Camping

The first time we took Tytyn camping he was about 3 months old. We have been taking him every summer since. We went a lot last summer and went for our first time this summer 2 weekends ago. He loves every second of it and is always SO sad when its time to come home.

This is just a random pic that was in the camping folder of pics that I wanted to share. I exercise every morning and Tytyn is usually right there beside me cheering me on and jumping around and pretending he is exercising too. Hopefully I'm passing down to him the importance of exercise and how to keep yourself healthy and happy. He kept saying look Momma I'm so strong! And hey check out my muscles, he is such a little ham!

We camped up  in Ashley National Forest. 

This was looking out from our tent. There was the MOST gorgeous scenery up there, and infinity spots to camp! 

We took our dirt bikes and took advantage of the hundreds of trails they have up there to explore. We found some gorgeous spots. Don't worry, helmets were worn and I wanted them off for the pictures so we could see faces.

My little buddy and I. He LOVES to ride on anything with a motor, but especially dirt bikes. I know he would go without food, water or sleep just to ride on one of these for longer. He is obsessed. He just laughs and screams the whole time. I heard lots of Yee Ha's from him and Woo Hoos! He is such a crack up!

We found this pretty canyon at the end of one of the trails we drove down.

He loves giving thumbs up. Don't mind the helmet hair or the fact that I'm not wearing makeup or the dirt all over Tytyn's face, we were camping all right:)

My handsome boys.

May

Forget the stuffed animals or blankets this boy likes to snuggle with his tractors at night.

MOM! Something is wrong here!

So I belong to this group on facebook called "Vernal Mom Group." They do weekly activities together with kids and then try to itleast once a month do something with just the Moms. I've never been to any of the activities because going to something where I don't know a soul is WAY out of my comfort zone. I've gotten a lot better over the past few years with being more outgoing. I've really put myself out there though with the ladies in my ward and I have made a lot of really good friends. Anyways they posted a new activity online called "Mystery Moms", where you are assigned a lady to be a secret sister too. You are a given a form with things about this person and then you bring them a gift once a week (secretly, so they don't know who you are). There was like 40-50 ladies signed up to do it, so I figured it sounded fun and at the reveal I'd be able to meet lots of ladies all at once. Might as well dive right in, right? It was actually fun to deliver gifts to somebody I didn't know and to try and drop them off without them seeing you. The reveal was the first weekend in May at a little diner. We had assigned seating at this super long table. We didn't know that they had all sat us around the ladies we had and the ones who had us. I visited with the ladies around me and they were nice. It was about a half and half mix of members and nonmembers. I really hit it off with the lady who was delivering gifts to me, which was kind of cool. I had 2 different ladies tell me that if I was going to be friends with this group I had to stop being so quiet. That didn't make me feel too great. Its easy to say for people who know every person in the room. Well enough about that. The next day was Olivia's baptism (the little girl who has had lessons in our home). Tyrel and I both spoke at it. Tyrel spoke about baptism and I spoke about the Holy Ghost. I haven't been to a baptism in a long time, it was neat to see that ordinance performed after going through all the lessons with her. Right after the baptism we left for Logan, Utah where Tyrel's cousin was getting married in the temple there. Then we drove to Blackfoot afterwards and had a baby blessing of one of our friends the next morning. Then that Monday (the 6th) was Tytyn's 3rd birthday! We had a little celebration the night before with Tyrel's parents and siblings. On his actual birthday we had to drive back to Salt Lake where I had my first appointment with a fertility specialist. I felt bad that it ended up being on his birthday, but it was the only day it worked out. Then we drove home afterwards, so basically he spent his whole birthday riding in the car. We made it up to him that next weekend though. We had a big BBQ with all of our neighbors and friends invited and that was a blast. Two weeks later we drove to Blackfoot again for Memorial Day weekend. And Tyrel was asked to be a best man at a wedding. So we attended the wedding in Idaho Falls on that Friday and then the reception in Pocatello on Saturday. It also was the weekend that Tyrel's dad had to have surgery. He had one of his kidneys removed because there was a big tumor in it filled with cancer. They got it removed and everything around it and are saying that its all gone and he shouldn't have to have any treatments or anything. So that was a relief. It was a busy weekend, but we were glad to be there to help out around the farm and I did all the cooking for the boys. Plus we got to hang out with some old friends so it was fun.

This was at Tytyn's Bday BBQ, we did the watermelon game. You see how many rubber bands you can get around it before it literally explodes in half. Its pretty cool. The kids had a ton of fun doing it. This watermelon took over 200 rubber bands before it exploded. I did stand there with the video camera for about a half hour hoping to get it on video, but I got tired of standing there. I didn't even get to see it explode I was in the house doing some cleaning up. Thats ok though the kids had a blast doing it. 

