August 2020

 August just happened, and I can't believe how much fun we fit into one month. Now, to be clear, there are plenty of times where our house is not just fun and games, but clearly, I won't take pictures of that. These boys had hours of fun with this box. Especially because Lincoln got to be the rider and his brothers got to help their big brother!

Sometimes I take pictures of the moon, and it doesn't come out cool at all. This was a cool moon night-always better in real life.

We went on a hike with Dean's mom. We originally planned to hike up Milcreek Canyon, but decided Doughnut Falls would be a better option for the boys. Well about a quarter mile up the trail, there were some moose, right on the trail, so we opted for Blood's Lake instead.

Gram Graham brought some little treats that Ezra loved at the top.

We were almost finished with the hike, but the boys needed a break. They took the word break and traded it for a nap on the trail.

Earlier down the trail, they had plenty of energy, and a cool view!

We made it to the lake!

My old college friend Cyndi stopped by for a visit and said she wanted a break from life and just wanted to go to the beach. So, we loaded up the car and took her to the closest beach I knew of. Jordanelle was so quiet on a Thursday night, it was perfect!

The water was low, but it didn't keep us from having fun!

Cyndi challenged the boys to kayaking races. It was just what they needed to motivate them to get into the water. Then the fun didn't stop.

Thomas has gotten really good at this boat!

And we had chocolate doughnuts for anyone who participated in the kayak races.

Earlier that day we took the Hilterbrands climbing at Red Rock in Draper. My boys are getting to be pretty good little climbers. They are all getting used to different things, and I think they mostly like it too:-)

Even Ezra is a good sport about the whole thing. He likes to climb around on the rocks and seems to enjoy the mountains anyway they come.

We even got DeAnn to climb once. Her kids were so proud!

On Sunday mornings I've been going on walks with my sister. I so look forward to these couple hours a week! What would I do without a sister? We went by Farmington pond and found a line of geese.

And Jodi found a bird refuge?

We met our friends the Jensen's from Ogden at a park in Farmington. We were going to go on a biking adventure, but ended up having fun at this small park and eating a dutch oven breakfast courtesy of Dean.

We went up Big Cottonwood Canyon with Holly and her family. Thomas made it higher than he ever has, and he learned to come down the mountain! This was a huge success after trying a couple weeks earlier.

Both Lincoln and Oliver made it to the top of this climb.

Thomas has improved so much this summer!

The biggest improvement Thomas made is coming down the wall!

This summer we planted a garden. Our garden included two tomato plants and seven zucchini plants. Needless to say, we had several zucchini that went unnoticed and they were perfect for the zucchini boats!

It was a perfect end of summer activity. The river was flowing at a pretty good pace, but it was perfect for a bunch of boys to play in...and chase some zucchini!

Our neighbor Carter and Jordan joined the fun.

The fun part for Thomas was decorating. He was so proud of his final product that he didn't even put his boat in the water.

Ezra had some fun decorating too.

This swimming pool was so much fun this summer...except when there was a leak in it. Ezra was in L.O.V.E.

We did a take two with underwear. Ezra did great. After three days, he was nearly 100% potty in the toilet. After about 10 days of cleaning poop out of his underwear and zero successes, we have gone a different route, which is 100% diapers...again. Maybe when he's three we'll try again. Sigh.

This was a summer highlight! Lincoln has been asking to go backpacking for a couple of years, we've also been talking about the day when all of the boys would be big enough to hike to the top of Mount Timpanogos. Our friend Julie, made us a deal we couldn't pass up and watched Thomas and Ezra while Dean and I took Lincoln and Oliver backpacking and to the top or the mountain. This pic was at scout falls on the way down.

So, here's our adventure in reverse order. We finished!

The view was amazing, the whole way!

The top was rewarding! Like it should be. There were so. many. people. on this hike. It felt a bit unsafe in the middle of a pandemic. But all of those maskless people, were so kind and encouraging to these boys. They made it worth every step.

These boys made their mama proud!

We made it to the valley to set up camp just in time for some light to set up the tent. We were all happy to take our packs off. Putting them on the next day was a challenge, especially for the boys. We carried their bags most of the way down. We started with they carry for 15 minutes, we carry for 6. But the last several miles we made a new rule. We'd carry their packs, as long as they didn't complain...And they did pretty well with that!

