Ruffle Bum

Love this little skirt for Hannah. And the white leggings are our favorites. The other day I was trying to convince Hannah to wear jeans and she said, "I don't like those. With a button. I can't put them on by myself."

Alien Conquest

During an intense game of Alien Conquest (boys jumping around on the trampoline lasering aliens) I brought up some conversation...

Me: Why are you shooting the aliens?
Boys: They are bad.
Me: But what do you think they do when they aren't fighting with you?
James: Just sleeping. And then they fight.
Me: So all they do is sleep and fight?
Boys: Yeah.
Me: What about their alien families? Won't their moms be sad if you shoot them?
...blank stares...
Me: What if they are dads? What about their kids? If you shoot them who will take care of their babies, the little alien babies?
Hannah: I will. I'm the princess. I will take care of the baby aliens.
...boys' blank stares continue. thinking, I'm sure "what is she talking about babies for?"...

New Dress

All the other little girls in nursery have poofy, twirly dresses and all of Hannah's are more slender and fitting because that's now I've made them. So we sewed up this nice twirly dress. The skirt turned out super full (great that I ordered 4.5 yards of the wrong fabric, whoops.)

The Quarry

We found this awesome Splash Pad near our house (about 30 minutes). It's totally worth the drive and the $1 entry fee. There is also a beach and a water fall. The water cannons and the slide are a huge hit with the kids! They loved going here.

Go Turtles!

Since our family mascot is the box turtle we have been trying to get to the Bishop's house to see Walker, his giant turtle, when he was actually out of his home. Sister Bronson called Friday morning to say he was out and about so we ran over to take a look. Their daughter got Walker about 15 years ago when he fit in the palm of her hand. Now he is huge!

Also the missionaries live with the Bishop so the kids always love waving to them upstairs (they were home for lunch) and sometimes they throw chocolate out the window at the kids. We also got to pick some pomegranates off the tree!

Hamilton Preserve Pool

A couple weeks ago Taylor took a Wednesday off and we drove out to Hamilton Preserve Pool about an hour away. It was pretty out there, would have looked a lot better if it had rained at all in the last 11 months, but it was still so nice. The walk in from the parking lot was about a 1/4 mile hike, pretty rocky but not difficult.

The kids and I LOVE swimming and were happy to have a new venue with Dad along for the fun. We were able to swim with tons of little fish as well as some large catfish. The pool didn't get too busy until we'd been there an hour or so. There was a larger shallow area than I thought there would be so that was nice.

We had fun walking around the cave. Normally a waterfall is dropping off the cliff in the back end of the pool, but since it has been so dry there were just a few trickles. The boys jumped off the rocks and Taylor spent time floating around. I tried swimming from the far side back in, but I am seriously afraid of deep water so I pretty much hyperventilated/doggy paddled back.

Then of course Matthias wanted to swim out to the rock on the back side. We'd been told it was 25-30 feet deep in the far end, but Taylor thought he could do it so off they went. It really wasn't a super far distance and Matthias took a couple breaks where Taylor just put his hand under his stomach for a few seconds. They swam out and back and I tried not to watch. James thought he would try it next year.

The trip was super fun and very relaxing.

Matthias and Taylor swimming to the rock

from the shore to the rock, you can see it in the distance, they are sitting on it

close up on the rock