St George- the pool!

My boys love swimming- well most of them at least.  Brett has this weird thing with water.  He is such a timid little guy and nervous that it doesn't take much to push him over the edge.  

 As soon as his toes touched the water it was over.  Brett cried for at least a half hour.  I really wanted him to get used to swimming though because my other boys love it so much I would love to go a lot as a family this summer.  It's our first summer where Bryan isn't working every Saturday and not in school EVER so we want to make the most of it!  I hope Brett gets the hang of it soon.

 Our family swimming- Stockton playing on the stairs, Ty and Blake playing, Kiya LOVING every minute of it and Brett screaming.

 Stockton has a special place in his heart for Kiya.  She loves playing with him as well.

 Sierra and her mini me Kiya 

 Tyson told me later to quit taking his picture because it makes him stop having fun.  Point taken.

As hard as it is to function with 4 kids ages 7 to 1 I try to make sure they don't miss out on anything because of it.  I try to still take them and do things even if it's really hard for me.  I hope they remember their childhood as fun and full of good memories.

Snow Canyon

Friday was a beautiful day in St. George so we went up to Snow Canyon to play around a bit.  

 My dad always calls my kids crazy galoots so we had to get a picture by this sign.
 Volcanic rock- he thought that was the coolest thing he had ever seen.

 We went on what we thought was going to be a easy hike but was NOT! I was worried Ty was going to trip and fall off the mountain.

 Tyson is my mountain goat.  The boy really does love to be outside and explore things.

 Snow canyon is beautiful!  The hike we did would have been great if we had a couple more adults or older kids.

Ty found a cactus.  This is him on the side of the rock.  

 Kiya and Brett liked being in the backpacks. I was lucky my dad was willing to take Brett for me.  I wanted to take Stockton myself because the panic mom in me was so scared he was going to roll off the cliff or something and I wanted to make sure I had him.

 Blake liked hiking around too.  Between my side- the Boy scout backpacking type and Bryan's the hunting big deer all fall and  hiking to find them all summer it comes as no surprise they like to be outdoors.

I think on of the biggests shocks of the trip to me was how much Brett loved the sand.  He would have rolled around in it if I let him!  At one point he plopped his face right down into the sand.  Then he sat up with a big grin on his face and covered in sand. Kiya on the other hand HATED the sand.  She was kind of tired too so maybe that's why. 

My boys had fun rolling around and digging in the sand.  

 Sand angel.

 Stockton throwing a shovel at me . What am I going to do with him?

I really do love my kids.  I feel like a basket case all the time trying to take care of all of them but I just really love being with them.  That's why I don't work.  I want to be with them as much as I can.  With a few little breaks to the store of course.  =)

St George splash pad

Yes I know we were just on a vacation and here we are on another one!  This time we went with my family but Bryan had to leave for Germany for work so he wasn't able to come with us.  Thursday we made the long drive down to St. George.  The first place we went was the splash pad in the middle of town.  It was SO WARM! I was dying in my jeans and long sleeved shirt.  My boys were so excited to play in the water. 

 I just love this picture of my niece Kiya.  She loved the splash park!  It was perfect for her to walk around in.  Brett cried a lot when I tired to put him in.  He finally let me put his feet in when we went back before we left Saturday.

 You have no idea how much progress this was to get his feet in the water and him not crying.

There was a carousal nearby and I told the older three boys on it. I figured Brett didn't care enough to get him on it.  The other boys loved it though.

Blake especially liked that this is where part of one of the piano guys songs was shot.