The rest of July

Kristi sent this gem to me:

Since dogs love to do it, it must be pretty great!

An amazing sunset on my way home one evening:

Lots of fun playing with Tyler:

Some friends invited us over to pick cherries again this year, so yummy!

Tyler laid on the grass while we picked and he was very very interested in the texture!

We are absolutely loving having our backyard done- a little slice of paradise!

 A Sunday afternoon game of kickball:

This silly boy got a hold of my phone:

Still lots of eager helpers around here!

I noticed a smoke from a fire far too close for comfort:

This one was right off the highway, just behind our friends house- they got it under control pretty quick though.  Fire season is always stressful around here!  

Brother Jensen promised all of his scouts that if they earned more merit badges than him (49), he'd take them out to a steak dinner.  Well, with Covid, lunch worked better for all of them and they decided on Mexican instead!  So proud of all of these boys!

Josh, Bryson, Parker, Dallin and Brother Jensen... Bryson ended up with 56 and Dallin with 58 total Merit Badges! 

Hailee's fierce pose:

One morning, her hair was pretty much dry by the time she came down and I got around to doing it, so I brushed it out dry and just put it in a pony tail... a BIG pony tail:

I was pretty set on not starting solids until he was closer to 6 months, but, on a whim, the kids convinced me to let him try:

It's just so much more work 😂

And here's all of us!

Nathan's Mom wanted an updated family photo... and this was the best we could do 😑

Why is is so difficult to just look at the camera and smile??  I think I said at least 50 times, "You have ONE job!"  *sigh*

Boating

Bryson has been working so hard at Silverwood- fortunately he loves it!  He thrives on being so social.  We usually try to coordinate Uncle Dan's invitations to go on his boat with days that Bryson is off work- 

Tyler loves the boat too:

Bryson got surfing down pretty quick!

Jace even gets to surf!

Tyler for sure likes boating more than Silverwood- the breeze keeps him from getting so hot and the roar of the engine lulls him to sleep.  

(His shirt says, "I run this ship" 😉)

He is held the whole time, so not much different from home, just different people sometimes:

Jace taunting Dan:

"Let's all get pulled around the lake!"

Dallin combination wake boarding and surfing:

Jace wakeboarding!

Hailee likes calmer rides on the tube and just being on the boat, no desire to anything else!

Dan and Sarah are so kind to take us out so much!

Playtime!

Some friends gave us a fun little interactive push toy their kids had grown out of- my big kids are far more interested in playing with it than Tyler. 😆  They were literally entertained with it for quite a while that night:

And then again the next morning!

Tyler wasn't too concerned with it, but not for his siblings trying-

He is loving being in his exersaucer though!

And even his bumbo:

My kids think it's hilarious to give him this little newspaper and then narrate what his thoughts are... "Hmmm, looks like a lion bought new sunglasses... again.  Well, would you look at that, the animals had a fun day at the park... again.  Apparently the economy is inflating... again."  It's hilarious.

He's 4 Months!

This little chunker is growing up so fast!

I see so much of his cousin Rhys when he was a baby in him:

He must be working on some teeth, because he's been gnawing on everything he can get in his mouth:

That face!

He loves to stand and balance and bounce!

So strong:

And just so happy and interactive now!  He loves the attention he gets 💗

At his 4 month appointment, he was 12lbs, 5 oz, another pound in a month!  The kids are all just so amazed at how much he's grown and developed in the last 4 months, for sure, he's their favorite 'toy'. 😂

Silverwood

By Monday morning, pretty much all of our family was gone, only the Ripperdan's remained because her older kids wanted to go to Silverwood with us!  Sarah and her little ones stayed back to rest for their long drive home, and the rest of us went to Silverwood for the day.

I couldn't find Tyler's hat, so Kristi was willing to share:

The kids enjoyed the water park for quite a while, then Hailee, Jace, Tyler and I mostly hung out in the kids area:

Karlie was running Frog Hopper:

Look who else we found!

I was kind of hesitant about going on a day that Bryson was working, but he was fine with it- he loves his job!  I am so proud of how hard he is working- he gets in about 50-55 hours a week, leaving by about 8:30 in the morning and not getting home until about 10:30 (sometimes even 11:30) at night- and he's doing that 5 days a week!

For some reason, Hailee was all excited about riding Super Round Up- it's what she talked about when we were planning our trip- she was all about Super Round Up.  But when we got there, she was only tall enough if an adult rode with her.  I know I rode it in the last few years without feeling too bad, so I rode it with her...

Ya, I didn't have a smile like that on my face when it was over.  Ugh.  So so sick afterwards.

Nathan was so proud of his picture on Tremors 😂

Not quite amazing enough to spend a ridiculous amount of money to actually buy it though.  Next time honey, next time.

Dallin on bumper boats:

I really thought Tyler would take the day in stride and just nap in his stroller and be fine... but he did not get good naps in- they were few in number and generally pretty short, and he did not tolerate the heat all that well either...

A while later we saw Bryson again, this time on "RC lift" (that's Silverwood slang for Roaring Creek lift), the one position that he truly doesn't like.

When he gets assigned RC lift, his job is to sit up there and makes sure people are sitting down before the big drop... no socializing with guests, and the umbrella is even broken... he actually 3D printed a part to fix it, but it broke again.  Poor guy!

Thunder Canyon:

As if the day couldn't get any better, how about this absurdly sized ice cream cone 😅

It's always such a long, exhausting day to go, but so much fun.  To top it all off, when we got home, Sarah had cleaned my whole house!!  An amazing treat for sure!