Conference Camping

We had an amazing weekend. Come Thursday I was having a pretty rough time of it. Some personal things have been going in that have left me feeling very frustrated. I just needed some time away to be a fun Mom and wife. I needed to leave all of the things that cumber me when I am home behind for just a little while.

So we ran away to Red Cliffs to camp for two nights. It was wonderful and amazing and just what I needed. I can not believe that this is only 15 minutes from our house and we had never really been exploring up there! It was unbelievability beautiful!
 

Each day we would go hiking up into the canyon to see different things and explore different trails.

 

This tree was amazing! I have never seen a better climbing tree in all my life. My Mom would have loved it!

At the top of the trail there was a waterfall that if you wanted to get around you had to use a rope and kind of climb up over the rock. Thankfully John could take Beckham on his back and we could keep going up.

 

Once we got to the top there was a fun little pool and a tiny little natural water slide.

 

One of the things that I love about camping is it makes what you have enough. You need less, appreciate more and it grounds me to life and what is really needed to live and survive. I love that the boys have a little bucket of toys and it keeps them happy for days without any complaints! They made the most amazing creations and their imaginations were running wild! I never see it at home to the same degree as I do when they are out in nature with nothing else to do. Its so ironic that they are happier and more content with less. Then again, I am too.

We also made homemade ice cream and I think that will be a new camping tradition! It was so yummy and fun to do.

It was so yummy in fact that since we were so close to home we ran home mid Saturday to shower and grab more ingredients to do it again!

Conference was wonderful. I feel so renewed and felt like I found so many answers to the things I was looking for...and I was looking for a lot! Most of all I feel renewed. None of the answers are new - they are just relearned and clarified.

And conference would not be conference without a little of this from John...

 He is so cute! I am one lucky lady!

Easter

I feel like I never got a chance to even see Easter coming and now its gone! We enjoyed a Easter egg hunt and breakfast at Sand Hallow Golf Course.

 

 

They even had bunnies!

Then we dyed eggs. It gets easier each year and we only had 1 color spill :)

We were super excited for Easter morning because the Easter bunny was bringing chicks. Unfortunately one boy discovered them in the night so we didn't get that great reaction shot :(

They still loved them though and they have been so fun. Hopefully they will survive Beckham and his "love!"

 

I found a great store called Candy Blitz in St George that has all sorts of old and fun types of candy. They got Rock Candy, Big League chewing gum, Lego candy that actually works, Salt Water taffy in so many fun flavors, Bertie Botts Jelly Beans....

It was a good day but a little too much sugar and too much excitement for Mom! Thankfully everyone is in bed and Mom is getting a few minutes of peace!

Lots of Shooting around here!

Caleb got a BB gun for Christmas and John got a 30-06 so we have been out shooting a lot lately! Not to mention that its more fun now that I feel that the boys are getting bigger. John just finished his hunter safely class and we will be putting in for Elk this year. It will save us next winter if he does! The other night we took our .22 out with Caleb's BB rifle and did some target practice on little green army men.

 

 

We did pretty good but we were super impressed with how well the army men stood up to our abuse. After several hits each this was about as bad as the damage got.

 

Legoland!

 

I can not believe how fun Legoland is for us right now! The boys ages are so perfect for it! John gets to go visit with Grandpa and Grandma for a few hours in the morning while we are at the park, which has been a blessing for John and Grandpa. Since the boys are getting older it doesn't overwhelm me to be at the park alone with them either :-)

The park was empty today! It was raining but that meant NO lines. Literally! Most rides we just rode over and over again without getting off!

I forced Davis and Becks each individually to go on the Coastersaurus with me. Seriously it was so embarrassing!  They were screaming so loud and were terrified. I'm sure people thought I was the meanest Mom ever for making them go! By the end end of the ride though they were beaming and laughing! Worth the embarrassment because now everyone can go together! I think we rode that coaster 30 times today....at least!

The Star Wars Miniland was so much more fun for them now that they have seen the movies. And the best news - Beckham is finally 4 and could do the Joust ride! He has been waiting forever to be old enough! He loved it!

We were drenched about midday but thankfully it was warm enough that we were not freezing!

 

 
Dad brought us some money to do the family driers which helped too.

Rockin' out with the Rock band!

This was not even a ride but it was probably their favorite part of the day. They spent about an hour here! They built all sorts of cars and were trying to get them to jump onto the opposite ramp on the other side. They were pretty creative!

We spent a good part of our day in the ball shooting area too. Everyone always had a gun and Mom got annihilated! Davis has some wicked aim and got quite a bit of pleasure our of nailing me over and over again!

Despite the rain it was the perfect day!

3 day weekend

We had a great 3 day weekend. One I think will have to be a tradition more often. I finally allowed Caleb to watch Episode 1, 2, and 3 of Star Wars. It was so fun to go through all 6 right in row. I love Caleb's passion and the way he feels things so deeply. I was even impressed that Davis sat through most of them too. He loved to use his Lego Star Wars book and find the scenes in the movie in his Lego Star Wars Dictionary.

They were so excited to finish them that I told them if they had their room and their playroom clean this morning that they could watch them. At 7:00 I heard whispering and saw they were using a flashlight to clean up because Becks was still sleeping. Most of all I loved that they wanted me there watching with them and I had to read the beginning of each movie to them. Star Wars really does help bring up some great moral conversations.

After we were finished we headed over to the Dixie Springs Park to play and I let Caleb take his BB gun. There were some bottles there and the boys had so much fun shooting them!

And Davis took this lovely self portrait right up his nose :-)

Makes me miss summer and also reminds me how lucky I am to have such sensitive and loving boys who want to spend time with me. Cuddling and just relaxing with them mans the world to me!

Family Pics 2012

Here are just a few of the amazing pictures we had taken by Sarah over Thanksgiving. I seriously get a little speechless when I see them. I feel so blessed to have this fun, wild, and loving fam!