Ellie--
8.5 months old.  She is the cutest thing! She loves to laugh and giggles whenever anyone says "boo" to her.  She loves to eat--favorite foods include bread, graham crackers, zucchini, carrots and peaches.  She loves to escape and when we can't find her for a minute, she is usually half way up the stairs.  She is a great explorer and crawls all over finding new things to taste.  She stands up on everything and has started walking along furniture.  She will occasionally stand up by herself without holding anything.  Ellie loves it when new people come into a room and usually smiles at them until they say hi--especially when Melissa and Kirk get home from work.  She hates to get her diaper changed, face washed or nose cleaned.  She does not like to be held at bedtime.  She usually just dives for her bed and wants to be there.  She has had some nights when she wakes up in the middle and cries.  Last time that happened I went in there and she was standing up, screaming her head off.  I picked her up and she immediately calmed down and laid on my shoulder.  I rocked her for about 15 minutes and she was still a little squirmy, so I put her in bed and she went back to sleep.  We went hiking at Mt. Rainer last week and she loved being in the hiking backpack.  She made lots of friends as we hiked.  Ellie loves the stroller and going for walks.  She loves Cade and Cami and sitting in the middle of whatever they are doing.  She is a really happy baby.  When she needs something, like she is tired or hungry, she will crawl over to me and climb up my legs.  Otherwise, I usually get ignored.  Even when I try to play with her.

Cade's Birthday
Cade turned 5 last Sunday!  He has grown up so much in the last year.  He can now ride a bike without training wheels.  He can swim un assisted for about 10 feet on his front or back.  He is not scared to go play at friend's houses and loves to go to the park and play.
Cade had a birthday party on Saturday.  We invited 7 kids to come.  We did a dinosaur theme.  We colored dinosaur pictures, made dino spike hats for the kids, played "pin the tail on the T-rex".  We had a dinosaur egg hunt in the backyard.  We went dinosaur hunting.  This was one of the favorites.  I taped balloons to the wall in the shape of a dinosaur.  I taped thumb tacks under the balloons.  The kids took turns throwing bean bags at the balloons so they would hit the tack and pop.  We also made volcanoes out of vinegar/baking soda and diet coke/mentos.  It was super chaotic for a while, but it was fun.  Cade got some new, fun dinosaur projects and a few lego sets.
Sunday was his actual birthday.  We had waffles for breakfast and meatballs for dinner.  We had Scott's family and Dar's family over for birthday cake.  I had made a cupcake-cake in the shape of a dinosaur for the party on Saturday.  Cade had a great time.  He loved getting presents and being the center of attention.

Mt. Rainier
Last week Kirk ended up with Tuesday and Wednesday off.  The Tuesday was unexpected and kind of last minute.  We decided to make the most of it and went camping at Mt. Rainier National park.  We were able to leave fairly early Tuesday morning and drove 3 hours to the Paradise viewpoint.  We had lunch and did a couple of short hikes then headed to our campsite.  This was the first time using our new 8 person tent we got for Christmas and it was awesome!  We had dinner, played in the river, made a fire and roasted marshmallows.  Cade finally decided to try s'mores and loved them!  Cami just ate lots of marshmallows and Ellie loved the crackers.  Everyone went to sleep really quickly that night and slept pretty well.  The next morning we played a bit and ate breakfast and packed.  Kirk and Cade hiked from the campsite, past silver falls to Grove of the Patriarchs.  The girls and I drove to Grove of the Patriarchs and met them there.  We did that hike, and then drove to Sunrise viewpoint.  Kirk and I were both really glad we drove up there.  The view was amazing.  Just before you get to Sunrise you can see Mt. Adams, Mt. RAinier and Mt. Baker.  It was pretty awesome.  We did one hike there.  Cami was so tired she almost couldn't walk (according to her) and then I started asking her about her dreams from the night before.  She went on and on about dragons, princesses and flying horses and kept remembering parts of her dream.  It is fun to listen to her stories.  Cade told us a few stories too.

