Years and years of free marriage counseling

You wouldn't think so but being a landscaper Kurt has an open window into people's marriage. And I am sure this is true with any profession that takes you into a client's house to decide how to spend money. People act different in their own homes than they do in public, obviously. The comfort level is much higher so they tend to let their true (or at least, truer) colors show.

From deciding which elements to put in a yard, to how to spend the allotted budget, and all the way through the actual construction phase, Kurt gets a front row seat on how couples work together. And we have used this to our advantage for years.

Some couples listen to each other. They compromise,  they plan, they respect each other. They communicate really well.

Some couples do not. They criticize, they don't listen, they are just down right rude to each other. And they don't communicate worth beans. Kurt does not like working with these couples. It makes the job no fun at all.

One couple just wanted to argue and get Kurt on their side. They wouldn't even listen to each other. They just kept saying to Kurt "don't you think this is better?" or "don't you think this would look nicer?" Each one just wanted to win. It was very sad. And that was just during the first meeting. We ended up not doing their job because they couldn't stop arguing on what elements they wanted in their yard and it wasn't a job we wanted to pursue so we didn't.

Kurt comes home and will say "I really like how they worked together" or "I really like how they worked things out" or "they really listened to each other". Kurt loves working with these couples. He especially likes the older couples that are so sweet to each other. He says "I hope we are just like them when we get older."

Or he will come home and say "man, they were just mean to each other" or "that was really awkward" or "I don't even want to do their job." This year we had a job for a couple like this. It was horrible the whole time. The couple didn't communicate at all with each other so the husband would tell us to do something a particular way and then the wife would come home and freak out about it and then we would get a nasty phone call about how horrible we were. It was brutal. Kurt finally told them that both spouses have to be present when making decisions so there would be no miscommunication. It got a little better but they still were no fun to work with. They even overpaid us by thousands of dollars because they didn't let each other know that one had already paid for something. Lucky for them, we are honest and gave it back but it would just be interesting to know if they ever would have figured it out.

So that is how we have gotten years of free marriage counseling. Kurt has seen the good, the bad and the ugly. We aim for the good.

And that is why our Christmas tree is on our front porch

Poor Evan. We just can't figure this boy out. During the winter he gets so congested and sounds horrible but he isn't sick. I remember taking him to preschool and telling his teacher that he wasn't sick, he just sounded horrible. He runs around just fine and doesn't have a runny nose at all. It is just when he coughs he sounds like he has pneumonia or something. It's really weird and frustrating. 

Well, this spring and summer he got like that. I kept taking him to the doctor trying to figure out what the deal was. The dr. thought it was allergies and put him on over the counter allergy meds. Those didn't work so we switched meds and added a nasal spray to try to help. It did seem like it helped but not totally. 

So then the "investigator" part of the mom brain kicked in and out of the blue I started thinking that maybe he was allergic to dogs. He had been sleeping downstairs in the guest room since Trevor was born and Cody's crate is in there. Maybe sleeping right next to the crate was causing a problem. So we moved him up to Trevor's room and within a week he cleared up. Hmmmm - interesting. Could be the dog, could be the medicine finally kicked in. We weren't totally sure what happened.

Then a few weeks ago we went to some friends house for an open house cookie exchange and within about 30-45 minutes he started sneezing and sneezing and sneezing. He was a mess so we left quickly and brought him home and put him in the shower. Turns out they have dogs. Very interesting. So now we think he is allergic to dogs. We don't have any medical tests to confirm, just going on observation.

Well he seemed to be doing just fine and then he got all congested again. What changed? The only thing we could figure out was that we brought the Christmas tree in. It has been in our house for about 2 weeks and he has been a mess the whole time. Now we also got a small cold in our house so it was hard to tell if it was all cold or still some allergy mess he had but everyone else got over the cold quickly so we think he is still having an allergy to the tree. And remember when I was pregnant with Trevor and we went camping and spent the night in the ER because Evan was having trouble breathing? We were camping in pines. Interesting. So, to be safe and to see what happens, we moved our tree to the front porch: 

 And now, I'm sure, all our neighbors think we are crazy. But he does seem to be getting better. It has only been 2 days so it could take some time to get all the "tree smell" out of the house but his coughs are drier and his nose doesn't seem so congested.

