Blanding Trip: Day 2

Today we began the day by driving down to Hovenweep National Monument. This became Mom and Dad's favorite part of the trip. Hovenweep has lots of Ancestral Pueblan ruins. We were amazed at how well preserved they were as well as how many. You could see that they had a little town built in this ravine. We did a few hikes and viewed as many of the ruins as we could before we headed back to Blanding for lunch. We also were excited to see many little cottontails hopping around. The boys were excited every time we saw one hopping away from us. I have a million pictures that I want to share from Hovenweep...it should probably be it's own post, but here they are!

I thought this house was so cool...built right into the boulder.

There were lots of ruins to see!

One of the bunnies we saw!

Randy liked this tower house.

You can see how well preserved and how many there are here.

A selfie!

Dax cheesing it up for this picture!

Climbing through the ravine.

I made it!

This ruin has the original beams that held it together! Neat.

Seth loves to have his picture taken.

Seth always needs a walking stick, and so do
his brothers (if we can find that many).

Dax in front of one of the ruins.
Today he only wanted to be in his own pictures.

Loving every minute of Hovenweep!

After lunch, we went to Edge of the Cedars State Park. This State Park is very kid-friendly even though it is a history site. History is fun!! First of all, everyone can do the Junior Ranger program which was so fun for Seth. He never gets to participate, so he loved holding the clipboard and searching for artifacts in the museum. Second, there is a ruin in the back and after you walk around it, there is one section that you are allowed to climb into. We all climbed down the ladder into the kiva which was very cool since most of the time you can't touch these old ruins. The boys thought it was amazing.

Next we drove up to Monticello for a few different activities. First we went to the Frontier Museum which is connected to the visitor's center there. It was very small, but we always love checking out old pioneer and Native American Artifacts. The best thing was the large tractor in it's own building. We spent a lot of time admiring how large it was, but we couldn't get a good picture. We took pictures by the Monticello temple for the boys' temple books. We also walked around the grounds before it started to rain.

We ended our night by visiting Huck's Museum back in Blanding. This was quite the experience. Huck is probably 90 years old and when you walk in, he tells you how much it costs. We were charged $20 which is pricey, but he did have a lot of amazing things. Seth and Dax were terrified of him. Huck scoots around in his wheelchair and he gave us a private tour of his museum. I think our tour would have been longer if he hadn't been so worried about the boys touching the glass. I couldn't believe how much stuff he had. I was only allowed to take one picture. Anyway, it was definitely an adventure.

Dax is climbing down into the Kiva.

Here we are inside the kiva.

The huge tractor at the Frontier Museum...it's hard to see.

The Monticello Temple.
I didn't know Seth's eyes were closed until after we left.
Too bad!

My one picture in Huck's Museum.
I wanted to show how large the collection was and how big his
 museum is--mostly for the other blog.

Blanding Trip: Day 1

Road Trip!

We began our trip bright and early this morning as we drove away from our house at 7:30 am. This was going to be our long driving day and we wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. The boys were actually amazing in the car. They rode well and rarely complained. We made it to Moab for lunch and ate at the local diner we enjoyed when we came down to Arches a few months ago. After eating at Arches we headed towards Canyonlands (the Needles side), but we made two stops on the way. First we stopped at Wilson Arch. You can see this arch right from the road, but that didn't stop us from hiking up to stand underneath it. Seth hiked this one all alone with a little help from dad. Our next stop was Newspaper Rock which was so neat. It is a huge rock slab covered in petroglyphs. There are TONS! We really enjoyed identifying all the different images on the rock.

Standing under Wilson Arch

Newspaper Rock

After our stop at Newspaper Rock, we headed to Canyonlands. This was when our first big adventures happened. Mark threw up in the car. He had been reading for awhile and I think he forgot to look up, so he got car sick. So we had to make a little stop on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and clean him up, as well as the car. He hadn't really made it out of the back seat, so it was everywhere. I told Randy that I have been packing an extra set of clothes for these boys for the past 8 years, and today we finally needed them. I was proud of Randy helping me clean up because I know how much he hates vomit.

We continued on to Canyonlands and spent the rest of our day there. We did four hikes and so by the last hike everyone was dragging, even mom. Our favorite hike was Cave Springs because it had a rock overhang that gave a lot of shade. You could see the remains of old cowboy fires under the overhang. There were also two ladders to climb which the boys really enjoyed. This part of Canyonlands was not as fun as Island in the Sky which is closer to Moab. But it was also less crowded. There were probably 10 cars total in the whole park. We kept passing all the same people on the road and on our hikes.

The prickly pear cacti were in bloom and were so pretty.

At the end of one of our hikes--Roadside Ruin.

I love moments like this.

The Cave Springs Trail was fun...and shady!

The best part was the ladder, of course.

We saw a million lizards.

We headed toward Blanding after we walked the kids to exhaustion, but stopped in Monticello for dinner. Once we got to the hotel, Randy and I had this vision of the boys dropping into bed and falling asleep. Little did we know that hotels are like sugar highs and they make children bounce off the walls. They finally did calm down and fell asleep around 9:45.

On our hike around the Potholes that were all dried up.
We still had fun!

