Camping at Pinnacles National Monument

One of my favorite things in the world is CAMPING.

Who DOESN'T love camping? It's fun to get away from everything (with no phones, computers, or distractions) & just have fun with your family & friends. And then there's the

FABULOUS CAMPING FOOD.

Yup, I love camping.

We decided to go camping with our friends from church. They are moving next month so this was our last hoo-rah before they leave.

(I'm already crying thinking about them going away.)

So after 3 days of being told ALL CAMPSITES were FULL, I FINALLY found 3 campsites right by each other for us in Pinnacles National Monument. They were the perfect campsites too. They were all underneath a HUGE tree so we had shade for our tents. Adam had a huge camp stove for us to cook on (since NO campfires were allowed). And there was plenty of room for the kids to play.

We were told that campfires WERE allowed, but when we arrived the area was too dry for any fires so we were forced to "improvise" tin foil dinners, roasted hot dogs, & dutch oven cobbler. We used my dutch oven to cook the insides of the tin foil dinners & then roasted hot dogs over the flame in the stove. Dinner was GREAT.

After dinner I made cobbler in my dutch oven OVER the stove

(so it didn't turn out as wonderful as when there are hot coals, but it was a yummy dessert).

Then we broke out the

GIGANTIC MARSHMALLOWS.

Have you every played "CHUBBY BUNNY?" Try playing them with the new "campfire sized" marshmallows. You'll throw up after 1 marshmallow for sure!

Unless you're Tylee whose mouth can fit a giant marshmallow in with no problem whatsoever. What does that say about Tylee? ha ha ha.

We just got a 10 man (3 room) tent a few months ago so this was our first time trying it out. It's SO nice to have a tent that FINALLY fits our whole family. All 9 kids loved playing around the tents.

We roasted the marshmallows over the camp stove. There just isn't anything in the world like hot smores. Mmmm.

Bladen isn't a smore fan. But he LOVES setting marshmallows on FIRE & then blowing them out. I think we have a Pyromaniac on our hands!

After eating all the delicious eats, we let the kids run around & play while the adults talked. Tylee was having a blast with all the kids. She really is a fun Auntie.

The tent was great. We all fit with LOTS of room to spare. Tylee slept in the front room with the 3 girls. Trek & I fit in the middle area, & the boys slept in the back room. Bladen & Craiger didn't sleep all that well, but the girls slept like rocks.

For breakfast I made goulash in our dutch oven while Kiona made her famous wheat pancakes. Her pancakes trumped my goulash by a long shot. They were DELICIOUS. The goulash, not so much. We had ruined the dutch oven cooking on it over the stove the night before. It was so bad inside by morning that it made our goulash taste like burnt cast iron. Bummer. We'll have to buy another one because I love dutch oven cooking.

The kids loved being around the camp area. They could run, jump, & play to their hearts content. They love that kind of freedom & I LOVE to give it to them.

Trek is a total "TANG Junkie."

He always brings Tang on campouts & I'm afraid he's ruined our son. Bladen drank almost a full 1/2 gallon of Tang in a 24 hour period. We would turn around for 5 seconds & when we turned back, he had more TANG!

He even developed a mini Tang mustache before we left. Silly Boy!

Trek's friends couldn't believe there was such thing as a 10 man tent.

(They all have really small families.)

So he promised to take pictures of it. Then they told him that there was NO WAY he'd be able to get the tent back into it's original bag again. Trek is CRAZY when it comes to packing his camping stuff. He can get the tent & sleeping bags SO SMALL it amazes me. So he made me take pictures of every step of taking down that tent so he could PROVE to his buddies that he was VICTORIOUS!

The sun started to come out as we were packing up camp. In our pale little family that means

SUNSCREEN & lots of it.

The kids got theirs on with no problems. . . but leave it to Trek & Tylee to start a WAR with SUNSCREEN! GROSS!

I guess some things never change.

The kids found a fun little area with a log bridge. They played there for HOURS. We couldn't help but take a few pictures of them because the whole area was just BEAUTIFUL.

