Reflections

So, I've been thinking about how very blessed I am and would like to share some of my thoughts. I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows us and our needs. He is watchful of each and every one of us. While camping, we had a prayer the first night and the one who said it asked for the Lord to be mindful of us while we were away from our homes. The nights got cold and I was concerned that my boys would be cold, especially Linkoln who doesn't keep his blankets on. I prayed one night that I would be made aware of my kids' needs. I was awoken in the middle of the night by some noise, that only I seemed to hear, and decided to check on my boys while I was up. Link had rolled over and was on top of all the blankets. I covered him back up and relized that the noise was for me so that I could care for my child. At that moment I knew that my Father in Heaven was mindful of me and my children. Also, as I mentioned in the last post, my cousin, Courtney, had some fourwheeler troubles. She had been gone from camp for a few hours and my aunt was concerned for her. My aunt sent out my uncle and of course, everyone else who had a way to get around the trails offered to help search for her as well. My uncle came back after a little bit and suggested a prayer for Courtney and her safety. Shortly after was when the family brought her back into camp. This, to me, was another example of our Heavenly Father being mindful of us. He loves us and I know this with all my heart. I'm thankful for His love and watchfulness over us. I know that He is always mindful of us, not only when we are away from our homes. I just wanted to share these feelings, so thanks for reading.

Family Camp-out 2011

We just returned from the family camp-out. We went up the Copper Basin area and had lots of fun. I rode up with my family on Tuesday and then the extended family started showing up on Thursday. Clint is training to become an engineer for the railroad and has class in Salt Lake, so he wasn't able to come. We missed him and Corgin would ask me about him every night when he went to bed. Despite him not being able to be there, we still managed to have some fun, especially Corgin. Here are a few pictures of our little adventure. (And adventure it was, for some more than others. My cousins, Cory and Jill, got a flat tire and they didn't get to the campsite until 3 or 4 in the morning after my aunt and uncle had to go out to find them since there was no cell service. Also, my other cousin, Courtney, went for a fourwheeler ride by herself and when she was over nine miles away from camp her fourwheeler stopped. She was rescued by a family that was leaving and brought back with the fourwheeler in tow. She was very glad to be back in camp.) Anyway, back to the pictures.

Corgin giving Linkoln a ride.

Brooklyn, Ava, Corgin, and Link.

Jake borrowed my little cousin's helmet and Maddie's cute pink bike and rode around camp. Some people will do anything for a laugh, but he did have some of us laughing.

Linkoln spent a lot of time on my lap. Here we are and you can see how happy he is about the situation.

Corgin

Corgin peeking through the door of the camp trailer. He insisted that I take a picture.

Corgin liked to give Link rides in his stroller. Linkoln spent a lot of time in his stroller too.

Linkoln and Corgin.

Link is so happy.

My cute happy campers.

Maddie and I gave the baby boys a rub down one night. They had tons of fun playing around and being super cute while we got the water and stuff ready for them.

Silly boys!

My parents rented a camper trailer for us and this was Linkoln's and Corgin's sleeping arrangements. Link got the bottom bunk in the pack'n'play and Corgin got the top bunk, which he loved. Maddie and Tytan slept on another bed and my mom and I shared the big bed. When Brianne, my brother's fiance, came she also had a bed to sleep on. It was a nice big trailer.

Mikki gave Corgin and Ava a ride behind her bike. Corgin loved it! He also loved riding his own bike around camp (or pushing it since it's hard to ride a bike with training wheels on a rocky uneven road) but I didn't happen to get any pictures of that.

The boys had fun riding with their Grandma Merri on the fourwheeler. Here they are, Linkoln, Tytan, Grandma, and Corgin. Corgin also rode with his Grandpa Dewey on the motorbike, but I didn't get any pictures of that either.

So much fun!

Corgin loved playing outside and, like most boys, peeing outside as well. He would find a tree to go behind, but he wasn't very good at hiding so sometimes people in our camp would see a suprising little moon. He also got to go fishing with his grandpa, but they didn't catch anything. He still had tons of fun though.

We took the kids on another ride the last day. We had to squeeze three of them in there, but they seemed to have fun. Corgin, Brooklyn, and Ava.

We stopped to eat on the way home. It was so hot that I had to get the boys some ice cream. Link loved having his own.

Messy face!

Corgin enjoyed some as well.


I love his little hands and the way he holds his ice cream cone.

He ate almost all of it.

The camp-out was so much fun, but I was glad to get home after chasing two boys around. Corgin had so much fun that last night at dinner he told me that he wants to live outside. Today Link had a doctor's appointment and when we got in the car Corgin asked if we were going camping again. He cracks me up. Also, while we were camping, he was carrying a big rock and I overheard him saying to Brooklyn, "Can you carry a rock? I can because I have big muscles and I'm tough." I just love my Corginman!

Speaking of the aforementioned Dr.'s appoinment, Link is growing just like he should and only cried for a second after he got shots. He weighs 20.14 lbs and is 32 in. long. He is starting to try to say words and is always so cute. A few of my favorite things that he does are that he lays his head on my shoulder when I get him out of his bed; when he decides to give me kisses, I usually get four or five at a time; if we say "monkey" in any phrase, he will make a little monkey sound; he yells really loud when he is in a place that echoes (usually public restrooms); and he is easily scared, like if you startle him, and he screams and tenses up then laughs. He's a great kid and I love him so much!

Summer Time Fun!

We have been super busy and having lots of fun since Clint and I got home from our cruise. Here are some of the things that we have been up to.

We welcomed home my brother, Luke, from his mission in Orlando, Florida. Maddie made some cute signs to hang around the boys necks and then we tied balloons to their pants. They were the cutest little welcoming crew ever.

He was excited to see everyone. And we were all excited to see him.

