Our First Backpacking Trip!

 

Warning this post has an insane amount of photos!

We've been planning a backpacking trip for about 6 months now, but last weekend we finally packed our bags and left modern civilization behind.

 

We knew hiking in with two smallish kiddos was going to be tricky so we prepared as best we could. Everyone got a pack. Mom and Dad got really big packs. Will, the pack he fell in love with at REI and would see none else and an itty bitty pack for Ben. Will and Ben had some water in their watertubes (aka camelpacks) as well as a beloved stuffed animal that couldn't be left behind.

 

 The original rule was everyone walks the whole way, but can call breaks whenever the want.... yeah that worked for about 1/2 a mile. Cue superdad! btw his pack weighs about 45lbs and Ben weighs 30!

 It took us about 3.5 hours to hike in 2.5mi. Slow and steady won the race, and we made it! (Found out later we stopped at the wrong lake and our goal was about 1mi further, oh well. We went on a dayhike out there the next day)

 

 Our tent and View from our tent!

 I recently bought a new dehydrator, so I made all of our backpacking food. Everything was dried and cooked simply by adding boiling water and waiting for it to soften. Sounds awful huh? It was actually pretty good. Our favorites were Stroganoff Soup, Bean & Rice Burritos, and Strawberry Shortcake!

 Will had a stick in his hand pretty much the entire trip! It was everything from a pirate sword, to a gun to shoot the old trees down so new ones could grow, to a walking power stick.

 There was some climbing, but...

 Mostly a TON of this! Ben loves looking at dirt, just not having it on his hands.

 Picture taken by Benjamin

 Ben's pretty proud of his seat.

 The scenery was beautiful, but my favorite was seeing all these boys, and holding their hands.

 When you ask Will what his favorite part of the trip was he'll say, "Sitting on the big rock with Dad"

 We packed up a day early to miss some bad weather rolling in, but everything else was pretty much perfect!

Lego hair and the Infinity of Space

We were at the church Saturday morning for primary program practice. After the practice the kids were hanging out, outside the church waiting for their parents. I was helping one of my primary kids find his dad, while Will was playing on the pile of boulders with some other kids. 

I came over to collect him to go home and found a swarm of concerned kiddos. Something about a missing Lego in the cracks between the rocks? I looked for a minute or two but couldn't see anything and Danny was already heading to the car so I grabbed Will and left. 

Once we got to the car, and on the way home, we discovered that Will was the one who had dropped it. The fuss was created because it wasn't just any Lego but THE Wildstyle! I took it in for a moment and realized in four-year-old land this was a big deal! I suggested we needed to do something to make it up to the person, since Will was the one who lost it. Will wanted to go to the Lego store and buy a new one, I convinced him he didn't have enough money to do that. Then, he wanted the girl to go buy a new one and I explained it wasn't fair for her to have to use her money. Last, he decided we should go find it. (mom's thought: yeah a needle in a haystack, go search the church grounds for a Lego person?) what I said though was, "maybe we should say a prayer and ask for help" what followed was one of the cutest most faithful prayers I've had the privilege of witnessing. Will asked for help, described in detail Wildstyle's clothes, hair, and hands, and his desire to find it.

So I said a silent prayer of my own to be a good mom and teacher, we grabbed a flashlight and some poles and walked back up to the church. 

We found it! Within probably 2 min, of looking. It wasn't until then that I found out we weren't looking for Wildstyle we were looking for her hair. we found a piece of Lego person hair that was lost somewhere outside the church!

We sat down and said a prayer of thanks right there. Now to find the owner.... I wasn't paying that close attention before and had no idea who's Lego it was, everyone had left by this point, and Will didn't know the name. Some girls I recognized from before came out and we asked them, but they didn't know. Then, 30 sec later our owner walked out. Her dad had been cleaning the church so they were leaving late. She was just about in tears as we handed back the hair plus a little treat to apologize. So relieved that her Lego girl was no longer ruined by the lack of hair!

Later that night we went to the planetarium and watched an IMAX on the vastness of space. As I watched I couldn't help but think that of the billions of galaxies we know of, we haven't began to touch the vastness of space. I pondered the multitude of people in the universe and was awed by a loving father in heaven who is mindful and so loving to a four-year-old boy with a lost Lego. One of the other moms remarked when it was found lost, "well that's a life lesson" yeah, I definitely hope it will be for Will it was one for me.

Tour de Utah/ Ultimate Challenge

Danny's Ultimate Challenge Experience

 I was pretty lame at documenting his endeavors even though I carried my camera around all day. But here's how our day started.... super early! Fortunately for the boys, Grandma and Grandpa invited them over for a sleepover so they were spared the 4am wake-up call.

