Moments That Matter Most

The other day my mom asked me if I had seen this cute video on lds.org. I hadn't seen it so I went to the computer and watched this little clip:

So Awesome! So cute! So true!
This was a good message to remind me it's the small moments that make a big difference! It is the kind things that we do for one another, the thoughtful cares for each other. This past week I received the most thoughtful and kind comment on my blog from an anonymous friend. So this is for you my anonymous friend--thank you! Thank you for making my day and taking a moment to share a message with me! That was very sweet of you whoever you are!

I wish time could slow down like on the clip! June is almost over--and before we know it Fall will be here and school will be starting! I need to slow things down...by how?! Every minute there is something! Every day we have appointments, playtime, things to get done! But I want to make each moment count! I want to live for the moments that really matter the most!

Swim Time!

After a few fun days at Mimi's house we headed over to Aunt Chelsie's for a fun night of swimming and a sleepover! *Have I mentioned how much I love my in-laws?* I feel sure blessed to have married into the family I did! It was sure fun spending time with both families this weekend.

Aunt Chelsie has a pool right by her house so we grabbed our suits and went for a little swim!

This little swimming buddy had the best time! In fact he thought he was such a good swimmer on his own he kept saying over and over 'no touch mama! NO TOUCH!' Which meant--'I don't need help swimming! Don't touch me! I can do it myself!' Oh man! my baby is growing up! :(

The pool had a cute little ducky slide for the kids to play on!

I think this kid is too big! But the pool also had another huge slide like the ones at a water-park that Ty went on and it was awesome. It was super fast and super fun!

It was fun times swimming with Aunt Beanie and Little Lincoln!! This was baby Lincoln's first time in a swimming pool and he LOVED it! Natural little swimmer right here!

Cute little alien! When it was time to go no one wanted to get out of the pool! But fun times awaited at Aunt Chelsie's...

Movie, popcorn, ice-cream, it was a Party!! When the kids went to bed Chel and I stayed up to wee-hours in the morning talking and giggling! So grateful for in-laws who are best friends!

It was fun seeing family for the weekend--but after 3 days I was ready to see the man I love the very most: Nate! Oh how I missed him! Oh how I love him! I love my children, family, and friends, but not as much as I love my eternal companion, husband, and best friend!

Settlement Canyon

While Nate was at Scout Camp for 3 days we drove up to stay with Mimi. When we weren't playing at the park or up the canyon we were planning a family reunion! This year I was in charge of the family reunion for Mimi's side of the family. So we had a lot of planning that needed to get done!!

We decided it would be fun to take a picnic up Settlement Canyon and play in the river. The only problem was because of all the rain we've received and all the snow melting the rivers are over flowing and rushing too fast to even play near!! So we searched and searched the canyon almost giving up! Until we saw a perfect little stream just right for 3 kiddos to play in!

This little boy loved splashing and throwing rocks! He couldn't believe I would just let him get wet and muddy!!

Little Miss Mara kept saying "This is the best day ever!" As she splashed and threw water in the air!! She was all smiles and having a fun time until....

she accidentally fell down and got ALL wet! Then she wasn't too happy about it! We all laughed and I said 'Oh Mara! It's a good thing today is so hot! It's ok to get all wet!" She was relieved and kept on splashing!

Here's Ty the builder! What is he building? A dam out of rocks! He found a few rocks laying there in the mud and decided that he would add to it!

Caleb made us all laugh--he kept plugging his nose and pretending to go under the water!

Here is Ty's rock dam! It didn't quite stop all the water, but he really did do a good job working at it! It was sure fun to watch my kids splash and play! They sure were muddy and dirty after but oh well, they had a bath when we got home! I kept thinking to myself--'who does this?!! Who takes their kids up to the river and tells them to get wet and muddy!!' Kind of a wacky thing to do, but they sure enjoyed it!

Field-trip to Grandma's!

I love having a mother-in-law as a school teacher (*and I love my mother in law!*) Grandma Lewis teaches 2nd grade. (It will be fun next year to have Ty and Grandma in the same grade!) We were driving up north to visit Grandma Mimi and decided to surprise Grandma Lewis at school. We brought with us our cold lunch and waited for Grandma to come to the office--but she never came! So we went on a search and found her in the cafeteria eating with her kids! Surprise! Grandam was sure surprised to see us, and when I turned around to get Caleb I was surprised not to see him! Yikes! I lost my 2 year old at Grandma's school! We set off in search of Caleb and found him waiting at the office! So we had our lunch with Grandma and her class in the cafeteria. The kids thought that was way cool!

Then we went to Grandma's classroom and said hello to her students. It was fun to meet them and have them meet the grandkids!

Caleb found a small basketball in the ball box and practiced his dribbling up and down the aisles of desks! The kids were sure impressed with his ability to dribble! Grandma picked out two stories about dinosaurs for Ty & Mara that she read to her grandkids & students! Caleb sat right up by grandma (for a few minutes!!)

Ty, Mara, & Caleb sure had fun with all Grandma's learning games and activities! While her students took a math test and did their work these kids played with sorting objects, made patterns, built designs out of pattern blocks, and played with finger puppets!

