Elephant Rock

The first weekend of Brent's break we decided to try a hike in our neck of the woods so we went up to Mueller Park Canyon to hike the "Elephant Rock" trail.  Brent has been so busy with school that it was so much fun to just spend the whole day hiking together. And he was happy to have the camera back in his hands, he sure loves it.

these little bridges were so fascinating to the boys.

I just had to capture this cool design. Nature is so cool!

If you've been reading our blog for any length of time, you will have already surmised that fashion is not one of our strengths.

Chico wasn't so much in the hiking mood that day. He was more content to talk to Daddy and draw in the dirt and play with sticks and rocks.

It really was a pretty view on the way up. And yes, that is Elephant rock you see clear in the distance.  If I'd known it was about a 6 mile hike round trip we wouldn't have attempted it.

We finally made it to the rock after three hours. Chico decided he wanted to climb on the rock so Brent took him down there while I stayed above with Griz. I couldn't get a picture of them but if you have x-ray vision you can see them through those dense trees. It was too dangerous for them to go to the top of the rock.

I love how you can see Grizwald's teeth in this pic.

I'm not seeing the Elephant. You?

Always the silly pose.

the first couple days of May

Chico is so often squinting when he smiles that I don't get to capture his big blue eyes. I love his eyes.

Later that day we were sitting outside watching Daddy mow the lawn. Chico was doing something with that rope and wanted me to take a picture. So I got out the camera and we all had a grand old time.

 

Chico and Griz felt safer in the wheelbarrow and were being a bunch of goofballs.  

 Look closely behind Griz, we had tulips this year. I forgot to take close up pictures of them though and now they are gone.

 

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 The next day Chico was mudding (purely for fun) on a piece of wood with Brent. Somehow Griz snuck in there and was COVERED in mud within seconds. I was upset at first because I had JUST gotten him all dressed in cute clothes Then I decided it wasn't a big deal, took off his pants and let him just have fun. Then he was done and if he got near me I'd do a pretend scream and run away. He thought it was so funny to chase me around. I still had the camera in my hand but had the long lens. I put it on full auto and while I knew the pictures wouldn't turn out great since I was shooting the pictures while running away from Griz, I'm so glad it captures his laughing and running after me. It was a lot of fun.

Pictures from the rest of April

Hey again! Remember how I was posting like daily because Brent wanted me to since he was so busy with school and not seeing us as much as he'd like? Well, he started being able to study at home a bit more once he quit his job and then he had a two week break between semesters and now he's still studying at home a bit more. SOOO I haven't felt the urgency to blog as much.  But I do like blogging, so I shall catch us up.

Where did we leave off... ah yes, the middle of April!

April was warm on some days cold on others. So this particular day must have been on the colder side.  The boys were very anxiously awaiting the arrival of my mom to take us on an adventure.  I pulled out the camera to try to occupy them while we waited.

Don't ask me what Chico was doing with that wire. I was just trying to capture how cute it was that they were sitting next to each other by the door.

then pacing...

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Sometimes I just let them do their own thing. But holy cow it can cause a mess!!! I'm glad they did it though, looked like good brotherly bonding time.

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This little sandbox is Grizwald's favorite because it's not really a sandbox yet. It's more like a dirty water/mud catcher. When the Weber Water came back on for some reason I let them fill it up with water and hopefully there was already some dirt in there. Look at that water! Yuck!

Oh well, at least it distracts from Curious George!
 

Chico is such a hard working boy when he plays.  Oh, and that thing in his hands below is the mop I ruined by bleaching it too long. All the fibers came apart. Ugh. So anyway, it was outside ready for the trash and he decided to use it in the mud.

You cannot tell me that this next picture is not epic!



cute crazy kids. how I love the adventures they can have in our own backyard, I mean frontyard, same thing I guess. :) Griz got in this bucket all on his own.

   

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 I was asked by our ward to take pictures at the Mid-Singles big dance. They all brought the props and they put up the background, I just took the pictures. It was fun but kind of late at night. I wasn't too terribly busy and Chico was at home missing me and not wanting to go to sleep so I drove home real quick and got him and he hung out with me the rest of the night. Which was SOOO much fun. He kept playing with the props they all brought and asked me to take his picture.
 

Brent has been telling me to get in the pictures more often so I asked someone there if she wouldn't mind snapping a few of me and Chico.
 

How is that Brent?

seemed like a good idea at the time...

Okay, well maybe it didn't seem like a GREAT idea at the time, but I didn't think it would be too big of a deal when Chico asked if he could turn on the hose and fill a hole in the dirt with water. They get muddy all the time, right?!

Well this turned into a mud puddle like they had never experienced before. Chico stripped off his shirt so he could lay in it. After he did that I realized I had better pull the camera out.

Eventually Griz took his pants off, or his pants took themselves off, I'm not sure what happened. :)

I forgot to mention there were TWO mud puddles. :)

They were just having the time of their lives out there until it turned a bit cold suddenly.  I stripped them down and tried to spray them down with the hose before taking them into the house but that didn't work out so well. Imagine a naked 3 year old running away laughing/screaming from his mother who was trying to spray him with cold water. Yeah, so since the hose didn't work, I decided I'd carry them by their armpits into the tub and shower them off instead before letting them have a bath.  Chico loves showers but Griz acts like he's being murdered when you turn the shower on him.  It took him about 10 minutes of finger sucking at the back of the tub to recover from the trauma of the shower. Chico took advantage of that time and played at the faucet. Usually Griz somehow boxes Chico out of that position and hogs the faucet.

Near the end of the bath, they were both a little tired after a fun filled day so they were just sitting there leaning against the side of the tub relaxing and laughing with each other. Priceless.