Busy

In between fishing and camping trips we have stayed pretty busy. We have a really big yard and I am struggling to keep on top of it. Our garden is quite large as well. I'm terrified for when the tomatoes come on. Want to know how many tomato plants we have? 48. That's how many. Terrifying.
But thats not what with post is about its about my kids and the odds ends I have been missing in the blog.
I finally taught Ike to like a binki. He hated it at first but after much persistence on my part he finally tolerates it and sometimes he even acts like he likes it.

Pep keeps acting like he is going to potty train. I encourage it but Im not putting any pressure at this point. However... he doesnt want to wear a diaper sometimes and Im a really good mom and let him run around with his bare bottom hanging out. Im sure my neighbors love it and I know Pep does! He runs around peeing on trees and in the grass. Its good fun. Except for the scratches he got on his behind from climbing a tree while going commando.

  The kids have been enjoying playing in the sprinklers this summer. Pep especially loves it... even if it does get a little rough sometimes.

The dogs got to cool down last week when we gave them baths. Unfortunately while doing so we discovered a giant lump on Hunters side. Turns out its a tumor. Its just a fatty tumor so there is no cancer but it does make him a little uncomfortable. It is about the size of a softball so I can see how that would happen.

Grandma Pam signed AnDee up for a dance camp this last week. AnDee loved it. She needs more of that kind of stuff. It was fun to have some time with just the boys too. I forgot how much easier it was to have only two kids. Pep even helped with mowing the lawn!

We got to meet our new cousin baby Aldee. AnDee is in love with him and I can see why. He is a doll.

Buggy had her first filling done at the dentist. She even got to wear a pink "teddy bear nose" that smelled like bubble gum and watch The Princess and the Frog while doing so. Double win. She was perfect the entire time. She wasn't a huge fan of the numbness at lunch time though...

The girl has spent countless amounts of time coloring and writing this summer. She handed me the following paper and told me it was her family...

Translation: AnDee, Mom, Dad, Pep, Dyl, Dave, Ike, Whit

This boy just melts my heart.

He is so patient. I haul him everywhere. Even up and down mountain sides and he never even makes  a noise.
I was messaging my mom a couple of days ago and had my phone on hand so I snapped this pic...

And immediatly following (and I do mean imediately) He rolled over for the very first time. He just turned 5 months which is right when Pep rolled over too. I remember waiting for Pep to roll over and thinking he was so old to not be rolling. I guess thats what happens when your first born is a freak and rolls over at 8 weeks. My expectations were much different this time. I'm ok with him staying infant for as long as possible. They grow up way too fast for me.

Pioneer Day

All day long AnDee would ask "whats this day called again?" I tried to explain to her what a pioneer was but I just dont think she was completely understanding. So we thought we would show her by doing our own little pioneer trek. Ok. Not really, we really just went for a great big hike to spot some elk for dads upcoming hunts.
We headed up to Fairview canyon and spent the day fishing and hiking. I cant think of a better way to spend a holiday. The fish we caught were pretty small but it turned out to be a good thing cause AnDee officially caught a fish all by herself. Ok.. so Andrew helped with the cast but only a little, she is actually surprisingly good at it. She hooked it and reeled it in. She is a pro.

After fishing and lunch we headed up to the very tip top of the mountain. Dad and Dyl got out and started "glassing" (as they call it. I just say they used their binoculars to look for elk but whatever)

and found a pretty good sized herd.

 If you look close you can see one of the bulls. He's laying down.
We decided to hike down and see how close we could get. The kids where amazing. I told them we had to be sneaky like Indians (and by that I mean native Americans of course... and sneaky in a good way. Im not racists I promise) They didn't make a sound the whole way down. It was steep and a little scary watching our train wreck 4 year old try to navigate it by herself but she made it out alive and the scenery was incredible!

