Forever Young: May and June

Where does the time go?! It's already July in a few days! So crazy! Well, this is what we've been up to for the past month and a half.

Lots of trampoline time. Evelyn LOVES the trampoline. It is so fun to watch this little almost 2 year old hop around on the trampoline.

We really do feed our children healthy stuff most of the time! I promise! But I had to share these two different Evelyn faces on two different occasions after eating something sweet.

After Noel and Sam were both officially done with school for the summer, we had what we called, a "Young Day Fun Day". The entire day we did things the kids chose to do. So first we went on a hike up to "The Cross". Here in Spanish Fork, there is a cross on a hill that a boy scout built for his Eagle Scout project years ago (not sure how many). It's pretty cool. We can see it from our house. Morgan will run the trails up to it sometimes on his early morning runs. So he took the family up there. It was a really neat hike!

Noel and I found some interesting looking paw prints of some sort. For all I know they could be a large dog, but to me they looked a little different and much larger than a dogs paw print. Noel and I thought they could be from a mountain lion or something.

Almost there...

...still hiking...you can see the cross to the right in the picture below.

The cross on the left and then the windmills that Spanish Fork is known for on the right.

We made it! It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be!

Evelyn and I posing.

Then we went fishing at Salem Pond. The kids caught a total of 3 fish if I remember right!

Then the kids wanted to go to the splash pad here in town. It was Evelyn's first time there. She loved it!!To finish Young Day Fun Day we ended with getting burgers and fries and watching a movie together. It was a fun day.

Over Memorial Day weekend we worked on our firepit area finally!

A thunder and big rain storm hit just as we were finishing up leveling all the dirt that had been sitting there in a pile for the past year! It was so nice to finally be rid of that pile!

Here's the kids jumping on the trampoline with some of their stuffed animals.

Evelyn being her silly cute lil' self.

So I had the opportunity to attend a "Paint Nite". It was so fun and I hope to be able to do it again. The picture on the left is what I was attempting to paint. The artist was there guiding all of us step by step in how to replicate her picture. The picture on the right is my finished product. Don't look too hard and close in comparing the two;)

The Paint Nite Gals.

We ordered a bunch of Road Base and packed that down the following weekend.

The kids stayed busy playing on the trampoline and playing in the water.

Hitching a ride in our new wheel barrel. Our other one bit the dust as we were hauling the gravel that we put on top of the road base.

The finished product! After putting weed cloth down we hauled a bunch of tuscan pea gravel into the backyard to create the fire pit area and then we hauled a bunch of bigger gravel into the backyard to use on the walkway on the right of the picture, the one that leads from the garage to the fire pit. We were sooooo tired that evening.

"There was a little girl, who had a little curl..."

I was in the garage one evening and heard something rustling around. I looked in this little trash can that was leaning up against a pile of lumber in our garage and found this cute little field mouse. We had a hard time wanting to kill it so we drove to a wooded area a few miles from our house and let it go there.

Using our firepit for the first time and of course you gotta have s'mores if you are going to have a fire!

We had the privilege of going to California to visit my parents and Morgan's parents. We took the traditional trip to Mongolian BBQ in Cameron Park. Mmmm mmmm. It was good!

The kids loved going in the spa as much as they could while at Grandma and Grandpa Watkins house!

Sam had his 7th birthday while we were there so we got to celebrate that with grandparents from each side of the family as well as the Reynolds. I made Sam the traditional Birthday Cake Pancakes that morning.

I made Sam a Llyod Cake from The LEGO Ninjago Movie.

Grandma and Grandpa Watkins had recently purchased these inflatable suits that you put on and run into each other with. Noel and Sam had a blast testing them out.

Sam opening up his gifts.

It's a tradition to get the most amazing donuts every time we are at my parents. This donut shop is just around the corner from their house. It's probably a really good thing I don't live there.

Everyone enjoying the donuts.

More spa time.

Playing games with Grandma and cousin Remi.

After our time with Grandma and Grandpa Watkins, it was time to head to Clearlake, CA where we would have a reunion with Morgan's family and during our stay, spread the ashes of Morgan's grandmother who passed last year. We all stayed at a vacation rental that was right on the lake!

We did lots of fishing!

Grandma and Grandpa fishing with Sam.

Hanging out on the dock with my Evelyn.

We had a beautiful view.

Grandma Young gave the kiddos some fun activity books to do!

Evelyn loved going up and down the ramp that led to the dock from the back deck.

Hanging out in her life jacket. This little girl made me so nervous with her independence and all around the dock and such.

Sam fishing.

Noel fishing.

Evelyn continuing to go up and down that ramp.

Fishing with Daddy.

Our handsome boy.

Brian and Tobias fishing.

Morgan and Brian went out on the kayak to pour their Grandmother's ashes in the lake. This lake was her favorite place to go and I learned that she would go there 2 to 3 times a month back in the day. It made perfect sense to spread her ashes here.

I love this picture. It says so much.

Brian and Tobias heading out on the kayak.

Noel took a turn with her Daddy.

The kids really wanted to swim in the lake. For anyone who is familiar with Clearlake, the name is definitely opposite of what it is. There is tons of algae and it smells like it too, it's beauty is deceiving. Morgan had the hardest time bringing himself to go in it but he did it for the kids. He's better than I am. It was only for a few minutes at most but they at least got to go in the lake.

Sam went kayaking with his Dad as well.

Sam reeling in a fish with Grandpa. Grandpa found the sweet spot. I forget how many total Bluegill were caught in this particular spot but I know it was at least around 20 give or take a few.

Evelyn and I hanging out in the shade.

Evelyn holding up the line with the fish.

Noel fishing with her Grandpa.

I got to catch one too!

Noel with her catch.

Here is maybe half of the amount of Bluegill that were caught.

Tobias had some luck as well.

Evelyn really wanted to get in the water so Morgan set her in a handful of times. She loved it!

Morgan caught one of the bigger Bluegills if not the biggest one.

I got to play Jenga with Noel.

With all the fish we caught, we had a Fish Fry! It was delicious!

And then our trip was over like that. It was so fun to be with Morgan's family. We made some good memories there at Clearlake and we are grateful for that time we had there with them.

The second we got home Sam started putting together his new lego set he got for his birthday. He put it together all by himself!

The weekend after we got back it was time for some more yard work! So while I mowed the lawn and Morgan worked on some stepping stones, Evelyn played in the kiddie pool on the deck.

Evelyn helping Daddy with putting in some stepping stones in our new gravel walkway.

Evelyn sometimes doesn't get naps because of our schedule and such. On this particular evening she hadn't had a nap prior so at the dinner table she started to look like she was falling asleep but at the same time she'd give us the stink eye. It was hilarious!

Once we started laughing she'd laugh too.

Sam had an opportunity to go to a friends birthday party at a local karate place. The karate place gave him a coupon for 2 free one-on-one karate sessions and a free karate outfit. So he tried it out and loved it and earned his white belt! We will be signing him up for it probably in the next month.

Evelyn had her first dentist appointment and did amazing! She let them do basic x-rays on her as well as let them clean her teeth. She loved the taste of the toothpaste so much that her tongue was going all over the place during her cleaning so she could get a taste. It was so funny and cute.