Fishing with the Boys

Each morning when I get up, I find the boys have gone downstairs to play with Grandma Devereaux. It is nice because they are WAY more quiet when they are playing with her than they are when they play together normally!

This was the morning of the fishing trip. The boys and Grandma played with blocks while they waited to go. For a while I was afraid they wouldn't get to go because we woke up to rain. But it started to clear out as the day went on.

I made Joe take the camera, since we were not going fishing with them. Instead Grandma Devereaux and I went and did some GIRL shopping with Amelia. We bought some really cute upholstery fabric for the bench in Amelia's room and fabric for curtains in the boys' room. I am going to have my sister Shannon make the curtains, since that is basically what she does for a business and I don't especially have time (or the desire) to make them myself.

The boys had a great time fishing, even though they did not catch anything. Here are the great pictures Joe took of their adventure.

Aren't the boys just cute holding their fishing poles? I love it!

I also love this picture Joe took of the pond. It is not too far from our house.

Later in the afternoon the boys played with Lincoln logs. Grandpa Sabey brought them some more logs to go with their set. He is staying with family, so he came to visit that afternoon. Check out the very tall tower that Jacob made!

The boys have been really creative playing with their cars and Lincoln logs. They have really been enjoying spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Devereaux.

Visitors from Arizona

Monday evening Grandma and Grandpa Devereaux and Grandpa Sabey arrived at our house. The boys were SO excited for them to come and visit! I was a little surprised when they beat Joe to our house. He was later getting home than usual. When I found out why I was ecstatic! Joe got a rather large raise when they renewed his contract at UVU. His boss recognizes how much he does for them, how hard working he is and how much they need to keep him around. I am SO glad that all his efforts and problem solving have finally been rewarded! Wahoo!

The next day we mostly spent the day shopping. First Grandma Devereaux and I planned menus and took the kids grocery shopping. Then we all took a trip to Costco. Later in the day Daddy and Grandpa went to Home Depot to get stuff for their projects. Phew! What a day!

On Wednesday we got to spend some time playing and having fun. Grandpa and Daddy were going to take the boys fishing on Thursday morning, so Grandpa got out the fishing gear and practiced with Jacob.

Here is Jacob "fishing for Grandpa". It was raining off and on, so that is why Jacob is wearing a rain jacket. It stopped before long, so he took it off and got down to business.

Jacob had a great time "catching" Grandpa, and was very excited to go fishing the next day.

Ephraim on the other hand was all worn out from our day of shopping (and getting up too early) as well as playing around with Grandma and going to storytime at the library. Here is how I found him during nap time.

I thought it was so funny the way he was all sprawled out!

We had a fun day hanging out with Grandma Devereaux. The boys love playing with her, and I think Amelia enjoyed getting acquainted with her as well.

Amelia Jane and Jane

Photo Shoot of Kids

Since we had just taken our family photos in Bryce, I decided that I really needed to take pictures of the kids as well. That way after all our family came for Amelia's baby blessing, I could give everyone new pictures!

So Saturday evening I took the kids out for a little photo session. I actually got some pretty nice photos of the boys. I was not quite as successful at getting a picture of the three kids together because Amelia was not feeling particularly cooperative. Here are my favorite pictures:

I like these photos with the red bricks because it reminds me a little bit of the family pictures with the red rocks behind us.

Here is the best picture I got of my three kids. Amelia was actually cooperative at this point, but Ephraim gave up shortly after this. When I got Ephraim back to being cooperative, then Amelia was done. Oh well!

We found a train car and I set the boys up on it. I often find when they are stuck somewhere that I can get pretty good smiles from them because they can't get down until I am done!

After taking photos of the kids on Saturday, I took some more photos of Amelia in her dress on Sunday. Here are the ones I liked best. Look how much this girl is growing!

Last Day in Bryce

Friday was our last day in Bryce. Joe was going to be at the conference until about noon. So the boys and I decided to go on a scenic drive in the morning. We went out to the furthest parts of Bryce and planned to have a picnic at Rainbow Point.

On our way there we saw a pronghorn, but this one actually had horns!

At Rainbow Point we stopped and had a little early picnic lunch (peanut butter sandwiches, again!). Then I packed Amelia on me and we went to see the view. Little did I know, there was not very much walking to be done so I didn't really need to put Amelia in the moby wrap. But the view was lovely.

We had just headed back towards Bryce City when Joe texted me to say that he was done. So we hurried on our way. We did stop at a few places on the way back, but only long enough for Mommy to hop out and snap a few pictures. Here are some of my favorites:

Agua Canyon

Natural Bridge

We caught up with Joe and then headed to the Bryce Canyon sign to take one last picture. We actually ended up here twice because the first time the lady taking our picture didn't actually push the button hard enough! Luckily I noticed before we drove too far. Here we all are:

We had a great family vacation at Bryce Canyon! We were sad to go home. Ephraim kept asking when we would be getting back to the hotel! He didn't seem to believe us when we said we were going home. I guess he wanted to live at the hotel!

