The Cabin and Pioneer Day

This past weekend we spent time at our family cabin.  This cabin was built by my great grandpa, my dad's mom's dad.

The kids had fun doing activities they normally don't do at home.

Cedric enjoyed some solo tetherball.

 Jeff and Lily loved looking for squirrels (there's one on the edge of the picnic table between the two kids).

 Sophie had fun just hanging out as usual.

 Friday night we also had my brother, Isaac and his wife, Candalyn, my cousin, Chandi and her husband, Brian and their boys with us.

 The kids had so much fun on the Tarzan swing and zip-line.

 Jeff's on the zip-line, wearing an orange shirt.

 We played a few games, visited and ate pizza and treats.  Chandi, Brian and boys left that night.

 The rest of us slept over.

Our three oldest were in the bunk beds, Lily on the top, the boys on the bottom (I forgot to get a picture of all of them in their beds).

Sophie, Tom and I slept in another room.  Sophie got her own bed!

I didn't slep well that night and the kids got up really early Saturday.  I tried to keep the kids quiet as long as possible that morning.   

 The kids played some more games.  Tom took them to "The Moon" cabin to swing (another cabin that are friends with my relatives).

 There was some construction going on at our cabin. We'd just gotten a new stove installed and Cedric had fun playing with the old one in the driveway.  We were wondering where all the M&M's had gone!  Cedric had put them in the oven! 

 Here is the new deck being installed.

 Isaac and Cedric had fun together.

 Then it was time to pack up, clean up and head home.

Three of the four kids zonked on the way home.

 And the boys just kept sleeping... We got home about 4pm and they didn't wake up until 5:30!

 We (minus Tom) went back up to the cabin on Monday with most of my family.  

We had fun playing the Candy Bar Game.

 The trash was full of colorful candy wrappers.

 It was fun to escape the heat of the valley and spend some quiet, outdoor time at the cabin.

Tuesday was Pioneer Day (the 24th of July).

Tom worked during the day and the kids and I spent most of the day getting the house picked up.  It was a very productive day.

That evening we went to the Dairy pool to swim and eat dinner with my Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Siblings, etc. (I didn't take any pictures, although my Uncle Bret did.  So I will post that picture when I get it).

Then we left the party about 7pm and drove downtown to Ensign Peak.  It's a mild hike up a hill that the Pioneers often used for various things, such as looking over the valley as they built their new city.

It's tradition for Tom's family to hike this every 24th of July, but I have managed to avoid it for the past 12 years.  Usually they do it in the morning, and since I hate getting up early and I hate hiking, well it was easy to skip out.  But since they did it this time in the evening, I decided to go.

Cedric LOVED it!  He was my little buddy and a chatterbox the whole time.  He kept saying things like "I'm a hiking boy", "wow, look at all those houses!", or "I'm taller than a giant!"

 Tom, Sophie, Lily, Tom's Mom (Nana), Cedric, and Tom's Dad (Grandpa).

 Our whole family at the top.

 Our whole group.  What a view!

 The sunset was gorgeous!

 Sophie was a little crabby at the top.

 Jeff and his best buddy and closest cousin, Tag.

 No wonder she was crabby, she fell asleep on the walk back down.

It was a fun day.  I was so proud of my kids and the good hikers they were.

Eating @ 7 months

Sophie just hit her seven month mark. 

And she wants to be big, just like her big brothers and sister.

(Sometimes they wish they were still little like her.)

Sophie feels so big when she gets to eat big food.

 She used to not eat her baby food well.  I couldn't get her to open her mouth, but she is starting to finally do better in that area.  Funny enough she likes the rice and veggies better than the oatmeal and fruit.  

 Sophie LOVES her sippy cup.  I just put water in it, but she loves to drink from it and tries to do it all by herself.  In fact, when I was trying to feed her before she'd willingly open her mouth, I'd trick her by offering the sippy cup, but quickly slip a bight of baby food in instead when she opened her mouth for a drink.  Most the time she didn't protest, but it was a tiring game.

 She's also eaten a lot of 'people' food too, including pancakes, crackers, Cheerios, bananas, Red Vines :), bread, ice cream, apple sauce and peas.  When she eats she always makes a mmmm sound.

The other night I gave her my corn cob to chew on. 

 She loved it!

 Here she is eating some dehydrated pineapple.  She really liked this to suck on, but got really sticky.

 She also likes to chew on raw carrots and other things that she can't eat, but have flavor.  It's nice she doesn't have teeth yet, because I don't worry about her biting off bits of hard things.  I can't believe how big my baby is getting!  Before you know it, she's going to be crawling...

My Lily

Lily is at a great age right now.  I love that she is still young and innocent.  For example, the other day we were playing a game called "would you rather".  One of the questions she asked me was "would you rather find out Santa wasn't real at age 3 or age 14?"  I said a little nervous that I wasn't sure.  She said "I'd rather find out when I was 3, because if I found out Santa wasn't real at age 14 I'd say 'you mean you've been lying to me for all these years!'"  I love that Santa is still real in her eyes.

Lily is also very mature, especially spiritually.  Last Sunday I was substituting in Jeff's primary class and during Sunday School we were learning about fasting and prayer.  Lily raised her hand and said "fasting is like silver and prayer is like silver, but when you put the two together it's like gold!"  The primary president turned to me and said "I don't know what you're doing, but keep doing it".  The thing is, Lily is just naturally spiritual and naturally creative.  I give her all the credit.  She has also been baring her testimony in Sacrament Meeting the past few months on her own.  This past Sunday she got up and at the end said "I know baring your testimony is the right thing to do because you get a warm feeling inside that doesn't go away."  The other members of the ward comment on what a sweet spirit she has every time.  She is one I don't worry about as much as she gets older and the temptations of Satan grow stronger.  As long as she keeps listening to the Holy Ghost, as she does so well with now, she will be an impressive righteous teenager. 

I love my Lily and the wonderful daughter she is!