Summer Highlights 2012

I saw a friend who recently posted why she loves looking back at all the memories and the little things that happen on her family site. I feel like I have been "busy" with this or that and I haven't made the time for documenting my family and I want to do better. It has been a lovely summer and our family has made the adjustments of having a new baby in the house and having more time together. We've had family and friends visit, we've gone on trips, and had some fun get-togethers around town! I love this crazy time with my little family! So here are some pictures over the last couple of months so I don't feel so guilty for not having anything up at all for a long time!

 My oldest son turned 8 YEARS OLD! When--- HOW?!! He has been getting ready for his special 8th birthday and chose to be baptized on the same day! I love this young man and what an amazing kid he is becoming.

 Here we are eating some cake and ice cream and having a little gathering with friends to celebrate. I LOVE THIS BOY!

My Mom and Dad visited us for 3 weeks and we traveled all over the place. But first we promoted Ben from a CPT (captain) to a MAJ (major)!

We have a girl in the house who is adored by her brothers...

 She wears pink and flowers (when I remember to put them on her head)

Connor had 4 stitches on his head installed by his Daddy and 2 broken fingers from the "crockpot" accident. Poor little guy healed up in 3 weeks!

 Brecon turned 5 years old! He is getting so big and is such a funny boy to have around. He is really the one who is always paying attention to his baby sister, it is really adorable and sweet. He is a joker, and loves to tell jokes that end in "cow poo".... anything with poo is pretty funny!

 His party involved water guns and THE longest spanking machine EVER! We started feeling bad because he was really getting a lot of hits after the kids kept running to the front and making him keep on crawling through.

 Cael and the neighborhood boys played some street hockey and NO ONE broke an arm!

CONNOR is potty trained! I had been introducing the potty on and off during my pregnancy, but decided I wasn't fully committed. Lo and BEHOLD the day we bring a new baby home he refuses to wear a "baby diaper" and away we went!! I couldn't believe how great he did with it all. I have to say that the #2 was a bit tricky, but a reward of a chocolate KINDER-egg really put him over the top. Sometimes I would hear him saying "CAW-KIT IGG" after running out of the potty! WOO HOO! SO glad I only have to deal with 1 baby in diapers these days.

Now all I need to do is catch up on all the other stuff that has happened... wish me luck!

England Trip

We decided it was finally time to go visit our friends in England.  What a fun country.  The kids were troopers and we only had a few meltdowns and near death experiences. 

We started in Ely and Cambridge. Went over to Croughton for Warwick Castle and Blenheim Palace. Down to Bath... for the Roman Bath and Comedy walk. Finished out in London for 3 days. It was a bit more chilly than we had packed for. But we made it out alive!

On the ferry boat headed up to see the Tower Bridge.  It was a cold day and we forgot to bring the jackets.  You would think we were raised in the tropics, not the cold wastlands of Wyoming, with how often we seem to be the only people around who forget to wear weather appropriate clothing. 

We bought the boys hats early on in the trip and they loved them. We were supprised at how they made sure to wear them everywhere and often got upset when misplaced or stolen by a brother.  Cael was the only one who lost his hat by the end of the trip.  Too bad because he sure looks smart in this thing. 

Connor had no concept of whether his hat was straight, sidways, backwards, or inside out.  It was so fun to see the different ways he would put it on. 

We stopped for fish-n-chips.  Brecon is having a meltdown and wouldn't eat.  When he saw this picture he told me that it was because Cael had stolen his hat. 

Classic British guard standing in the background. 

Good lookin boys

The Union Jack.  Apparently the only time it is actually called this is when it is flying at the front of a boat. 

I have always told the boys they need to protect the women of the family. Brecon and Cael have the right idea.  I think Connor is trying to lay his own type of protection around the ladies. 

Warwick Castle

London Eye in the background.  Beautiful at night

Museum of Natural History

We visited the Duxford Air and War Museum.  I think the boys liked it

We were not sure if people were supposed to be climing on these things.  Better to ask forgiveness that permission, right? 

Roman Bath House. 

Bird show at Warwick Castle.  We were a little afraid the big birds were going to fly away with the baby. 

Riding the trian. 

The kids played well together, for the most part.   Sometimes Brielle doesn't know what to think about her crazy brothers.  They sure do love her and seem to smother with it sometimes

Warwick Castle

Stonehenge.  Very windy but worth seeing. 

The boys love carrying their little sister around

Beautiful countryside

Many days Connor wouldn't make it to the end.  Sometime we would put him in Brielles push-stroller and sometimes we would just carry him.  Its amazing how kids can sleep in the most odd positions. 

Big Ben and big Ben (and little Connor)

We sure had a great time on our England trip. It was so nice to ask for directions and understand the response with confidence. There were so many friendly people we ran into offering to take our family group picture. It really was such a change to have everyone laugh right along with us at the crazy things our kids say, instead of just laughing at us behind our back. All in all - a great and crazy trip with the whole family!

Austria SKIWELT for Labor Day

I wouldn't let Cael get the batman face paint, but when I left and came back Brecon was already covered with the black paint! I can't leave these kids for a minute without something crazy going on!

We heard about a great place to hike around with the boys in the Austrian Alps. It was such a beautiful day we got sunburned pretty good. The first day we took a ski lift all the way up to the top, marched around to these great little stations for the kids and saw beautiful valleys below us. After a great little picnic above the cloud line, we would even have a few moments where the clouds blew up and over us before we went over to the main event. There were "olympic" events for the boys to participate in, plus painting on huge paper. As part of the closing ceremonies there was a dance party. I was pretty entertained listening to the german kid music and watching them do all of the actions together. We were pretty excited when Cael and Brecon each got a trophy for completing all of the events, even though Brecon got the short end of the stick (the announcer let the first kid chose his trophy, which he grabbed the biggest one there. Brecon got his name called and the guy grabbed the smallest one and handed it to him. Brecon made a little frumpy face but was excited he got his name called.) We took the lift down and drove to a mountain lake for the evening.

THE NEXT DAY-

We waited for Brecon to catch up to us for quite a while at this bench. He had stopped and then followed us very slowly up the hill. We ate our snacks and tried to explain to a couple that they would be seeing a sad boy down the trail. Hand gestures "cry", little "boy" down the "hill"... We think they understood us :)

Day two we decided to try out a different area and try to hike a little bit more. We found our spot and instead of taking the lift, we drove around and up the mountain as far as we could go. It actually was a bit more work than what we had anticipated, encouraging the boys to hike up the road. Brecon was quite vocal about his discomfort we almost turned around halfway before we made it to the top of the mountain. But we pushed through the pain and made it. The area was fantastic with great fairy tale playgrounds, trampolines, a magic wand station, and tree houses. It was completely worth it and so great for the boys to run all over the place. What really was beautiful were all the bells ringing from the happy cows on the hill. It made a lovely sound to hear hiking up the trail.