 Still feeling good 40 miles, and two climbs in. If only this good feeling could have lasted... Danny had a fun day with goals to "dominate" next year. He didn't crash so I'm pretty excited too :)

Next up, watching the pros compete in the Tour de Utah.

 There were Helicopters...

Team Cars...

Oh yeah and racers!

 Cadell Evans, a bit blurry and he looks a bit like a monkey because he's eating but still.

 JENSIE!!!! I love watching Jens and reading his blog. I'm definitely going to miss reading about his Tour de France experiences. I'm hoping he gets a good announcers position.

 Plus, we saw some fancy bike handling skills. 

Why yes I could use a drink...

 tricky, tricky...

 success!

 Btw, I totally can put on a jacket while descending down a mountain with no hands.

 I definitely support team Jelly Belly! And, anything that includes being covered with pictures of candy.

 Time for a Coke? If you can't tell he is totally drinking out of a mini coke can.

Okay this was cool! This guy saw us and tossed us his bottle. Instead of just chucking it to the side he put in effort to slide it straight to us. His drink of choice? more coke! lol

Birthdays 2014

 First up, my (Jenni's) birthday.

My day began by picking up these cool guys on the train. They decided to spend the whole day just with me.

 We went to temple square. Ben tried to flirt with a sister missionary, but I explained she was off limits.

 Then, they made me a HUGE lunch at the Church History Museum

 They even did the dishes afterwards.

 Not to say our day was with out some hard times.

 and fitful naps.

 but we finally found our treasure...

 My "birthday cake" some macarons from the Grand America

My birthday present from Danny was a baking steel that allowed me to make this delicious looking pizza! :)

A few days later we were ready to party for Danny's birthday

 In honor of his 29th birthday we wrote down 29 reasons why he's our Superman.

 Made a superman cake.

 Does this face look guilty to you??

 Yes, yes, it does.

 Danny asked me to save my usual cheesecake for after his big bike ride next weekend, so we came up with a reasonably healthy alternative. It really is just a hunk of watermelon, but it was actually delicious!

Out of the mouths of babes

We were driving home from the store last night and had this conversation with Will

Will: mom can I invite Max next time I have a party (anticipating his next birthday already)

Me: yeah of course

Will: To my choo choo train party

who else should I invite?

Me: who are your friends?

Will: maybe the z house? 

(Side note: the Z house is our bishop's house who happen to have a Nabraska flag in their front window when we moved here, but the had to hang it sideways due to the window shape... Thus the z)

Me: oh Claire?

Will: no the mean boys that live there (Claire's older brother's, who apparently traumatized him with water guns on our visit and have since been known as the mean boys)

Me: Will if they're not nice to you why do you want to invite them?

Will: we can tell them to be nice and tell them about Jesus

Me: your going to do this at your party?

Will: yeah

Me: like a church party?

Will: Yeah! A Jesus train party!

Yeah about those invitations, not sure how to phrase that :)

South Jordan it's finally Summer Festival?

So our city is having a huge festival this weekend. Why? Because summer doesn't officially start till you have a festival? I don't totally get it but there's a parade and everything for 4 days.

They started things off tonight with family night at the carnival. We drove past them setting it up yesterday and the boys were hooked, well once Will recovered from the fact that they were using his soccer fields.

As we got out of the car Will was jumping up and down saying I'm so excited!!!

We walked around then bought a couple of tickets. Danny had his eye on the super, extreme, spinning, I can't believe anyone would actually want to ride that, and not just on a date rides. But the boys were too short. He said not today, but if we were on a date.... Um I don't think he remember the fact that I throw up on airplanes, without turbulance.

Instead we settled for the Ferris wheel. Danny was with Will and I with Ben. Ben was hilarious! Every time we stopped to load he would shout "GO!". Then, he would say "WHEE!!" On the way up. Then, he noticed the people in front of us were holding their hands up so naturally he had to do that too.  Me, as  soon as that seat started rock'n at the top, I was glad to have been to hold on to. I'm a whimp!

Then, the boys spent the rest of our tickets of this silly slide thing. They could have done that all night!

Last, the boys had their first taste of cotton candy.

Ben absolutely loved it! Will not so much.

Truck walk

They were going to open a new road in our neighborhood on Saturday, so Thursday they had a truck walk. They lined all the big trucks up on the smooth new road and allowed us to walk through, see, and even sit in them! Needless to say, our boys had a blast. They even had plastic hard hats and safety glasses for each of the kids to keep.

Will kept looking down at the road while he walked, shuffling his feet and saying, "Woah, this is really smooth!"

Did I mention they also had cookies? Icing on the cake :)