They grow so fast!

I can hardly keep up with these monthly pictures. I love having them, but them sneaking up on me every month makes me realize how fast time goes. I love seeing the changes that a month can make. 

 

Levi is a very happy baby. Content to hang out just about anywhere, whether held or not... as long as he can see and hear that people are around. If it gets quiet... Levi gets very fussy.  

 Levi baby talks a lot now. Trevin and Chey love to translate for me! I love to hear what they think he is saying. I still can't convince Levi to take his binkie (except at church, where it is a life saver) He would much rather suck on his fingers. That's right, not his thumb, HIS FINGERS! He does this all the time! 

He is by far my spittiest, drooliest baby. He can soak a bib with drool in less than an hour! Unfortunately that mean he ALWAYS has to have a bib on, so his clothes are hidden most of the time, unless I plan to take a picture.  This last picture is when Levi is 3 1/2 months, but catches his constant excited expression.  

Levi laughs all the time!! It is a deep throaty laugh that makes it sound like he is desperate for the tickling to stop! ...but of coarse it is so cute that we can't help but to keep tickling! 

The summer has just begun!

Being a stay at home mom with our home preschool over we have had a little extra free time. So we've tried to be better about fixing Chey's long repunzel hair. Cheyenne decided that she loves to have her hair curled. I feel bad using curling irons/ straighteners on it every day. For a no heat method we bought foam curlers for her to wear to bed. 

She thought it was so fun! And it made her hair very curly!

And with the weather warming up we've been able to get out of the house. We made it to the Ren. Fair to watch Callie's horse vaulting team perform again this year. It is always amazing This year Calle was on the top of a trio! Before the show started this girl walked by with a boa of some sort and all the kids thought it was pretty cool. 

Even Cheyenne which totally surprised me! Tay Tay was totally in love. I think that she would have taken it home with her is she could have. 

After the performance the team offered "BIG pony rides."   Cheyenne LOVED this just as much as last year. She was willing to get off to let someone else have a turn, but wasn't very thrilled to find out she wouldn't get a 2nd turn. 

Trevin decided to try it this year, but was content to just ride and not try any tricks. They did get him to pull a superman arm pose at the end.  

At the end of the day the kids love to color. They are getting so good at staying in the lines. They like to work on these really big coloring pages together. 

I took them through an automatic car wash for the first time. Which they thought was awesome!

Our Favorite thing to do right now is BOWLING! The  "kids bowl free" program started and so far we've gone 4 times. Trevin bowled 5 strikes and a few spares so far and Chey has gotten 1 strike and many spares! She really knows how to aim the ramp to get the left over pins. 

We even bought shoes this year to save money (no renting at $3.25 per pair each time). Plus the kids think it's pretty coo that they have their own shoes. 

We grew Trevin's hair out for his annual mow hawk. We Raced for the cure on Saturday. (I guess I forgot to take pics.) 

This week started out stormy so to burn some energy we headed to Kangaroo zoo with cousins! It has a dozen or so Blow up bounce houses, slides, obstical coarses, etc.  The huge slide was the favorite. 

The kids played for 4 hours!!! It was so great. Here they are just before leaving I thought they were gunna fall asleep on the spot. 

St. George / Zion's National Park

We went on vacation! It is so hard for Gage to get away from work sometimes. He really needed a break and we finally fit it in. When we were deciding where to go we wanted something low key, that we wouldn't be running from place to place. Can you believe it we actually wanted to relax on vacation. We finally decided on Zion's National Park...and a hotel in St. George. It was PERFECT. In addition to making this as low key as possible we put the kids in charge of being our photographers. We bought 2 cheap digital cameras and let them go to town. The kids were great in the car. We got an early start. Hoping the kids would be able to sleep. I woke them up and had them go to the bathroom. The took them out to the truck and said it was time to leave for vacation...WHOOPS! That woke them up and they both were awake for then next 3 hrs asking if we were at vacation yet. 

Kami told us about an awesome park in Cedar City that they always stop at to break up the drive. IT WAS AWESOME! It is called Bicentennial Park. It is huge, and has everything... Little monkey bars, lots of slides, a jeep, a ship, a rocket, tons of swings, ropes, balance beams, fossil discovery, and lots more. The kids loved it. I think we played there for over an hour. Levi loved being out of the car seat and being able to stretch. 

 When we made it to St. George our first stop was "The SPINNY Park." It's real name is Cottonwood Cove Park. But all of the toys spin. It was so much fun too. Gage and I played on the big toys while Trevin and Chey played on the smaller ones. Levi enjoyed the shade. This is when we gave the kids their cameras. 

And the picture taking began. We ended up with lots of heads chopped off or fingers covering the lens. Here is our trip througth the eyes of Trevin (4) and Cheyenne(3).