We loved having the crow on our van after a hike!
We are bird lovers after all.

Dax is always climbing on something.

These boys love their water breaks.

Seth's Birthday

The birthday boy!

Yesterday, Seth turned two years old.  Most days I forget that he was born with a scary heart problem and had a major surgery when he was six days old, but on his birthday I definitely remember. I watched Seth all day and I am so grateful that he is healthy and part of our family. He has developed quite the personality.

Seth is speaking a lot. We were worried for awhile that he would never talk, but he says tons of words. Some of our favorites are: c'mon (whenever he wants you to play with him), HEY! (whenever someone does something that he doesn't like), love you (for obvious reasons), and yeah (his response to almost everything).

Seth knows about half the letters of the alphabet and anytime he sees an S, he tells us about it. He loves S because that is the first letter in his name. He also knows green, red, and sometimes blue. He knows star and heart. We love to hear him say his prayers. For the longest time when Seth finished his prayer, he would say, "Bye Bye!" It was so cute. But starting in June, he says "amen" which is nice, but not nearly as darling.

Seth loves vehicles--garbage trucks like Dax, tractors, cars, but most of all trains! He can't say train yet, so they are "choo choos." He gets so excited to see any kind of train and he also loves to play with his train tracks. Seth also loves dogs and has three different stuffed animal dogs in his crib that he MUST sleep with.

Seth is very independent. If he wants something, he just climbs on a chair to get it. He also loves to help. Seth is a good garbage man and dishwasher starter. He also loves to vacuum. He will push the vacuum around anywhere, running or not running. Hopefully, Seth will also want to help with the chores. Seth also doesn't get pushed around by his brothers. He has already learned to hold his own and bosses them around/beats them up quite frequently.

Seth gives the best "squeezes." We love when we pick him up and he hugs really tight and says, "squeeze." Seth is truly a blessing in our lives and we love him more and more every day. We can't wait to see how he is as a two year old!

Seth likes to be silly!

We put balloons in his room so when he woke up Seth was super
excited to have balloons everywhere.

All dressed up for church on his birthday!
His brothers made signs for his door.

Seth got a new bike!

Seth loved his train cake.
It made all the work worthwhile.

Blowing out the candles.

I love this little guy so much!

Boy Models

A few months ago, Dax had the chance to be a child model for a local company who makes dress up clothes. If you read this blog, you will remember that post. I was slightly surprised when I got a call from them asking if Dax could come model for them again because he was so serious last time. They must think he is pretty cute! So Dax was part of another photo shoot. This time he was with four other kids and it was for 3 hours in someone's backyard. Dax was amazing. He smiled, listened, and did everything he was asked. I asked them to send me a catalog or a link to his photo online if they used it, so hopefully they will. Here are a few pictures I snapped while we were there.

There were two boys and two girls!

Dax loved holding the sword and shield.

I wasn't sure how the mask fit with
 his prince cape and sword, but whatever!

Super adorable.

Imagine my surprise when Mark was asked to be a model, too. My neighbor owns a business and was taking pictures for the new design of her website. She asked lots of people from around the neighborhood, but she needed someone about 7. So she thought of Mark and asked if he would take some pictures for her site. He agreed and now we have two models in the family. My friend's website is about healthy food for kids and so Mark ate fruit and veggies (things that he will actually eat). When she gets her site completed, I'll share the link so that you can see our handsome Mark.

Mark all dressed up.

Eating strawberries for some pictures.

Mark with his "breakfast."

Summer is right around the corner...

Upper Falls in Provo Canyon!

There are lots of signs that summer is here. First of all, soccer is done for Spring. Mark and Dax played great seasons and had awesome last games. Dax scored 8 goals--a new record. That morning he told us over breakfast that he wanted to score 8 and we tried to talk him down a bit, but he was set on it. Well, I guess I will never doubt Dax's will power again. Mark scored three goals in the first 5 minutes of the game. After that the coach put him on defense, but his team still played well and handily won the game.

Dax running down the field.

Dax does his own hair.

Dax wanted me to take a picture of him scoring a goal,
so we took this one after the game. :)

Mark scored a goal right here.

Mark is very intense!

Mark loved his Ninja Turtle Team. They had a lot of fun together.

Second, baseball started! Mark just started coach pitch this week. Baseball is Mark's favorite sport, so he is so excited to play. He hit really well--one ended up on the soccer field behind the baseball field. Dax should start T-ball by the end of the month.

Mark loves playing baseball.

Mark is always ready!

Next, the pool came out. It has finally hit high temperatures where we want to be outside in the pool. Seth was so excited to be playing in the water again.

Seth loves the water.

The boys love the water slide.

Seth had SO much fun! Mostly watching his brothers.

Dax wants me to get the pool out every day.

Finally, we started hiking. We went on our first hike in Utah County (we did hike a lot in Moab). We tried a new hike in Provo Canyon and while it was uphill the entire way, we had so much fun seeing a new waterfall.

I wish I could say that Randy was home as a sign of summer, but he is working the whole week, so our real summer will start on June 10th.

Mom and Seth by the waterfall.

The older boys climbed up right next to the waterfall.

The boys were so excited to throw rocks into the water.