August

Cam as usual has had a great month- even though he's been working a lot at the pool lifeguarding and teaching, he still manages to have lots of fun with his friends.  Two of his friends, Chase and Tyson, received their mission calls this month- both to Argentina (but different missions) leaving the same day in December.  Cam decided he wanted to make his cool bedroom even cooler, so he talked us into letting him put some bolts in the wall to hang his hammock from, and string Christmas lights up around the room.  I have to admit, even I think it's an awesome room!  I hope his older siblings aren't too bummed that they weren't allowed to make such drastic changes to their bedrooms growing up...

I always like to include a couple pictures that Jake has sent me.  His new companion is Elder Boyd (pictured on top left) and his companion before that was Elder Beals (top right).  He liked both of them a lot. He's sure gotten lucky in the good companion department.

We tended Lydia one evening and then she spent the night.  She entertained herself very well- with me there to play with her.  We played magnet roll and memory, then she colored, hung out with Cam, ate dinner, and had her favorite graham crackers and milk for a treat before bed.  We loved having her spend time with us.

What post would be complete without some recent pictures of Evan?  Ky and Brody sent me this awesome pillowcase as a thank you for helping when Evan was born.  So now I get to sleep with this angel every night. I LOVE it.  Isn't he just the cutest thing ever?

Every year at this time, I always post a picture of the kids (or kid as the case has been the past 2 years) standing on the front porch on their first day of school. This year however, no one was there to pose for me....:( :( :(  It is so weird to be out of that stage of life.  Hopefully I'll get used to it one day.
 
 We had a lovely cookout in the canyon with Mom, Skeens, Bundys and Alsups.  I loved that Emma and Lydia brought their barbies, tents and sleeping bags and made them a real fire.  Haha.  That was great.

What's this?  More pictures of Evan?  Well, lucky you--- you get to look at his smiling, adorable face some more!

I had a busy two weeks helping people move.  I was very happy to help the Skeens move from
Paradise to Logan, but I was very sad to help my BFF of 15 years Janae move from Logan to Washington :( 

I don't have any pictures of Janae's move, but these are pics we took of their last weekend here.  We invited her and Ken and our friend Kathy and her daughter Arie over for dinner, then after dinner I hosted a going away party for friends in the stake for 2 1/2 hours.  They had a great turnout, and it was a nice way to send them off.

Over Labor Day weekend, we planned a fun get-away to Winter Park, Colorado.  On Friday morning, me, Jess and Cam left and drove 8 hours to get to the fun 3 bedroom condo we rented for 3 nights.  Kylee, Brody, Evan and Brad (who had left Texas 2 days earlier and had been hanging out w/ the Hatch's) joined us soon after.  It was wonderful to see everyone, especially Evan. He's changed a lot in the month since I've seen him and it was so great to hold and love on him.  We just hung out that evening enjoying our surroundings, eating, and playing cards. It was fun to see Cam in his new role of Uncle. 

The next morning the 3 boys went rock climbing, and we three girls and Evan went on a beautiful hike/walk.  Winter Park is gorgeous.  Evan slept the whole time in his sling.

The Bundy's and Mike arrived around 1:00.  It was so fun to see everyone seeing Evan for the first time.  I just loved it. 

Here's a picture of everyone holding the babe.

We ate lunch, took some pictures, then went to the ski resort literally across the street from our condo to walk around, play a little bean bag toss, and ride the alpine slide.  I chose to walk around with a sleeping Evan in the stroller while everyone else went, and I was happy with that.  They all said it was fun, but a bit overpriced at $15 per person. 

That night we went out to dinner at a delicious Mexican Restaurant and played games. 

On Sunday we hung out in the morning in the condo since it was raining, then after lunch we decided to take our chances on the weather and go for a hike/walk (the same one the girls and I did the day before).  It was great until it started hailing!  Luckily it only lasted for a couple of minutes. I don't think I've ever been caught outside before during a hailstorm.  It's painful!

We wandered around the area for a few hour checking out different things and having a great time.

On Monday I joined the 5 boys on a memorable 9-10 mile hike to James Peak.  I will never forget this hike because it was FREEZING for the 2nd half of the hike and none of us were dressed appropriately.  It was well below freezing with the wind chill, and you can see the way we were dressed below.  Bundy didn't even have a jacket!  And we all had shorts on.  It was rather miserable, but beautiful still.  Brody, being the endurance athlete that he's become, ran the whole way, came back and met up with us, went back to the top with us, ran back to the car, then ran back to us and walked back the rest of the way.  Whew!  What a guy. 

It was divine- divine I tell you- to come back to the condo and warm up and relax our muscles in the hot tub.  Then we had to hurry and eat lunch and pack up so we could get checked out by 2:00.  (Below are some more pictures of us skipping rocks in the pond on Sunday and of the adorable Evan)

It was such a fun three days and I'm so glad we could all be together.  In closing, enjoy another collage of the cutest baby on the planet!