I have been to Utah 5 times since we moved to Washington!  I went a couple of weeks ago (the 5th time)  I really didn't have to this time, but Lindsey and her kids were going to be there and we wanted to see them.  Kirk stayed home and worked and fished and golfed.  We left on a Thursday.  2 days before, Cami woke up with a 102.5 degree fever.  She was pretty sick all day and I ended up taking her to the doctor that evening.  She had an ear infection and a sore throat.  Poor girl.  Wednesday she was a bit better and I still wanted to go on Thursday, so we did.  Lindsey wasn't coming until Friday afternoon.  We stayed with my parents Thursday night and just before bedtime, Cade told me he didn't feel very good (oh no!)  He had a fever and sore throat too.  The next morning we packed up and went to stay with Kirk's parents in Provo for 2 days so we could keep Lindsey's kids healthy. 

Cade was pretty sick all day Friday, but Cami was doing much better but was super clingy and wanted very little to do with Grandma and Grandpa.  We watched a movie and ate lots of popsicles and mostly just sat around and watched Grandpa mow the lawn.  Cade wasn't as bad as Cami and still had some energy to play.  Bedtime that night was super hard and it took me about 2 1/2 hours to get both kids to sleep.  Neither one would stay in a room without me and they did not want Grandma.  Don't you love travelling?

Saturday we went to the Bean museum and saw some animals.  They have recently redone everything.  My favorite part was a room dedicated to the artwork of Boyd K Packer.  I would have just skipped over it, but Tom and Lisa wanted to go in and it was really cool.  We went home and I put Cami to bed and then escaped for a couple of hours shopping at Kohls.  It was a much needed break after 3 days of sick kids and 1 long day of driving. 

Sunday morning we ate breakfast and the headed up to my parents house.  We stayed home from church and had some good nap times.  Kristi and Ty came over in the afternoon and it was fun to see them too.  We built a big train track and had a yummy dinner too.

Monday morning my parents went to work.  We took the kids outside to play with chalk and strollers and then packed a lunch and went to the park.  Cami still didn't like anyone at this point.  She actually spent about 30 minutes just playing in her bed alone while I did my hair and stuff.  I think she enjoyed the time alone.  Lindsey and I went shopping at JoAnns in the afternoon with one project in mind and ended up with a different bigger project that we bought material for.  I wish we could work on it together!

Josh likes cords

Cami likes buckles

Cade likes brooms

feeding the ducks

Making cookies with 4 little helpers

Tuesday my mom stayed home from work.  We went swimming at the Lehi pool which has some fun indoor slides.  We had lots of time playing outside, jumping on the neighbors trampoline, playing in the sand, eating raspberries, coloring with glitter glue and hanging out too. 

Glitter glue project

Treasure hunt my mom put together

Digging for the treasure

Wednesday we packed up and went to Springville to visit Alan and Kristi.  We played at their apartment for a while and then went to a great little park nearby and ate pizza.  We were able to get a picture of all 6 grandkids, looking at the camera!  Most of them were even smiling.  I snapped the picture right after Lindsey yelled "who wants a treat?" and it turned out great.  We printed the picture and gave it to my parents to hang up.  The kids all had fun at the park.  We went home and I went to the temple and left my screaming Cami with Lindsey.  It worked out fine and Cami calmed down and had fun playing with everyone.  Once I got home though, she wouldn't leave my side again. 



Thursday was the first day of fall break and we went to the Thanksgiving Point Museum of Curiousity.  It was really cool--and really crowded.  We spent most of our time in a little pretend town with a bank, train station, tv station, vet clinic etc.  We also climbed around the rain forest.  One of my favorite parts was a big maze outside in some tall bushes.  I thought it would be really small, but we ended up walking for like 5 minutes before we found an opening again.  We had some lunch at the museum and headed back home.

Cami was mad that I wouldn't let her climb on something and she laid down on the sidewalk and cried.

