July 2013

 We had our annual trip to Delta for the 4th of July:

 Getting ready for the parade.

 So cute watching the flag coming.

 For some reason Hunter can't figure out how to pick up candy with one hand and hold his bag with the other while putting it in, he ends up handing me his bag every year!

 We love the otter pops that get thrown out to cool us off during the parade.

 She got worn out from the parade.

 Time to head to the park for lunch and the bounce houses.

 

 And in the evening we head to the demolition derby.

 Hunter absolutely loves to watch the derby!  I think this is the one thing we take him to that I don't ever have to worry about him!

 

 It was a long day!  This is Tyler, Cason, Jaron, and Logan "waiting" for the fireworks to go off at the end of the derby!  Right when the fireworks ended we headed back to the cabin, there was still a little of the derby to finish after the fireworks, but it was late and we needed to get kiddos back in bed, it was a blessing that we did!  Right as we got in our car wind started blowing like crazy!  As we pulled up to the cabin stuff was getting blown everywhere!  There were towels, life jackets, the tubes, etc.  We did the best we could trying to quickly gather everything and dump it in a huge pile inside the cabin, remember it was late so we were doing it in the dark!  As we were gathering everything up it started to rain, and rain, and rain... it has rained on us most years we've gone but this was by far the worst!  Joslyn and her boys ended up sleeping inside because the wind and rain were blowing over and soaking their tent (borrowed from a friend.)  Gavin and Megan's brand new tent (I think this was the first time they had used it) got several poles broken, they managed to repair them well enough to still sleep in it though.  Our tent held up pretty well, I think Aspen's porta crib being in there helped, we did get dripped on some but other than that we were fine.  Our kids slept great through it, I didn't sleep very well one of the drips was getting me and I was worried about the kids the whole time and kept feeling around them to make sure they weren't getting dripped on.  I even had Ben move Hunter in the middle of the night because the corner he was in was getting wet.  This is what we woke up to:

 This wasn't in between Joslyn's tent and our tent, so glad no branches landed on us since we were right under a tree!

 This is Joslyn's tent.

 Trash and other stuff that was blown all around.

 And the kids doing bubbles while the adults tried to fix/find everything.

 Hunter and Aspen love aunt Megan, I think this was there first time really hanging out with her, most of the other visits were just short dinners, so not much time for them to get to know her.

 Time for some pop-its!  The ground was still pretty wet from the storm and Aspen would just drop them not throw them, so probably only about half of them actually popped, then she would go around and stomp on them.

 Hunter saw others throwing them at each other so he had to try it:

 I don't think he knew what to think about the results:

 it ended up being a full on pop-its battle, which I stayed far out of!

 I love this cute girl!

 These two played so good together!

 Just a laughing, swinging themselves around on the hammock.

 Playing with dads IPad, I love how well Hunter and Aspen usually get along.

 This was mostly Hunter's chalk drawings, it's our family, I loved that he was writing Mom all over, it was one of the very few words he knew at the time!

 See no matter where they were they were playing together!

 Ready to watch the fireworks Ben was setting off.

 Megan doing a barrel roll.

 I just loved Joslyn's face in this.

 This one is Cason.

 Here I am.

 Hunter, showing off his new found love of tubing!

 Dixie even went!  I didn't know if we could ever get her to go again after we got some good pictures of her crashing a few years back!

 Ben doing the slalom ski, none of the wake boarding pics of him turned out very good this year.

 Landen jumping from the dock to the tube.

 The 4 oldest kids hanging out in the water.

 This is probably my all time favorite picture of Dwayne!  He was trying to explain how to get up to someone and I just loved this pic!

 Aspen is usually pretty snuggly on the boat, I don't think she has decided if she really likes it or not.

 They always have a blast playing in the sand!

 Look how curly her hair is!  This was the day we came home from Delta, definitely time for a bath!

 I just love this girl, look at those chubby cheeks!  The chubs goes away too fast!

