Daddy Time!

Sunday morning was General Conference and it is wonderful for more than one reason. First, it is amazing and inspiring to hear from a living prophet and also the apostles, I always hear just what I am needing at that particular time in my life. Second, no church meetings for Jeff, which meant some serious Daddy time. The wrestling matches went on for a long time, at least over an hour.
When the kids are dressing up as super heroes they wear their capes/blankets and then tights on their heads. I'm not sure what inspired this robber-looking super hero accessory, but it's always there when playing super heroes.

Brett and Dantzel aor should I say Batman and Wonder Woman teaming up to take down the daddy monster.

Ah, got him. They were giggling and huffing and puffing and grunting, it was quite entertaining.

Victory is sweet. I feel so safe with these two around! ;)

Different day. This one started out as a princess, and then wonder woman. What a stunning combo, don't you agree?!

These kids love their daddy so much, and he is so good to them. He plays with them, reads them books, tells them stories, and teaches them about being champions! We are so lucky to have such a good guy around to take care of us

We're Camping in the Rain, just Camping in the Rain...

While we were in Idaho we were planning to camping with Jeff shortly after we got home. The kids were so excited and there was no way we could back out, even though the low was 73 degrees with a 20% chance of rain. Buescher State Park is located east of Austin, but past Bastrop and all the burnt down areas, it was so wonderful to see a pine tree! We packed and planned all day, and the excitement and anticipation was really high. And this is how our camping trip started...

On our drive to the park it started raining, really really hard.

When we arrived at our campsite, a cub scout leader let us know that all of the spots were going to be filled up with little 10 year old cub scouts. I couldn't think of anything I'd rather do, so we decided to go to the primitive/walk-in campsite instead. We had a nice evening with friends and built a fire. The air was so heavy and humid, it was pretty miserable inside the tent and the kids had a hard time falling asleep because of it. Brett was torn because he was to have the sleeping bag experience but he was so darn hot he couldn't. Then at about 5 am a few sprinkles fell through our tent and so Jeff set up the rain fly and packed all of our other stuff out to the van. The sprinkles turned into full on sheets of rain, with thunder and lightning so close, I was scared for our lives. Everything was soaked and/or muddy. I really wanted to pack up and leave and go get doughnuts, but Brett really wanted to catch a fish with Brother Brud, so we stayed.

We saw an owl on our way to the lake.

Ready to get out on the lake!

My little fishermen. It was a beautiful misty morning on Buescher Lake.

Midway through fishing, Kelsey decided she needed a little siesta. 

I had Brett and Dantzel on my kayak with me and that meant two kids with hooks, scary. I casted out for them and they would reel it in. I cast out Dantz's line and handed her the pole. She would reel and then get distracted for a bit and then reel again. I finally took the pole from her and was reeling it the rest of the way in and there was a fish on the end. I handed it back to her and she was so excited to have caught her first fish, a little bass. 

Brett was reeling in his line and felt a little wiggle and said "mommy I think I got one". I lifted up the line and sure enough out came a little perch. Brett was SO proud and tells everyone about it! 

This camping trip ended up being beautiful, fun and memorable.

Cave Falls Idaho September 2013

One of the many adventures on our Idaho trip took us up in the mountains to Cave Falls for a hike and some beautiful falls. The weather was a perfect 70 degrees and the air was still. The water was chilly, but that didn't seem to bother the kids, who with shoes and socks headed right in. Jumping into the water and throwing rocks, they were having loads of fun. The beauty of this area is hard to describe, so I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Adorable boy in granpa's hat, enjoying nature. He could have stayed there all day!

These two were the best buddies. When she would wake up in the mornings in Idaho she would head stright for grandma's room, not even a hello or good morning to mom. Don't forget to check out the backdrop, uh incredible.

This is what they were doing majority of the time. And look at those beauitful falls, it takes my breath away.

Grandpa loves these girls and he was so sweet to them. I LOVE this picture.

Okay Shmels, stealing all the attention with your exuberant amount of cuteness!! Can't get enough of that girl!

During the hike the kids were collecting sticks for our campfire the next evening. Their little hands were overflowing with 5 or 6 sticks, but it was so important to them that we kept them and use them in our fire. The things they do and say just fill my heart right up. Everywhere I go people ALWAYS say, "oh, you sure got your hands full" and it's so true, I do, but it sounds so negative. I saw a beautiful quote that I think of everytime someone says that. It goes like this, "If you think my hands are full, you should see my heart".