I don't know. Being a parent is hard. Trying to figure out what is going on and what is causing the issues and what to do to fix them is exhausting. And I know this is nothing compared to what some parents have to deal with. I feel for them! I think I am going to have him tested for allergies. Trevor has a check up this week so I am going to take Evan with me and see if I can't get a lab slip to have him tested. It would just be nice to know what triggers him so that we can avoid it or prepare for it.

And so that is why our Christmas tree is on our front porch.

Our {not so skinny} Christmas tree + 3

Yesterday we went to get our Christmas tree. Evan was going to have a conniption fit if we didn't get it this weekend. Holy moly the boy was obsessed with getting our tree and putting up stockings. I guess saying he is a little excited for Christmas this year is an understatement. So we were good parents and got the tree.

Kurt wanted a tall, skinny tree. He refused to get anything else. The kids wanted a "fluffy" tree and refused to get anything else. You can see who won:

The kids got their "fluffy" tree. It is a lot bigger than we planned on but oh well, they are happy. So today we got the lights on it. Kurt wants to do a ribbon tree this year. Since I have no idea how to do that, we are going to have April and Rick over for dinner sometime and she is going to help us. Hopefully we will actually get that accomplished before Christmas.  ;-)

The last few years our favorite place to get a tree was at WiseBuys because they were $10. Yes, $10. It was awesome. And since we can't keep a tree alive for a week, $10 is a reasonable investment for something that we are going to kill right off the bat. Unfortunately they went out of business this year. Now where to get a tree? We decided to just go to a local nursery that Kurt buys plants at because we get a contractors discount so it wasn't our $10 tree but at least we got a discount.

And while we were there, we found a few other trees we wanted to.

Here is our lemon tree:

Our mandarin tree:

And our grapefruit tree:

Hmm, didn't plan on those trees either but we are very excited for them. We came home and made fresh squeezed lemonade from our new lemons and it was delish!

We added these trees to our apple tree and our blueberry plants. We seem to have a fruit garden going on. Can't wait for all the yummy goodies!

X - Y - Z

A few weeks ago I was talking to a friend at a soccer game and learned a little "secret code." Just thought I would pass it along so you can be as up on the lingo as I now am.

So we were talking (and I don't remember what we were talking about so this conversation is totally made up):

Friend: And then we went there.
Me: Sounds like fun.
Friend: It was so fun. We did this and we did that. Oh, X-Y-Z. And then we went there and then we did that. We just had a really great time.
Me: Wait. What? X-Y-Z. What does that mean?
Friend:(whispering) X-Y-Z  is code for "examine your zipper."
Me: (Blank stare trying to figure out how that played into the conversation.) Oh, my zipper.  Got it! Thanks!

And now friends, you are as cool as me and will now know when someone is trying to give you a secret message that your zipper is down. =~)

Well, hello again

I sat down to post about our most recent camping trip but the computers just are not cooperating. My computer seems to have decided it doesn't want to work anymore - oh, joy since all my work stuff is on there! And Kurt's computer was being unreasonably slow loading pictures. And I mean it was barely loading them at all. Not sure what the problems are so it is just a simple little post tonight.

Life has been busy. I have all these posts floating around in my head that I want to post but just can't find the time to sit down and do it. So here is a quick little recap (and I may post more detailed posts later about these):

1) Soccer is over - it is a bitter/sweet thing really. While I dreaded homework on the nights with soccer practice, I actually really enjoyed the teams and the games. Both Kayla and Evan played this year and boy were we busy with practice 3 nights a week and 2 games on Saturdays. Luckily most Saturday's worked out that we could go to both games and not miss one. It was a lot of fun watching the kids play. (Definitely a post coming on the soccer season)

2) We went camping last week. It was fun, rainy, beautiful, crazy, stressful and relaxing. Could one trip be all those things? Yes, yes it can. I'll tell you how later.

