Camping 2014-Part II

 Like so many things about this camping trip, our hike was good for the soul.  This is the view from the start of our hike.  It was interesting because we hiked down into the canyon to see the falls.  This is the view of the back side of Mount Timp.  It was absolutely breathtaking and has inspired us to make sure we hike to the cave before summer is out.

 The hike was at cascade falls.  The boardwalk crossed in front of lots of levels that looked just like this.

 We saw a deer dead center in the river as we were crossing the bridge.  By the time I pulled out the camera, it had turned to walk off, but I caught it's backside:)

 I realize that the shadow is right on her face, but she wanted to get down, so I only had one shot.  This tree was hollow and amazing!  I tried to get her to go inside the tree, but she was totally freaked out by that idea, so this is as good as we got.

Eden LOVES fairy tales/nursery rhymes right now.  I tell all of the stories at least 10 times a day, so when we got to a bridge, we had to act out 3 Billy Goats Gruff as per Eden's insistence.  She loves to be the troll.  This is her "coming up to eat you!" to the "Biggest Billy Goat Gruff".  I love this girl.  I love the pretending stage that she is in, and I love that Brigham loves to play along with her.  Life with two kids is so blissful right now.  Most of the time.  

Camping 2014-Part I

I had to document our first annual camping trip.  We never made it happen when we were managing.  Our vacation days were very coveted so we could never justify taking days to do that.  Last summer, I had a 2 month old and a 19 month old...I just couldn't make that happen.  So, we finally got to it.  I LOVE camping and I have been craving the energy it gives my soul.  Thankfully, Nate is willing to put in the work to make it happen for me.

The kids were much better than I expected and it all went quite smoothly.  They loved rolling in the mud and catching the chipmunks and groundhog type things that ran around our campground.  Eden did her first hike and loved it...mostly.  I may or may not have carried her up every hill:)

I have a lot of pictures that I want to remember so I'm going to have to break up the trip into a few posts, but here are the first few photos.

Have I mentioned that Nate and Brigham are best friends.  Seriously.  They were not posing for these pictures.  I simply pulled out the camera when they were being their hilarious selves.  This was on our hike-beautiful by the way.  It was Cascade Springs up Little Deer Creek Canyon in Midway.   Please note that all of the pictures are completely out of order.  I just had to get something up or I will never get to this.

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 We also drove down into cilivilization one day to get a milk shake and go swimming.   The kids LOVE to swim and we hadn't gone yet this week, so it was a must!  This is Little Deer Creek Resevoir.  It was beautiful.  We ate our dinner there and after we swam we made sand castles.

Brigham thought it was the neatest thing in the world that he had a little chair just his size.  Don't mind that he dove out of that thing a couple of time.  Things like that do not deter this kid.  Persistence is his middle name!

 My brother, Blake, is on a mission.  He loves anything flannel, so I had to snap this shot to send to our "Bubba".

Each night after the kids were asleep in the tent, Nate and I would sit around the campfire playing games or reading or talking and I just kept saying over and over again..."this is so good for my soul".  I just needed to be away from everything for a time.  We've had the blessing of going on lots of family trips, but we're always trying to cram naps to fit around everyone else's time frame, or the kids are super ornery because we're rushing them from thing to thing because it's what the group wants.  Don't get me wrong, those are so fun.  But this felt like a vacation to me.  We hiked as far as Eden was happy and then we left.  Because we could.  Because we didn't have to push her to do more because everyone else was.  We drove around the city for an hour so the kids could nap in the car because we didn't have to be anywhere.  And at night, I didn't have to think about all the things I SHOULD be doing.  I could just be still.  I could just enjoy this beautiful world and being with the love of my life.  It truly was so needed. 

Williams Family Vacation

My aunts all call it a reunion, but let's be honest.  When we get together once a week, it's not REALLY a reunion when we go to a cabin and play more.  It's a vacation.   I've mentioned on this blog how important family is to my grandparents, so we've all stayed pretty close over the years.  Here are a few pictures to document Hidden Springs Ranch.


We gave my mom a ride up there because my dad wasn't coming until the next day, so we put both the kids in the back so my mom could be up by us and talk.   However, about 15 minutes before we got there, Eden started whining (very unusual) I kept asking her what was wrong and she wouldn't tell me.  Suddenly, there were throw up noises coming from the back.  Bless her heart!  She had no idea what was happening and it totally freaked her out.  Good thing my mom was there because she jumped in the back and used Nate's frisbee to catch the rest of it.  You can tell the woman has had 8 children; you've never seen such lightning reflexes in the face of throw-up!

We pulled over, got Eden out of her clothes and kept her naked just in case it happened again before we got there, threw away the books and coloring books that she hit with the lovelies, wiped down her seat as best we could and then moved her seat to the middle.  I had the thought to pull out the camera before getting back in the car.  But it felt so wrong to stop comforting my 2 year old to take a picture while she was sobbing her little eyes out.  Never fear though, as soon as we put her boots back on her, she was golden.

I will regret it if I don't document that my mother and I both took the opportunity while stopped to squat amidst the sage brush and take care of our own business.  I may or may not have somehow gotten a pokey in my bum that I had to fish out before I could sit again.  Classic.

As my mom says, "if things go perfectly, you don't remember them."  She just loves a good adventure where nothing turns out the way you planned.  I love that from my mom.  I need to try to remember that in my day-to-day life.

So, after our adventure, we arrived at the Cabin and jumped right into a game of soccer.  This family doesn't get together without some serious sports, water, and healthy competition.  There are a PLETHORA of teenage/young adult boys in this family.  Along with 5 young brother-in-laws they turn everything into a competition.  They spent every night on the ranch playing volleyball and basketball until 1-2am.

