Hiking

 Since Rob missed our last hike to the Sandy waterfall we decided to go again with him.  The kids were so excited to show him the waterfall.  The knew just where to go.  We got there and started the hike up the stairs...

 Rob was in charge of the camera most of the time.  :)  Isn't he handsome??  

 The kids showed him this cool cave.  

 Rob helped them climb onto that ridge again.  Sadie was a little nervous since this is the spot where she was stung by a bee the last time we were here, but she didn't get stung this time!  Phew!  There were actually a lot less bees and wasps flying around this time.  I think it was because when we went with my mom, we were hiking at 11:00am and it was sunny and hot.  This time, we went in the evening, so it wasn't hot and the bees weren't hovering over the water.  

 I love this picture!  My family is the cutest!

 Emery enjoyed playing in the wet sand the whole time.  

 And she kept her undies dry the entire hike.  I was really glad about that since I was the one carrying her on my back!  :)

 Sadie climbed up here all by herself.

Just to give you an idea of how high it was.  Pretty high for her.  

I love spending time with my kids in nature.  We play a lot outside at home and everything, but taking them up into the mountains is just fun.  They love all the rocks and water and trees.  Zac's favorite thing to do is throw rocks in the water.  He could do it for hours.  I am so glad that Heavenly Father created this world and made it beautiful for us to enjoy. 

Pretzel glasses

 I remember doing this when I was younger...so the other day when I realized I bought the larger sized pretzels I showed the kids what I used to do with them.  They had lots of fun.  And they were so cute too!

 Sadie had the most success keeping it on her nose.

 Emery needed to use her hand so it didn't fall.

 And I think Zac had the most fun with it.  Ha ha.  

He played with these for a good twenty minutes.  :)

Its the simple things...

Halloween Decor

 This is our only actual Halloween decoration.  I made it a few years ago.  I guess I never bought anything because we never had room for it at our old place.  So we just make our own decorations.

 These are the glitter bats Sadie and I made while Zac was a preschool.

 This was Sadie's favorite that I made...

 And this was my favorite that Sadie made.

 Then we made these milk carton jackolanterns.  

 They lasted only about a day because the kids liked bowling with them better than just looking at them.  :)

Emery

 Emery has been growing up so fast these days!!!  She keeps us on our toes, but we love her so much!  Here are some things about her that I don't want to forget:

She can talk very well.  Our other kids pretty much just babbled until they were two years old and then at two their language took off.  Emery talks in sentences and has been for a while now.  Sometimes when she is in bed and doesn't want to be in bed she will yell "I don't want to go night night right now!!!" over and over. 

She loves to make people laugh.  If she says something once and you laugh, she remembers and says it to you when she is in trouble.  Some things that she says right now that make me laugh every time are "of course!", "oh  man!" and "oh yeah baby" 

She always wants to do what the bigger kids are doing. 

She is usually very sweet, but when she gets angry she can throw a big tantrum...and scream for a long time.

She always picks out what she wears...which can be a little bit frustrating.  Lately we have just been hanging out in undies while she gets the hang of going to the bathroom in the potty.  :)

We are so glad that she is a part of our family!

 She loves to be crazy.

 Trying Zac's bike.  She's ready to go!

 She loves bubble baths!

And she loves to snuggle.  She always wears her blanket around her like this.  And towels too. 

Camping trip

 A couple weeks ago we decided to go camping. We had tried a couple times this summer to go, but both times the weather was rainy and cold.  So we didn't go.  But we were determined to go so we reserved a campground on a Tuesday for the weekend.  Of course, the next day Sadie woke up with a runny nose...which turned into a nasty cough and then throwing up.  This happens every time she gets sick with anything.  It is quite annoying.  So on Thursday Zac was starting to get a runny nose.  I was worried about the camping trip, but we were determined.  So on Friday we packed up and headed out.  And Zac threw up about three times in the car on the way there. 

 But we were prepared for that...see that bucket in the back seat??  Nice.  I was worried Zac would miss out on all the fun but when we got there he got his energy and was done being sick.

 There was a playground right close to our campground.  We hung out there for a little while, but the kids just wanted to put the tent up and go to the lake.

 Emery spent a lot of time playing with the gravel around the campground.

 We were going to roast hot dogs for dinner, but I thought this would be tons easier...then we could save the fire for roasting marshmallows.  You know...the important stuff.

 Then it was off to the lake.  Zac was so excited.  He has been saving a really flat rock that he found months ago so he could bring it camping.  He wanted to try to skip it on the water.  He had that thing in his hand the whole car ride up and all the way to the lake.  :)

 Rob had to help the kids jump over this little river.

 The lake was really disappointing.  we couldn't get very close to the water because the mud was SO deep when you got close.  But the kids didn't seem to mind.  They just threw rocks from far away.  

 They couldn't quite get the rocks to the water which started a new game.  We called it "super mudder".  We would throw the rocks into the mud and they would sink so far they would disappear.  The kids loved it.

 Action shot.

 There were a few close calls with the rocks almost hitting people.  haha.  We had to teach the kids to stay in a line so they didn't get hit with rocks.

 Emery was my little buddy.  She would bring me rocks and tell me to throw them.  Then she would giggle when they hit the water.  

 Rob trying to teach Zac and Sadie how to skip rocks.  I think they are still a little young to get it.  :)

 Look at this little cutie!  Oh and don't pay attention to her shirt...it is just a hand me down.  :)  I'm not pregnant.  

 I love these guys!

 Emery helped Rob build the fire.

 Roasting marshmallows.  unfortunately the kids still weren't feeling completely better, so we didn't eat many.  

 Getting in the tent.  When it got dark the kids were fascinated by the stars.  Ha ha.  I think it is because they hardly ever get to see them.  They are always in bed by 7. 

 Emery did NOT sleep very well in the tent, but the other kids were great!  Zac woke up first in the morning so I let him play my ipad while we got some more sleep.

 Sadie slept past 8am.  That hasn't ever happened in her whole life I don't think.  It was pretty funny.

 She was SO TIRED.  At this point we had all been up and eaten breakfast and gotten dressed for the day and she didn't budge. 

 Then we were trying to get everything put away.  We cleared out a bunch of the blankets and sleeping bags and she just layed here like this.  She must have had zero energy.  She told me she couldn't walk so I got her dressed and helped her out to a chair and gave her a bagel.  She said she couldn't even lift her arm to eat it.  It was funny.  This was like 9:00am.

 Then we went down to the lake one more time to throw more rocks.  Rob threw some really big ones this time.  

Then it was time to go home.  I loved our camping trip.  We didn't get much sleep, but it was so fun to see how happy the kids were out there.  And Rob was so good at teaching them things about camping and throwing rock after rock after rock.  ha ha. I just wish the kids weren't sick because they would have had so much more fun!  We will definitely be doing this more next year!