3) Enjoyed a week off of school but am glad to be back on schedule again. We left for our camping trip the Saturday after school got out and came home on Wednesday, just before Thanksgiving. It was so nice to have 4 days to recoup and clean up after the camping trip before we had to jump back into normal life.

4) Thanksgiving - we had a small little gathering at our house. Yes, we came home from camping on Wednesday and I prepared a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. It wasn't really that bad actually. Luckily I had shopped and prepared before we left so it came together nicely.

5) Trevor still is not talking. I can't believe it. The boy gabbers up a storm but doesn't say any real words. I was concerned about it for awhile but after doing some research, I understand that some kids don't talk until 2 so I decided not to worry for several reasons. He has older siblings that get him everything he grunts for so why speak? But mostly I'm not worried because he understands everything we say. I ask him to go get his shoes and he will do it. I ask him to sit down and he will do it. I don't doubt that he knows what we are saying, he just doesn't want to say anything we understand. Just this week he has started repeating "ma ma" back to us if you ask him to. He will also say "da da." The little stinker even "played a trick" on us yesterday. It was the funniest thing. Hailey was asking him to say "ma ma" and he would say it. We would praise him with love, kisses and tickles. Then Kurt walked up and Hailey said "dad, watch, Trevor can say ma ma." Then she said "Trevor, say ma ma" and he looked at me, looked at Kurt and, with a funny little smirk on his face, yelled "da da" and laughed his head off. He thought it was pretty funny and so did we.

So that's just a little bit of whats going on around here. Hopefully I can get a computer to cooperate with me and get some pictures posted soon.

Only 1 room left. And it's the biggest, scariest and messiest of them all!!

So remember, right after last Christmas, I went on a cleaning and purging rampage? Well, I have to say that I did a great job down stairs. I gutted, purged, cleaned and threw a lot away. It was wonderful and felt great but then life got in the way and slowed me down and then I lost momentum all together and upstairs never really got attacked.

Our problem is that we just have too much stuff. We are so blessed to have all this stuff but it is just too much. I'm done with stuff piling up everywhere and not having a place to belong. It either needs a "spot" where it goes or it gets tossed out. That is my motto.

We had moved Evan downstairs when Trevor was born and moved the office upstairs into the toy room. As you can imagine, an office in a toy room is not the best fit. I didn't like letting kids go play in there because they just couldn't keep their hands off my desk. No matter what I said, something would draw their attention (like sticky notes, Sharpie markers, tape dispenser, etc.) and they couldn't resist. So I had a "no kid" policy in the toy room. Bad idea but it was what we had to do to function. 

But I couldn't stand it anymore so I wanted to move Evan back into the "boy room" but to do that I had to make room for him and his clothes in there and that is where the cleaning/purging bug bit me again. I have been on the rampage ever since. The boys room got attacked, the office got moved back downstairs and so the office room was attacked, the toy room got revamped and last weekend it was the girls room. 

Here is a finished picture (forgot to take a "before" picture but imagine you can't see the floor and the dresser is covered in stuff and that's how it looked.)

I pulled 3 bags of clothes out, 2 big bags of garbage and I still have a huge pile of toys and things to donate. Wow - does their room feel good! Plus, the bonus is they can actually keep it clean now!

 Woo Hoo!

That only left our room, bathroom and closet to be done. I honestly didn't even know where to begin. Our room, bathroom and closet have become the "stash" it rooms. Everything gets deposited somewhere in one of these rooms and they were all a disaster. I just felt completely overwhelmed. So I started in the closet. It was the smallest room so I felt like I could actually tackle that one.

