Happy 4th of July!!

I must admit having a birthday on the 4th of July is a pretty awesome day to have a birthday! For many reasons! Here are just a few:

1. Daddy has the day off!

2. Everyone in the nation is partying and celebrating!

3. Fireworks!
4. You get 3 birthday parties instead of just one!
5. Fun times all day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TY!
If there was ever a boy in this world who loved his birthday it's Ty! He loves celebrating his birthday! This year he started his birthday off with a special breakfast: blueberry pancakes! But not just any blueberry pancakes....

His daddy made special blueberry pancakes shaped like a swords and a shield! The blueberries spell out T-Y! And seven matches for the candles! What a great birthday breakfast!

One of Ty's presents came early that he had to open 'immediately'! Live ANTS!! He got a ant hill for Christmas and we have been waiting for the summer months to come so we could go get live ants outside. But I had heard from Ty's grandma a place you can order them which are suppose to be even better! So we ordered live ants and who knew they could be so interesting and entertaining! The entire family has really been into watching the anthill! I guess you could say we have our first 'pet!'

We started our fun-filled-birthday with a drive up the Manti la-sal National Forest! I have never taken a 'tour' of Nate's forest before and wanted to see where it is my honey works! We made a few stops along the way. One of the stops was at the Crandall Canyon Memorial. Here is where 5 men died in a mine accident. 3 men went down to rescue them and they also died. So a memorial was made in their honor. It was very humbling and rather sad to see.

Then next stop we made was to an old Forest Service house. In the olden days the forest ranger would actually live up in the forest in the house. We went in and took a tour of the building. Where Ty is standing is the shed next to the house. Boy am I glad the ranger doesn't have to live up there anymore! Glad they moved the building down to town!!

After taking a beautiful scenic drive through the forest we stopped for lunch at Gooseberry Lake and had a picnic.

It was a perfect day for a picnic. Not too hot up in the forest and even though we heard a few thunder rumbles we didn't get wet!

Did you know that Caleb is addicted to Capri-suns?! It's true! He loves his juice!

Ty wanted to go fishing on his birthday so that's what we did!

It wasn't the birthday boy who caught a fish...it was Caleb! True story! He was holding the pole and handed it to me. Right then I felt a tug and started reeling in, sure enough we caught a fish!

Thank goodness for Nate! He's the one who will take the hook out of the fish's mouth! Nasty!

Here is me & my little fishin' buddy and our trout we caught! Sure glad we caught at least one fish!

Ty is such a great big brother! He sure loves his sister and brother! I'm so glad he is such a great example!

Speaking of being an example....monkey see monkey do!! Ty started playing in the water--sure enough Caleb followed him right down in! It's a sure good thing that Ty is such a great example, because whatever he does his younger siblings do!

It was a perfect day for fishing!

Two little fishing buddies! I love these two boys!

It looks like Caleb is sleeping, but really he is just cuddling with his brother--cute!

What a sweet little fishin' gal!

It sure is fun having a play-day as a family!

The next part of our adventure was down to the stream to play in the water! We hiked down to the stream and followed it up to see what we could see!

Along the way we saw a snake,

A duck's (or some other bird) nest,

and bones from a beaver!

It was sure fun exploring the water's edge. Some parts were a little wet and muddy!

And Mara did not like getting wet or muddy today! For some reason she just wanted to stay dry and clean! So she got a few piggy-back rides along the way on her mama!

Speaking of wet-and-muddy...the boys decided to go down and play in the water! They waded their little feet in the stream! It was a little too deep for Caleb so Nate had to hold him.

Ty jumped down on the bank and realized it was 'quick-mud' and he sunk up to his knees! He tried getting out and lost his sandal! We told him to hurry and grab his sandal and he said "why?" We were laughing so hard we told him to get it before it got lost in the mud forever!

Luckily Nate dug in the mud and found it!! Ty did not think this was too funny, but for those of us watching all we could do was laugh!

The boys washed off their mud in the stream and Ty even crossed to the other side.

Caleb loved throwing dirt-clods in the water! No rocks to be found, but plenty of dirt clods!!

The scenery was beautiful, you can see cabins in the back-ground. That would sure be a nice place to have a cabin!

That finished our hike for the day.

It was a beautiful place to explore.

I can't think of a more perfect 4th of July birthday dinner: hamburgers, corn on the cob, and watermelon! (And fresh grilled trout!) Yum!!

Have you ever heard of fried bananas on the grill?! All we have heard is that they are so amazingly good! So we tried them on Ty's birthday--don't waist your bananas! Nasty!

Instead of cake and ice-cream Ty just wanted ice-cream sundaes! So here is his ice-cream sundae with candles! Happy birthday little buddy! So glad you are part of this family!

Since Ty had candles in his ice-cream Mara wanted one too...

...and so did Caleb!!

Here is Ty's birthday loot! Pretty good birthday presents I must say! He is one happy kid. I can't believe Ty is 7! One more year and he will be baptized, 5 more years and he will receive the priesthood, 9 more years and he will be driving! AAAHHHH!!! Yikes! Time goes by way too fast! I think I'll just keep him 7 as long as I can!
Love you T-Y! Grateful you are my son!