 Cheynne at the spinny park. Trevin says his favorite part at the park was playing catch with dad on the hill (you can see it behind Chey). After teh park we checked in at our hotel. We stayed at the coral hills best western and it was great. Breakfast and two pools! The two pools were a must since swimming was a daily activity and the thing the kids wanted to do the very most on vacation. Me unpacking. Trevin taking a picture of himself in his captain america stuff. (There were about 12 of these.) Next Gage in the hotel.

 The next day we headed to Zion's. We saw a LIZARD! ...and another and another The kids were so excited every time and took a picture every time. Next Chey took a picture of mom and dad hiking (do you see us?. Sugar had told T&C that there would be cactus where we went hiking and so they were on the look out. The first big one we saw Trevin had Chey and Dad pose with it. They both had lots of pictures of cacti.

 Trevin thought it was great to take pictures of anything he wanted... Trees... water...sky. Eventually we told him that that the pictures would be more fun to look at if he made sure people were in the picture. So he did even though we have no idea who some of the people are! He even did what he sees everyone do. He turned the camera around and took a picture of himself. 

 The first hike we did was "The Watchman" its a 3 mile hike round trip and took us about 3 hrs. It was fun and the kids did a great job. Gage and I took turns carrying Levi. Cheyenne was carried for just a little while on this one. After hiking we headed back to the truck for some lunch.  Levi was happy to hang out while we ate.

 Now this is the part that the kids were most anticipating... THE BUS! Trevin and Chey took lots of pictures out the windows. And Cheyenne enjoyed getting a break and getting to rest a little.  

 We hiked to weeping rock and enjoyed the coolness from the water and the view (0.4 mile round trip). Our next hike was to the emerald pools they were very low and barley trickled from one pool to the next. We had planned on just going to the lowest pool but the kids were doing good so we ended up going to the middle pool. The kids had fun jumping across the water here. Instead of doubling back we headed to the kayenta trail which took us back to the Grotto instead of Zion's Lodge. At one point we got to walk through a small opening/cave and Trevin wanted to take my picture. We figure that hike was just over 2 miles total.

Trevin walked the entire time. Chey was only carried for about 3/4 of a mile (not all at the same time). And Levi was a champ. He was a perfect baby and made life so easy. 

All three were asleep with in 5 minutes of getting in the car. So Gage enjoyed a drive through the mile long man made tunnel.

We made a stop at the Zion's visitor center a couple days later. They also got to get in their swimming suits and play in the man made creek by the tabernacle. Even though it was chilly and rainy that didn't slow them down. Later that night we went out to dinner with Biker and Nuny. We went to Texas Roadhouse... The kids favorite part - the peanuts!  

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We all had such a great time and the kids were so excited about everything that gage and I couldn't resist taking some pictures with our phones too. Here are some more pictures and a few activities that the kids were too busy playing to take pictures. 

Mini Golf at Fiesta Fun. 

 Trevin LOVED it and did a really get job. He is a very determined little boy. 

 Cheyenne had fun for the first couple of holes having dad help...but she did kick the ball in to most of the holes. 

They loved their golf clubs. 

The fountain near the creek at the tabernacle. 

The creek. I would have spent all afternoon here, but the kids were so tired. 

 

The carousel.

Nielsen's custard! YUMMY.

The outside pool.  

 The inside pool. 

Our little champ! Really he could not have been better.

 The end of the watchman trail. Aren't they a good looking bunch. 

The lookout point on the Watchman loop. These guys were such great hikers.

My family put up with me posing them for this one picture in a tree. The kids weren't very excited at first. 

On the "train bus." The buses had two cars. On our last ride. We sat at the very front of the back car. Where you could see the back of the front bus that  had a big advertisement for not feeding the animals. Trevin and Cheyenne were both very concerned about this picture of a man with stitches from being bitten by a squirrel. Well it required quite a bit of explaining. Then I told the kids not to worry about it and just look at the trees. Well that didn't distract them at all! By the end of the ride we had half of the bus laughing about the dangerous animal at Zion's that you shouldn't feed cause they will bite you. Like alligators and Sharks!

Our little photographers. 

 The view from weeping rock. 

The lower Emerald Pool.

The middle Emerald Pool. 

Fun story... While hiking the trail between the two emerald pools Cheyenne and I walked around the corner and realized we walked right into someone's picture. I apologized and he said no I was talking a picture of your family. "What?" He worked for some shoe sole company and was doing an article on trails that everyone can hike. Our family was apparently the perfect example so who knows maybe you'll see us in an article for a shoe sole company one day.;) 

 Our only whole group shot. 

There were beautiful views. Here's a picture that is a little more clear than Trevin's.

The crack/cave that Trevin wanted to take pictures in.

Waiting for the bus. 

 Hiking by the "DIXIE" rock. No, we never got sick of hiking. And it made getting the kids to sleep at night very easy! 

In the crack. 

 After checking out of the hotel, we went and played in the sand dunes in snow canyon. 

   

  

WE HAD THE BEST VACATION EVER!