Summer Camping

Thank goodness the busy-ness of building didn't stop us from being able to enjoy our favorite camping spot!  It was a glorious weekend, even warm enough that I jumped in the water!

Dallin begged me to "take lots of pictures as I jump"... I love the sequence:

Jace loves the idea of being in the water...

but would rather just play on the dock in actuality...

This fun floaty literally kept the kids busy for HOURS:

A big windstorm came through one afternoon- It was FIERCE!  We ended up going into town because we didn't really want to be in the trailer with all the big trees swaying so perilously close.  On the way home we were shocked by how much damage had been done- There were trees on power lines all over:

When we got back to our trailer, this is what we saw up the hill across the road from where we camp:

The tree in the middle literally snapped off mid-trunk... amazing that the house was spared.  The neighbors told us that the arborist that came said that the only thing that could have caused it to break in that way was an actual tornado that just touched the tip of the tree!  Yikes!

Moving Right Along

It's been busy busy out at the property, we're excited to see so much happening so quickly!

Bryson got some lessons in the finer things in life:

Chainsaw 101 

I wish that this picture was closer up:

My love holding my baby's hand in one hand and a chainsaw in the other, what could be more manly than that?  

The building site officially clear and ready for digging the foundation!

Yes, someday we will have a fantastic view...

And then there was a hole for a foundation(!!):

That is one massive hole- thankfully no springs decided to make an appearance in the middle of where the basement will be!

Our very deep and thus very expensive well:

 700 feet deep to be exact.  We wasted money paid a well witcher to come 'witch' the land prior to drilling and the spot he kept coming back to was pretty close to the middle of the driveway.  He wasn't really interested in trying other areas, but we were willing to do a minor rerouting of the driveway if it meant we'd hit water quickly.  700 feet isn't very quick *sigh*.  And even at 700 feet deep, we only got 3 1/2 gallons per minute.  We're very confident that we could have had Jace act as water witch and found water by 700 feet.  At least we know it's clean!

So getting only 3 1/2 gallons per minute bought us a nice new holding tank...

 I had the kids convinced it was a swimming pool for a while.

My Baby is TWO!

I just can hardly believe that my baby, my caboose, my last, is already TWO!  TIME JUST NEEDS TO SLOW DOWN ALREADY!  Well, let's get into our house, then it can slow down *grin*

Happy Birthday Jace, we bought 25 acres!  We started out little mans birthday by him ooohing and aaaahing over the "PACK HOE!!" that was doing wonderful things to our new driveway.  

Later that day, back at my moms, I realized I hadn't heard from him in a while, and went searching... I found him happily sitting in the sauna (it's mostly our storage closet right now!)- he'd somehow drug a chair into there and was just sitting there babbling to himself!  It was too cute.

This boy sure does love anything with wheels- He lays his head down on the floor or couch or counter so that he's eye level with his vehicle of choice and just watches the wheels turn as he drives it back and forth.  It makes it easy to know what to get him for birthdays...

A school bus in one hand...

and a track hoe in the other...

Wildest dreams coming true!

 He drove his new vehicles for the longest time along the couch- and screeched if anyone came close enough to impose on his space- I think he figured out in record time that his birthday presents were HIS.

We celebrated with cake and ice cream today... he seemed really concerned about the car being so close to the fire...

 Or maybe he just wanted to skip the candles and singing and eat because as soon as those candles were gone, so were his worries...

and he thoroughly applied frosting to his e.n.t.i.r.e face.

Happy birthday to my big boy!  It's so hard to really treat him like a big boy because I DON'T have another baby that's making him grow up... I love that he still loves to snuggle and give loves so much.

Jace's favorites at age two: (according to mom *grin*)
Favorite Color: orange - he's got some orange shirts that he picks out an awful lot.
Favorite Restaurant: anywhere with french fries
Favorite Food: french fries
Favorite Drink: milk
Favorite thing to do: drive cars, look at cars, read books about cars 
Best Friend: Hailee
Favorite Movie: Cars 2
Favorite TV Show:  Curious George
Favorite Toy: any Car
Favorite Animal: Buddy (my parents yorkie)
Favorite Book: Cool Cars
What he wants to be when he grows up: A race car driver