 Got to love a stache and goatee!

 Watching a movie at the neighbors, I love that they all crammed on one chair instead of sitting on the coach that was right next to that!

 Here is our primary in the Pioneer Day parade, this was Hunter's first time being in a parade, and since I was the Primary Secretary at the time I was in it with him.

 After the parade we headed to the park for the annual breakfast, and this year our ward was in charge of the entertainment and we had several games and booths set up.  Above is after they got their faces painted... watch how fast it disappears!

 There were different stations of different water games, this was an obstacle course.  Hunter did good in the beginning jumping in the hoops, then...

 He just couldn't stand waiting his turn to go jump in the pool, so he just ran past the rest!

 I did finally convince him to try it the right way.

 And even when they were trying to clean up we couldn't keep him out of it!

 This is when Aspen finally decided it was safe to join, when it was just a marshy mess and there weren't a bunch of other kids running around.

 The end of the morning park celebration and this is how we looked, pretty funny that our 2 year old was the driest!  Sister Campbell grabbed me and had me go jump in the pool at the end of the obstacle course with her and Ben got into a pretty good water balloon fight with the young men.

I love all the grass stuck all over him!

I would definitely say our ward did an awesome job with the entertainment!

The next day was Ben's birthday and our friends Tanner and Ashley and their 2 girls got sealed together!  I love getting to go to sealings when it's a family (really I love all sealings) but there is just something about the little ones in there that I just think is so cool!  We were so glad we got to be apart of their awesome day!  Brandi kept our kids most of the day so that we could go to the temple and also have a birthday date night, she is always so awesome about helping us out with our kiddos!  The day was perfect up until right before bed, I got my monthly present, which put a damper on the evening, but ultimately it just hurt.  We had been trying to get pregnant since before the Wood Badge camp out and this was the 3rd monthly present since we had started trying.  Considering Hunter was just sent to us and Aspen came first try, this was really hard for me.  I had been planning for months if not a year that I was going to get pregnant in June and have a March baby and if we managed to plan it right we might even have the baby on my brother Joseph's birthday, since we had been induced with Hunter and Aspen I figured we would get to pick the day, which happened to fall on a Friday so Ben wouldn't have to take off much work and since it was going to be a boy next that would be perfect to name him after him.  This was definitely a humbling experience for me, it made me remember that I'm not really in charge, I can't do things exactly when and how I think they should be done, Heavenly Father has a plan for us and knows how and when it will be right for us, I found that out the hard way.  Hard for me anyways, it was nothing compared to my friends.  I had just recently had 2 friends lose babies, and another friend it took her 2 years + surgery + medicine to help ovulation + artificial insemination before she was finally able to get pregnant.  So with all of this just recently happening I was very nervous about having a baby, because what if I lost my baby how my friends did (one of them had her baby still born at 36 weeks, and the other friend had to deliver at 23 weeks because baby couldn't survive outside mommy, which they found out at their 20 weeks ultrasound.)  I didn't think I could handle it, I was very nervous about that, and then of course the thoughts of maybe I can't have anymore babies.  Maybe we are done with two.  And the worst part of it was that I was ready, I had a plan, I wanted a baby right then.  Hunter was not at all planned, Heavenly Father just sent him when we needed him, with Aspen Ben had to convince me it was time, I knew it was probably time but I didn't think I was ready for her yet, so with number 3 when I was all for it and had been counting down the days til it would be the right time for my plan and then my plan didn't pan out... I really struggled with it, I don't know how much it really showed, but every monthly reminder I just felt a weight on my shoulders, I felt like I was physically slumping.  I can't even imagine what my friend went through with her 2 years of trying, I was a wreck after 3 months!  And then the never ending worry of what if I finally do get pregnant and I don't get to keep baby, what if I loose my baby!?  That part I don't think has gone away at all!  More to come on the journey of baby number 3.