 
The next day, we found a lizard and while Katie's boys (Kyson and James) wanted to catch it and touch it, Eden watched from afar and was interested but nervous and Brigham was totally oblivious! I apologize in advance for the crazy bright pictures.  The sun was SO direct up there and it was midday.  Don't feel bad if you need to grab your sunglasses for a glance:)

The next evening, we had a Minute-To-Win-It competition.  We were split into age groups and each age group had  2 games to play.  Don't worry that Nate and I were in the 23-40 year old category... we dominated.

Aubrey took the first round for the young teens by keeping her two balloons in the air longest. #sheplaysvolleyball

I believe she also tied at stacking the most dice on her Popsicle stick.

Deep conversations occured while the other age groups competed.

The 16-22yr old group was a hoot!  Have I mentioned they are competitive?  They had to pick paper bags up with their teeth without kneeling on the ground and then run them across the room.  This is Ty and Levi representing.  Ty's long legs were a serious downfall in this game.

They both excelled at the tennis ball in the Nylon game.  They had to knock over water bottles with it on their head faster than the other players.

I took the Penne on a Spaghetti noddle challenge.  Although if you talk to Nate, he's sure that he is, in fact, better at this; his simply fell off before the time was up.  What he won't tell you, is that he cheated and placed the noodles all facing the right way before we began.  Karma came back to get him.

Nate totally conquered at candy cane golf.

 It's never a real Williams Vacation without a little dance party.  James took this very seriously and I don't think Eden ever let go of those balloons.

Kyson had his own dance style all together.  Like Eden, the 2 balloons were a must but he simply side steps around the whole cabin for the duration of the dancing.

There was also a rock wall that occupied most of our time.  It was quite challenging.  I didn't take my camera each time, so I only got a few people climbing, but here they are.

My mom and Brigham watching.  P.S.  It was HOT there.  We were in the shade but Briggs was still dying.

This is Eden trying to act sad so that I would take her back to the Cabin to go swimming.

Everyone waiting their turn and cheering on the others.

Kyson loved the rock wall and would climb about this high before letting go to repel down.  He loved that thing.

Eden wanted to climb but was scared of the belt, what a conundrum!  So this is what she looked like the whole time.

My dad was a total champ and I believe he made it the farthest out of everyone over 30.  He was high enough to ring the bell, but his arms were crossed and he slipped when he reached for it.

Katie will want me to mention that she also reached the bell like a boss.  I had a wonderful dismount technique called leaning back a tiny too much and my feet would somehow fly out in front of me and I'd somehow be on my back.  This was seriously the funniest thing in the world.  I could not gain my composer after that happened again and again.  Kyson even thought that's how you were supposed to do it.  His technique was flawless.  I will mention however, that after laughing at me like crazy, both my mom and Katie did the same thing. 

It was an awesome "reunion" and we were so blessed to have my grandpa with us.  We got a picture taken of all of us, so I'll have to get a copy of that to put up here.  He is still pretty weak, but we somehow talked his insurance people to let him come up.  He is still on a feeding tube, but he is able to get up by himself now and walk with his walker.  I'm so lucky to have that man in my life.  What a soft spoken, spiritual giant he is.  We love him and are so happy to have created more memories with him on this trip.

brigs gets a hair cut

My first time cutting hair with scissors folks.  (I always cut Nate's hair, but only with clippers.) What do you think?  I'm pretty sure I looked legit.  I figured the perfect opportunity to do your first cut is on a 1 year old; that way you can blame any problem areas on them moving around suddenly.  

Ah yes.  Look at those bangs.

I'm laughing so hard right now because it looks like I totally missed the hair in this picture, but it's the only one Nate got of my sweet skills in action, so I am un-ashamingly (another Becca-made-up-word) posting for the world to see.

Once again, little camera fail on my part as I didn't take any after pictures.  It really doesn't look that different, I kept it the same style, just much shorter; the poor boy was sporting a mullet and bangs in his eyes.  In a few months I'll give him a little boy hair-cut, but I just couldn't loose my baby yet. 

It is so crazy for me to think that when Eden was his age I was already 5 months pregnant with him!  It gets me every day. 

In other short news, he is taking steps!  Only a few at a time; unless he thinks you're holding onto him, in which case he'll take off across the room at lightning speed until he realizes you tricked him. Then he'll pull a very dramatic World-Cup-worthy flop to demonstrate to us that he definitely CANNOT walk on his own and that we should never let go of him again. 

We love our little Buddy!  (Please note that Eden calls him Buuuud-sounds just like Rudy on the Cosby show and the way she called her friend Buud.  She also calls him "son" which is totally hilarious.  Mostly that's when he's crying for no good reason; she says, "son, son, you're just fine" in the EXACT tone that I do.)

Doutre Family Reunion

We got back from an awesome reunion with Nathan's parents, siblings and their spouses/kids a few weeks ago, but with running to more fun filled reunions, I didn't have a chance to document until now.  Can you believe that we were together 3 days and the only pictures I have to show for it are 3 adorable kids in a tub?!

We spent our days going to 7 peaks, playing games, setting up and playing both a soccer game and an Ultimate Frisbee game, had some amazing discussions, topped it off by having our annual DouTube competition (trophy included), and added a new favorite...the lip sync battle;  Jimmy Fallon style. 

All classic I tell you.  You should have seen the performance that Austin and Julia put on.  Epic.  Epic.  I do have video footage, but I think they may disown me for releasing that to the public.  Just know that I believe it will be a repeat.  Nate and I were definitely the worst-you'd think crazies like us would've done something totally out there, but alas, we were surprisingly conservative.  I'm pretty sure we were just lolling the fam into a false sense of security so that we can blind side them next year with our bodacity.

We loved being together and feel so blessed to have such amazing family.