Mirror Lake

For our family camp out this year we headed out the Uinta's to Mirror Lake. It was very relaxing and beautiful. We experienced all the joys of camping-camp fires, outdoor cooking, roasted marshmallows and s'mores, really smelly drop toilets, beautiful scenery, the bugs, the stars, the clean air, and having much needed family time without cell phone reception. It was awesome :)

Our days consisted of walking around the lake trail...





going to the bridge and watching fish jump out of the water, and of course playing in the water (we sure missed our canoe). We also made the boys fishing poles out of sticks and all the fishing line that fishermen leave behind on shore (seriously fishers! Are you that lazy?)

We also past the time by playing/digging in the dirt, blowing bubbles, going on exploring adventures in the woods, Oakley's favorite pastime-throwing rocks in the water, and Canyon's favorite pastime-driving his remote control jeep. His jeep came back with some definite damage after being crashed into trees, rocks, picnic tables, his brother.....

The best part of our camping trip? We got to stay in Grandma and Grandpa Furr's sweet trailer! I never knew how luxurious trailer camping could be. Needless to say...it was amazing. At night instead of climbing into a cold tent-we got into the trailer, turned the heater up full blast, and all snuggled together in bed and watched a movie.





On our way home we stopped at Lily Lake to fly kites. But for some reason we could not get our All a Dollar kites to fly...I wonder why :) But it was pretty fun watching Canyon and Daniel trying to get them up in the air.

We also stopped by the Provo River Falls and stopped in Heber to eat lunch at the train station. We just didn't want our camping trip to end...

Vacation part 2

One day of our vacation we decided to visit Las Vegas. We did as many kid friendly things as you can do in Vegas. We went to the M & M factory and paid way too much money for Canyon to pick out his favorite colors of M&M's.





We also went to the MGM Grand and saw the lions. They had a baby lions too. We visited the Rain Forest Cafe, coke factory, some cool candy store, and paid way too much money at Wendy's for lunch. Oakley's favorite part of Vegas was the fans on the street that mist you with water. Those were so nice because it was 112 degrees outside.

We also went to the Bellagio and watched the water show and took a tour of sun room.

We left Las Vegas in the late afternoon before it got too sleazy.
For the rest of our vacation we went out to eat at our favorite restaurant, relaxed, watched movies, ate Nelson's frozen custard, swam, and did a little shopping.


My favorite memory of the trip: Canyon and Oakley shared a room on our trip which they don't do at home. One of our first days down there Canyon and Oakley went down for a nap. I told Canyon to sing Oakley a song so he wouldn't be sad. About 40 minutes later I went upstairs to check on the kids and Canyon was in Oakley's crib with him singing him songs. They were both laughing and having the time of their lives :)

Summer Vaca-Part 1

For our summer vacation this year we spent some time in St. George catching up on some much needed R and R. We enjoyed relaxing at the condo, swimming, and having a few adventures along the way. Our first adventure was crossing the border into Arizona to explore some petroglyphs.


And of course the boys had to climb rocks...

and chase lizards.



We also enjoyed swimming which was a great way to escape the heat. Canyon LOVES swimming and has no fear of water whatsoever. Oakley on the other hand is a little more reserved in the water.


Here some action shots of Canyon jumping into the water.

His favorite thing to do is to jump in while holding Daniel's hand.

to be continued....

Summer

I love summer and every year it seems to fly by even faster than the last. So here are some random things we did this summer.
Daniel and I enjoyed our 5 year anniversary on the first day of summer-June 21st.

We also enjoyed some date nights on the Harley.

One of my favorite things to do in the summer is getting snow cones from Summer Sno. Oakley starting recognizing the parking lot and would get very excited when we drove up to get, as Oakley called them, yummies!

We enjoyed the festivities of Orem Summer Fest and Pleasant Grove Strawberry days. Carnivals, fireworks, parades, and fresh strawberries and cream. What could be better?







The kids did a lot of just playing around and being crazy for mommy...

and then taking naps with daddy...


several times. (Of course they will never snuggle with me like that!)
Canyon took swimming lessons and absolutely loved them. But he loves the water and always has. I am pretty convinced he is half mer-man.

We also played in sprinklers. Which Oakley did not enjoy but Canyon loved.


We also enjoyed bike rides, bbqs, playing at splash pads, Daniel having time off from school, trips to the zoo, and the list goes on and on...

