Summer Fun

It's been a week of injuries for Jesse Bear. Bumps, bruises, burns, scratches & bug bites...it must be summer! Here's his "snuvv" that we put to cover his burn that he got on his finger. The word "snuvv" comes from the Dr. Seuss book "The Lorax" - remember the once-ler? and his snuvv? His Secret strange hole in his gruvvulous glove? Yep! Now Jesse Bear has one too!

We got our first batch of green beans from the garden! Mmmh!


On Saturday we celebrated pioneer day by hiking 8.5 miles (round trip) on a mountain near our home. It was beautiful! And believe me, we all felt like the pioneers after that hike! It took us 8 hours! (we averaged about 1 mile/hour) :) Here are some of the views along the way:

I liked the message on this tree!

And here's the beautiful lake that climaxed our hike! :) Ha ha! The saddle that you can see just above this lake in the picture was a mile further, but we had to head home. So close...and yet so far!


Curious George hiked for all the hike except about a half mile where his Dad did this:


Jesse Bear hiked for a couple of miles also. Finally after the 25th fall, he agreed to be carried the rest of the way. :)

Armor: Part 2

Well, we sure have gotten a lot of use out of this armor that we made on Sunday. Yesterday our family home evening lesson was all about warriors that were righteous in the Book of Mormon. We talked about Captain Moroni and Helaman and the righteous things they fought for. But today...today just topped it off - it's been a while since I've laughed so hard.

Jesse Bear took a bath and afterward Brandon had to leave for a meeting so we quickly read scriptures and said prayers before he left (which meant Jesse Bear was left in his towel for a few extra minutes). If you've ever had a two-year-old boy you know that they love to be unclothed. And they love to run around while you try to catch them while they are unclothed. So after Brandon left Jesse Bear dropped the towel and started running around like a mad man. He of course wanted me to chase him, but he was too quick for me. Finally I just sat down next to his clothes and started counting (an old trick that usually doesn't work but sometimes we resort to anyway). Jesse Bear was in his room and when he came out he was fully clad from head to sword in his cardboard armor of righteous over his completely naked body. Curious George and I busted out laughing. He runs out in his armor and proceeds to do a warrior dance for us (looking very similar to what I picture the Lamanites looking like). This went on for about 5 minutes with all of us laughing hysterically (my sister was there too). Then all of a sudden I hear it! I scream and drop everything and rush the unclothed warrior into the bathroom before he pees all over the floor. An inevitable ending to a perfectly hysterical moment. :)

Armor of Righteousness

Curious George saw this image in the friend this month and wanted to make some cardboard armor just like it yesterday. I told him that we could as long as the weapons and armor were used for righteousness. :) We spent the morning making breastplates of righteousness, swords of truth and shields of faith for the boys. They loved it. Their Dad fought imaginary foes with them all afternoon.
Curious George also saw another image from the friend with the title of liberty that he wanted to make. We didn't get to that one, but next week we'll make it so the boys can act out of the story of the title of liberty. :)

Baby Falcons

These baby falcons hung out near our house all day yesterday. We saw three of them. Aren't they beautiful? We waited all day for their parents to come get them, but never saw them. One of our neighbors took them home and gave them some food and water to keep them alive. She was going to turn them into a wildlife place if she could find where to do it. They were extremely docile birds. They just kind of sat there. One of them took a shower in the neighbor's sprinkler for most of the day. The other one was going back and forth over the road. I didn't think it would make it through the day, but it did. They weren't scare of us at all. Just kind of sat there. They looked really funny when they ran. They spread there wings out (they have a huge wing span that seem way out of proportion to their bodies) and kinda hopped along. They were really cute.