OUR first day of school

Randy headed back to school on August 23rd. Well, he really went back the week before since he is a teacher, but that doesn't count since we could still go and play in his classroom and he was home around 3 PM.

I decided to do something fun to distract the children from the fact that dad was no longer home all day long. So we headed to the Zoo. I love Hogle Zoo and so do my children. We had fun digging for dinosaur bones, even though Dax cried every time we walked past a dinosaur. And we had some exciting experiences with the animals. The tigers were very active. One was bathing in the water and another was pacing right in front of the glass. Then he would turn and look at the glass (I don't know if they can see through it or not), and all the children would squeal because he was so close! The gorilla came outside and climbed up right when we happened to walk by--this is exciting because Mark loves the gorillas.

Anyway, we are having a great school year. Randy is busy and we miss having him home all day, but we like the routine of life that somehow melts away in the summer. Here are some pictures of our first day of school.

Mark digging for bones!

Love the carousel!

Tiger close-up!

Enjoying a bath.

Our gorilla friend.

Bowling

Dax requested we go bowling when he filled up his potty chart last week, so we decided to go. Yes, he is potty trained. I hadn't planned on potty training until he was at least three, since I had such a hard time with Mark. Dax had a different plan. He basically potty-trained himself. So after he filled his first potty chart, we headed to Jack and Jill Lanes in Lehi for some fun times. Here are a few of our memories.

Mark is very focused--that is probably why he won!

Mark getting a strike!

Dad complaining about how the bowling ball doesn't have big enough thumb holes (he was just looking for an excuse since Mark was beating him).

Dax insists on carrying the ball himself.

We love bowling.

Sunflowers

We have been growing lots of things in our garden this year, but we decided to try growing some sunflowers. My sister Melanie and I had the kids plant seeds in little pots so they could get started early. My boys had fun watering the little peat pots and watching their sunflowers grow. We finally decided they were big enough to move outside. Unfortunately the next day there was a huge wind and rain storm, and none of the sunflowers survived. My boys were so sad. Luckily I had a huge bag of mammoth sunflower seeds in my church primary closet, left over from an activity. So I took one home and we planted it. Nothing grew for a long time, but one day when I was weeding I noticed a little plant. A few months later we have a 10 1/2 foot tall sunflower. It is a big attraction at our house (the boys run and check on it every day) and everyone who comes to visit has a comment about the sunflower on the side of our house. And, there is a two foot sunflower trying to grow in the shadow of our mammoth sunflower--one of our original plants is trying to make a comeback. We will have to see how it does. Check out our sunflower!

Dax's eyes were closed, so I tried another picture later.

Now Mark isn't looking, but you can see how big the flower is compared to the boys and our 6 foot fence.

Raspberries

The Ockey clan headed up to see Grandma and Grandpa Daniels this weekend. While Randy and Grandpa worked on a new deck, the boys enjoyed spending time with Grandma and her raspberries. They helped pick raspberries, made jam, and ate tons and tons of raspberries. They had raspberries for every meal and every snack. I can't blame them, they are great raspberries and there are millions of them! We have a raspberry bush and so far we have picked about 10 raspberries. Hopefully next year we will get a few more. So here are some fun pictures of the boys enjoying raspberries.

Picking Raspberries

A few minutes later--all their raspberries were mysteriously gone!

We still managed to fill the bowl.

Oh, Dax--how many raspberries did you eat?

Mark mashed the raspberries for the jam!

Dax added the sugar and stirred it all up!

Hyrum Lake

This past weekend, we headed up to Hyrum Lake (near Logan) to stay in the new cabins. It was a different kind of camping. We slept in beds -- there were two full-sized bunk beds, we kept our food cold without ice -- there was a mini fridge, and we cooked on the camp stove -- there were no fire pits. We had SO much fun.

Josh and Dax loved playing on the top bunk.

There were two cabins, so we stayed in one, and my sister, Tiffany and her husband, Jonny, and their little boy Josh, who is almost 3, stayed in the other. The cabins were just added to the campground this year, but we are already planning to go back next year. There was also air conditioning--that was the real winner and the reason we had such a wonderful stay.

Randy in front of our cabin.

We spent a lot of time at the little beaches by the lake. The lake is brimful this year, so the beaches were mostly covered with water, but we loved playing in the warm lake water.

The boys digging in the sand.

Playing in the water!

We went to Logan one day and hiked the Riverside Trail up Logan Canyon, stopped by the temple, and went to Willow Park Zoo (you can read about these stops on our other blog).

The riverside trail was so beautiful and well shaded. Mark is always our trail leader.

I think this was the 5th or 6th time we stopped to throw rocks in the river on our hike.

We tried our hand at fishing, but we didn't have any success. The boys were so excited to try fishing, so I was a little bummed we didn't catch anything, but they didn't seem to mind too much. They would rather throw rocks in the lake anyway.

Hoping the fish will bite!

A happy camping family.

It was a great trip and we would recommend staying here to anyone. If you want to learn more, check out Hyrum Lake State Park.

Camping Extravaganza

Randy set a goal for our family that we would go camping for 10 nights this year, and we have almost reached it. We have gone 7 nights so far, and have two more camping nights scheduled for this weekend, so by August we will have camped for 9 nights. Whew, that made me tired just thinking about all those nights sleeping in the woods. We have had so much fun. We have been camping in new places this year and with lots of family and friends. Below you will see some highlights from the last three weekends of camping!

Weekend #1: Camping with the Randy's sister Laurie and most of her family at Lodgepole Campground by Strawberry

Mark found a great tree for sitting.

We went on a nature walk, and we found lots of different flowers to smell.

Mark and Dax love to cook hot dogs over the fire.

Nate wore dryer sheets all weekend because they are apparently very attractive! (He said they kept mosquitoes away)

We went on a little hike and Ty came along. We love camping with Ty--he is a great babysitter.

The boys loved their first ride in Aunt Laurie's motorhome.

The gang (Glen, Nate, Laurie, Dax, Randy, Ty, and Mark in front)

Weekend #2: Camping with my old college roommate and her family at Redman Campground in Big Cottonwood Canyon

A moose walked right past our tent.

The kids hanging out in their camping chairs.

Randy tried his hand at chopping wood!

Dax learned about poking the fire from his dad.

The Ockeys at Silver Lake. We hiked around this lake with our friends.

Weekend #3: Camping with Randy's friends from Ephraim at Diamond Campground near Spanish Fork

Mark and Dax loved throwing rocks in the river with Collyn.

Dax decided he wanted to wade into the river.

Parris tried to float down the river.

Dax loved the sparklers--his first time with fireworks.

We all have lots of boys! Collyn, Reddick, Rulon, Dax & Mark

Randy and Natalie--our first picture as a couple since we had Dax! 

We also have a camping trip lined up for Labor Day--so we are definitely reaching our 10 nights goal. It has been a camping year, that's for sure!

Some bears at Yellowstone

Hey, This is Randy.

People who haven't been to Yellowstone in the last 10-15 years always ask us if we see any bears when we go. I remember when it was nearly impossible to see a bear in the park, but those days are over. Each trip we see 15-20 bears, and we don't do anything special. (This 15-20 does count the sow and her 2 cubs we saw 3 days in a row as "9.")

Though we have had a lot of great bear sightings, including seeing cubs inside of 20 feet a few years ago, this video shows my favorite bear sighting of the trip from this year:

Thanks to Natalie for the video and editing

By the way, though we counted 51 different species in the park (including birds), none of them were moose. Don't go to Yellowstone to see moose. We haven't seen any in our last 2 trips. This year the ranger told us there are only 200 left in the park. Go to the Tetons to see moose.