Reece: The baby of the family

Reece turned 10 years old last month, but he will forever be the baby of our family.

And he willingly plays the part:

• He still needs assistance with his shoes and hair every Sunday morning or else he won't be ready for church on time.
• He leaves wrappers all over the house (a big pet peeve of mine).
• But the biggest thing is he rarely will get his own food when we are eating. I have to force him to get a plate and serve himself up things. More commonly, it's often easier just to dish up a plate and hand it to him. Sometimes, he will actually just sit down and start eating from a plate of a food; of some unfortunate person who got up to grab something before eating (usually me).

I think he'll always be the baby in our eyes.

Harper likes to meddle

I guess I would say Harper is a curious person. Or she has a lot of nervous energy.

From cracking other peoples' knuckles to open packages she wasn't supposed to, she likes to mess with things.

Here she is scooping out the entire tub of aquafina...just because.

Or here when we butchered into a watermelon and apple.

Or here where she cut the edge of a cereal box...with cereal still in it.

Lake Powell 2022

We had so much fun in Lake Powell. 

We stayed in Lake Powell with our friend group and their families. It was SO much fun and so beautiful. We launched from Page AZ marina and parked our houseboat in Padre Bay.

Here are our Top Ten Memories:

1. Reece's Bed Manner

Houseboats are tight and our room was super small. Megan and I crammed into it as best we could while the kids all slept on the top deck. But during the day the kids would come into the room sometimes. Reece kept coming in and leaving either sand or wet towels on our bed.

2. Grandpa Mike

The Dad of one of families is Mike. He's a teacher at the local school and pretty well liked by all the kids. He was such a fun character that the kids all started calling him 'Grandpa Mike'.

3. Tubing extravaganza

Lots of tubing happened. Harper is the undisputed Queen of tubing. She resorted to doing tricks and stunts.

4. Diving/Slide Party

5. Fascism. Among the many board games that were played, we played a lot of 'Secret Hitler'. A mafia-like board game where everyone tries to reveal the fascists. It got pretty noisy with lots of shouting of accusations about why so and so is a fascist.

6. Gideon caught a fish.

Gideon borrowed a fishing pole from Grandpa Mike and caught a decent sized fish. He was elated. He released it so there wasn't any fish-eating drama.

7. Gideon and Dallin: Gideon making a Sauna.

Gideon quickly gravitated to Dallin, one of the older, married men who is super fun. Wherever Dallin was, Gideon was not far away. Dallin started building a sauna by digging a pit in the sand and covering it with a tarp. Gideon was all in and was his right hand man.

8. Labrynth Canyon

I had been to this canyon once before on a kayaking trip (during the winter) so I knew how beautiful this canyon was. It's amazing and it was really fun to watch the kids walk through it.

9. Bandaid on my head: 

I had a bandaid covering a cut on my forehead the entire trip. So, every cool picture we took down there, I have a stupid bandaid on my forehead.

10. Kurt and I twinning: 

We have such great fashion sense.

11. Gideon Hitting 50 mph on the jetskis

At first, Gideon was hesitant to go fast on the jet ski but he quickly got over it and kept going faster and faster; from 40 mph to 45 mph, then 50 mph. He was pretty proud of himself.

The Back Deck

Although the construction of the back deck wasn't exactly what we originally designed/envisioned, we are very happy with the finished product. 

The couch under the canopy has been really popular. And after I added the screen and projector, it only got more popular. 

One issue is that the time we want to be out there the most, early evening, is when the sun is shining at us.

As I mentioned in another post, Megan hangs out there a lot, and you can see the sun blasting her there almost every time.

This year, we added a dining table to the space and hanging chairs. It's been super fun to eat out there together. And the chairs are fun for the kids to sit in and inevitably bang into each other.