Darrington Camp out / Peter's 1!

Last Thursday we packed up and drove down to Pocatello to see my parents and sister for dinner, and spend the night at Nicole and Jordan's. We got to hang out for a bit, and my parents treated us to dinner. Kendal is still scared of Chester (Nicole and Jordan's dog) but she was willing to touch him and be outside with him towards the end of our visit.
Friday was Peter's birthday! We headed to soda springs after lunch and set up camp. Family rolled in throughout the rest of the afternoon and by dinner we had the whole Darrington clan together. I love the fact that the grandchildren are all so close in age. (8 kids age 3 and under : ) It makes things so fun, and entertaining at times. We had tacos for dinner and banana cupcakes with glow sticks / balloons on them for dessert. Pete enjoyed and ate every last crumb of his cupcake. We then opened presents and spent some family time around the fire.

Saturday we ate breakfast, played around a bit, and went for a walk. We then ventured to Lava to go swimming. There was a new kiddie area (not yet complete) that the we spent most of our time in. Once used to the water all of the kids enjoyed themselves. There were little fountains at one side of the kiddie pool that all of the kids had fun with. Aside from the price we paid to swim it was a great time. We ate a picnic lunch and headed back to our campsite in Soda. The kids played some more, the adults played horseshoes / games, and we all took rides on Grandpa Webb's gator. We had delicious dutch oven food for dinner and spent some more quality time with the family.

On Sunday we took our time packing up in the morning while the kids played some more. The kids got super dirty, ate lots of treats, and probably found every stick possible over the weekend; but that is what made camping so fun : ). It was wonderful to spend time together. We were all sad to leave each other, but grateful to head home to our own beds and comforts of home.

- I will post more pictures of everyone on facebook : D

Peter at age One:
- Has two bottom teeth, and his two top are making there way out (this kid is not a great teether)
- He is walking, not 100% of the time, but he's making more and more progress everyday
- This past weekend he's learned to stand on his own
- As always he is still a great eater, but he's starting to favor some foods over others
- He loves to babble, blow raspberries, smack his lips, and make funny noises
- He likes stacking cup toys and likes to investigate toys and other objects
- When his teeth aren't bothering him he's a decent sleeper
- Peter is generally an easy child. Unless he's super hungry or tired he's easy going.
- He likes to explore and is finding more things to get into and take apart daily.
- He is a climber. We've had to keep our eye on him because he will climb boxes and books to get higher.

Over the next five weeks we have to find a new place to live, have two weeks of family vacation (Raft River, then Logan), then move!

Good bye baby boy

Before

After!

Peter turns one in a couple of days, and he is long past due for a hair cut. (I've been procrastinating, I just couldn't do it.) I love Peter's hair; it's long, fluffy, and soft. I cut Casey's hair regularly so I figured I could read a couple tutorials about cutting little boys hair and I'd do OK cutting Peter's hair. I was very anxious to cut his hair. I've never done a scissor hair cut, and I am just so sad for Peter to loose his sweet baby locks. So with some major trepidation I began his hair cut. I ended up using a razor on the sides and scissors on the top. Apart from the ear area I like how it turned out.

Kendal also got a summer trim

At one year Peter is currently 20 lbs and is  about 28 1/2 inches tall (I'll post exact numbers after his one yr. appt. next month). We'll be on vacation during Peter's birthday so I'll post next week. 

Happy Father's day!

My Father and Father-in-law are wonderful. I look up to them, and love them so much. I couldn't ask for a better father for my kids than Casey. Just watching him with our kids makes me love him more and more everyday. Happy Father's day to you amazing men, and my brother and brother's-in-law!!

