Estes Park

We went camping with our friends last weekend at Estes Park. It was so much fun and a lot of work! Estes Park is beautiful. It reminded us a lot of Park City but totally surrounded by the most beautiful mountains in what seems like the middle of nowhere.

We got there and set up camp and then walked to a really pretty lake and went fishing. We ate smores and then put the kids to bed and stayed up and talked around the campfire, which is my favorite part of camping by far!

Brin (3) and Mommy

Matt (18 months) and Dad

Matt got up early with Brian and went back to the lake.

Me and Brinley sleeping. I was soooo cold.

Brinley caught moths by the lantern. She loves to catch any kid of bug she can find!

Brinley trying to catch a fish.

Madison was the only one to catch a fish and it was BIG! Brian helped her reel it in but they ended up letting it go.

All the kids!
Now that I am a Mom I can appreciate all that my Mom did to get ready to camp when we were little kids. It seemed like we were always going camping when me and my brothers and sisters were growing up.

Brinley is such a good helper!

You could hold your finger up to the feeder and the hummingbirds would come and land on your finger. It was really awesome!

Summer Fun

We went to The Bay and swam, if you can call it that...the water was soooo cold!

Matt wearing someone else's glasses he found on the grass and eating someone else's chips he found on the ground.

Eating "popsiples" on the porch with Dad.

Very MESSY!

GO ROCKIES!!

Tonight we went to a Colorado Rockies game. It was pretty boring until the bottom of the 9th when the Rockies were up to bat with 1 out and bases loaded. The batter hit the ball into the outfield and it was caught. As soon as it was caught the runner on 3rd started for home. The umpire called him out but then noticed the catcher had dropped the ball in front of home plate and the runner was safe and the Rockies won 1-0!!

The kids were pretty happy most of the game. Brinley was pretty quiet with all the people around and Matthew charmed everyone he met!

Here is Matthew giving all the guys in the row in front of us a high five. They all kept trying to get his attention and Matthew thought it was pretty cool to give them "fives." He was definitely the hit of the row!

This is really random but I couldn't resist getting a picture. After the game there were hundreds of cross dressers riding their bikes through the streets....not sure if this is a victory ride or what! Brinley kept saying "Look at those funny girls." We decided not to tell her they were boys!! :)

What's Been Going On....

Messes, messes and more messes...

Matthew held "Rosy" the tarantula at the butterfly pavilion.

Silly sleeper! Brian and I's favorite thing to do at night is check on the kids and see where they ended up in their beds.

More awesome deals! The total cost of all the toys in this picture.....$1!!

We got this little play set for a whopping $3!!

Lately Brinley will play in her room for hours after we "put her to bed." Brian went to check on her and she was wide awake sitting on her bed backwards with all her toys and books in bed with her singing and reading books.

Brian: Are you having a hard time falling asleep?

Brinley: No, I just singing.

She is so honest and pure hearted. I love her!

While she can make a mess in 1 second flat she is a good girl. The other night I watched her from the stairs as she dumped a smaller garbage into the kitchen garbage, took out the full sack, and then put a new sack in the kitchen garbage.

She is a good little helper and has even learned how to move the chair to the fridge, get out an otter pop, cut it in the center with a knife and give the other half to Matthew who is anxiously waiting for "more pops".................... at least she is sharing right!

Father and Sons Camp Out.

Brian took Matthew on his first Father and Sons camp out. Matthew had blast hanging out with his Dad, going on hikes, playing ball, diving into people's tents, and especially sleeping in the van!

Brinley and I decided to make it a GNO (Girls Night Out) and went to dinner and rented a movie

A cool experience from Brian:

"I had a neat experience last weekend when Matt and I were camping at the father and sons outing. We had had a great night and a fun morning and were getting ready to come home. I tried to start the car with no luck. The van had turned over the first three times I tried, but then just died. After a couple hours of everyone that knew anything about cars looking at it, I had arranged a tow truck to come get us and for Matt to go home with someone else and then Jami to come get me from the repair shop.

After I had done everything I could think to do, I said a little prayer and then thought to maybe call the Dodge dealership we were towing it to. I asked for a service technician and after explaining the situation to him, the second thing he asked me was “Are you using a different key this morning than you drove up with last night?” I was! And had been using the spare I had made the other day I had put in my pocket just in case Matt locked himself and the other keys in the van. I tried the regular key and sure enough the van started right up! I thanked the technician profusely and he explained that my spare would open the doors, but not start the engine because it didn’t have a chip inside the key. Shelley had told us about this, but I had totally forgotten. I canceled the tow truck and we headed for home (with 3 boys from another family whose old suburban wouldn’t start).

This to me shows the love the Lord has for our little family and his willingness to help me out in little situation that. In the grand scheme of things, this really wasn’t life changing or that big of deal, but to me, it was important. He knew I was preparing for finals and concerned about time and a little frustrated this would cut out several hours of my day, not to mention the couple hundred dollars we would have spent if the van would have been towed off the mountain to the shop. This to me is what Elder Bednar and Nephi called, one of the “tender mercies of the Lord.”

My Garden

It has always been a dream of mine to have a garden. Both my Grandpa's always have/had a beautiful garden. I have fond memories of going to their gardens and picking fresh raspberries, peas and baby tomatoes! There is nothing like "homemade" veggies!

Until this year, I have never had my own house or dirt to plant one. I was a little worried at first when after 3 weeks nothing was growing but now my little corner is turning green! I planted corn, carrots, broccoli, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, green peppers, tomatoes and peas. I LOVE to watch my little plants grow. Some of the seeds were so small that I couldn't even imagine something could grow from them.

We have way to many baby dolls so we decided to put one to good use.....scaring the birds away!

Tomatoes

Carrots

Zucchini

Peas

Ants, Ants and More Ants

We had (hope this stays past tense!) and ant problem. We have a patio in the backyard made with those big red brick pavers. We would often see piles of dirt they had moved to the surface and occasionally big groups of ants that we would put any killer on to try and get rid of them. Well, they just kept on coming back so I decided I was going to dig up the pavers and get rid of the ants once and for all. Me and Brin didn't know what we were in for.....

They had made a colony in the railroad ties surrounding the basement window. We lifted up the railroad tie and there were and billion little ants running everywhere along with several big piles of their larvae!

This right here is their interstate! The ants had made these huge roadways underneath the pavers going to the railroad ties and underneath the cement.

Brinley and I thought we had got them all but as we were digging the dirt down we found a zillion more that were living under the cement. We tried the ant killer but they were still moving and more and more kept pouring out of the cracks so we decided the best way to get them all would be to torch them.

This definitely did the trick!