Given Up

O.K. so I guess I have officially given up the idea of trying to get this thing caught up. Our lives are just to busy and full of great stuff to get this thing caught up. Today is the first of November and we had a great October. It was very busy, but still very fun.

Eli is now 7 1/2 months old and still just the cutest, craziest, funnest little boy ever. He makes our lives SO much fun. He has been sitting independently for the past month and he broke two bottom teeth this past week. He has been rolling from his back to front for a few months but never rolled as a means of getting from here to there. I think it is because our floors are pretty hard. When he lays on my bed he will roll quite a bit. He has been making backward progression for about a month, but that was just really frustrating for him. He would see something in front of him and try and try to get it and just end up under the couch. This week he has really started making forward progress. He can do a pretty quick wiggle worm to get something if he has a good incentive. I haven't been to the Dr. lately to have him weighed and measured but he looks like your average one year old. At his appointment when he was 5 months he was in the 95% for height and weight and hasn't slowed down since. I will be adding more soon. I promise!!! But for now it is time to go to bed so I can get a good start to the week.

Bridal Veil Falls

Yes, I am still trying to catch this thing up. I got stuck because I had some pictures on my phone and didn't know how to get them on my computer. Well I finally figured it out! I guess I had my phone at Bridal Veil Falls and here are some very bad pictures. I should really just get a nice photo from online. Oh well, I am thinking most of you have been there several times anyways.

 

view of the falls

 

little Myka

 

Nora and Kyla. They were excited to wade in the water even though it was sooo freezing. Now for the next hurdle - getting videos off the new video camera, edited, and posted. Lots of learning to do! Hopefully it doesn't take too long.

Bean Museum in Provo

After about a week in Kanab I headed north to visit friends and family. We stayed with my best friend from High School, Amy and her family. After being treated to a fabulous dinner, the kids headed to bed. Well not really, they were so excited to have a sleep over that noone went to sleep till quite late.

The next morning after a quick breakfast we headed down to Provo to Shanna's. With both cars full of kids we drove up Provo Canyon and "hiked" up to Bridal Veil Falls. The kids had a great time playing in the falls, although it was super chilly. I didn't bring my camera or phone, but Nora had her camera so we took a few picture with it. Which she promptly erased when her cousin wanted to take more pictures on the way home. So no pictures of that adventure :-(.

We headed back to Shanna's and had super yummy Navajo tacos! After lunch we met back up with Amy and my good friend Marci at the Bean Museum on campus. It was a place we visited often when we lived in Provo, so fun to go back and visit. The girls remembered quite a bit of the museum and eventually remembered their friends also.

 

Eli fit just right in the hippo's mouth! Mmmmm. . .nice and meaty.

 

Amy, Levi, Claire, Judd, and Gage in front of the zebra herd. What a silly bunch!

 

I let Kyla take the camera and take pictures of all the kids in front of their favorite animal. Parker, Nora, and Kaylee in front of the Pudu (if you can tell through the reflection of the glass)

 

Kyla really likes to take very up close pictures. I am not sure if she just likes to play with the zoom or really gets this close.

 

All the kids in front of the elephants in the center.

HIke! Hike! Hike! Hike!

So while we were staying at my parent's house, we sat down and gave the girls some options of what they wanted to do while they were in Kanab. "Do you want to go swimming, to the sprinkler park, horseback riding, riding 4-wheelers, ride in the Model T, hiking, etc." And they said "Hike! Hike! Hike! Hike!" We were a bit suprised at the answer and even asked a couple of times but it was always the same. I guess that growing up we went hiking so much I didn't really think of it as something very special. My girls probably would have chosen hiking over going to the zoo, village, or museum. I am glad they encouraged us to take the opportunity to get out and do it, especially since there is not any places very close to us to go hiking. We stuck with a basic hike and went up the squaw trail behind the park.

 

We thought the sun was going to be much lower in the sky and possibily setting; but it was very much in full force and making us sweaty and hot. We ended hiking about a mile up and a mile back.

 

We did get high enough up to see a good view from the town.

 

Kyla didn't want to stop when the other girls were ready to turn around so Mormor and her went up to the next overlook.

 

Can you see the lizard under the rock? The girls had a lot of fun chasing lizards. Kyla was pretty set on catching one, maybe next time.

 

They did a fabulous job hiking, especially little Myka. By the time we got down the mountain she wasn't going to be talked into walking up a little hill for me to get a picture though, she was ready for ice cream from The Junction. BTW we did end up doing most of the other things we listed as options for the girls. They really enjoyed the pool at Kanab and it was fun for us to take them. I did not get any pictures there or I would have posted some.

Moqui Cave

After playing in the sand caves for awhile we headed up to Moqui Cave to let the girls look around.

 

They thought the dinosaur tracks were pretty cool. I really need to take them hiking where they can find them by themselves one of these days. They liked the displays inside but, of course, loved the gift shop most of all. I must admit the gift shop at Moqui is pretty awesome. I was kind of sad they didn't have very many rings like they used to.

 

Sand Caves

We had a great time letting the girls explore the sand caves one of the days we were in Kanab. I haven't been there very many times, but it was really neat to see all the different layers and colors of sand. You'll be walking along and notice a round patch of really white sand right in the center and look up and see exactly where it had fallen. We brought buckets, scoops, and containers for the girls to collect different colors of sand. They had fun and tried to be careful not to mix the colors.

 

It was cool how contrasting the colors were.

 

 

The girls liked playing peek-a-boo in this fun window and finding all the different openings to the caves.

 

We collected samples of green, purple, red, orange, pink, and white. Someday when I have time we will do a fun craft with it.

 

Eli liked it too, from the view on Mommy's belly.

Riding Pepe

One of the girls' favorite activities when we go to Kanab is to ride Pepe. She is a sweet horse that is used by a young girl to do barrel racing. I was surprised that Myka was so excited and eager about getting on and even trotting. She loved it!

Last time we went, there was an empty corral that we used to let the girls really learn how to control the horse and then let them do it all on their own. This time the corral was full of cows so we just had the field. I did not feel confident in Nora and Kyla's skills to let them go all by themselves in the field so I helped lead the horse the whole time. Pepe is a great horse, but at the time was being trained for barrel racing. So she was ready to race and not thrilled at the nice leisurely pace we wanted to go. Nora and Kyla loved when I would run with the horse so they could trot her. If Daniel was there we probably would have let them go on their own after a little instruction.

Having a great time and I got some good exercise! We are so thankful for the friends who allow us to ride her!