Week in review

Last week Casey wanted to see how well Kendal would do sleeping in a tent in preparation for our camp out this month. They set up a tent and spent the night in our yard. Kendal loved helping Casey put up the tent, and we were hopeful that she would go to bed decently since she skipped her nap that day. It was still light out when Kendal and Casey went to bed, and Kendal was so excited about the tent that it took about an hour to get Kendal to go to sleep. At one point Casey came out of the tent and looked at me through the window with his hands in the air like "what do I do with her?" It was a long night for Casey. As much as we're anticipating the Darrington camp out and spending time with family; we're not anticipating two nights in a tent with Kendal and Pete.

Casey's had basketball practice this month. The boys have two tournaments and a basketball camp this month. Friday and Saturday Casey went with a chunk of the team down to Arco for a tournament.  The boys did well on Friday winning three out of five games. Unfortunately they fell short during the tournament games on Saturday and their day ended early.

We've figured for a while now that we were going to be in Challis for this next school year because jobs just weren't showing up. In the last couple of weeks a bunch of job opportunities came available, so Casey sent out some applications. He scheduled two interviews one for high school in Oakley Idaho, and one middle school in Kimberly Idaho for Monday. Casey's has two brother's living in the Twin Falls Area and his older brother Brett teaches at Kimberly high school. The kids and I ended up joining Casey for his trip. I wasn't looking forward to so much time in the car with the kids (7 + hours), but we couldn't resist seeing family. While Casey went to his interviews the Kids and I spent time with Vanessa, Sarah, and their kids. We played, ate lunch, and went to the lake. The kids had so much fun, and I got a glimpse of the fun we'd have living close to family. Peter did awesome at the lake. I wasn't sure if he'd like the sand or colder water, but he enjoyed himself, ate sand, drank the water, crawled around the water, and splashed. Kendal had a blast chasing her cousins, getting sand in every nook and crany of her body, and playing in the water.

After the lake we headed back for dinner joined by Casey, Brett, Terry, and Casey's folks. (all four kids in the car conked out in minutes - didn't stay that way, but it was a blissful few minutes). While there Casey got a call from Kimberly and was offered and accepted a new teaching job. (Thanks Brett for putting in the good word for Casey : ) Casey will also be coaching freshman girls basketball and could potentially do football. We are very happy with this move. Moving closer to family will be wonderful! Challis was our starting point, we are thankful for the opportunity we had to be here this past year. Looks like our next couple of months just got busier : D

Summer break begins

We had a good start for our summer break. Kendal is loving having her Daddy home so much. We've enjoyed loads of Daddy time this week; especially outside. We ventured to the park this week. Peter was having fun crawling all over, going down the slides, and swinging. Kendal used to be terrified of slides, but Pete loves them. Kendal loves the park and is always wanting to meet new friends there.

We've thought about swim lessons for the kids this summer, but price and a few other factors helped us decide well try next year. We still want to take the kids swimming throughout the summer, so when the weather was good today we took the opportunity to go to the Challis hot springs. Kendal was jumping for joy and over the moon to go swimming. The hot spring pool maintains an average temp of 102 degrees so the kids were loving the water. Peter was overwhelmed with the over sized life vest he got stuffed into. He did ok with it, but we took it off after not to long. Kendal was in a vest also. She didn't trust the vest to keep her up at first and took a while to warm up to swimming without mom and dad constantly holding her. After a while she finally warmed up and was doing very well. She was so proud of herself in the end, because she got the courage to swim on her own. The pool is four feet deep the whole length, and the bottom was covered in rocks (so the spring could continuously flow and renew the pool). We've never really had Kendal in a pool where she couldn't run or play on part of it. Thankfully there was a ledge near the stairs that was about a foot into the water that the kids enjoyed hanging out on. (Thank you so much Sarah and Terry for the certificate to the pool!)

 June is a busy month. A few teaching job openings have popped up, and Casey has applied for them. So we may or may not be staying in Challis - we will see. Casey will start basketball practices next week, and has a couple of tournaments this month. We have the Darrington reunion in a few weeks! Also Peter and I celebrate our birthdays. A good start to what promises to be a fun and busy summer!