I have honestly never seen so may wild flowers! Gorgeous!
We did however stumble upon a few deer carcasses. They smelled real bad and I'm pretty sure whatever was eating them was stalking me for a while. Andrew and Dyl left me with the kids for a while to try and get in a little closer to the elk and I could just feel something watching me. I was terrified. And then we found this footprint...

needless to say I was glad when Andrew and Dyl came back.
We also walked right up on an eagle sitting in a tree. We got about 15 feet from the tree before it flew away. I wish I had pics. It was so cool. They are such big birds! We could hear the wind whistling through its wings.
AnDee walked all the way in and all the way out by herself and that is saying something. It was NOT an easy hike. She tried to give up a few times but we kept reminding her about how good it would feel to get to the top and be able to say she did it all by herself. Its funny though cause while she was complaining that she was too tired to hike anymore she would just randomly wonder off a little ways and start climbing up giant boulders. (Thats her new word. Boulder. She uses it whenever possible.)

We were all pretty tuckered out by the time we headed home...

it was a good day.

This One Time We Went Fishing...

I dont know if I have mentioned this already so if I have, I apologize for mentioning it again...
We have started a new family tradition while the weather is good. We go fishing every friday night. We call its family fishing friday. We are cool.
A couple of Friday's ago, Andrew got off early so we decided to head up to Strawberry for family fishing friday. Dyl came with us and Whit was going to meet us up there when she got off work. When we pulled in we saw a lady waving at us but didn't recognize her so we just drove past to find a fishing spot. When we got out I looked back to see where the crazy waving lady was and noticed that she looked like she was covered in mud. Then I noticed  that it looked like her Jeep had its front end stuck in the mud but I couldn't tell for sure. Pretty soon I saw the waving lady walking towards us. She was, in fact, covered in mud. I mean up to her chest in mud. When she reached us she asked if we had a shovel. Her daughter wanted to see the pelicans on the lake so she thought she would just drive down the shore line in her super 4-wheel drive vehicle and let her get a good look. There was a little stream in her way so she thought to herself "oh Ive driven through way worse things than this" and went for it.... it had been raining for days.... she was misinformed about the abilities of her vehicle. Andrew told her that he didnt have a shovel and didnt even have a tow rope or a chain but he would be happy to help pull her out if she could find one. Pretty soon the Forest service people showed up. They came and told us they had a chain but asked us to help pull her out. (I guess they are forbidden to use their own vehicles for such acts of service. Who put the "service" in forest service anyway?) So we drove down there and very carefully got close enough to her super duper awesome jeep (Ok... so I cant get over how much she talked up her jeep and her driving skills. I was irritated.) to hook up. She had been digging out the tires with her bare hands and some sticks for some time so there was some space behind the tires. Dyl got in her jeep and Andrew in the Denali and they gave it their best... to no avail. The thing didnt even move. Upon closer inspection we discovered that close to every inch of the bottom of her vehicle was sitting on the ground. She had spun out so much that almost the entire undercarriage was SITTING ON THE GROUND! We dug (and when I say "we" I actually mean andrew and dyl) and dug and dug, then tried again. Nope. Not an inch. Pretty soon a trucker stopped by. He had just dropped off a load in Duchesne  and saw they could use some help. After some more digging and pulling and nothing moving the trucker had a brilliant idea! Let me pull my 18 wheeler down here. No prob. Ill just pull you out like its nothin. Wrong. Now we not only have a jeep grand cherokee stuck, we also have a giant 18 wheeler that isn't going anywhere. Now what?
Lucky for us another passerby took pity. He pulled his truck down, hooked up another rope and between him and Andrew and a good bump from Andrew the jeep was finally free!!!

Next up?? Oh.. just an 18 wheeler..
While Andrew and new passerby dude where pulling waving lady out, Dyl was digging... a lot. Turns out that 18 wheelers have a lot of wheels to dig out. The forest service dude finally decided he could help. They hooked up all 3 trucks to the big guy and hoped that Dylan's digging would do the trick. It took some effort but the truck finally came out and we all celebrated by watching the forest service give multiple tickets to waving lady for driving off road in a restricted area and causing insane amounts of damage. Ok... We didn't really celebrate that way. We celebrated by moving to a different area and fishing.... far far away from waving lady.

The fishing was great. When we werent reeling in a fish, we were catching crawdads. Whit showed up with pizza and my kids were in heaven.  Especailly since no one reprimanded them when they took their pants off. In fact, the only reaction to that was everyone singing along when they started singing "Pants on the ground. Pants on the ground"

Even Ike enjoyed himself. This kid is just pleasant.

 I got to watch Dyl cratively put new line on his reel all by himself...

Yes. He is reeling with his mouth.

