For Labor Day weekend we went camping. Jared's aunt and uncle have some property in Beaver that they share with his uncle's siblings and mom. They have been improving it the last 3 summers and it's a really fun place. They have grass that the kids played on and that we put our tent on. There were four wheelers and a motorcycle. The creek runs through the property. And on Saturday Jared's grandma took everyone to Maria's for an early dinner. It was really good food and the pineapple and lemonade drinks are the best! Here are a few pictures from the weekend.
They like to "race" rubber ducks down the creek. Jared and Crue are watching to see if Crue's duck wins.
The ducks floating down the creek.
Kendra and Crue cooling off in the creek.
I tried to give the boys a nap but the tent was so dang hot, it wasn't happening. I had tried putting them down in just their diapers so when I gave up on the nap idea I just left them in just a diaper.
Nothing better than sleeping on grandma's lap when you're camping. This was Cooper's first camping trip.
Watching and cheering during the corn bag throw with Great Grandma Spendlove.
Having fun on Dylan's truck. Dylan also had his
Tonka dump truck and we had brought Crue's dump truck and
tractor. Good thing because all the kids loved them!
Jared took his cousin's Yamaha 450 out for a ride. It's similar to the Kawasaki he worked on for trade work. The 450's have good power and after riding a couple of them he's starting to be more confidant on dirt bikes. We may end up getting one in the future. :)
After Jared's grandma took us to dinner on Saturday we went to try and feed some deer. Crue fell asleep on the way. This picture makes me laugh because he loves to wear his sunglasses. They are now in the car with our sunglasses and I give them to him every time we go somewhere. He'll push them up on his head like we do sometimes too (which is how they were until he fell asleep and then they fell down his face a little). It's hilarious. Thank you Loni for the glasses!
If you had seen what happened in this picture you would die laughing every time you saw it (I sure do!). Crue has been scared of animals lately. He's ok around my parent's dog (it's not a big dog) but other dogs and animals scare him. We had gone into town to get a new glass for our lantern after dinner so we just went straight to where we'd see deer. Everyone else went back to go from lots of vehicles to only a few. While we were waiting for them we saw some deer. Jared took Crue to see them and he started
freaking out. He tried climbing, yes climbing, up Jared so he'd hold him because Jared wasn't picking him up. Jared had to literally pry Crue off of him as they were walking back to the truck. When I took this picture Jared had thrown his head back because he was laughing so hard and Crue is screaming and crying.
Jared's Grandma Spendlove feeding the deer. We had gone too early so most of the deer didn't come to eat. A few of the kids and grandma got to feed the deer. Some of us went again later when it was their usual eating time.
This time the deer were wanting to eat. Crue actually let me get close to the deer while I was holding him. He did really good. You have to be quiet and you have to approach them from the front so they don't think they're getting attacked. And you can't touch their antlers or any other part of them or you might get attacked.
Jared took a few pictures of me and Crue and then he fed the deer too. These are wild deer - not on a deer farm or anything like I used to go to in Arizona.
The one above and below are of Crue feeding the deer. I put his hand on top of mine and used my thumb to hold his fingers out so he wouldn't pull away and scare the deer. He actually fed a couple of deer and loved it. If you ask him about feeding the deer now he'll hold his hand out and show you. It's pretty cute.
It was a really fun weekend. It sounds like they're going to do it again next year. I'm excited. It was really fun hanging out with everyone and talking to Jared's relatives since they all live in St. George and we don't get to see them much.
This is my favorite one of the two boys.
This is my favorite family one - I just wish Crue was smiling!
What cute brothers!
I think this last one is probably our favorite. Mike did an awesome job. He got Crue to laugh and he got some great shots. Thanks Mike!!
Jared said Crue did really good.
Crue's ready to ride with his sunglasses and car.
This is probably the best picture I have of Jared going up or down anything big since I wasn't there to help take pictures.
This is everyone that came. They're stopped for lunch. You can see Jared's big white Blazer. There were only 4 vehicles that weren't Jeeps. I think two were Toyotas, one was an Explorer (which did terrible I'm told) and then Jared's Blazer.
Crue waiting for the doctor. 
Jared and Max had fun talking while they watched the kids on the toys.
Birthday Boy! Gotta love the belly and the twisted shorts. He sure is cute!
Grandma and Grandpa guarding the gifts.
Crue waiting to blow out his candles and eat his cake (it was a sad attempt at making him his own small cake by using two Bugs Bunny cake pans to make small cakes and accidentally making the frosting too thin).
Brian (Max & Jenny's) sure loved the cupcake!
Dylan (Jeremy & Molly's) enjoying his cupcake too.
My mom found a Black and Decker workbench at DI for $2 so we got him a set of tools to go with it.
Crue sure loves cars (and he got lots for his birthday!). James (Christian & Tamara's) helped Crue unwrap presents, along with all the other kids.
More cars.
Grandma and Grandpa Little gave him a four-wheeler (since his other one is pretty small - click here to see him try and ride it). His favorite part is the buttons.
Crue playing with his new wheelbarrow. Dylan is riding the four-wheeler and Bret playing with Crue. It was a fun time. Thank you to everyone that came.
