Camping at The Ranch

We took a little trip this past weekend with some good friends of ours. We've made it a tradition to go camping together every summer, but this summer our friend was in the hospital on bed rest for 9 weeks (!), which was most of the summer. We decided to make it short and sweet this year, due to two babies involved. One for each of us. We headed out to the Ensign Ranch and stayed in their family cabins. They're very small, but cute. Our one night went pretty good. We got there in the evening, so we started off with a fire and smores! Fun! Our kids were tired and went to bed around 10:30, but after settling down, us grown ups didn't get to bed until much later. We stayed in separate cabins, and our friends, unfortunately, had a squirrel problem. One lives in the walls! They got to hear him running around all night. Our cabin turned out to be animal free, but we did have a rough night with our children. Everyone went to bed wonderfully, but after only 4 hours of their sleep Collin woke up and wouldn't go back to bed. He woke up Parker, who also wouldn't go back to sleep and ended up crying hysterically, saying, "I want my bedroom!" Poor kid. Samantha slept through it all. Jeremy ended up driving Parker all the way to Cle Elum, just to get him to fall asleep again. I stayed up with Collin and eventually got him to bed. So, after a long night, we woke up and had pancakes and enjoyed the rest of the day canoeing, playing by the river, and just hanging out. We had some yummy croissant sandwiches for lunch and lots of great snacks. Luckily, we had pretty good weather. A little rain in the morning, but not much. Overall, it was a really great camp out with some really great friends!!!

Puyallup Fair

Well, we "Did the Puyallup" on Monday night! We like to go on days that aren't very busy, like week nights. To our surprise though, it was busy!!! Apparently, others have caught on. Anyways, it was great! We ate, checked out the animals, and of course rode a some rides. I think Samantha is going to be one of those people that just can't get enough of the rides, and has to ride every single one. She loves them! It's really fun to watch her get so excited. Parker on the other hand...well, he's not much into anything. He likes to watch and tell us that it's "too loud" and that "it's scary". He'll grow out of it, but right now I just wish he'd enjoy it! I just have to keep reminding myself that he's only two. Maybe next year he'll loosen up a bit. Both kids enjoyed the animals though. They're always fun to look at. We had two highlights of the evening though...One a little scary and one that was really cool! The scary one was while we were enjoying some yummy fair food when all of the sudden this guy walks in front of us and has a seizure! He fell to the ground, hitting his face really bad on the cement. He continued to have his seizure while blood was pouring from his face. Yeah, not a good sight while you're trying to eat. I lost my appetite pretty quick. Luckily, paramedics were very close and he got help almost instantly. I felt bad for him:( The COOL part was that Crosby, Stills, and Nash were playing that night! Jeremy is a HUGE fan and because of him, I've grown to really like and enjoy their music as well. If we had known they were going to be there I'm sure we would have gotten tickets, but we didn't, so we stood outside the stadium and listened while eating cotton candy. It was pretty fun, actually. Jeremy was in heaven. Here's a few pics from our night.

YUMMM...Carrots!

Actually, no, he hated them! Collin is getting to be a very good solid food eater (he's always been a good eater though, can't you tell?!). He's been on rice cereal for a couple weeks and I just started him on carrots the other day. At first, he spit them out every single time I put them in his mouth. It was pretty funny :) But, today he ate them and seemed to really enjoy them. I can't believe I'm feeding my baby solids! I feel like I just had him still! They grow up way too fast...

He can't seem to keep his fingers out of his mouth! It makes for a messy meal.

Preschool!

Yes, today was the first day of preschool!!! Samantha was so excited for this day to arrive. She's been asking me for weeks when "the first day of school" starts. She even had a hard time getting to sleep last night because of it. Goof ball! Well, her first day went absolutely fabulous! She loved every minute of it. When I got there, to pick her up, she said "MOM!" in a grouchy voice and scowled. Apparently, she wasn't looking forward to seeing me. The first thing she said to me was, "I can't wait for the next day I come!"

This is her first year of preschool, and her last. She barely missed this year's cut-off, to go to kindergarten. Her birthday is the end of this month, which means a whole year to wait! We tried the home preschool last year, but I wasn't too excited about it. It's a lot of work! And, with a new baby approaching, I wasn't too thrilled about doing preschool...I'm excited to have her be able to meet new friends and be in that teacher/student atmosphere. I wasn't much of a teacher, in her eyes :) It should be a fun school year!

Sam, showing off her Princess backpack. Not my first choice, but definitely hers! She loves it!

In the car, after her exciting day at school! I'm so glad she likes it :)

Just Because...

I just had to post this!!! Isn't he such a cutie?! Yeah, I know, I'm biased...he's mine, but those chubby cheeks are so lovable. I love it!

Stake Fair

We had our 2nd annual Stake Fair on Saturday. This year was a ton of fun, just like last! Our Stake President does an amazing job at getting this going and with the help of a HUGE committee, it's become a highlight of the summer. There was a BBQ, bouncy toys, train, game booths, popcorn and cotton candy stands, face painting, "bull riding", concerts, pie eating contest, tug of war...Lots to do. Samantha was all about doing everything, while little Parker protested everything. He just gets in these "I don't want to do anything" moods. Yes, he was in that mood. Oh well, he's only 2, right?! He'd say he wanted to do something, then chicken out at the last minute. Collin was good as gold. Just slept, ate, and hung out. He's great! We had lots of fun and Jeremy even got to participate in the pie eating contest, which he DID NOT SIGN UP FOR!!!! Yeah, he was pretty much forced into it. He did great though! What a sport :) We had a wonderful afternoon with our friends and family.

On the train ride with Elisabeth and Natalie

The only picture I got of Parker. Kind of a grump!

A view of the train and bouncy toys

Our ward was in charge of the popcorn stand. It was some really yummy popcorn!

Sam on the bouncy slide

Samantha and her cousin, Taylee

Having fun!

Face painting time! She got a flower...I think. I never got a picture of the final product.

After some good old apple pie! Nice face, Jer!

Jeremy and his friend, Trent. I think Jeremy is convincing Trent that he ate as much as he could!!!

Jer wished he had chosen the cherry pie, instead of apple. Cherries are easier to slurp down!