So are you ready for the big reveal? I'm going to show you the "before" pictures. It's very embarrassing but so worth the "after" pictures. Ok, here we go:

Our closet is actually quite big but with all the junk we had in there, it felt sooooo small. Look at the tiny space we had to stand to reach everything.

Yikes!

But look at it now!!!!!

It seriously feels like our closet has quadrupled in size! I love going in there now!

This is looking to the left of the closet door "before":

And here is the after:

 Heavenly!

 Ok, so that wasn't so bad. Maybe I should do the bathroom? But it was really bad too. The counter was a very convenient "stash it" spot but yesterday I decided to be brave and go for it.

Here is what it looked like:

And now:

We used to stack the towels on the side of the tub but it always looked messy.

Once the closet was cleaned, I found a spot on the shelves to stack the towels so now the bathtub looks great!

Oh, it feels so good to get rid of stuff. The last 2 weeks I have had a pile of garbage in the garage because I kept overflowing the garbage can. Literally the garbage truck came and I reloaded the can with all the garbage in the garage. The can was full and the truck wasn't even off our street yet. This week we finally got rid of all the garbage in the garage.

Now, the only room left is our room. I won't lie - it's bad. It has become the ultimate stash it room. Everything from the closet moved to the bedroom. Now I have to go through all the papers and files and decide what to keep and where to keep it. Oh man. It's completely overwhelming.

But I better do it soon. It is very stressful walking into our room because we just feel gross and yucky. Last night Kurt threatened to sleep in the closet because it is so much cleaner. ;-)  

I better get cleaning! Wish me luck - I'm going to need it!

Wedding Pictures!!!!

Here are the pictures of my dad's wedding!

It was a beautiful day and everything went perfectly.

Me pinning the flower on my Grandma (dad's mom)

Karen's niece played the flute as they walked down the aisle. It was really pretty. 

Here is my dad and his best man, Uncle Scott.

Wedding ceremony:

The Happy Newlyweds!

Our Little Family

My grandma, Dad and Karen

Karen's daughter, Lorraine, was her Maid of Honor

Here are our new brothers and sisters! And cousins!

Karen has 4 children. Lorraine is the youngest (left in the coral dress), Kirk is just to the left of Karen, Ryan is just to the right of my dad and Adam is just to the right of Ryan (in the front holding the little boy, who is actually on 3 weeks younger than Trevor).

They are one fun group!

Hailey and her new cousin, Sage.

At the reception:

You may or may not be looking at our Christmas picture this year so don't be surprised if this shows up again.

All of Karen's girls:

A Quick Little Camping Trip

Last weekend was the only "by" weekend in the kids soccer schedule so we made plans to get out of town. Since the kids had school and refused to miss it (yes, they didn't want to miss school - can you believe it?), we left Friday after school (they have mini days on Friday so it works out good). I just have to say that Friday to Sunday camping trips are just too fast. I prefer one more day but this was probably just perfect for what we could do right now.

We, of course, headed to our favorite spot, Dillon Beach. Pretty much all we did all weekend was eat, walk on the beach, eat, walk on the beach and sleep. It was AWESOME! Plus the weather was unbelievable! Usually down there it is cold but this weekend it was 77 on Saturday! More awesomeness!

The morning wake up crew was there:

Ok, is there anything cuter than a baby in a beanie?

Saturday morning walk and playing in the waves

Afternoon walk

Trevor loved exploring

I don't know what in the world these things are called but Evan was obsessed with dragging them back to camp during every walk on this trip. This one was HUGE! Evan is holding one end, Hailey the middle and Kayla the other end. Plus, those things are heavy. And guess who got to take over when Evan got tired of dragging it all the way back to camp? Me. Because I'm an awesome mom like that! (And Kurt was already caring the baby, so . . .)