Its mostly sand underneath our deck and the kids were having fun under there digging around.

This is an after pic of the watermelon. Nobody did any cutting of any kind it just explodes right in half like that. 

We had a big pinata which I failed to get any pictures of because I was doing some video instead. This is Tytyn enjoying some of the loot. Can't believe my baby boy is 3! The time is just going by way too fast, but I am so grateful to have him in my life and to have been entrusted to be his Mother here on earth. We have our challenging days, but they are outweighed by the special moments we have together.

Alot of our friends brought Tytyn a present, we have the greatest friends here. He was ecstatic about it!

This is Matilda, she is such a sweet girl and had gotten fixed a few days before. Fortunately one of our friends who was at the BBQ is our vet. She wasn't doing well the few days after her surgery so I had him look at her when he was over and he was shocked. She was lactating! He said it only happens about 1 in every 100 dogs he fixes. Something to do with it messing with their hormones. I thought it odd that she had breasts all the sudden and that's why I wanted him to look at her. So she had to wear this lovely cone because she wasn't leaving her stitches alone either. She is back to her normal happy and energetic self now. 

This is the dog run we built to keep them out of the lawn we planted. We connected it the the old chicken coop which we cleaned out so that they would have someone place to sleep that's covered. 

We drove up this mountain one night and had a picnic for dinner. It was a little chilly, but beautiful scenery. 

                                     

Do you see the deer?

This was the face he was making when we told him it was time to go home. He LOVES being out and doing anything, he is one active boy let me tell you!

April

Wow, its been awhile! I have so much to blog about that I have been putting it off and putting it off. Obviously only to create more to blog about, but the task has just been too daunting and I honestly haven't had time to sit down and just do it. We have been busy, busy, busy! Two of Tyrel's families that he home teaches (who aren't active) had some children get baptized over the course of the last couple months. So we have had one of them in our home 1-2 times a week for the lessons before baptism and now for the new convert lessons. The other family does it in their home, so Tyrel goes to those also about once a week. Plus he has mutual every Wednesday and campouts or hikes 1-2 times a month. Between all of that and the normal every day things, it has just been crazy around here. And we were finally able to get our back yard all cleared out and ready to plant, which we did. So besides my normal every day tasks I get to rotate sprinklers all day between the back yard, front yard and my 2 different garden spots. And then there are temple days, visiting teaching and our callings. If you're going to be busy with things though, it sure feels good to be busy with church duties. I'll go ahead and post some pictures of the month of April, it will help remind me of some of the things that we did.

My Mom came to visit the 2nd week in April, right after conference. Somehow she didn't make it in any of the pictures. She gave Tytyn some early Birthday presents, which he was thrilled about.  We really didn't do much of anything, but we had some nice visits and it was fun to just have her here. Thanks for making the effort to visit so often Mom, we really like when family comes!

We got a couple last snowfalls in April, this one was a surprise to wake up to.

Tyrel turned 27 on April 17th. He'd had a long day at work in the snow and then had to come home and eat his Birthday dinner super fast, blow out candles real quick and then leave for mutual. So we didn't see him much on his Birthday. We really appreciate him and how hard he works for us.

It's a long story why there are chocolate chips sticking in the german chocolate frosting and I am not going to tell it because its kind of embarrassing ha ha!

Last time we saw Flaming Gorge it was last July with my parents, so it was kind of fun to see it with snow and still very pretty.

We finally got Tyrel's parents to come and see us and we took them up to see Flaming Gorge and then went to the restaurant up there afterwards for lunch.

Tyrel had not had an opportunity to go to the temple yet this month and I had already gone several times so he decided to go and do some initiatory and we went with him and just waited for him outside. I had been wanting to take Tytyn for awhile to walk around the temple ground because he always asks about the temple and says he wants to go there. So I took the opportunity to walk around with him and try to explain to him who's house it is. I always enjoy my little conversations with him, he is so smart and I think he understands more than I think I will. 

My silly boy, Tytyn.

When we bought our house and moved into it last summer, we didn't get to see what everything would look like in the Spring. So it's been fun to see all the pretty blossoms and different flowers come up that I didn't know I had. I planted a bunch of bulbs last fall, that's what you can see through the blossoms. 

This is Tyrel and Tytyn smoothing out the dirt where we planted our lawn in the back. I'll get some pictures here soon of what it looks like now. I wish I would have remembered to get before and after pics of the whole process because this back yard was an absolute mess. We have put lots and lots of hours into it.