Dad and Jared watching the balloons inflate. (Jared loves to have his picture taken.)
A bunch of balloons. There's two guys in the bottom right of the picture. It took both of them using everything they had it seemed, to hold the rope attached to the top of the balloon on the left. Probably to keep it from bumping the others too much.
Goodbye party. Crue still says bye-bye every time he sees pictures of hot air balloons.
There was a flying school that had a booth with this plane set up that the kids were allowed to climb in. We let Crue in long enough to get a picture and play with the controls for a minute because there was a bunch of other kids waiting.
Loni helped get Crue in and out of the plane while I got the pictures. I love Crue's expression in this one! I have no idea what he was doing or looking at.
There's an RC airplane club that flies their planes after the balloons take off. We watched it a little this year. It was pretty cool. The red and yellow plane in the picture above is huge - the wings are about 8 ft across!
More of the planes.
Jared and Crue watching them fly the planes.
Crue took Desiree's camera and was "taking pictures" of everyone. It was hilarious! His face in this picture is about what it looked like every time he took one (or thought he did).
I'm shocked too - Grandma holding Cooper. Okay, not really. I'm not always the best at taking pictures of Cooper (I was the same way with Crue when he was a baby) so I made sure I got one of him having fun too!
We had used the stroller the other day and it was just sitting on the floor by our kitchen, folded up. Crue likes to pull the tray down and sit on the stroller.
The other morning I poured the last of some cheap frosted mini wheats into a bowl and then had to go get Cooper. Cooper had slept all night (his first time!!) and leaked out of his diaper so I had to change his diaper and get him dressed. When I came back in the family room Crue was sitting on the floor with my bowl of cereal like it was no big deal, he was just eating some breakfast. All I could do was laugh. What a cute boy!
Cooper's shirt says Jr. Mechanic on it and says Broken Engine with an arrow pointing at the engine in the car. Then his shorts have some tools and it says My Tools with an arrow pointing to the tools. I took a picture of Crue and Jared when Crue fit in it to have a picture of my two mechanics, so I had to get one with Cooper and his daddy too!
They like to "race" rubber ducks down the creek. Jared and Crue are watching to see if Crue's duck wins.
The ducks floating down the creek.
Kendra and Crue cooling off in the creek.
I tried to give the boys a nap but the tent was so dang hot, it wasn't happening. I had tried putting them down in just their diapers so when I gave up on the nap idea I just left them in just a diaper.
Nothing better than sleeping on grandma's lap when you're camping. This was Cooper's first camping trip.
Watching and cheering during the corn bag throw with Great Grandma Spendlove.
Having fun on Dylan's truck. Dylan also had his Tonka dump truck and we had brought Crue's dump truck and tractor. Good thing because all the kids loved them!
Jared took his cousin's Yamaha 450 out for a ride. It's similar to the Kawasaki he worked on for trade work. The 450's have good power and after riding a couple of them he's starting to be more confidant on dirt bikes. We may end up getting one in the future. :)
After Jared's grandma took us to dinner on Saturday we went to try and feed some deer. Crue fell asleep on the way. This picture makes me laugh because he loves to wear his sunglasses. They are now in the car with our sunglasses and I give them to him every time we go somewhere. He'll push them up on his head like we do sometimes too (which is how they were until he fell asleep and then they fell down his face a little). It's hilarious. Thank you Loni for the glasses!
If you had seen what happened in this picture you would die laughing every time you saw it (I sure do!). Crue has been scared of animals lately. He's ok around my parent's dog (it's not a big dog) but other dogs and animals scare him. We had gone into town to get a new glass for our lantern after dinner so we just went straight to where we'd see deer. Everyone else went back to go from lots of vehicles to only a few. While we were waiting for them we saw some deer. Jared took Crue to see them and he started freaking out. He tried climbing, yes climbing, up Jared so he'd hold him because Jared wasn't picking him up. Jared had to literally pry Crue off of him as they were walking back to the truck. When I took this picture Jared had thrown his head back because he was laughing so hard and Crue is screaming and crying.
Jared's Grandma Spendlove feeding the deer. We had gone too early so most of the deer didn't come to eat. A few of the kids and grandma got to feed the deer. Some of us went again later when it was their usual eating time.
This time the deer were wanting to eat. Crue actually let me get close to the deer while I was holding him. He did really good. You have to be quiet and you have to approach them from the front so they don't think they're getting attacked. And you can't touch their antlers or any other part of them or you might get attacked.
Jared took a few pictures of me and Crue and then he fed the deer too. These are wild deer - not on a deer farm or anything like I used to go to in Arizona.
The one above and below are of Crue feeding the deer. I put his hand on top of mine and used my thumb to hold his fingers out so he wouldn't pull away and scare the deer. He actually fed a couple of deer and loved it. If you ask him about feeding the deer now he'll hold his hand out and show you. It's pretty cute.
It was a really fun weekend. It sounds like they're going to do it again next year. I'm excited. It was really fun hanging out with everyone and talking to Jared's relatives since they all live in St. George and we don't get to see them much.