The only star fish we could get a really good picture of

This is one of the funniest stories (and by that I mean that I am probably the only one who thinks it's funny). On the way home we stopped for lunch and noticed in a parking lot a monster truck. Now anyone who knows Evan knows the boy loves monster trucks. His birthday party that he just had was monster truck themed (and by that I mean I bought some plates with monster trucks on them. Probably no one knew it was monster truck themed). Well, we HAD to go check it out and guess what? They were selling rides in the monster truck!!!! 

The guy "selling" the rides had to be the dirtiest guy I have ever seen. Looked like he had spent his entire life outside, under a vehicle maybe and never showered. He was pretty scuzzy looking plus his "sales" pitches were pretty pathetic (one of the pitches was that it was a fund raiser for the boy scouts. Ok, so I don't know about you but anytime I have ever seen a boy scout fund raiser, I have seen boy scouts around. There were NO boy scouts anywhere to be found. Just saying.)

So we said we would have lunch and think about it. Well, there was no thinking needed for me - we had to do it. When is Evan EVER going to get another chance to ride in a monster truck? I mean COME ON! But Kurt said he didn't like the guy. I said "you are not doing it for the guy, you are doing it for Evan." Kurt said he didn't want to. I said "you are not doing it for you. You are doing it for Evan." I believe he had another excuse but I can't remember it. I told him to get his booty in the stinkin' monster truck! Ha ha ha! (See, isn't that funny?)

So we went back and paid the scuzzy guy the money and Hailey, Evan and Kurt rode in the monster truck. Kayla was scared out of her mind and didn't even want to stand next to it. You know, monster trucks have rather loud engines.

Here they are climbing aboard

All buckled up.

(Doesn't Kurt look thrilled?)

And they survived!

The guy drove it in 3 figure 8's, revved the engine a few times and swerved the steering wheel so they "bounced" on those big, huge tires. They had a good time and Evan can now say he rode in a monster truck.

It was a great weekend!

I can't be sick! I can't be sick!

But it's official - I'm sick.

I have a fever and everything. Oh joy.

And it came so suddenly. My allergies have been bothering me the last few days but nothing bad. This morning I took an allergy pill because I was going with Evan's class on a field trip to the pumpkin patch and I was going to be outside with hay all over and thought an allergy pill would help. All day I have felt it get worse and worse and felt my energy just drain. I think it quickly morphed into a sinus infection because my head is now killing me.

Mom's just shouldn't be able to get sick. It's just not fair!

Or if we do get sick, there should be substitute moms. You know, someone to come in and keep the house running - to keep all the balls that I have just suddenly dropped, going. Wouldn't that be awesome!

Yes, that would definitely be awesome!

What if your spouse was just suddenly gone?

Sorry for the sad topic today but it has been on my mind a lot lately as in the past month we have known of 3 families where this has happened. One of the spouses just suddenly past away.

The first was a friend of a friend and the couple was out on a date night and were driving home. The husband looked over at his wife and she was just sitting there with her tongue slightly hanging out of her mouth. He thought she was joking around but unfortunately she wasn't. She was gone. Aneurysm. They have 3 small children.

The second was a family member of a guy that works with Kurt at church. His nephew-in-law was a motorcycle cop that was killed while on duty. They have 2 small girls.

The third we found out about yesterday morning. A teacher at the kids school lost her husband, who had also been very active in the school. He just went to bed Friday and didn't wake up Saturday. They have 3 small kids.

All heartbreaking stories. All young couples with young families. All there and fine one minute and then gone the next. I just can't imagine.

But it could happen to any of us. Could happen to any of our family members. Nothing is certain. There are no guarantees. And while that makes me want to freak out and to group my family together and never leave the house again, I have to remember to have faith. I don't know the plan for me and my family but Heavenly Father does. He knows exactly what he is doing and I just have to have faith that if someone I know is called home way earlier than anyone on Earth thinks is right, He has a plan. He knows what He is doing. I have to trust Him, no matter what. And that makes me feel safe and secure.

