Waving in the Bath

Kinley has recently decided that she is too big for the toddle bath. She is a crazy 

There are a few short videos of Kinley waving: one of her new tricks.

Silverwood

Mason and Cooper both read for over 10 hours during the last school year and earned themselves one free admission ticket to Silverwood. As August approached, and we still had not used their tickets, we figured we better do so soon. Ethan earned a ticket as well. We decided to all go together, figuring the boys would have more fun together than having to hang out with only their boring old parents all day.

The day that worked best for Jeff to take off was on Kinley's first birthday. Grandma and Grandpa Borders came and got her and Shiloh at 9:30am. The girls got to hang out with them all day and enjoyed their time with them. We were gone all day, well past the time Kinley was in bed, so we didn't get to spend much time with her on her birthday. Hopefully if later in life she hears that her own parents and brothers didn't even spend her first birthday with her she will find it in her to forgive us.

We stopped at Cafe Rio before heading over. I personally like Costa Vita better, but Michelle loves Cafe Rio, so we all sucked it up for her sake.

Waiting for a snack.

My good lookin' brother, Jared

Aren't we cute? No? Come on...

Ethan, Michelle, and Jared (middle) and Mason and me waiting to go on Timber Terror.

Ready to go! 

On the Timber Terror.

We did it! Mason was not a fan and did not want to go on any more roller coasters. Cooper was roarin' for more.

Going on the kiddie style panic plunge

As you can see from this video, Mason is not a fan of heights, but by the end he was smiling.

When we got in the car to leave, Mason said he had a great day, but was sad that he didn't get to spend it with Kinley on her birthday.

SIX!

I can't believe he used to be this small.

 One Year

 Two Years

 Three Years

 Four Years

Five Years

Six Years

Singing to the birthday boy.

Cooper got roller skates for his birthday. I wonder how long it will take him to get the hang of them?

Summer cub scout happenings

In May I was called to be the Den leader for the Wolves. That works out perfectly for me as Mason became a Wolf in July. We were able to go on some fun field trips over the summer. Mason got to go to day camp for three days and I was able to join him one of those days. 

In June we went to the Waste to Energy plant. We got to wear some really stylish hats and glasses. It was pretty neat to see how all our garbage is processed and burned. There are also large tubes filled with water that run under the large (4 story) furnace where the garbage is burned. The steam from the boiling water in the tubes is turned into energy. The whole facility is run of the energy created by the steam and the extra energy is sold to our local utility company at a cheaper rate, which (they say) those savings are then passed on to us, the customers.

Day camp:

 launching water rockets=FUN!

Using a bow and arrow=MANLY!

11 months

It's official, Kinley learned how to climb the stairs right after we got back from vacation on the ninth of this month. Now we have to be very careful and make sure we always have the gate up when she is awake. If the gate is not on the stairs, she heads right to them. There have been a few times where she was crawling around in the kitchen and the next minute she was upstairs playing with all those choking hazards in Mason and Cooper's room (Legos).

 Did I mention that she is a BIG trouble maker?

Mason's birthday and baptism

 I know what you are thinking. Mason isn't old enough to get baptized, right? I know, I was thinking the same thing, but he did turn 8 on Monday the 15th.

On Mason's actual birthday we went to some friends house for dinner and had brownies and ice cream for dessert, and of course, we sang to him. Then Friday night we had some family over for cake and ice cream and sang to him again. The two pictures below are from Friday night.

Mason was baptized and confirmed a member of the church last night by Jeff. We had a TON of family and friends in attendance. We sure do have some great family and friends who love and support us. The service was beautiful. Mason asked me (Crystyne) to give the talk on baptism and the holy ghost and Mason and most of his cousins sang "When I am baptized" together. They were hard to hear (and I was in the front row), but they all looked so cute!

 Our family before Mason was baptized.

 Mason and Jeff

Mason- feeling clean and pure, ready to conquer the world.

Our family, plus grandparent and great grandparents.

 All of the family who came.

And in case anyone cares to see the program...

Another exciting thing for Mason about turning 8, he gets to be in cub scouts now!

Shiloh loves to talk...and sing....

Vacation

We went on a family vacation to Salt Lake City, Utah. We left the morning of July 3rd and got back the evening of July 8th. 

On the way down, we stopped in Rexburg, Idaho and stayed the night with one of my former young women (Shiloh) and her little family. Crazy how MY young women is now married with kids! It was great to see Shiloh, Scott, and their two little girls! 

Before we left Rexburg in the morning to head the rest of the way to Salt Lake, we stopped at the Rexburg temple. What a beautiful temple!

Then we stopped at the Idaho Falls, Idaho temple. Again, such a beautiful temple!

Once we got to Utah, we stopped at the Brigham City temple.

Right across the Brigham temple is the Brigham city tabernacle. This tabernacle is over 100 years. I believe it was built in 1903. We didn't think we would be able to go inside being that it was the 4th of July, but one of the doors was open, so we walked up and sure enough they were doing tours that day!

After seeing the Brigham City temple and tabernacle we headed to Salt Lake City and checked into our hotel. Then we went to Lehi and had dinner at watched fireworks with our friends the McCombs who used to live in Spokane. It was great to see them, it has been years! 

The next day (July 5th) we toured temple square in the morning. There were so many wedding groups all around the temple taking pictures. We tried to get a family shot, but there really wasn't anywhere to get a good one. Oh well, next time.

That night, Jeff and I were able to do a session that night. The McCombs came to our hotel and watched our kids. Kinley cried the whole time, sorry Ben and Nicole! Being in the Salt Lake temple was an awesome experience. There is so much history in that temple and I was in total awe of how beautiful it is. Being able to go to at temple for hands down the highlight of vacation for me.

The Christis, one of my favorite things about the visitors center.

Saturday July 6th, we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi. The kids loved it. 

Saturday night was the Man in the Moon event put on by Glenn Beck. This was the whole reason for us going down. On the drive to the event, it was pouring rain. This was a rain or shine event, so no refunds were going to be given. We sat in our car in the parking lot for over an hour and a half, waiting for the rain to stop. We waited and waited and waited. Finally the rain stopped. Our "seats" were on the lawn. We only packed the boys' small character blankets and figured that would have to be good enough because no lawn/camping chairs or unbrellas we allowed at the even. (Probably so others behind you could also see.) So, we were totally unprepared for sitting on wet grass. While sitting in the car, I came up with the idea to take the fabric off the boys' boosters and have them take them in so they could sit on something dry. We also had one of those thick plastic mat things that you put under carseats to keep the kids crumbs and other stuff on the seat of the vehicle. We took that with us too. We also packed the Moby wrap so we could snuggle Kinley in to once she got tired. 

Kinley crawled around on the grass or sat with Jeff or me until the even started. She began to get tired, so I put her in the Moby and went to the back of the yard so I could stand up and get her to sleep. Worked like a charm. She stayed asleep the whole time!

 There were planes that flew over head a few times at the beginning of the show.

 That big circle is the moon.

Before leaving Utah, Jeff saw a fire station in Ogden. We stopped there for a bit and Jeff traded firefighter shirts with the firefighter.

On our way back home, we stopped in Rexburg again and stayed the night with my friend Shelley and her husband Blake. Their three kids are all around the same ages as our oldest three. Their oldest is 2 days older than Mason, their middle is 3 months older than Cooper, and their youngest is 2 weeks older than Shiloh. It was fun to see them! Our kids all got along so great.