May 2015

One of the perks of working from home is that sometimes between meetings Daniel can look out of the window of his office and study the nearby mountains with binoculars to see if he can find anything interesting.  When he discovered a little waterfall he decided to take the boys bushwhacking up the side of the mountain to try to find it.  And they did!

Along with a rattlesnake:                                                             

And a cave! (that is Henry’s “oh, my goodness, all of my dreams are coming true because I have discovered a cave on a mountain and I’m going inside it” face):                                                                                        

Hooray for exploring on mountains!

And also hooray for hanging out in American Fork Canyon with cousins:

And also hooray for Miss Cindy Lou wearing a fake mustache and goatee around for no reason.  She is so great.

Example:

Cindy: acting uncomfortable, like maybe she needs to go to the bathroom                      

Me: Hey, Cindy.  Do you need to go to the bathroom?

Cindy: No, Mom, I’m just tap-dancing! (does a little dance)

Here’s Henry at a tee-ball game:                                                           

And Oliver at the Payson Temple Open House:

And me with all my kids on Mother’s Day:                                                      

Lizza made a fabulous Mother’s Day card for my mom.  You are as sweet as a rose that has just bloomed!  (I swear my kids could work for Hallmark!  It’s like Oliver’s alien card all over again)                        

Also in May:

Double-decker swinging:                                                                                                                 

Boys Night Out instead of Fathers and Sons campout (it was raining) and also Girls Night Out just for fun.  Cinderella movie and frozen yogurt for the girls, and Costa Vida and Age of Ultron for the boys. Happiness for everyone. 

Soccer for Lizza (snow on the ground after a crazy May snowstorm), and baseball for Oliver and Tristan:

A sad, sad accident on the playground at recess for Lizza.                              

And then it was time for another Yellowstone trip! 

Full of all the usual Yellowstone things (plus a giant bandage on Lizza’s cheek in all of the pictures):

Late night swimming at the hotel:                                                         

Waterfalls:                           

Eating lunch+hanging out+building teepees on the shores of Lake Yellowstone:                                          

Getting up early to go spotting for animals:

Lots of animals:                

Eating fancy breakfasts of Costco muffins and smoothies at the hotel:

Standing on this rock:                                                                          

Jumping off of things:                                                                             

And hiking:

After all of that we drove through the Tetons and stayed a night in Jackson.  We saw another grizzly bear, ate pizza, went swimming in a fancy indoor/outdoor pool and relaxed by the pool with hot chocolate.  It was a fantastic vacation. 

You would think that would be it for May, but there’s more!

Like this amazing messaging system that the kids invented.  It involves a teeny tiny basket hanging from some ribbon where you can leave teeny tiny notes to each other:

“Dear Oliver meat me downstairs to tackle with me I love you love Henry”                                              

I can’t think of a more tender way to ask someone to come tackle you.             

Then it was the last day of school, followed by some playing around at Thanksgiving Point.              

 

The day after that we got right down to the business of summer, which meant learning how to fly fish for me, Tristan, and Oliver so that we can go with Daniel.  

After our fly-fishing class at Cabela’s, we took the kids over for some swimming at Grandpa Darcy’s house.

And then we headed right up to Tibble Fork Reservoir to get some fishing practice in.  Little did I know it was going to be the start of a whole new stage for our family.  It’s something we love to do together now.  Daniel is one of the only people I know who sets interesting goals and then actually takes the steps to make them happen.  I am more the type who says, “hey, that would be fun to learn to fly fish someday.”  And then five years later I wouldn’t have done anything about it.  With Daniel it works like this:  “hey, that would be fun if you and the older kids learned how to fly fish so we could all go together.  I will get online today and order fly rods.  Then this Saturday let’s go to a class.  Then right after the class let’s go fishing.” Ha! It’s amazing how much more productive his way is!                                                     

Last day of May:

Sunday dinner with family after church                                                                    

A drive up the canyon to walk around Cascade Springs.  Glad that Cindy came prepared for weather with those giant rainboots.                    

And some reverent exporing on a hillside.  Perfect kind of Sunday. 

That’s it for May!