Slaughterhouse Gulch Hike

Earlier this week we met up with my sister-in-law to go hiking. The kids are always excited to see their cousin Cedar and Lexi is a hiking expert- she knows a ton of trials that I had no idea about. This one was in Jamestown and had this fun little playground at the trailhead. The kids had a lot of fun playing here for a bit before we started and for quite awhile after we got back.

Natalie complained that she was "tired" the whole time we were hiking because she wanted me to carry here, but I made her walk as much as I could because she's never going to build up the stamina if she is always carried. All the other kids were little troopers and Torben ran all over the place.

The trail is over 10 miles, but we definitely weren't going to do that with 6 kids and a thunderstorm on the way. So we stopped at a nice little meadow with the remains of a cabin in it. On our way back down, Natalie was easier to convince to walk because she became enamored with the little wildflowers growing along the path.

Lexi said that she saw some black bears and moose on this hike last summer, but with 6 noisy kids and a dog bounding all over the place, we weren't likely to see much wild life. All we saw were a few birds and some insects.

We look forward to more hiking and even some rock climbing with Aunt Lexi and Cedar!
 

Forsythe Canyon Hike

We were terrible about getting outside much last summer because of the move from Canada and feeling like I just needed to get the house organized and all settled in. Things could still use some organizing, but I'm feeling much more settled and have been very eager to get out and into the mountains! So, despite wildfires in Canada making the air very hazy, we went hiking in a canyon near Boulder. Austin's brother, Brent, and his family reorganized their schedule last minute so they could come with us and we had a very nice time.

The trail wasn't too busy and it was shady along with being pretty cool at least at the beginning.

The goes along a little river and seems to end at a waterfall, where many of the hikers seemed to have turned around, but if you scramble over some rocks, the trail continues on to a reservoir.

There was a lot of sand around the reservoir, so the kids had fun digging in that. We stayed and played for about half an hour before heading back.

We look forward to getting out a lot more this summer than we did last year. The kids all want to go swimming as much as possible, but I want to go hiking and it would be nice to camp a bit too!
 

Heidi is 8!

 

 

 This sweet girl has a busy few weeks and it all starts with turning 8! She will be baptized soon and has a ballet recital the following weekend. Heidi is growing into a beautiful young lady and developing in so many ways. She is kind and very generous, loves people, loves to read and ride her bike, loves to play with her friends and has developed a very silly side lately. She likes to talk in a caroonish voice saying silly things and she loves to tease her brothers. 

I didn't do a great job planning her birthday because she has so many other things coming up, but it turned out to be a very fun day for her. We started out with chocolate waffles as always. Austin's parents came over to celebrate with us and the house was sort of decorated (thanks to her brothers) with Heidi's favorite colored balloons. The special balloon was a gift from Natalie who was very eager to get a balloon and had fun hiding it for a couple days until Heidi's birthday. She also got to open her birthday presents in the morning and was spoiled with two new dresses, new ballet shoes, some Calico Critters, a new set of scriptures, clay, and some re-gifted stuffed animals from Natalie and Trevor who were so excited to wrap up some presents for her. 

We played card games after breakfast then all of the kids went out to lunch with their grandparents and we had some friends over in the afternoon to have cake and ice cream before Heidi's favorite dinner of pot pie (like I said, it wasn't well planned- I usually never let the kids eat tons of treats before dinner). 

 

 

And here is Heidi's birthday interview:
 

Who is your favorite person? Everyone in our family

What is your favorite color? Green

 What is your favorite thing to watch? Studio Ghibli movies like Howl's Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service, Ponyo, Totoro

What is your favorite outfit? The two new dresses

What song do you like the best? Be Still My Soul and If You Could Hie to Kolob and A Child's Prayer

What is your favorite cereal? I don't really like cereal, I like Chocolate Waffles and Crepes and yogurt

Who is your best friend? Torben

What do you want to do when your grow up? Be a farmer and a mom

What is your favorite book? Heidi and Russian stories

What are you really good at? Sharing

Where do you wish you could go on vacation? Oregon

What would you buy if you had a lot of money? Lots of good toys

What is your favorite dinner? I like sloppy joes, hamburgers, pot pie, and lots of different stuff

If you could have a wish, what would it be? I could wish as many times as I wanted to

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Mint Chocolate Chip and Rockie Road

Who do you want to be like? Myself

What do you like to do with your friends? Play with Calico Critters

What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday? Go to Oregon

What is your favorite thing to do? Play

What are you proud of? My dad and my mom

What are you afraid of? Bugs

What is Mom's favorite thing to do? Eat cookies and mint ice cream while lounging, watching movies and having her feet rubbed (I sure would love this, but it has happened very rarely in my life ;)

How strong is Dad? As strong as the sun

What does Dad do best? Make everyone laugh

What does Mom do best? Bake

What do you like best about Dad? He plays with us

What do you like best about Mom? That she loves me