Bryce Family Photos

If you have kids, then you know that there is a special kind of torture involved in taking family photos. However I am a bit obsessive about pictures, so when we added little Amelia to our family one of the first things I wanted was a new family picture.

So after scoping out photo locations, I had found the perfect spot. After dinner on Thursday we got the boys and Amelia dressed and headed to Bryce Point. The sun was just setting as we got there, so we had to wait a few minutes for the light to be optimal.

Joe set up the tripod and I figured out where I wanted everyone to be. It was funny because all the other tourists walking by commented on how cute we looked and what a great idea it was. As soon as the light was right, we started shooting. I had been telling the boys all day that when we took the pictures all they had to do was look at the camera and smile. I was hoping for one decent picture, but I actually got my favorite family photo of all time!

The boys did so great! They looked at the camera and said, "cheese-cheese-cheese-cheese-cheese!" while Joe clicked away with the remote. People walking by couldn't help but smile at us. We probably took over 100 pictures, but in the end I didn't even have to switch anyone's head with one from another photo. All I did was some color editing, etc. Aren't these photos beautiful? Here are my second and third favorites:

It was actually quite windy that evening. Now that I think about it, we had wind for most of our trip, but it was blowing right up behind us as we tried to take our pictures. The funny thing is that the only way you could tell how windy it was is by looking at my hair. Here are two of the funnier outtakes:

Amelia had hair problems of her own. Part way through our first set she got her hairband completely off her head!

But the rest of us look good, right? Girl and their hair troubles... sheesh! :o)

I was SO happy that I did not have to do extensive editing on our family photos. The top three photos only have minor adjustments done to them!!  I was so happy with them that I printed out a 16x20 for the living room, and I smile every time I look at that gorgeous photo.

I have also printed MANY copies, so if you want one of the first two photos, let me know!

Bryce Canyon, Day 2

The next morning Ephraim woke up too early again, but I managed to get him to go back to sleep. So Jacob got out of bed before Ephraim and got to go to breakfast alone with Daddy.

Joe had to go to his conference a little earlier, so I ended up taking all the kids with me to breakfast. It went pretty well. I was having a pretty good day... but how could you have a bad day when you wake up to this:

Isn't Amelia a cutie pie?

When I got everyone ready to go I realized that Joe had ended up with my keys to the van. I texted him and he told me that he did have the van keys. So the boys and I got to walk over to the conference center where Joe was. It was windy, so I ended up carrying Amelia in her carseat the entire way.

So I didn't really mind when on the way we stopped for a minute to check out the old cars and trucks that were sitting off the side of the road. The boys thought they were pretty cool.

They each had to take a turn "driving" the old truck. If you can't tell, we had to walk the equivalent of a couple of blocks to get to where Joe was.

We met up with Joe at the conference center and got the van keys. Then we got to walk all the way back to the hotel. To make it more fun, we went to the gift shop at Ruby's Inn and visited Old Bryce Town. There I finally found a place to keep the boys.

I sent the picture to Joe and he said that was great because now he and I could go hiking by ourselves. Hooray!

Unfortunately the boys got loose and tried to make a getaway. Luckily for me, they were getting nowhere fast... there must have been something wrong with their pony.

Amelia was being pretty good the entire time. Especially as she was stuck in her car seat. Here is a picture of all three of the kids at Old Bryce town.

By the time we got back to the hotel, I was the one who needed a rest! Phew! Instead we had lunch. Then we went to look at a train that was not far from the hotel. It was what I originally told the boys we would do that morning.

Looking at the train didn't take too long. Then we did something else I promised the boys we would do... we went swimming in the hotel pool.

Our room looked out onto the swimming pool, and the boys had been gazing at it  longingly ever since we arrived. It was about time for Amelia to take a nap, so I put her in her carseat and went to the pool with the boys. They were lucky because she behaved while we played in the pool for over an hour. The boys both had a great time. Jacob was swimming underwater again in no time and Ephraim kept me pretty busy in the pool.

By the time we finished it was after 3:00 pm. So we went back to our room and I made both the boys lay down. We were going to do family pictures later in the evening, so I wanted them to be rested and well-behaved.

Swimming did the trick because even Jacob fell asleep!

We met up with Daddy for dinner and ended up going to Subway because the hotel restaurant was too busy. Then we headed out to take family pictures... but that is a post in and of itself!

