Rain Rain Rain!

I am often disappointed with the rain storms we get around here because they rarely last more than 10 minutes. I miss my Arizona monsoons that would pour and fill retention basins. Well we got a great storm at the end of July and the kids loved it!! Hunter was riding on his bike around the circle exclaiming "Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain..." I tried to get it on video but by the time I got Connor settled and the camera ready he was moving on to other things.

Here is a video of the storm, I love the sound of the rain

In this video Hunter begins again to go around the circle but his "rain, rain, rain" song is not quite as enthusiastic or frequent :)

Ward Camp Out

Here is a track that the kids built using lots of the train track pieces we have, including some of the ones we got from Aunt Michelle

July 25th (Gunnar's real birthday) was our ward's camp out! We picked up some rotisserie chickens and chips for dinner and headed to the campsite. Tucker was not thrilled to eat dinner, I think it was around 7:30 when we got there to eat so he should have been starving but I think he was feeling a little sleepy after the car ride.

Hunter was happy to be there :)

Brylee fell asleep on the way there so she spent 20 minutes crying before she calmed down enough to join us for the fun. But she still said she was not happy and would NOT smile!

Hunter was the first done with dinner and sent on a hunt to find the perfect marshmallow sticks. He succeeded and was able to cook up some smores

Brylee eventually cheered up and had lots of fun cooking her own marshmallows

Even Gunnar got in on the fun and enjoyed eating his marshmallows.

Thankfully he thought the fire was too hot so he didn't like to get close and roast his own marshmallows so I got to do a couple for him. You can see Tucker in the background working his marshmallows. He really likes to roast them but not eat them, just like his mother. So I let him have  couple to burn for fun

Tucker did enjoy eating some of the chocolate. Would you believe that everyone in the world must have been camping this same weekend because Smiths was completely sold out of normal sized Hershey milk chocolate candy bars. Instead we had to get the "snack" size. It was crazy!

And here is a Brylee when she decides she is ready to have fun!

We didn't camp overnight because we had grandparents visiting and it probably would have been hard with Connor anyway so I was glad to have an excuse to come home and sleep in our own beds!

Gunnar is 2!

It is crazy to believe that this little boy is 2. Sometimes I swear he is going on teenager :P 

I love his cheese face!

Because he is completely obsessed with dogs, I made him a dog cake. You might be surprised by how complicated dog cakes there are out there, including a bunch made to be edible by dogs :/ Gunnar was super pleased with his cake and was able to identify it as a dog :)

Hunter ended up blowing Gunnar's candles out but none of us complained because we didn't really want sick Gunnar blowing all over the cake and he didn't seem to realize what had happened. 

Here is Gunnar ready to open his presents. He is sitting on one of the pillows that Grandma Debbie made for the kids. She was in Utah at the beginning of June for the quilt shop hop and the three older kids had picked out fabric and she volunteered to take it home and make something with it. Ultimately, she made a giant pillow for each of them. They have all come to really enjoy their pillows and replaced their normal pillows with these big circle ones :)

Gunnar was super excited to have some slippers just like his siblings. I didn't realize that he would be jealous of his siblings at Christmas time when they all had slippers and he didn't so he happily wore these around the rest of the day.

Brylee proved herself the ever helpful sister and all knowledgeable one when it comes to opening Gunnar's presents. It was really hard for her to stay seated on her pillow while Gunnar opened presents

Here is Gunnar opening the blanket and pillow case that I made for him. I'm glad that I finished it before Connor was born because I really didn't have any time to work on it after he was born.

And here Gunnar is finishing building his fire truck puzzle before opening his present of train tracks. He only got out a piece or two before he was ready to build. And so Hunter came along to help Gunnar empty the entire bag of tracks. It is great that he has so many helpers and doesn't complain. Thanks to my sister Michelle for the train tracks and fire truck puzzle

And here is Gunnar opening his present from Grandma and Grandpa Whiting :)

And here is the birthday boy with his blanket and slippers. Bryant tried to commandeer the blanket shortly after to take a nap on the couch while Gunnar played with his bubbles but Gunnar was not too happy about sharing his dog blanket!

We then had a wonderful fireworks show compliments of Bryant's parents and Bryant. The kids had lots of fun with our own show, we even ended up with some neighbor kids joining us for the fun.

My little Sleeper

Poor Gunnar came down with quite the fever on July 20th. He really wanted a picture of a dog printed off the computer to color because everyone else was getting one but instead of coloring he laid down on the couch and passed out. 

The following morning he decided to take a morning nap with his baby on the couch. 

He didn't have strep throat but he sure was hot, lethargic, and occasionally grumpy as a result, but he handled our rigorous schedule on Pioneer day!

Pioneer Day

We started our Pioneer day off with our Stake's breakfast celebration. It was good food and nice to not have to cook :) Then we played on the playground next to the breakfast and came home for some respite from the outside world and for me to feed Connor. Then we headed Pioneer park for their Pioneer day festivities. This year we waited in the INCREDIBLY long line for a turn to sit on an old school fire truck! 

Hunter was determined to be a fire dog in all of the pictures

right before we got to the real fir truck they had this small fire truck for the kids to sit in.

The engine had a loud bell and siren

After the fire truck we waited in the other INCREDIBLY long line for the pony rides. Thankfully, Bryant's parents were with us and they pushed Connor around in his stroller and brought us some lunch while we were waiting for our turn. 

Gunnar had to watch Tucker, Hunter, and Brylee have their turns before he was willing to get on one of the ponies. He has recently fallen in love with horses (from a distance). We have a neighbor next to us with a horse in his backyard that Gunnar loves to watch. We used to have a neighbor across the street that had two horses and he loved to stand by the fence when they were close and watch them too. But just like his love of dogs, being close to the real thing scares him. Thankfully he got over the concern enough to ride on the pony. He didn't last for his entire turn, the pony rather did scare him when it breathed out heavily but he was very proud of himself for riding the pony. After the pony rides we went to a table to make a craft and the person manning the booth asked the kids if they were having fun and Gunnar was quick to tell her that he rode a horsie!

As we were leaving Hunter decided to have a picture taken with this NOT storm trooper but bike rider (or something, I don't know the real name)

Next year we have plans to wait in the INCREDIBLY long line to saw a wood circle off of a log with a double handle saw and have it engraved. It is something Hunter thought looked cool last year and really wanted to do this year so we will have to do it next year, and maybe Pioneer day will fall on a day Bryant doesn't have work so that we can make that happen :)