Random pictures

Here are some random pictures.

Danielle is such a happy, fun baby!
Spencer and the kids.
Classic silly facesCale and Carli reading with their cousin, Grant

Bath time

Danielle had her first bath with her siblings. It is so cute to see all of them together in the tub.

Soccer-finally!!!

So, if you don't know, I love soccer! And I have been looking forward to the day when my children will play soccer, so I can watch them and live vicariously through them. Anyway, Cale just started and had his first game. He never was into playing with balls, and now I'm beginning to wonder if he'll ever be interested in sports. He just kind of jogged around the field and daydreamed. I asked Cale why he didn't run and get the ball in his game, and he told me it was because he didn't want to get tired and sweaty. Lovely. He would rather build things and figure out how things work than play sports. For example, they had soccer practice tonight, and they were all supposed to sprint across the field, but Cale was too busy watching how the assistant coach set up the pop-up goal. It was funny, and I'm so glad he has such an imagination and talent for building things and figuring out how things work, I just want him to be good at sports too. And who knows, maybe he will be good once he learns how to play the game. I am trying to prepare myself if my kids don't like sports, but I think that will be really hard for me, because it was such a major part of my life, and I think it's so important for kids to exercise, and learn teamwork, and all the other fun stuff you learn from sports. He sure looks cute out on the field though. He's of course the smallest one on the team!

LEGO SPACESHIPS

Cale really likes to build spaceships with his legos. He will use up all of his lego pieces building spaceships before breaking them apart and starting over again. He asked me to put these pictures of his spaceships on the blog so his cousins could see them. So here they are! I personally couldn't build these! I think it's amazing how creative kids are with legos. Exciting.

Camping in Arches

If you have never been to Arches National Park in Utah, you should definitely plan a trip! It was very beautiful and fun. We camped there, went on hikes, and swam in the river. Each campsite is set right against huge climbing rocks and the ground is sand, not dirt. The hikes lead to arches, sand dunes, cool balancing rocks, etc. It was a very cheap, fun way to get together with family. We went with my family. 3 siblings were not able to make it, but everyone else was there, including Spencer's brother's family, Matt's brother and girlfriend, and Kristin's friend from her mission.
We drove 9 hours to get there. Our car was packed to the rim. We got there Friday night and set up camp. On Saturday, we went on a 3 mile hike in the morning. I didn't think our kids could do it, but they did pretty good! They probably walked half of it. Thank goodness there were a lot of us to share carrying the little ones. We were hot and sweaty after the hike, and the camp grounds don't have any showers, so we headed down to Moab to swim/bath in the river. It was really fun. The men (Matt, Nathan, Steven, Spencer, and Jeff) decided to swim across the river. There was of course a current, which made it dangerous. They all made it across except for Jeff. He decided not to push it since he is 41 now (jk Jeff!), so he retreated. The other boys started to come back. Matt (Debbie's husband) was having trouble, his legs went numb and he didn't have the energy to swim anymore. He called for help and Debbie (not wearing a swimsuit), jumped into the water to save him. Jeff helped as well and they saved him. It was a little scary. But he was okay.
On Sunday, we hung out at the campground and went for a small hike to another arch. Again, the men had to exercise their caveman instincts and climb up onto the arch. It was a little nerve racking, but they were fine. We also had a sacrament meeting there, and it was really wonderful to do that intimately with our family.
It rained a little bit, but it was nice because it cooled everything off. Then there was a huge windstorm. We thought we were going to fly away in our tents during the night. I was awake half the night, but the kids slept straight through it.
Cale and Carli absolutely loved climbing all the rocks. They had no fear of falling, so it was scary watching them climb higher and higher. I would tell them to be careful and come down, and Spencer would tell them to climb higher.
We had a great time. The best part was being together as a family. I love my family!

Arches Camping trip with Sharon's family and other random people

climbing on the rocks in Arches

The rocks were right at our campsite. Cale and Carli loved climbing a little too much. They had no fear and didn't think about how they were going to get down. Cale thought I was pretty silly when I would tell him to slow down or stay with me or hold my hand. He wanted to do it all by himself and climb as high as the men. It was really cute to see all the boys (and men) in that environment. There's something about climbing that men love-the caveman instinct comes out.

Cale running into the river

If you look close enough, you can see people bathing/washing themselves in the river.

Family camping trip to Arches: River in Moab

We played down at the river in Moab while camping in Arches. It was more of a time to bath since we didn't have access to showers where we were camping.