First Day in Bryce Canyon

Tuesday morning we got up and packed our bags. Joe had a conference to attend that just happened to be at Bryce Canyon. Since UVU was paying for the travel and the hotel as well as Joe's meals, we decided it would be a perfect (and inexpensive) family vacation! So the kids and I got to go too!

It took us about four hours to get to our hotel, where we were all ready to kick back and relax. It was a really nice hotel, as you can see from the picture below.

In case you can't tell, that is Teddy on the near bed and Amelia on the far bed.

The boys were excited to get to stay at the motel. Tuesday morning Ephraim woke up early (as usual), so he went down to breakfast with Daddy while the rest of us slept. Then we all went down together and the rest of us had breakfast too.

One thing the boys were excited about was getting to watch TV at the hotel because they have the Disney Channel and Nick Jr. Since we don't have cable they were glued to the TV at the hotel.

But of course I didn't want to spent the whole day at the hotel! There was so much to see. So in the morning the kids and I went out exploring. I don't think they were quite as excited about it as I was (check out Ephraim's pouting face).

Since I had both the boys with me and I was packing Amelia, we didn't go very far that morning.  But we did see some lovely red rocks. Here is the view somewhere between sunrise and sunset points.

To be honest, I was not just looking at the beautiful rocks. I was scoping out the scenery for our family pictures. I had been planning on doing new photos since adding Amelia to the family and had even found coordinating clothes. I figured going to Bryce was perfect because what better background could we have?

Here is the view looking the other way.

They have some really cool hikes that take you all over in the canyon. Joe and I decided that it would be fun to come back sometime (sans kiddos) and do some hiking.

Here is one of my favorite views from Bryce Point. Isn't it gorgeous?

And here are the pretty rocks at Paria View. I had to dash out of the van to take these pictures because the boys were done with walking (i.e. they were getting whiny).

I have so many scenery pictures and I thought it was so beautiful that it was hard for me to choose which pictures to share. So if you are ever bored, come over and I will show you all my beautiful photos.

Besides scenery, on our way back to the hotel we saw some interesting animals. They actually had a prairie dog crossing sign, and we saw quite a few of the little critters. I got some really nice pictures with my zoom lens. I didn't even get out of the van!

Oh! Aren't they cute? The boys had fun watching them too.

We also saw some pronghorns on our way back. We thought it was an antelope, but one of the guide books assured us that it was a pronghorn.

We made our peanut butter sandwiches at the hotel, and then it was naptime. Amelia and Ephraim both took a nap, and I almost got Jacob to take one too. While the kids napped, I worked online.

Before long it was dinnertime. We met up with Daddy and had dinner. Then we went out again so Daddy could see some of the pretty rocks. This time I was smart enough to bring the boys hats, and have them wear their walking shoes rather than their sandals.

Joe took a nice picture of me with all the kids.

Then a passerby was kind enough to take a picture of us all together.

Jacob does not look particularly happy in this picture because he was freaking out about all the bugs that were flying around. He has recently developed an aversion to insects that is starting to drive Joe and me a little bit crazy.

Next we went to Inspiration Point. It is quite an uphill hike from the parking lot to the viewpoint, so I dashed up there by myself while Joe stayed in the van with the kids. The view was amazing!

This spot was absolutely gorgeous! The lighting as the sun set was wonderful.

The lighting was perfect this time of day for our family pictures. Unfortunately there was nowhere nearby that we could sit for pictures. So we headed to Bryce point again, where I had found the perfect spot for family pictures. Once again Daddy stayed in the car with the kids. Ephraim came with me and ended up posing for me while I planned out the location. So here is a sneak peek of where we took our family pictures.

Here is the view at Bryce point at sunset looking just to the left of the above photo. Isn't it beautiful?

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at Fairyland Point. It was a viewpoint that I missed earlier. It was really pretty. We tried to get the boys to pose for pictures, but they were both tired and cranky by this point. This next picture just cracks me up.

We got some stunning photos as the sun was setting. There was a really cool trail that headed along the ridge, and Joe walked down it a ways and took these great pictures.

I wish I could have gone too, but the kids weren't up for it. Plus Amelia had a stinky diaper just then!

It was absolutely beautiful. I think I am in love with Bryce Canyon. I would love to go there again sometime.

When we got back to the hotel we were all pretty tired. The kids went to sleep before too long. I thought they were all so cute I snapped some pics.

Ephraim is sleeping on top of his Bear-Bear, and Jacob is sleeping on top of his Teddy. Silly boys!

Amelia didn't seem to mind sleeping in the pack-n-play at all. Look at her cute little hand poking out by her face.

So that was the end of our first day on our first ever family vacation. As we discussed it, Joe and I realized that we have never gone anywhere alone as a family. I couldn't believe it, but Joe was right... we usually visit family in Arizona or Wyoming. Guess we will have to go on more outings as a family too!