The kids were upset that we were packing up camp. I swear my kids would live in the wilderness for the rest of their lives if I let them.

Bladen managed to drink the rest of the TANG while we cleaned up.

After we packed up our camps, we hopped in the vans & drove into the mountain about a couple of miles to the hiking trails. What's a camping trip without doing a HIKE?

The trails here led straight to a cave. We couldn't wait to explore the caves with the kids.

Inside the caves it got darker & darker. You actually had to use a flashlight to get through the entire thing. It was SO MUCH FUN. There were also several bridges over a creek throughout the caves. I think the kids really enjoyed it.

The full hike was a little over 2 miles. I still can't believe my kids survived without whining about being tired. It was a strenuous hike too. We had a BLAST. Along the trail we found a LARGE tree & at the top was a

beehive with honeycomb.

It was BEAUTIFUL. I'm so glad we were able to slowly enjoy & observe our surroundings otherwise we would have never seen it.

Halfway through the hike we stopped for homemade jerky (made by Kiona) & homemade trail mix (made by me). I love ENERGY FOOD!

When we got back to the cars we ate LOTS & LOTS of WATERMELON.

There were woodpeckers all over the place. We had a ton of fun teaching the kids about the different birds in this region as well as the plants they should avoid: that mountain was COVERED in POISON OAK.

We arrived home safe & sound around 3:00 Saturday afternoon. The kids were completely worn out. But we had a BLAST.

We'll miss the Moore family. Thanks for a WONDERFUL weekend.

Brotherly Love

People often stop me to tell me that

"You have your hands full. . . "

I don't think of it that way. I just have that much more to LOVE. My kids get along SO well & I love seeing them truly love each other. Now that Craiger is getting a little older, Bladen is wanting to play with him more. Their "play time" turns out to be the most adorable time of the day. I love watching my kids love each other!

Trek is sure loving having some BOYS around the house. Every night they have a little wrestling session before bed. Everybody loves it! Bladen is a really good wrestler too. That might be something that interests him later in life.

I love ALL THREE of my BOYS!

But let's not forget the other 3 PRINCESSES that live in this castle! They love to be loved too.

(I love Taya in this picture. . . she had a rough day)

I'm so grateful they all love each other SO much.

Craiger is getting SO big.

Craiger is 4 1/2 months old now. Can you believe it? Time sure flies these days. He's getting SO big & SO handsome!

I love this little guy.

Caught in the Act

If there is ever silence in my home, I know there's

trouble

being made somewhere. I was changing Craiger's diaper & the house got VERY quiet VERY fast. I snuck around the house trying to figure out what Bladen was up to &

THIS is what I found in the pantry . . .

Oops! Caught again.

Craiger's First Solid Food

I can't believe it! My little Craiger is FOUR MONTHS OLD! And you know what that means:

SOLID FOOD.

I always get SUPER excited to start feeding my kids all the fun fruits & veggies. I love to see what they like & don't like. I love how they are all SO different.

So I started out with the basic rice cereal mixed with formula. So far NONE of my 5 kids have liked rice cereal with just formula in it, but I always try:

Nope, Craiger doesn't like it either. But once I added some sweet potatoes & a little water to it, he ate it right up. So he loves sweet potatoes, squash, & pears so far. I can already tell he's going to be a good eater. HOORAY!!!

Tomorrow I start him on carrots & after 3 days of that we'll start on the green veggies like peas & green beans. Then I'll be nice & introduce the fruits. But my motto has always been VEGGIES FIRST! ha ha ha.

Man, they grow up WAY TOO FAST!

Salem Pond

The last day of our vacation, my daddy thought it would be fun to take the kids to

Salem Pond

to feed the duckies. We packed some lunches & made a picnic out of it.

I love to feed ducks. That's something I did as a kid ALL THE TIME. I love to see the excitement in my own kids' eyes when the ducks come close to them & their loaf of bread.

For lunch we had sandwiches, chips, & drinks. Very simple, but VERY fun! It's so nice being together as a family.

