B is 1!!

Can you believe it? Our little man is already a year old. He is such a little stinker... in a cute and adorable way. He is walking, not all the time but when he feels the need he goes. He says momma and dadda and has developed a high pitch scream. He does it when he's happy but it may be even louder than Abby's stinker scream. His cry even seems to be louder lately ans he is constantly chattering. He is even more shy and clingy than ever!!! Yay! He is turning into a Daddys boy though, he wants nothing to do with me if dad is around, unless its bed time. He is generally a happy guy. He loves to be outside and around his sisters. Our favorite feature is his very contagious smile. He knows the camera and is pretty willing to cheese it up for that. We are so grateful to have him as part of our family! It has been a great year. Happy Birthday Ben Boy!

A week away

We have been gone for a little over a week on a little family vacation. It was great. We left last Saturday the 14th and drove to a little place named Anaconda, MT. It is about a 1/2 hour west of Butte. It took a few rest stops and a couple hours longer than planned to get there, but over all the kids handled the long drive well. We spent 3 days there, hiking, seeing some waterfalls, we visited a ghost town, we slid down their 40 tall slide- so fun!! We went to a few parks and just relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. We then started for Idaho. On our way we stopped at fairmont hotsprings and swam the day away. They had several pools hot and cooler -93degrees and a huge slide the Cassie & Jessie loved (mom & dad didn't mind it either:). Abby over came her water fear she seemed to develope over the winter. There was a part that was chest deep on her. She put her arms out straight and hopped in the pool. It was so cute, her hopping with this huge smile. Fr the rest of the vacation she wanted to go swimming, and she did, no matter what the temperature of water. Yeah Abby!! Anyway, we drove to Idaho and stayed in Idaho falls. Our room happened to have a view of the temple. Abby was super excited about that and she wanted to go there. We went to Bear World and played there a few hours and just relaxed on Tuesday.
Wednesday we drove to our campground. We had so much fun camping, none of us wanted to leave. The kids swam in the river and hotspring pool, we fished, played, ate and ate and even got to see a little brown bear. We went with Rich & Krista and some of Riches family. They are great people and the kids have a few new friends. We are glad we went and hope to do it again next year!!

Bittersweet

There is one thing that I think is the cutest about B. That is his scooting. Just to watch him get across the floor scootching on his little bum with the aid of leg and hand is absolutely adorable. it is also hilarious how fast he can move. But all good things must come to an end. He has started to crawl. He is really cute crawling, don't get me wrong, but the scooting was Ben's trade mark, his signature move and it will be missed. He is about half and half in his style of transportation, so we still get to enjoy the scooting a little, as well as enjoying the new chapter of crawling...

We will give a quick update... We went to the ocean last week which was a nice get away. It was a little cold for swimming, but we were able to play on the beach, collect sand dollars and shells, chase seagulls and just in general have fun.
We had a blast with our cousins, Lexi, Brandon and Calli while they were up, Abby is asking all the time, can we go see Brandon?
Jessie is attending a kindergarten boot camp designed to give them a little headstart to the big day. This way she is a little used to going to school, she may make a friend or two and she won't be so worried about what to do at school.She seems to be enjoying it. Cassie however is lost at home w/o her partner in crime. Abby is loving the time with Cassie and mom, well she wasn't quite ready for school to start.
We will try to get some video of Ben to share and post some pictures soon. Hope all is well with everyone and you are having a great summer!