Adventurous August

August was another month of fun with family and settling into our life in Rexburg. It's great that we didn't have to bring toys with us because my in-laws have kept so many toys from when their kids were little. 

After hearing  "Mama! Help me!" I found this. Can you see it?

Making flower crowns

Kallie slept really late this day so the rest of us had already eaten breakfast and went back downstairs to get dressed. Jayda and Taylor rolled all around the bed playing. I finally had to kick Kallie out of bed or she never would have woken up.

Mesa Falls with Great Grandpa McGary

Rockchuck! (I've never heard of that before but that's what Brad said it is...)

Kallie is wearing baby pants here. Those are literally Taylor's size 12 month pants and Kallie squeezed into them as shorts. And she refused to take them off. When she finally did for bed that night I assured her she could never wear them again.

One Sunday evening we took the kids to the Byu-Idaho campus gardens (where the above picture was taken) . The kids had a great time. When Jayda had to go potty I took her to the restroom, put her on the toilet and she started going potty only for her stream to travel up into an arch perfectly clearing the toilet bowl and out onto her pants (and the floor). Since she was actually wearing a dress I simply took off her pants and figured she'd be fine because her dress was long enough. That was true until she started climbing rocks and trees and jumping off. Brad and I spent half the time laughing and the other half rushing over to cover her up.

Playing with cousins and ducks at the farmers market

Brad went on an awesome and grueling hike with his nephew Jarom, brother Dustin, nephew Porter and dad.

They all came back, scarfed down dinner and died on the couches. For the next week Brad and his dad could barely climb the stairs. When they had to, they looked and sounded like 95 year old geezers.

Gotta love those beets

Cousin "Blonde Emma's" 6th birthday!

This is how they walked back from the playground

She dreams of the day she can have her own cell phone. 

I really did love her falling asleep on me because it doesn't happen very often. When I finally needed to escape, she luckily didn't wake up. Until Daddy came in all loud and crazy because he didn't know she was

there.

Waiting for Daddy and Mommy to ride down a giant slide

Whenever I take the girls to the splash pad and it's just them, they take forever to go in and get wet, if at all. If they do finally decide to get wet they run back to me immediately after and say, "I'm cold! I want my towel!" and we end up going home; after getting wet one single time. I get so frustrated. I have to take some deep breaths and figure out how to respond; to keep my cool instead of yelling, "You changed into your swimsuits, I drove you all the way here and now you don't want to play?!?!" But if they're with cousins or friends, Kallie and Jayda will follow the lead of someone else and have a blast.

One night we went to dinner with Brad's cousin and his family. They planned to hit up the splash park afterward so their daughter was already wearing her swim suit under her clothes. They invited us to join them and we did, even though we didn't have our suits. Kallie and Jayda had a blast getting soaked in their clothes.

Let's zoom in on Jayda:

This is a video of what Taylor has to deal with.

She says she's too big to nap anymore...

Jayda with her neighborhood boy posse. One day these boys were playing football in the backyard. After watching them through the window for a few minutes Kallie and Jayda went outside and started chatting with them like they were all a bunch of college students. Then they all went over and played on the swing set. I could hear them giggling, even the boys. The girls ran home to get popsicles for everyone. Eventually Kallie came home but Jayda stayed out with the boys until I had to go over and drag her home for dinner. It was the cutest thing ever.

Taylor and her cousin Sawyer

We went to Boise at the end of the month for our nephew Porter's mission farewell. I completely forgot to take a good picture of him with our family before we (and he) left. But we did get a good one of everyone.