Zion National Park

Every time we go to St George we go to Zion's, we just can't stay away. It's too amazing!

Chase, all ready for hiking


Riding the bus to the trail

We did our favorite hike to the Upper Emerald Pools yet again.










Chase did amazingly well. He stayed in the carrier during all of our hikes and hardly made a peep. He slept most of the time, but when he was awake he seemed to be enjoying the view.
We used a carrier cover to protect from the sun. I was worried that he'd be too hot under it, but he hardly broke a sweat (he's been much sweatier napping under a warm blanket).

During our breaks he wore this hat to protect his little head from the sun.
It is HUGE on him!







Ethan adores Chase! (So does Julia.)
They loved our short breaks because it gave them a chance to hold him.




But Julia did take advantage of the soft sand at the top of the Emerald Pool hike.



Heading back down the trail

What great scenery!

The Middle Emerald Pool on our way down

Here we are at the bottom of the trail on the bridge.

Heading back to the Visitor's Center on the bus.
Chase hates riding in the car, but seemed fine on the bus since someone was holding him!

We had so much fun on our hike that the kids wanted to go back again.
We decided to do the Watchman Trail on our second day there--
one that we haven't done before.
It was super crowded on the other trails,
but this one had hardly anyone hiking on it at all.
We saw only a few other people the entire trail,
and no one else was at the top while we were there.

Our great little hikers

This trail was on the opposite side of the canyon,
and had some different views.

Here's Chase enjoying the hike

There were no pools at the top of this trail,
but there were some spectacular views.

There were some big dropoffs at the top of this trail.
Luckily the kids are old enough to stay away from the edge!

The only shade at the top of the trail-- here we are taking a short break

Heading back down the trail...

Can you spot the kids?

At the bottom of the trail

The river was a bit cold, but it felt like heaven after our long, hot hike.

Julia has no fear. Derek told her that she could jump in at this spot so she did it:

The deer we spotted on our way back to the car

As Julia said, "The point is to spend quality time together."
And she's right!

Swimming in St George

Last week we took our annual trip to St George.
It's the one trip we take that's just us and we always have such a great time.
When we went last June we didn't know that we'd have an extra family member going with us this year!

We spend a huge part of our time in St George in the pool. The kids really improve their swimming skills the most during this trip because they have lots of time to practice.
We weren't sure how Chase would react to the pool, and I was worried about protecting him from the sun, so we kept him inside during our first few trips to the pool.
But we finally decided to give it a try one night when it was late enough that we didn't need to worry about sunburns.

He had no idea what was coming!

Here's his first reaction:

Nope, he didn't like it too well!

He was much happier out of the pool.

But we decided to give it another try anyway.

The next day we took him in again.

He screamed again when we first got in, but as soon as he got used to the water temperature he calmed down and even though he didn't love it he at least endured.

Ethan and Julia, however, loved every minute of our pool time!

Fun stuff

June has been such a busy month for us! We've had the usual-- BBQs, summer movies, Primary Activity, and some fun get-togethers too.

A couple of weeks ago Derek's college roommate and friend Mike and his wife Jenny came into town. It's always fun getting together with them. They brought their 4 month old baby but the rest of the kids stayed at home in Ohio, so we were going to take our kids to Grandma's house while we went out with them. But then they found out that we had decided to go to In-N-Out. (Did you all know that there's now one open in Orem?) So we ended up taking them with us. Ethan had a double double burger and fries, and still wasn't full. That kid is a bottomless pit!

Derek and Mike (notice how Mike is slouching and Derek is on tip toes,
this is the only way for them to be the same height, lol)

Jenny and me with the babies

=========================================================

Another really fun thing I did this month was getting together with my sister and cousins for lunch one Saturday. Growing up we alway hung out together. There were so many times when they would ride the bus from Salt Lake to Orem and we would hang out at the mall.

So of course we decided to meet yet again at the mall.
We reminisced about being so poor that Katie and I would split a piece of pizza from Sbarro, and Tamara and Becky would split a Chick-Fil-A sandwich. (And Becky is now a Chick-Fil-A owner!)
We ate and relaxed and just caught up, it was so much fun.

Here we are at my bridal shower a long time ago, lol


We'll have to do it again soon girls!

2 month stats

We had Chase's 2 month checkup this past week.

The doctor checked to make sure he was meeting all of his milestones:

Smiling

Cooing

Tracking objects with his eyes

Startling at loud sounds

Holding his head up for short periods

Grasping objects in his fists

He's doing everything the doctor asked so it sounds like he's right on track.

And his weight gain looks good.

He is now 12 lbs 8 oz, which is in the 75th percentile.

And he is 24 inches long, which is in the 90th percentile.

The doctor asked if he's sleeping OK at night.
He'll usually wake up twice each night to eat,
but he hasn't gone longer than about 4 hours at a time so far.
It will be nice when he's able to sleep for a longer stretch at night!

And I was finally able to get a pic of his cute little frown!

He does this frown occasionally before he starts crying. It's SO funny!

Memorial Day BBQ

I love it when we all get a day off! The kids are out for summer vacation already, but it was nice having a 3 day weekend with Derek home. Monday was spent working on the yard and trying to clean up the house.
In the evening Derek and Julia finished up putting seeds in the garden during our backyard BBQ.

Daphne was thrilled to see Chase. She pumps her fists open and closed and shakes with excitement, it's SO cute!

Chase wasn't quite as excited, lol. But I'm sure that will come in a few months.

We were able to do a few family pics.

We had Chase wear his cute BYU onesie.

I need to get more pictures with Chase smiling,

but I was able to get this one.

And he had a sweet "conversation" with Aunt Charlotte and Aunt Kristen

It was such a fun way to kick off the beginning of summer!