Red Butte

One of our favorite places to go on a summer morning is to Red Butte Gardens at the Univ. of Utah. It's always so beautiful up there with the flowers and trees, etc. But the kids LOVE the kids area. It's super fun and a great way to cool off. I've got some really great ideas for things I would like to have in my yard some day. We're going to miss Salt Lake.

Thomas enjoying the grass. Surprisingly, it doesn't really bother him. He's quite content lying in the grass.

Loving the lizards.


After growing up in Georgia with the red clay, this site always makes me cringe, and I think, "WHY would they put red clay in a kids sand box at a public place." Then I remember that it is NOT red clay. It is red dirt, and it does not stain them or their clothes. Amazing. They love it.

Cooling off.

And drying off.

Gone fishing...

Idaho had a "kids fish free" day, so grammie and pa took the 3 big kids fishing. They were so excited too! In addition to providing the poles and bait, they also gutted and cleaned the fish for the kids! Halle and Chloe both caught a fish. Clate did not; though he was extremely diligent in trying. He kept throwing his line out saying, "One more time. Just one more time." He wanted to catch one so bad. Maybe next time.

Halle with her fish. She wouldn't get any closer to it.

It took Chloe getting home before she would even look at her fish.

Can you guess what we had for dinner that night? Fish.

Earning some moo-lah!

Helping Pa build a new fence.

Then staining the fence too.

The kids have been busy earning money at grammie and pa's house. They've helped build and stain a fence, weed flower beds, and plant a garden. They've earned so much money, I'm considering employment with grammie and pa! hahaha

I've been so impressed with Clate's work ethic. Once he gets started, he doesn't stop until the project is done. One day he was out with Pa and grammie for almost 10 hours. Pa had taken down about 2 sections of the fence, and by the end of the day Clate had taken down another 4 or 5 sections...almost by himself. He just kept hammering and hammering and hammering. I thought for sure his little arms were going to fall off, or at least be sore the next day. But come morning, he was ready bright and early to help Pa finish the job. They finished another section the following weekend too...and he was right by Pa's side the whole time. He's a good little worker.

The girls did as much as they could too. In fact, the only incident we had was when Chloe was hammering a board and Clate was on the other side of the fence hammering the same board and the board came down on top of Chloe's head.

growing up too fast...

This little guy just keeps growing up...and its happening too fast for me. I was so busy for the first couple of months of his life, I feel like I've only really enjoyed him for the last month or so. It's good though, and the kids still adore him. He's starting to sit up, eat food and laugh.

With his sisters...

and his bro.