Mara worked on a puzzle. She still loves doing puzzles and is simply amazing at them!

Then it was time for recess! This was Ty's favorite thing! Playing on the fun playground!

Mara thought it was so neat to play with the big kids at recess! Mara called it a 'crazy playground' she has never seen one like this before!

Caleb was quite content just to sit in the swing and let Grandma's 2nd graders push him!

It was a fun day on our field-trip to Grandma Lewis's school! We will have to do it again next year and meet her new kids!

Strawberry Jam!

Many of my posts (ok, most of my posts) are about playing and having fun! You might think we hardly ever work and all we do is play! But just to get the story right we work hard and we play hard! In fact I've been trying to teach my kids the importance of work and also the value of money!! So we set up a job chart this summer and a little pay is involved! Not much, but enough to get the kids excited about working and getting a little money!

I love strawberry season! And I love when strawberries go on sale and I couldn't help but buy two flats! I miss homemade strawberry jam! I told the kids if they would help me make the jam I would pay them a nickle for every jar we made. They were thrilled! Ty and Mara were the best helpers! (Caleb was the best helper too--he took a long nap while we worked!) We called Mara the 'quality control specialist'! She washed the strawberries! Ty was our cutting pro! He cut the tops off the berries. I mashed and stirred the berries and we made 24 bottles of delicious homemade strawberry jam!

We did two batches--one was jam for my food storage since I have more room in my food storage room than I have freezer space. It was tasty, but not quite as good as freezer jam! So the second batch we made into freezer jam and made room for it in the freezer!

It is wonderful to have strawberry jam in my freezer and shelf again! And nothing tastes better with homemade bread than a little red-ripe jam to go on top!

Play-day in Provo!

A couple weeks ago we had a fun play-day with cousin Garrett and Aunt Trish! We met at the Bean Life Science Museum at BYU and then enjoyed a picnic in the park and playing on the playground!

Here's the troop in front of an enourmous live elephant--ok not currently alive! All the animals we saw used to be alive!!

Mara loved the butterfly made out of butterflies! It was pretty amazing!

Ty liked seeing the museum for his 2nd time! He went on a field trip with his 1st grade class up to the Bean Museum last month! He liked showing us everything there was to see since this was our 1st time going!

Caleb was fascinated by all the amazing creatures! It was a fascinating museum with every kind of animal you can think of and it's FREE so another great idea if you are looking for something fun to do with your kids!!

After a yummy picnic lunch the kids acted like the monkeys we saw at the museum and played on the playground!

This little son of mine has NO fear! He wants to do everything the big kids do! Can you believe he can climb this rainbow all by himself?! He will try to do anything he can and if he falls, he picks himself up and tries again!

Monkey see monkey do!!

I must have taken 100 pictures of these sweet little cousins!! Trying to get 4 kids to look at the camera and smile is an impossible task!! But they sure had fun together and they are all so darling!

I wish I had a penny for his thoughts! I often wonder what little Caleb is thinking!!

This sweet little girl is growing right up! She often tells me how big she is getting and how she is almost as big as I am!!

I couldn't help but take a million pictures of this little boy! My baby is growing right up!

What a sweet, sweet girl! She will always be my little sweetie!

I was standing down below and I hear "Mom take a picture of me!" There was Ty sitting up high waiting for his picture to be taken too! Yes, he still loves getting his photo taken!

Caleb learned a new saying 'na na na na'!! That means you can't get me! Hmmm, wonder where he learned that!!!

Long House Tour

Ok--this is the last post on Mesa Verde!!
Couldn't resist putting a few more pictures!
Another beautiful day in the national park!
We drove to our last tour called the Long House Tour.

This tour was a little different because we were able to ride a shuttle down to where the tour begins.

The shuttle was fun--reminded me of going on a ride at Disneyland!

Here they are! The 3 amigos! Just listening to the tour guide talk about ancient historic info.

This kid is the best hiker I know! So glad he is my hiking buddy!

Speaking of buddies...I sure love carrying this little buddy around on my back! I know it won't be long before he insists on hiking himself and will be too big to carry on my back!!

We saw a few of these creatures on our trip! Look closely and you will see a snake! Not a huge fan of snakes!!

Definitely not as scary as the other tours we went on! The kids are pros now climbing ladders!

The Lewis Family's new home! Just kidding! I was very grateful to have the house I do after this trip! I sure couldn't imagine living here!

This is Long House. The hike down wasn't bad at all, all paved and very quick.

Now I know why I've always wanted to go here! It was all so fascinating! Pretty amazing sights we saw this trip! So glad we went! It was well worth our time!

Two brothers! Just chillin in the ruin!

High upon the mountain wall of the Indian Ruin of the Long House there is a hand print!

The shuttle took us around to different viewpoints and we were able to get off the shuttle, see the view point, and hop back on the shuttle to the next viewpoint!

Right down there is the Long House Ruin. We rode the shuttle around to a viewpoint where we could get out and look at the hike we just went on.

I just can't get enough of these 3 children! Some people go on vacations without their kids! Not me! I just love being with them and spending our vacations camping, hiking, and bonding together!
Bring on a fun summer!!