Maple Mountain

We made it camping finally without rain! We got up to whiting campground which is at Maple Mountain in Mapleton. We had a great campsite just by the creek. The boys had a lot of fun playing in the creek Friday night. On Saturday morning we went on a "bear hunt." The boys found a "cave" that they thought a little bear was in but it wasn't there. We had to turn around after an hour since Ryan was all tuckered out. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Friday night. My battery died that night so Mark took more pictures on his phone Saturday and I don't have those. We can't get Ryan to smile normally for a pictures. He is such a cheeser!
This is Ryan when he didn't know we were taking a picture.

Ethan and Jake found this big board and used it at their boat.

Jake surfing

Its Official

Yesterday Mark got his diploma in the mail. He officially has his Master's Degree! Way to Go Mark. It was a lot of work but I think it was worth it. Thanks for sticking it out Mark. We're so glad you did.Our graduation ceremony in the kitchen

Our "Camping" Trip

I like to go camping once a summer with my boys. This year we had planned on camping June 26. Unfortunately we had another day of rain! I am not really that avid of a camper to go up into the mountain with three little boys and set up a tent and play in the mud and rain and be freezing all night. So I was pretty bummed when it rained and decided it would be better if we all stayed home. We had planned on going with Mark's siblings, Joel, Becky, Jannifer, and Noelle. I was doing the dinner so we had them all over for dinner, minus Noelle who quickly made other plans. (We missed you Noelle) Then we set up this little fire pit and made our s'mores. Mark even set up a tent in our back yard and slept in it with the boys. We did get rained on a little during s'mores and I think it had stopped by 9:00PM. So during the raining part the girls sat upstairs and visited and the boys played Xbox. It was a fun night. Here are a few pictures. Sorry Becky, I don't know why I don't have any pictures of you. Ryan couldn't get enough of the sweets. Must take after his mom.








Ethan with his burnt marshmallow

Jake in the tent. (the only individual picture I happened to get of him)

Joel, Jannifer, and Ryan

Here are the boys in the tent. The boys were so excited, even Mark!

Radio Disney Day

It was Radio Disney Day at the Gallivan Plaza on Tuesday. I went last year with the boys and we had a lot of fun so we decided to go again this year. I felt it was less crowded this year so that was nice. We also got there early enough to play all the games. This is a free day of fun. I love free! There were a few things to pay for such as face painting, train rides and then of course food. We packed our lunches and skipped out on the money spending activities. Here are some of the many pictures I took. Ethan and Jake were a lot of fun. They just wanted to do everything. Ryan was really good to enjoy his stroller and balloon the whole time.

We got free creamies and Ryan loved his.
They had these little mustache stickers with a picture booth set up. Ethan and Jake thought it was pretty silly.

I think this was Ethan's favorite activity. It was pretty cold. Jake stood in line and once he got close enough to feel the water he wouldn't go. Ethan went twice and I think he would have gone more if he could have.

Here is Jake doing the ring toss. After they participated in each game they got a little thing of bubbles. We now have a year supply of bubbles!

Ethan knocking down the cans. He got really into each game. He was so fun to watch.

Jake with the milk jugs.

Ethan and my cousin Jaron at the fishing pool.

Jake at the fishing pool.

Ethan posing like Mickey

Jake posing like Mickey

Ethan loves water. He ran through this thing a ton.

Thank You Ethan

Well Ethan is definitely one of my most destructive of the three boys so far. However he is also one of my most thoughtful. This morning I was making breakfast and I asked Ethan to go and put a dirty washcloth in the hamper in my room for me. He was taking a little longer than usual and so I assumed he was into something. This is usually the case. Not today! :) He surprised me and made my bed for me. I think he did a pretty good job too. Picture to prove it. This has just made my day!

Ethan Loses a Tooth - Man Style...

Ok, so this is Mark posting today. I know all of the people who follow this blog (all two of you) would rather hear from JanaRae but it's my turn. Anyhow, so I put the little video below together. Ethan had a very lose tooth that he just wouldn't pull out. So, I told him we should tie a string to it, then tie that string to the door and slam the door and his tooth would come out. He thought that was really funny and the next thing I knew he was standing there with a long piece of floss asking me to tie it to his tooth. The video below is the result of our adventure:


Just a couple other Ethan stories since we're on the subject. About a week ago we had to go help clean the chruch. When it was time to go Ethan came out of the nursery and walked by me and said "Hi Dad - there isn't anything in my pocket." To which I replied "Hey, stop, let me see what's in your pocket." He started backing away and said "Nothing Dad, nothing is in there!" So I started to walk over to him and he said "Wait, wait, there is a rock in my pocket. It's just a rock Dad!" So I started to reach down to his pocket and he yelled "No Dad no, it's just a rock - a rock that is shaped like a car!" Then we pulled a toy car out of his pocket. I'm going to have to work with him on his lying skills.

Final Ethan story is that we came home from church today and I asked Ethan what he wanted for lunch. He looked at the counter where we had some things for sandwiches and said he wanted bread, with mayonase on it. So I put some mayo on is bread and asked what else he wanted. After thinking for a moment he got a big smile on his face and said "I have a good idea!" then he got me a bag of potato chips and asked me to crumple them up in my hand and put them on his bread. So, when I was done Ethan had a nice potatoe chip and mayonase sandwich - which he then promptly ate all of. He kept offering me a bite - all of which I declined but he sure thought it was delicious.

Anyhow, the point of all this is that it's funny how you can see so much of uh JanaRae in Ethan. Some day I hope we get a kid who is a bit more like me :)
-Mark

Our Trip to Arizona

Here is a slideshow I made of our trip to arizona. I finally got the pictures from my dad. We had a good time!