what the...?!

Wyatt is a mystery.

Sometimes he'll wake up early from his nap on accident--a loud noise woke him, he got too warm, ect--and he'll come find me. And then normally I can tell he's still tired and I lay him down back in his bed.

Well, in the event he can't find me (because I'm downstairs) this is what he'll do:

Now, usually I'll hear him running up and down the hall (trying to find me), and almost always he'll call out to me once he realizes I'm not there. So this time, when I didn't hear anything after a few minutes, I went upstairs to find what no-good he was up to, and because I wasn't expecting him to be right where he was, he startled me a little bit. But there he was, just finishing his snooze on the ground, haha!

(He will also occasionally do this at night, and because it's dark he just stays there...Jeff and I have been scared more than once when we stumble across him!!)

The kid is weird. Why he just doesn't go back and lie down on his comfy bed, I'll never know.

dear, dear Overgaard

 This last weekend I was invited to spend some time up at the Lawlor's cabin in Overgaard. I used to go every summer with my best friend Noelle, but I haven't been since before Wyatt was born. It was a great girls weekend with my mom, Noelle's mom, Noelle, Celeste and all our babies. The weather was lovely and we all enjoyed a nice, and mostly quiet mini-vacation.

I didn't take very many pictures unfortunately, but this is on our way up:

Wyatt watching Toy Story 2...he's obsessed with those movies!

Can you tell what kind of tree this is??

I'll give you a hint...it's a fruit tree, and there IS fruit on it...

...

....

...

...okay, so it was just ONE fruit...

We all thought it was so funny though...just ONE cherry on the entire tree!!

And this was on our way home...Wyatt was complaining (crying) about the sun in his eyes, so I gave him my sunglasses...after much trial and error this was the best solution he could come up with, haha!

 

I guess I must not have been thinking clearly enough to bust out the camera while all the kids were together, or even a group shot of us all. Oh well. It was lots of fun anyway!

::pinchable::

He is the most darling thing EVER...

...and he's getting mobile:

To the bathtub!!

Our nightly progression:

The Mysterious Crapping Beast

If I spend enough time around my family, especially my sisters, it's a FACT that we can get a little rambunctious...if not near crazy silly.

And Jeff fits in perfectly.

While we were camping, Jeff refused to use the outhouses...and I don't really blame him because I hate the stench too, but I prefer it over being caught in the woods with a bare bum. 

ANYWAY, we would all make fun of him whenever nature called because he'd head out into the woods and be gone for forever...he'd also told us that he would cover his business with a rock, and we found that hilarious.

And from that comedy, sparked an idea.

Enjoy our imaginations at work.







The best part of this all, is that Jeff had NO idea what we were doing...he just played along :)

Zoodays

I'm so glad I got a membership to the zoo. It makes for easy entertainment.

Memorial Day weekend

Memorial Day weekend was a busy one for us. Not only does it usually fall during our wedding anniversary, but we also usually take a camping trip up to Canyon Point (on the Rim) with my side of the family....this year though, during the middle of our trip, we found out Jeff's Grandma Downs had passed away. She'd been battling cancer for a quite a few years, in and out of remission, and it eventually took her life on Sunday May 27th. Jeff was shocked of course, and sad, but we didn't feel the reality of it until we got home. Her funeral was on Thursday, and I'm not sure I'd ever seen Jeff cry so much. She was a wonderful grandmother to Jeff, and they were very close. I loved getting to know her these few short years since we were married, and she always made me feel like I was one of her own--always very thoughtful and sincere. 

We will miss her greatly, but know that we will meet again some day.

Even though there was much heartache for Jeff, we still managed to have a good time on our trip. 

We don't very often get a chance to beat the Valley heat, and so any time we can, we DO!

The trip started off with AWFUL weather--it was SO windy and SOOOO cold! And to top it off--NO FIRES. The boys all went up Thursday night to get a spot and set up camp, while the girls (and Logan) came up the next day. We were tempted to come home early, only after one day, but thankfully by Saturday night the wind had subsided and Sunday morning fires were allowed. Camping really isn't the same without a campfire! It made ALL the difference. We came home Tuesday afternoon after spending a glorious 5 days in the wilderness!
(And you might say we "cheated" a little because our campsite has showers...so we weren't completely filthy...)

Proof I married a true wildman.

There were lots of leisurely naps, and leisurely reading...

The morning we found out we could have campfires, the men went out into the woods and brought back firewood to chop up...Wyatt had lots of fun helping out:

(and NO, we didn't really let him use the hatchet...this was just for the picture)

...chekin' out the camera...

While the weather was nicer, we took a hike to the sinkhole 

(nevermind we walked an hour in the wrong direction...we eventually got there though)

As you can see (or maybe you can't) I got an incredible sunburn on my face. Because it was so cold those first few days, I was in the sun almost always. My poor forehead and cheeks took a beating. I love this picture though...even if I do look like a beet.

I really love love LOVE camping. It's such a perfect way to get out of the worldly world, and focus our time on family and nature. I stayed up almost every night playing games with my siblings, while we froze our butts off, under the light of our lanterns. We played hide-and-go-seek out in the woods. We made s'mores. We took nature walks. We napped. We laughed. 

We had so.much.fun.