And after lunch, the kids played for a while on the playground. Life doesn't get much more fun & relaxed than that. It was a perfect end to a relaxing vacation.

Enjoying Family

Even though we live MUCH closer to my family now than when we lived in Germany, it's still a good 15 hour drive to UT from Monterey. Trek had a 2 week break from school so we thought we'd take a trip out there to see my family. It was SO nice to spend an entire week totally relaxing & enjoying each other's company. I got caught up on some

MUCH NEEDED SLEEP.

It was fun though. Mom was home since she can't work anymore & the girls got to spend LOTS of time with her. They even went "jogging" with her in the mornings on the Wii.

ha ha ha.

I can't believe I didn't take any pictures, but my favorite part of the 4th of July weekend is celebrating

MY BIRTHDAY!!!

Even though my birthday is July 6th, we have ALWAYS celebrated it on the 4th. This vacation we had to go home on the 4th, so we celebrated even earlier. We had a wonderful dinner at Los Hermanos (my favorite restaurant) & opened presents. This was a BIG year for me. I'm officially OLD. . .

30 YEARS OLD

It was a super fun week! Thanks Mom & Dad for letting us come visit. We already miss you guys.

Spanish Fork Splash Pad

When the temperature climbs to 97 degrees, it's completely OBVIOUS what needs to happen: It's time to go to the

SPLASH PAD

The splash pad is new in Spanish Fork. I had never been there before, but my sister-in-law takes my little nephew there all the time. We were DYING from heat stroke so we decided it was a GREAT idea.

So I have 5 kids, each with their own unique personalities. . .

Craiger (my 4 month old) slept the entire time with his Mimi in the shade.

Bladen (my 2 year old) is still NEW to the whole water/swimming thing. He is interested in it & WANTS to touch it, but he doesn't want IT to touch HIM! We were laughing so hard at how he'd get mad at the water when it hit him in the face. He's hilarious.

And then there's Taya (my 3 year old). She's my spitfire. I wish I could bottle some of her energy & keep it for myself. She is the biggest scaredy cat I've ever seen. She won't go anywhere NEAR the water unless it was less than 5 inches high & she could stand a few feet from it. Looks like she will be in some swim classes this summer to break this fear. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

Lorien (age 6) is my fearless child. NOTHING scares her. She's one that would walk off the edge of the pool whether she can swim or not. For example, she did something she shouldn't have because a friend did it & I asked her

"If Jane jumped off a bridge, would you too?"

This was her response:

"Is it fun?"

And that's Lolo in a nutshell.

And last, but not least, is my sweetheart Cadence (age 8). Cadence WANTS to not be scared, but deep down, she knows she's scared. It drives her nuts that Lorien does everything with NO FEAR & she so badly wants to be like that. But she needs to realize that that's NOT Cadence. She is so cute & so sweet. I think I enjoyed watching her in the water the most. She was timid, but brave all at once. She's really come a long way.

But I'll tell you what. . . the bravest one of all was Cari. She was out there running through the water with Korbyn even though she was NINE MONTHS PREGNANT. Now THAT is a SUPERWOMAN!!!

What a FUN way to spend the afternoon!

Cousin Time

There's nothing in the world like playing with your cousins. I grew up with the best cousins on EARTH! Some of my best childhood memories are of time spent with my cousins. I know we live far away from my kids' cousins, but when we can find time to visit with each other, the kids have a BLAST together. I'm SO glad we had the opportunity to play with the kids' cousin (Korbyn) for two weeks while we visited UT.

Korbyn is my brother's little boy & he is just a little spitfire. Flaming red hair & bright blue eyes. . . what's not to love about this little guy?

Thanks Korbyn for letting us come play with you. We already miss you SO SO SO SO SO much!

Remote Controlled Cars

When we visited Opa & Oma on our way to UT, Opa took the kiddos to the church to take turns playing with his remote control

"MONSTER TRUCK!"

(This "MONSTER TRUCK" video is for you KORBYN)

They had a blast!

Thank you Opa & Oma for sharing your fun toy with us.