Dayton
Kirk and I had a weekend away planned for a few months.  Scott and Kara watched Ellie for us and Melissa took care of the other two kids.  We went for a bike ride from home before taking off.  We fished a bit in the Touchet river.  Lots of little fish.  It felt nice to walk in the river on a hot day.  We went to the Manila Bay Cafe for dinner.  Dayton is a little place, but there were lots of people around that night.  We stayed at the Best Western and watched the Olympics for a while that night.  We had a yummy breakfast with biscuits and gravy, omelets, bacon, muffins and fruit.  Then we drove up to the blue mountains and did a 6 mile hike.  It was really pretty.  A lot of the hike was along a ridge
line and you could see lots of land around.  It was nice to get away for a bit and not have to answer to mommy mommy all of the time.  We are going to try to do it every 6 months or so.

Our trip in Utah was great.  Monday morning I dropped Ellie off with my parents and the rest of us went to 7 peaks.  Cade loved the slides and Cami loved jumping around in the kid pools and the lazy river.  We all had a lot of fun.

Tuesday morning Kirk, Tom, Scott and Connor all left early to go golfing.  We took the kids to the BYU museum of Palentology and saw some cool dinosaurs.  Lisa talked to one of the students working there and he knew Tom and gave us a special tour of the storage room and the place where they use drills to dig out bones.  He even gave each of kids a chunk of dinosaur bone.  We drove to Bridal Veil falls and had lunch.  The kids and I did a quick walk up to the falls and back, but Ellie was done and we didn't stay long.  That afternoon Kara, Lisa, Laura (Kirk's cousin) and I went shopping and left the kids home.  It was a fun day.

Wednesday we loaded up Scott's new side-by-sides, chairs, coolers and people and drove to Strawberry reservoir to do some 4 wheeling.  It was fun, but pretty slow.  We had 12 people and only 4 seats.  I got lucky and went on an early ride.  I've never driven a 4 wheeler before.  It was pretty fun.  We went up on a ridge and could see quite a ways.  While I was riding, Kirk and Tom took the kids to the visitor center and for a short hike.  Unfortunately the visitor center was closed and so they didn't see too much.  We were able to escape the heat and wind by hanging out in Scott's trailer.  He had a door and windows put in it and it was pretty nice.  Skeeter decided to roll around in dead fish and stunk all day.  Cade and Cami thought it was super fun especially when they got to go on their long rides.

Thursday was a busy day.  Scott, Kara, Kirk and I got up and went to the 7 am temple session.  I had forgotten how big Provo Temple was!  We then took Cade and Cami back to 7 peaks for a couple of hours.  That afternoon the guys went golfing again and we stayed home and played with the kids.  I ended up having some super onery kids that evening.  At one point all three of them were crying.  Cade decided to gag on his chicken at dinner and throw up in the napkin drawer.  Luckily they all wen to bed well and Kara and I got to go on a late night Dairy Queen run with the guys when they got back.  It was a long day though.

Friday Kirk went fishing at Currant Creek.  Kara and Scott took Connor back to 7 peaks.  I took the kids and picked up my parents and we all went to the aquarium in Sandy.  None of us had been there before and it was really fun.  We saw 2 4-D movies, seahorses, octopus, rays, turtles, otters and lots of fish.  Our favorite exhibit was an aquarium tunnel with sharks swimming all over.  We ended up spending 5 hours there and saw much of it twice, just for fun.  It was fun to spend time with my parents and the kids too.

Saturday morning we met my parents at the donut shop and got the traditional Grandpa donuts.  Cade and Cami downed theirs in a few minutes.  Cade likes the tiger tail donut and Cami loves anything with sprinkles.  From there we went and fed the ducks.  Then we went to my parents house and picked raspberries.  The kids had fun playing with toys and jumping on the love sac downstairs.  We also took everyone to Cabelas and visited with my grandma and grandpa Waters.  Funny story from Cabelas:  We walked around a room with lots of deer and elk and other animals.  In the center of the room is a talking maniquin that scared Cade and Cami.  They later told Kirk's parents that we saw a dead guy at Cabelas.  I think they thought the guy was taxidermy just like the animals.  That evening we headed back to Provo and loaded the truck.  We left early Sunday morning (5:00) and ended up taking the long way home through Montana and Spokane because of the forest fires in Oregon.

It was a great week.  It was fun for the kids to see their grandparents' houses.  It was fun to be able to hang out with the Morris' after the kids went to bed.  It is always nice to get away from home and the responsibilities that come with it.