I was able to visit with my friend Jill and see her baby Thursday afternoon.  She lives in Denver, but our parents are still in the same ward and we happened to be in Utah together.  It is always fun to see her and talk.  We haven't lived near each other since I got married, but have remained good friends.  I had a hard time getting Cami to sleep that night--again--even though she was super tired.  But it worked out.  I got the car loaded and her to sleep and me to sleep by about 9:30. 

Friday morning Cami woke me up around 4.  By 4:30 she was asleep, but I didn't go back to sleep so at 5 I just got up.  I got myself ready and ate some breakfast then Cade woke up and ate and got dressed.  We stuck Cami in the car and were on the road by 5:45.  My first stop was in Twin Falls and we got Cami dressed.  Then we stopped an hour and a half later in Boise at Costco to get gas and a smoothie.  We didn't stop after that until we got home.  Both kids slept a bit and I just drove!  It was a pretty smooth trip.  Kirk got home a little before 6 and Cami was in bed by 6 (and didn't wake up until 8 the next day) and Cade was down by 7.  I was so tired that I went to bed about 8:15 and we all slept great that night!

As always, it was a fun trip and we love seeing family.  It is always hard to leave Kirk and take care of stuff away from home, but definitely worth the drive and the time.  Now we're looking forward to Thanksgiving when we have all 4 grandparents coming up here!

Cami is growing up!  She is still my baby, but she is definitely a toddler now! 

• Cami loves books.  She loves me and Kirk to read to her (sometimes we only get through a page or 2 per book) or she will sit in the chair and read to herself. 
• She loves to do up buckles on her high chair, car seat, and stroller.  Then she asks me to undo them and does them up again. 
• She liked to call the apostles Cade was learning "baby" and then we would tell her they weren't babies and she would laugh and say baby again.  Sometimes she points to me and says baby and herself and says mommy and laughs. 
• She repeats everything!  One day we were driving in the car and Kirk was telling me the random color names for some fly tying thing and said sasquatch brown.  Cami started yelling sasquatch brown and then Cade did and now they love to say that.  She would also repeat the names of the apostles and her favorite was Boyd Packer. 
• She loves smoothies (especially from Costco)

• She knows where a few things are as we drive around.  She gets excited everytime we drive past the splash park or up to a park to play.
• She likes to play in toilets and pull the paper off the roll.   One day I had a brand new toilet paper roll that I found soaked on the rug next to the toilet.  I'm sure she dipped it.  At least she didn't flush it!
• One day she started running around in circles with a box on her head. 
• She loves bracelets.  She loves to make things into bracelets like her snack cup lids or my hair bands. 
• She calls her jacket a Jacky
• Whenever cars are driving past on our road she says "car coming"
• She likes to push her stroller away and say "bye bye.  Dar's house.  5 min. "
• She loves to play with light switches.
• She understands the word no, but hates to obey it.
• She grabbed Cade's plate one day after lunch and rubbed it on her head, ketchup and all. 
•  Cami likes to look at our picture of Christ hanging in the dining room.  She says "Jesus, Cami"  and I say "yes, Jesus loves Cami."  Then she goes through everyone else "Jesus, Cade" "Jesus, Mommy" and "Jesus, Daddy."
• We've been going to a music group with some friends and the first song they do each time is "Where is Cami?" and then the kid waves and says "Here I am" and they go around the circle so everyone can have a turn.  Cami loves to sing this song and says "Cami, Here I am."  "Mommy, Here I am."  "Cade, Here I am."
• Another day, we watched Raffi and then Cami was singing "AAAOOO, come donkey come." for Tingaleo. 