I used to have a really hard time with death. I really, really struggled with it. But for some reason, my mom's passing helped me drastically with it. I don't get it but some how my mom made death ok. She made it beautiful. Those last few days with her where my dad, my brother and I grouped together and took care of her and loved her were precious. They were hard but they were precious. And everyone told me it was ok to be angry and to feel mad but I never did. I didn't feel like that once. My trust in Heavenly Father grew. I had to know that there was something bigger, that I would see her again, that this was just a temporary separation and that it was ok. And it is. It may bite because I want her here but I know that this is just a small part of life and that we will be together again. So yes, I still get sad. Yes, I still tear up when I miss her. Yes, I am battling tears right now BUT I know that in the grand scheme of things, this is just a blimp on my journey to return home to Heavenly Father.

Kurt and I have discussed many times which is harder, to lose a loved one suddenly (like he lost his mom) or to watch them suffer (like I did). We have both bounced back and forth. The conclusion we have come to: they both bite. It is no fun to lose anyone, EVER. However I think the sudden loss would be harder. Yes, I had to watch my mom lie in bed and cry because she felt so horrible and there was nothing I could do, but at least I got to be with her. I got to love her and take care of her to the best of my ability. At least I had that time to spend with her knowing her time was limited. To have them suddenly just gone seems so much harder to me now.

All of this also makes me very aware of the fact that I need to let things go and not get wrapped up in petty "life" stuff. There is something so much bigger than any of us can imagine where none of this crazy, Earthly stuff matters. I need to be a happier woman. I need to be a sillier mom. I need to just relax and enjoy the people around me. So that is my vow ~ ENJOY LIFE ~ especially my kids when they are driving me crazy =~)

So that is my thought today - enjoy your life. Enjoy those around you.

Hope some of that made sense. It was just all bottling up inside and I had to share. Other people are so good at expressing themselves so eloquently. I don't feel like I have been able to do that but this is what I was feeling.

Now, I will go enjoy my crazy, messy house as we have just returned from camping and I have up-teen million loads of laundry to do and I will enjoy them and my 1 year old "helper." And I promise, much happier posts coming like: our camping trip, Evan's bday party and the much anticipated wedding pictures from my dad's wedding!

Hello?? Fellow Bloggers?? Anyone out there??

So I have noticed that quite a few (ok, mostly all) my fellow bloggers have stopped blogging and I just want to say . . .

I TOTALLY MISS YOU!!!

I know, life is busy and blogging takes precious time but just know that I truly miss every single one of you. I miss reading about your family. I miss watching you kids grow. I miss feeling like we are apart of each other's lives, even though we may live far apart. I just miss you!

Posts don't have to be perfect. They don't have to have pictures each time (although, I do love pictures). They don't have to be funny, intelligent, deep thought provoking or whatever else you may think they need to be. They just need to be about you and your family and life.

So just know that YOU are missed. Dearly.

And I am going to try to be a better blogger too. My goal is to blog at least once a week, if not more. So here is to more blogging =~)

Oh, that stinkin' dog!

Mornings around here are pretty crazy. No matter how hard I try to get everything organized the night before, we still all run around crazy. Drives me crazy. I don't like repeating myself 4 times asking someone to do something. Urgh! So we are working on it.

Well Monday morning was just as crazy as the rest of them. We ran out of her barely in time to get Kayla to her first class on time. After I dropped all the kids off, I went over to pick up a lab slip from my doctors office. They didn't open until 8:30 so I had a 1/2 hour to waste. I went over to the Nugget Market, which I never shop at because of their prices, and just wandered around.

At about 8:25 my cell phone rang. I looked at the caller and it was my neighbor. I immediately thought something wasn't right because she never calls me on my cell. I answered it and she said that another neighbor brought our dog over to her house because he was out front. I told her that it couldn't be Cody because he had been in Evan's room when we left. She said "well, he's black, has a blue collar and the name White is on the collar." Sounds like Cody. So she told me that they put him in the backyard. I thanked her repeatedly.