Andrew taught Whit how to gut a fish and Whit and AnDee began dissecting...

and of course Dad caught the biggest fish...

That being said. He only reeled it in. I rigged that pole, baited it and was the one who cast it out. That fish should have been mine!!! Darn babies taking up my hands and arms.

It started out a little rough but it turned out to be a good little trip. Even if Dyl went home with blisters all over his hands from digging out an 18 wheeler.

And Here it is...

I know you have ALL been waiting for it (sarcasm.. if you didn't catch it) My yearly Flaming Gorge post has arrived!
We had a blast! As always. This year we added another friend. 2 years ago it was just Dylan who joined us for our adventure. Then after Dave heard all of our awesome stories and saw all the photographic evidence of how cool that place is he joined us for last years adventure and this year we had Whitney join the party! It was super fun to have them, especially since we didnt have very many cousins this year. With Nanny and Poppy being in China the Cowley family numbers dwindled but Ambers family joined us which was the best thing that could have ever happened to AnDee and Pep. Ambers kids are seriously awesome. The younger kids play endlessly with my kids and the older kids are so helpful and keep an eye out for all the younger ones. Its so fun to camp with their family!
We fished... and fished and fished! We are really in to fishing this year. AnDee got her new pole for her birthday and it has been put to good use!

 Ike caught his first fish... (there is a baby under that hat, I promise)

 And so did Whit... (ok she said she "thought" she caught one when she was 12. So I guess it was her first fish since the one fish she caught at 12... whatever)

 Dad caught the monster one the left on his fly pole at Calder. The rest were caught at the ever kid friendly Matt Warner reservoir. We also caught our fair share of crawdads or "muscrabs" (A muskrat/ crab high bred?) as the kids kept calling them.

I was really awful about pictures. I took virtually no pics with the cousins. I didn't even take this one. I stole this one from either Dave or Dyl. Cant remember which. Regardless... AnDee loves Aubree!

 We did some four-wheeling! The kids got to go on quite a few rides but again.. No pics.

 We introduced Whitney to the world of camo. She was hesitant at first but is now shopping for her own camo.

 Andrew took me for a ride on the pit bike... it was awful.

 Tree Tipping!!! for old time sake.

We took a little drive around Taylor mountain to see what we could see. We saw lots of deer. Tons of buck but no elk. I was missing the elk. I remember the days when we would drive the loop and see herds of literally 100+ elk. Still no elk despite our best efforts but we did find a nice little camp ground along the way and stopped to roast some hotdogs and marshmallows. The camp ground was even equiped with a fort and a swing. It was a fun little evening, even without the elk.

One day we went with Aunt Amber and family and hiked Leidy Peak.... ok we actually didn't end up hiking it. We ended up going straight up the face in stead of up the trial and the only one who actually made it all the way to the top was Dyl. And that was only because some 9 year old boys said he couldn't  beat them up there. Challenge excepted. But it sure was pretty up there... 3/4 of the way up Leidy peak that is :)

 We call this little number "the sleep chamber" No baby can resist the urge to sleep while wearing it. It is SO perfect for camping in cooler places cause they stay warm no matter how wiggly they get AND they sleep like a baby.... for whatever thats worth.

I always get sad the night before we have to go home. Its like Im leaving this place that has been nothing less than magical for me since... well since I can remember really. I get all melancholy and mopey cause I hate going back to reality. I hate leaving the one place that I might feel more comfortable than any other place it the world except for maybe my own home. Its just me. Its where I am in my element.  And I really dont have one bad memory that goes along with being there. I think God inspired my parents to start taking our family there just for me. I need that place.
The day we had to head home we decided to drag it out as long as possible and head over to Matt Warner to see if we could limit out before we absolutely HAD to hit the road. We caught our limit plus some but put back whatever we could. On the way back out we ran in to a couple of badgers. That was kinda neat. Something you don't see every day. We made it back to camp, hooked up and headed out. We had just pulled off of the dirt road and were making our way down to the switchbacks when I saw them. I began pounding on the window and yelling "stop! stop" Andrew was not happy with me when he realized the reason for my outburst. The elk. I huge heard of them. It was nice to know that they are still up there and to get to see them for a few minutes. I agree. I could  have been more controlled about telling him why I wanted him to stop. But it was just so exciting!