Hallie

Hallie is just the best oldest kid! She is so smart and reliable. She is Rosie's second favorite human in the household too. So grateful she is ours!

She thought it was pretty funny buckling herself with all the seat belts in the back. 

Kids

Brooks wearing Dad's clothes thinking he is absolutely hilarious. And Stockton had to join in on the picture because he does whatever Brooks does. Haha!

Holding hands after Stockton's school. Cutest brothers!

Hanging out at cousin Drew's baseball game

Shopping for new trees at the local nursery

Brooks Baseball

Brooks was excited for his first baseball game. Unfortunately, the excitement ran dry for all the subsequent games. Sometimes he straight out refused to go. Maybe he was bored. Maybe he just doesn't like baseball. Who knows. Some weeks he had soccer and baseball on the same night. He chose to go to soccer every time. Haha! He struggles with catching but I think he only struck out once the entire season. In fact, he crushed the ball the majority of the time. Basketball is still is favorite sport with soccer coming in at a close second. Maybe in a few years we will give baseball another try if he wants to. 

Wax Museum

Hallie did her wax museum project on Albert Einstein. She got to choose any famous figure she wanted and she chose him because "he is a genius, just like me." Haha! I asked her if she would dress up as Albert and she said, "Heck No!" So we got her a periodic table "GENIUS" T-shirt to wear instead.

She read the book about him in about .45 seconds because that is how good she is at reading. We did the poster together and we were both proud of how it turned out. Sadly, I had to work on the day of the museum so Russ went there to support her. She was sad that not many people came to visit her and hear her spiel about Albert. I tried to remind her that it doesn't matter if people came or not because she did amazing and should be so proud of herself. I think that helped with her feels a bit. It was also hat day at school today. 

Addison Reading

Hallie Soccer Team Pics

Hallie had team pictures tonight! I couldn't get home in time from work to do her hair but man she is cute nonetheless. She has loved being on this competition team this season! She loves her coach and most importantly she loves her teammates and the sport. Russ and I have loved watching her grow as an athlete and person. She has such a high ceiling as far as growth goes in soccer. We are not sure if she will make this same team next year but we will roll with it when that comes and make the best of it. Sure love our little super star!

Green River Day 4

Today we packed up to head home! Another successful camping trip in the books. It was actually fun having Matt and Mere come as well. We will be back next year!

"Smile Kids!" And Stockton does this. Haha!

Green River Day 3

Today we hiked Wild Horse Canyon trail. It is an 8 mile slot canyon loop. We figured we would hike as far as we wanted (or the kids could handle) in and then just turn around and hike back. We were estimating hiking about 2-3 miles total. Russ and I gave each of our kids a whistle with the instruction that they should use it if they got lost. But the slot canyon had a clearly marked trail with very few connecting roads to "get lost" in so we didn't think they would need to use it. In the beginning, the kids loved climbing up and down all the rocks. It took forever to make any headway because they would climb the rocks and then climb down, walk a little more and then climb again. 

The hike itself was gorgeous. Although it isn't made for someone who is claustrophobic or has anxiety tendencies. The slot canyons were veerrryyy narrow at times. So narrow that only one person at a time could pass through. This created traffic jams because we would run into people coming down from the trail wanting to get through the single person canyon. This is where we ran into a problem.

We came to yet again another narrow slot canyon to pass through. There was a group of people coming down the trail while we were going up it. We realized they were trying to get through the slot canyon so most of the adults had to backtrack our way out of the slot to make room for the group coming down. Our skinny little kids thought nothing of it and managed to continue through the slot canyon and passed the group all while Matt, Mere and I backed out of the canyon to let the group pass. I told Russ to force his way through the group to get the kids as we no longer had eyes on them anymore.

Meredith began to have a panic attack due to claustrophobia and tried to wedge herself up to higher ground. Matt and I waited for the group to pass and then we proceeded to walk through the slot canyon. I figured that at the next larger opening Russ would be there with the kids waiting for us. The problem was that he wasn't. And neither was Mere. So Matt and I continued to keep walking but at each area where Russ could have "pulled off" to the side of the trail to wait for us, he was not there. I kept saying to myself, "Russ would have waited for me. He would have waited." And then I began to get worried because the only reason he wouldn't have waited for me is if something was wrong.

Matt and I continued walking the trail for ONE HOUR with no kids or Russ or Mere in sight!! We kept walking quicker and quicker in panic. We were yelling their names, asking passerbys if they have seen 5 kids "all about the same age" and a guy in a tank top. Most people said they have "seen a lot of kids" and so that wasn't helpful. Matt and I were so confused. Where was Meredith? Where are the kids? We didn't wait an hour for the group to pass through the initial slot canyon where we all got separated from so why haven't we found them after an hour of walking??

Finally after an hour and after shouting names we heard Meredith respond to our yell. We asked where she was and then she yelled, "We can't find the kids!" My heart sunk and we sprinted to her. She was there with Elsa and Stockton. Apparently, Meredith found Elsa all by herself and then Russ had Stockton. Thank goodness Russ had Stockton. That was my number 1 worry. But then my next worry was where is Brooks? I knew (or so I thought) Hallie would be okay. She is a smart girl. Sometimes Brooks just does things he shouldn't do and then can't get out of that situation. Like climb a rock too high and not be able to get down.  

Russ was carrying Stockton the whole way and that was slowing him down. So, he left Stockton with Meredith to wait for Matt and I and he began sprinting up the trail to find Lachlan, Brooks and Hallie. He sprinted almost an entire mile before finding them!! They were just walking up the trail as if nothing had happened. They weren't the slightest bit worried. They were "just finishing the hike" they told Russ. They were only 4 miles in!!

After we all got reunited again I chewed Hallie out for not taking charge and stopping the kids to wait for the adults. I chewed Brooks out for not using his whistle so we could locate him. But in their minds, they weren't lost. Haha! It is a good story now but for a moment my worst nightmare seemed to be coming true...something bad happening to my kids. After yelling at them (okay. I didn't yell. More like used a stern voice) they stopped every time they couldn't see us adults as we made our way back to our truck. They had learned their lesson! Our hike ended up being 4-5 miles in total and we were beat afterwards! I carried Rosie pretty much the entire way because the rocks were just too big for her to jump over. She is only 10 pounds but 10 pounds of fur gets hot and heavy after several hours. 

We made our way back to camp and had dinner. After dinner Russ put Stockton to bed and the older kids and I went swimming at the hotel. 

Stockton's "peace" sign. Haha!