When I got home, sure enough it was Cody in the backyard. I have NO idea how he got out. No clue. Last I saw him he was in his crate (with the door open) in Evan's room. Sometime during all the craziness, he made his escape. I was so thankful for the neighbors!

So, this morning was crazy again. We were all running around and Hailey couldn't find her shoes. No matter how many times I ask and remind them, they don't put their shoes in the garage. We finally found them and ran out the door rushing to school again. I backed out of the garage, shut the garage door and started to pull forward when I had the thought "where's the dog? The door has been open for awhile while we hunted for shoes. Where's the dog?" So in a panic I hopped out and ran to our dining room window, which was open because it was a cool morning.

"Cody," I yelled. Nothing. "CODY!" Nothing. Oh no. So I ran to Evan's bedroom window, also open, trying to see if he is locked in his crate or in Evan's room. The way the blinds were tilted, I couldn't see his crate so I yelled "CODY!" Nothing. No noise at all. Oh man! So I ran to the gate and into the back yard hoping that we left him outside. Nope. So I went to the kitchen window "CODY!" Nothing.

As I ran to the front yard to open the garage door, all I could think of was "do I take the kids to school and then look for the dog, which means he could get farther away, or do I keep them here and we all look and then they are late for school. If I send them to school without knowing where the dog is, are they going to be able to focus or be too worried?" I ran in the house thinking maybe he somehow got stuck in a room upstairs. Nope. Panic was really starting to set in now.

I ran into Evan's room to check the crate door and guess what? There is that stinkin' dog just laying in his crate, with the door open, looking at me like "what is with all the noise? I'm trying to sleep here!" Not once did he bother to get up, respond to his name or make any sort of noise so that I knew he was there.

Oh, that stinkin' dog!

Labor Day Hike

We usually go camping on Labor Day but it just didn't happen this year. I still wanted to do something as a family though. I didn't want to sit at home with all the chores calling my name and the kids trying to sneak off to watch tv. I wanted to do something fun. So I asked our friend if she knew of a fun, easy hikes to do with kids and she did. So off we went. 

Now, let me just say that everyone else was not thrilled with my idea. Apparently being lazy and watching tv sounded like a lot more fun to some of my kids but I dragged them along because "we are a family and we are going to have fun together so get in the car, smile and HAVE FUN!" Ya, it was one of those kinds of trips.

So it was a pretty cool hike. Although I think it would be WAY better in the spring when water is actually flowing in all the little creeks you cross or walk along or see. Not so exciting when it's dry. We will definitely do it again in the spring time.

Hiking with my baby and my man:

So you reach this point were you walk along this long bridge thing. It was really cool.

Then you get to a turn off and you get to zig-zag down the ramps. Doubly cool.

 Evan going down:

Hailey going down:

At the bottom of the ramp was a little pond so we stopped, sat in the shade and had lunch.

And where are is a pond and rocks,

 rock throwing and splashing will occur.

Marty was the thrower and Kurt was the photographer.

The kids were the screamers =)

Then we thought it would be cool to get a picture of all the kids with a splash in the background. But I am sure you can imagine that timing a picture with a splash and all the kids looking at the same time, would be rather difficult. 

Here is what Kurt got:

Missed the splash.

And here is what Lorraine got:

 Got the splash but not 2 kids looking. So use your imagination and put the two together and we got the perfect picture!

 Also, this was the picture that put Kayla over her limit. She was a little challenging that day being that she didn't want to go to begin with. Then she didn't like the splash happening behind her. Oye! It had been so long since she had been difficult that we felt rather out of practice. We weren't quite sure what to do with her. But luckily she was a bit out of practice herself at being difficult because she wasn't that bad and we so we were able to work through it.

 At the end of the trail. 

All smiles for this little guy!