Ryker Turns 4!!

Ryker turned 4 this year!!!!  Can't believe how big he is getting!

His birthday fell on a Sunday, but he had preschool on Thursday, so we brought treats to his class.  Ryker's favorite book is the Very Hungry Caterpillar, so we made caterpillars out of green grapes and babybel cheese as well as dirt cups.  The kids loved it and he felt so special passing out his treats.

On Ryker's actual birthday day, we went to church and then had a family party afterwards.

My parents drove up from California and we also had Bo's parents and two of his cousin's families with us as well.  Ryker's request was to have a Super Mario birthday.  The kid has been obsessed with Mario lately.

Ryker had a great time opening up his presents.  So did Brodie.  Brodie gets so grabby every time Ryker opens presents, but it was so cute how excited they would both get.  The squeals were constant.  And loud.

Pinata time!  No bats for this pinata!  You had to punch it like Mario does!

Pin the mustache on the Mario!

 This kid was spoiled!  He got lots of great presents and quite a few neighbors dropped off presents too.  We live in the best neighborhood!  He felt so special and I couldn't have asked for more.

We love you so much Ryker!  You are so loveable and just a joy.  We couldn't be happier that you joined our family 4 years ago!

The Zoo 2014

We took our annual trip to the zoo and this time our cousins Jen and Duke got to come with us!  Mari has been really into animals lately, so she really enjoyed herself.  I love going to this zoo so much because it is small and you can get through it pretty quickly without any meltdowns from littles.

The boys are always so excited to lead us around with the zoo map.

Mari and Duke are about 5 months apart and they get along really well with each other.  They are very nice at sharing binkies and sippy cups.

My monkeys looking at the monkeys!

Until next year!

The Straw Maze and Gavin's Baptism

I attended my first ever field trip as a mom!  Brodie's kindergarten class was going to the straw maze and they needed a couple volunteers, so I found a babysitter for Mari, and Ryker and I met up with Brodie's class at the Straw Maze.  This is the first time that I had gone to the maze, even though it's located just down past Brodie's school which is very close to or house.  It was awesome!  They had these giant pipe tunnels and straw bales to climb all over, giants tires, and the maze itself was so cool!  It has these tunnels throughout it it and you have to actually climb over bales, which is another fun challenge.

I had this fun group of boys and we were the first ones out of the maze!  It was kind of crazy in there.  At one point we had 4 kids in our group that belonged in other groups.  They got separated from their leaders and one of them knew me from church and then another one knew me from soccer, so they latched on.  We eventually ran back into their groups though, so they got back where they were supposed to be and all was well in the end.

Bridger, Ryker, Aidan, Brodie, and Rigdon.

After the straw maze, it was time for the kids and I to pack up and head to Utah for Gavin's baptism.  Brodie and Gavin are best cousin buds and it was a great weekend!

After the baptism, we had a really nice lunch at Gavin's grandparents house and the kids had so much fun!

We really need to make more trips to Utah!

Camping and Mesa Falls

A couple weeks ago we went camping with our cousins who are also going to school at BYU-I and their families.  In September it can already be pretty cold in our part of Idaho, so we planned on going to a campground that had electrical hookups for our trailer in order to run the electric heater.  We got to the campground and every single site with electricity was full!  No big deal, we went to the loop that had no electricity... only it was a big deal, because I didn't charge the battery to the trailer, thinking that we would have electricity, so we had no way to run the propane heater, since you need some battery juice to start the flame!!  Needless to say, it was a bit chilly.  In the morning we had to plug the trailer back up to the truck and start the truck in order to warm things up a bit.  The next day I told Bo that we either needed to find a new camping spot with electricity, or I was going home.  So we drove to the campground next to Mesa Falls and they had one spot open with electricity.  Oh that made everything so much more enjoyable!

We had a great time showing our cousins around Mesa Falls and afterwards the boys all went elk hunting.  They weren't successful in killing an elk, but they were able to shoot two birds... I can't remember what they were, grouse, or partridges or some sort of upland bird.  They did see some elk at the very end of the day, but it was too dark to shoot and they also saw ten moose!  

On the way home from our campout, we stopped at warm river to feed the fish.  The fish here are huge and they come right up to you to eat bread.

And you know it was a good time, when this is the view in the backseat on the way home!