The Mott Family: May 2016

We spent a lot of time in May down by our firepit area behind our house, working hard and hanging out. Here’s Daniel working, and Lizza on top of the giant pile of wood we had cleared out:

Tristan up in a tree trimming dead branches, and Rachel building a fire just for fun:

Cindy roasting marshmallows in a cape; Oliver posing.

Funny video. I love when my kids think I'm taking a picture but it's really a video so they do super long poses and then I tell them.

Hanging out:

Hanging out with cousins:

View from the firepit of the mountains (and a rainbow):

Same rainbow from our front porch. We really love where we live.

Other May stuff:

Baseball. Lots and lots of baseball.

Fly-fishing. Lots and lots of fly-fishing. This was when Rachel was almost 12, so she finally got her own waders and rod and started learning.

I had found this funny to-do list on the counter – it looks like either Rachel or Lizza’s handwriting. I’m not sure why they would have been home from school, but I’m sure Cindy was thrilled, and clearly together they had big plans (at least for the daytime; their evening was wide open).

Mother’s Day pic at my parent’s house with all my babies. They look so young here – everyone really has changed a lot in the last two years.

The kids with two of my brothers, looking at a photo book of all the grandkids:

And holding their newest tiny baby cousin who was only a few days old. For funny reasons too complicated to explain, we gifted her this fancy Star Wars book. I’m sure it was appreciated.

More May things:

Sunday chats with friends (Cindy’s best friend lives right next door and the fence between us doesn’t quite go to the edge of our backyards, so it works out perfectly for these two. Cindy had been told she had to stay at home, so they were both super careful to each stay on their own side)

Rachel getting a ride on her friend’s 4-wheeler:

And last day of school. I’m really hoping it was also pajama day for Henry and he did not just wear those for no reason.

That afternoon we headed up to Daniel’s sister’s house near Pineview Reservoir (about 1 1/2 hours from our house) to start off our Memorial Day weekend.

The kids loved doing fun things with their cousins, like puzzles:

And floating boats made out of paper and tinfoil in the hot tub:

The next day some of us went fly-fishing and some of us hung out at the reservoir.

I had told Cindy she could pack her own little backpack with a few toys to play with on our trip. It made me laugh when we got there and I opened up her backpack and saw the “special treasures” she had decided to bring: a stuffed animal that she never plays with, a fancy music box that weighs about 5 pounds, an Olaf bean bag made out of a sock, a mini Spot-it game, a black stress ball, some sort of weird horn/trumpet noise-maker, a stained-glass Tinkerbell, and three crystals. So basically zero normal toys. She later confessed that she had run out of time while she was packing it up, so she had panicked and just grabbed a bunch of random things from under her bed.

The next day we headed to the Strawberry River for part two of our Memorial Day weekend adventure: camping and fly-fishing.

Here we are hiking along the river, in winter coats (because it was freezing) but also sandals (to play in the water). It makes me a little sad looking at all these pictures from two years ago, because this area is one of our favorite places to go as a family, and just this summer there was a huge fire that burned this whole canyon. It probably won’t look like this again for awhile.

Daniel with his fly-fishing crew:

Everyone watching Ollie measure the fish he just caught before he lets it go:

Rachel perfecting her cast:

Playing the Family Game, gathering handfuls of sage (they told me they wanted to sprinkle it around our campsite to make it smell nice):

Making tinfoil dinners:

Back on the river while dinner cooked:

Hanging out around the fire (I don’t remember why Cindy was feeling such sadness):

Stylishly gathering wood:

More hanging out around the fire:

All cozy in the tent:

Day Two of camping and fly-fishing.

I can see here that we must have had giant marshmallows for breakfast. That was nice of me.

Hitting the river bright and early. It was a little warmer the second day, which was nice because the younger kids were able to play in the water a bit, and Cindy was able to swap out her winter coat for this Sunday woolen blazer (I guess the treasures in her backpack weren’t the only questionable things she packed)

Henry doing Henry things:

Oliver fishing in one of my favorite spots on the river (I’ve never actually caught anything in that spot, but I don’t even care because it’s just so pretty):