Boys Will Be Boys???

I certainly hope this phase is true, and let me explain why. I either have the most accident prone children ever, or boys will be boys. I expect things from little boys like playing in dirt (or even eating it-Oakley please stop!), playing with bugs, holes in their clothes, and needing multiple baths a day because they attract dirt like crazy. However, I did not expect the constant injuries. I seriously feel like my boys looked abused and I am starting to get weird looks!
For example:
After our first trip to the pool this summer, Canyon came back with both of his feet and ankles completely scrapped up. I'm not even sure how it happened. He was playing in the shallow area of the pool and this was the result.

Example 2:
If you look at Oakley's eyebrow and cheek you can see the bruise where Oakley hit his face on our office chair while throwing a fit. Sweet.

Example 3:
This is another Oakley injury. This time Oakley got his fingers caught in a swinging front door between the cement step and the bottom of the door. It jammed the door and his fingers were literally stuck. We couldn't move the door so we had to pry his fingers out which left big cuts on two of his lower fingers. The doctor said it was miracle his fingers didn't break.

Example 4:
Canyon's black eye/bruised cheek bone. This one wasn't Canyon's fault. Aspen (our big Alaskan malamute dog) was running really fast around the yard, didn't see Canyon walking behind me, and plowed into him going full speed. Canyon did a flip and landed on his face.

A few days later Canyon was involved in a bicycle crash which left his elbows and legs skinned which then formed huge scabs. So like I said, I really hope boys will be boys. Maybe that way I wouldn't be the worst mother ever!

4th of July

I love the 4th of July. It is definitely a favorite holiday in the Furr house hold. This year was no different. We had a great holiday. First it was a pre-4th of July bbq/firework show at the Nickels' house. Which is always fun and utter chaos with 7.5 grandchildren-5.5 of those age 4 and under. Here is the fam running around outside blowing bubbles, chasing each other, and shooting each other with silly string. Good times.
On the actually 4th of July we get up at the crack of dawn-literally- to go see the hot air balloons. When we woke up Canyon he asked if he could go back to bed :) He was pretty excited to see the balloons once we got there. He still talks about the Darth Vader balloon from time to time.


However, we had only just arrived for a few minutes and most of the balloons where blown up and ready for lift off when a huge gust of wind came and blew some of the balloons onto the crowds of people. While I was trying to make sure our kids were accounted for and in a safe place, Daniel was recording the entire incident hoping to capture some horrific accident and sell it to one of those cable shows "When Holidays Attack" type of things. Well the balloon people were pretty on top of things and nothing too traumatic happened. But they weren't able to lift any balloons in the air :(

I tried to get a picture of Canyon and Oakley together. This was the best I got at 6am in morning. Sweet.

Then it was off to the parade. It was Canyon and Uncle Tim's job to get the cooler full of goodies to the parade spot.

Canyon and Lydia enjoying the parade....and donuts....and candy.....and chocolate milk.


About an hour after the parade started, we noticed that there were two bounce houses set up behind us on the grass. They were free! It was perfect because it was at this point that our kids were paraded out and sugar over loaded. Canyon, Lydia, Landon, and even Oakley played in the bounce houses until the parade was over.

After the parade we all went home and crashed! Poor Oakley made it about 5 minutes after the parade before he zonked out. Canyon and Oakley slept for 4 hours that afternoon. It was awesome!!!
Then it was off to Uncle Tim's for the 4th of July bbq. I thought that after the kids had naps, there were bathed, 4th of July clothes washed, it would be a good time to try and get a cute picture of Canyon and Oakley together...

Failure. This is the best one I got.... They are in the "we cannot sit still for 3 seconds while you take a picture Mom!" phase. Its pretty rough.



After delicious food it was back to Pleasant Grove for the sweet firework show. Which I must say was excellent this year. No fireworks shot off into the crowd either. Great job PG.
It was a little rainy from time to time. Lindsey and I are sharing the one umbrella we brought. I am trying to keep Oakley dry although he did not care about the rain and just wanted to play around.
Canyon and Max playing around while waiting for the fireworks to start. They had a blast.

Little Oakley fell asleep during the middle of the fireworks. Not even the loud bangs bothered him. We had such a fun 4th of July. I wish we could celebrate it every month :)