Proof that these boys can do hard things!

And look at these smiles as we begin our adventure!

As a mom, you get to plan your own birthday fun. This year we went to Deer Creek and invited a couple of friends to join us. I didn't love the beach, but we still had a good time!

I think this was the only sandy spot on the beach. I was happy to see the boys take advantage for a bit!

Thomas got these awesome glasses from primary. He was serious about getting his coloring page done this week.

We went on a hike around Red Butte Garden. It was a perfect boy friendly loop that helped us get a few miles in before our big summit to Timp.

I sure do like these boys!

I sure do like these five boys! I feel like I"m on the top of the world when we're all together in the mountains, and everyone is smiling!!!

One of my top family trips of the summer, and perhaps ever, was this boating trip to Flaming Gorge. Our good friends the Blackhursts invited us along. It was four days of pure fun! We had two full days on the boat, so there was plenty of time for everyone to have fun behind the boat. Especially because my boys weren't too fond of riding behind the boat. But they all loved riding on the boat. So it worked out perfect.

This is Dean and me on the kneeboards.

Thomas and Landon are only a couple months apart.

These kids are all so much fun! They all got along great!

This was a really big step that Lincoln got behind the boat at all. He gave both kneeboarding and tubing a try.

I got to ski, which is something I always love! They had a fancy slalom ski for me, and for whatever reason, I could not get up on it. They finally threw out this old dumpy ski that is part of their pair and I popped right up. Once I was up, it was awesome!

There's some kids on the tube. The Blackhursts were clearly more seasoned tubers than the Grahams. But I was proud of my boys for riding when they did.

Any day you can be in the back of the truck is a good day!

We rode the river one of the days we were there. And once again it was totally awesome!

Boat loading time!

Oh, and we got two campsites right next to each other, so the fun never stopped!

Dean even took a couple of turns in the water. It was fun to see him behind the boat again.

The girls ride was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. I don't remember laughing so hard! We switched rafts back and forth so many times, then Dave finally took us for the crazy turns. At one point the other tube landed on top of me. I couldn't stop laughing.

It's been years since Dean has been behind a boat, but he got the hang of it...Just like riding a bike...?

Lincoln made it up on kneeboarding, which is awesome, because the first try he got caught upside down and it made him very nervous.

The next miracle was we got all six Graham's behind the boat at once. Ezra hated it, and Thomas endured it for a minute. Oliver wasn't a fan, but Lincoln started to get comfortable.

So we weren't actually moving. But they boys did it...baby steps. And poor Ezra wasn't given a choice. We made him do it for the picture.

For a short break from Flaming Gorge, these pictures were uploaded in the wrong order, and I'm not very good at maneuvering things with the devise I"m on. So Here's a short break.

Lincoln found Ezra's overalls, and thought it'd be fun to try on. I'll let you decide on the level of fun.

More skate park fun. The boys are getting pretty good!

Ezra loves to dump his stuff out of his locker and hang out inside.

As another training hike, we hiked up to Lake Mary. They boys did well, but I was glad we had decided to leave Thomas out of the Timpanogos hike. He did more complaining than I was ready for...

Oliver is great hiker, but also a very distracted hiker. He loves to explore!

Once again, Lincoln at the top of a climb. He's loving it this summer!

More of Lake Mary

Lake Mary! It was a jaw dropper!

And back to the Flaming Gorge trip.

Holly and Peyton and I all decided to do a small cliff jump into the river. It was frigid.

More pics from the river. Dean was the perfect guide!

We saw this cool stork at the end of our ride.

What is camping without cards?

Probably only because we packed the gear, Dean did a little fishing, which his boys loved to watch.

The Blackhursts make quite the boating team too. They were good at splashing us, but Ezra would only scream, so they were also good at respecting Ezra's wants and letting up sometimes. 

The first day we got there we had fun kayaking around. With two kids kayaks and a paddle board we shuttled everyone up the lake a bit for some cliff jumping.

Dean is the hero and the record holder for throwing the biggest rock into the lake.

The morning before we left to Flaming Gorge, I took the boys halfway up Jack's Mountain. They did really well on a really steep mountain!