, but then I had to go to the bathroom... like really bad... like I couldn't run any longer if I didn't go. So TMI, but I ran behind some bushes and did my business. Unfortunately that took quite a few minutes and I just couldn't catch up. I finished the race in 35 min, but I know I could have done it faster if I didn't stop. Next year, right? Tyler on the other hand did so good and finished the race in 24 minutes. I'm so proud of him!

Then it was off to the Tabi parade. I love this parade because it is such a small town parade.

My kids were so excited for the parade in their new 4th of July outfits thanks to Grandma Terry.

P.S. I told Makayla she looked like a diva in her outfit and she said to me, "I not a diva, I Kay-Bugs!"

Case in point. 

And now for your viewing pleasure, here is a picture overload of my kids at the parade. 

 I think the kids' favorite part was the candy. We sure got a lot of it.

 The rest of the time we relaxed at the land, went on 4-wheeler rides

And hung out by the river. 

Bye-bye 4th of July. See you next year!