• She repeats everything she hears.  My mom was talking one day and said something like "and I spent fifty bucks."  and Cami says "ifty ucks."  It was pretty cute. 
• She loves to have her toes painted.  When they are, she shows everyone her pretty toes. 
• Cami loves to read her book "Old McDonald" and says EIEIO on every page.  This book kept her entertained for about an hour each way when we drove to Utah. 
• She can climb out of her crib now.  I had a really hard time getting her to sleep each night in Utah.  She wouldn't stay in the pack'n'play unless I was in the room.  Now that we're home, I barricaded our packnplay in the corner of her room and she can't climb out.  I'm not ready to move her to a toddler bed yet. 
• She loves to go for walks and either ride in the stroller or push her stroller.  One day she realized that we were almost home and tried to turn around.  I told her it was time to go home and she got mad and laid on the sidewalk and started crying.  I kept walking home and she eventually calmed down and came with me. 
• .Cami thinks that if she can't see you, then you can't see her.  She will hide her face when she doesn't want to be with people that are "scary."  Sometimes she just lays down and says "Cami hiding."  If we can't find something and I say that I don't know where it is, she says "hiding?"
• When Cami folds her arms, she puts her hands together and covers her eyes. 
• If Cami wants me to pick her up, she says Carry you.
• We had pizza one night for dinner and Cami ate 2 whole slices!  She takes her food very seriously. 

• Cade talks a lot but his pronunciation isn't very clear a lot of the time.  He loves to perform though.  One of his favorite things is to stand on our sprinkler box in the yard and say "hello everynone" or "Good morning brothers and sisters."
• Cade had a little obey chart and as he moved up the road he got certain rewards.  The first one was a donut.  We walked down to Albertson's one day and got him a donut and he was so excited.  He carried them all the way home and even shared a bit with Cami. 
• He likes to weed too.  He has his "weeding place" at the trails (neighborhood park).  Once on a walk we saw a weed and he said "next time we walk here I need my bag so I can put that weed in it." 

He helps me make bread!

• He likes to watch tractor movies on youtube, lately his favorite has been about a delimber.  Now he takes his golf clubs outside and whacks the bushes and tells me he is delimbing.  Sometimes he takes his scissors outside and cuts off little branches to delimb. 
• He has loved making train tracks again this month.  Pretty much every day. 
• He likes to help out the mower guys and pick up leaves and put them in plastic bags. 
• Cade started a co-op preschool this fall.  We meet on Wednesday morning for 2 hours.  He loves it.  The first time was the most exciting.  There was smoke coming from the house across the street and so one of the neighbors called the fire truck (they knew the owner wasn't home).  The kids got to see the fire truck pull up and then they went to see the fire truck up close and got a sticker.  It was pretty neat.  He slowly tells me about preschool throughout the day.  On the first day he told me he needed a backpack because all the other kids had backpacks.  I felt bad that I didn't realize this, but we've made sure he had a backpack all the rest of the times.  He isn't really social and I think he plays by himself a bit, but he is happy and the other moms say he is really good. 
• We went fishing at the Yakima river and Cade loved it!  He got to play in the water, pick up lots of sticks, climb on rocks and go on a little walk around the trails. 
• Cade loves to watch the first part of the movie "Up" because there are some tractors in it.  One of the tractors knocks over the guys mailbox.  Everytime Cade watches the movie he says "I don't want the tractor to bulldoze his mailbox"

At the park with my aunt Darlene

• Cade learned the names of all 12 apostles and the first presidency.  We cut out pictures and he memorized a fact about each one with their name and picture.  This made conference more fun.  He liked to guess who was talking next and he really liked the part where all the apostles were sustained.  I put together activities for him to do with an apostle picture on each one.  He got to do that activity when the guy was speaking and it worked pretty well. 
• Cade loves to play in the sand, mow the lawn, sweep outside and ride his bike. 
• He takes good care of his sister and when she is sad he will help her find a toy to make her happy.   

• I told Cade we were having bacon for breakfast one morning and he started singing and dancing "bacon, bacon, bacon.  I love bacon.  It is the best in the whole world."  "Mom, do you like my bacon song?"
• Cade loves to wear his blue jeans.  He likes the song "blue jeans painted on tight" and pretty much wears them everyday.  Well, the jeans got a hole in the knee and we decided he needed new blue jeans, even though he has like 5 other pair of pants he could wear.  He was pretty excited to get new pants at the store and try them on and everything.