Clint's brother got married in the middle of June. All the family was here except for two, Heather and little Lily. We had tons of fun with everyone and were glad to see everyone. For pictures of the wedding you can visit Kristi's blog (the link is on the side bar here).

We've also had some fun in the sun.

Clint, his sister Trisha, and his brother Jake riding on the tube.
They got some air a few times.

We celebrated the fourth of July with a parade, fun water games and fireworks.

Corgin waited for the parade by throwing pop its that his Grandma Hamblin gave him. He had a blast.
Linkoln chilled with his Daddy and Grandpa.

The parade started coming and Corgin was ready. This parade is known for its candy.

After the parade. Everyone enjoyed some sweets. Corgin got to bring home a whole grocery bag full.

Our Friends, the Wrights, got a lot of candy too.

I didn't get any pictures of our water games because I was having too much fun to take time out for pics. We played water baseball and water volleyball, followed by the traditional water balloon fight which always ends up with the coolers of water being dumped on someone. Always fun!

After that we went to Pocatello's firework show. Here we are on our way. Corgin is one cool dude.

All our fun wore Link out.

Since the fourth, we've still been having fun. We play in the sun and water too.

Here is Corgin armed and ready to play.

Playing on the tramp with the squirt bottle. Corgin liked to spray the tramp.

He had fun spraying Link too.

My stinkin' cute kids. I know, I'm totally biased!

Playing at the park. Both Corgin and Link loved the sand. (See Corgin by the slide)

Corgin

Linkers trying out the slide.

Corgin loved the slides!

Link.

We have had lots of fun in the nice summer weather and have more fun planned. I love summer!!!

Our Mexican Riviera Cruise

So, Clint and I just got back from a Cruise to Mexico. We had fun and there are a lot of pictures. So, here is how it went. We started with an at sea day and a formal dining night.

Me.

Clint.

The next day we sailed into Cabo.

From the ship on the way to port.

The arch.



We spent the first day shopping and didn't take any pictures while we were ashore. We had a lot of fun and even took some time to eat at the famous Cabo Wabo. It was a nice sunny day and we found some good deals (our kids were spoiled). We had two days in Cabo, so we used our second day to do some snorkeling. We took a water taxi over to Pelican Beach which is where the best snorkeling is supposed to be.


The view of our cruise ship from the beach.

The rock we ended up snorkeling around.

Me

Clint

There was a man on the beach that helped us off the water taxi and told us that if we needed any help with anything he would be happy to help. The water was a little rough that day, so he ended up helping us into the water and then became our own personal guide. We made sure to give him a good tip.

Clint and I

Our Mexican friend was happy to take pictures for us and he would point out things we wouldn't have seen by ourselves. He would also dive down and pick things up and bring them to us to hold and get pictures of. I don't know if he was supposed to do this because he would look around before he would give them to us. It was cool to see and touch all the different ocean life forms.

Here's a sea slug (and I'm not talking about how I look with my mask on).

Clint got to hold it too.

This is the kind of fish we saw the most of.

Holding a star fish.

Clint's turn.

Kind of a blurry pic, but a cool fish.

We also got to hold a puffer fish. See it's little face? It was our favorite.

Bye Mr. Puffer Fish.

So many fish!

After snorkeling we got a picture on the beach. Then we explored a little and dried off.

Clint

Me and some random dude in the background.

A view from the cruise ship.

The next day we ported at Puerto Vallarta. We had already purchased an excursion and we were super excited about our day.

See ya later, Cruise Ship called Carnival Splendor!

We started our adventure with a boat ride. That took about half an hour.

At the end of the boat ride we got off at this little beach town. Past the beach we went into the little town. It had cobblestone roads and apartments above the shops with clothes hanging out to dry all over the place. I loved it.

The guides then proceded to load us into the back of some trucks. It reminded us a little of Indiana Jones.

Part of our ride was on a highway, but we eventually turned off and went up a dirt road the remainder of the way. It was a bumpy ride.

This is where we unloaded. These are what our trucks looked like.

At base camp we were given our harnesses and taught how to zip line. We were also told that we couldn't take our cameras, so we had to purchase the pictures that were taken for us. (sorry there are so many, but we had to get our money's worth) But before we could jump onto a zipline, we had to be briefed on riding mules. That's right, we got to ride mules to our first zipline.

Me

Clint's at the end of the line.

On my lazy mule.

Finally we reached our first of a series of ziplines and rappelling.

Me on my first zipline ever. So fun!

Me

Clint on his first zipline ever.

Clint

After a few ziplines, we got to rappel down a waterfall.

Me

Me

Clint

Clint

At the bottom of the first waterfall rappel.

Oh, we're not done yet. Next came a zipline into a pool of water.

Me

Me

I was glad it was a nice sunny and hot day because we got wet from head to toe.

Clint

Clint

Another rappel, but this one was a free one and our guides dropped us in the water at the end.

Me

Me

This is how high we were on this one. It was so fun.

Clint

Clint

Clint

Our last zipline. We got to race to the end. I won by a little bit, but if you ask Clint, he claims I got a head start.

We then took a short hike back to base camp.

Back at base camp. It started to get cloudy so we were glad we had the early excursion. It made for a beautiful picture though. We decided that this was definitely worth the money and we had so much fun.


The last two days were at sea days, so we just hung out on the ship. It was cold and windy, so we didn't spend much time outside which I was a little bummed about. Anyway, here are a few pictures of our ship.

El Morocco Lounge (where we watched the comedy show).

Glass elevators.

Up on deck 9 looking down to the lobby on deck 3.

Main lobby.

And of course, what would a cruise be without the towel animals?

Walrus?

Elephant

Puppy

Monkey

Turtle

Bunny

Manta Ray

We had lots of fun, but we were ready to get home and see our boys. We missed them so much!