A family anniversary sort of day

 For our anniversary we decided to go for a hike. With our kids. And my sister's family. Super romantic, right?

 We started on the trail to Adam's Canyon, but there's a turnoff after about 20 minutes to this waterfall. It's a perfect kids' hike. Clara didn't even ask to be carried once. And Alice complained about having to be in the backpack.

 After a few minutes, Clara was brave enough to cross the water by herself.

 And Alice protested dad's efforts to help her climb down the rocks and the cold rushing water. She was so proud of herself and I was pretty impressed.

 Nathan found a water bottle (what's not to love about garbage?) which he used to trap a silver spider (see below).

Look closely, on the bottom corner of the rock. It really was silver. A few minutes after he released it on this rock in the middle of the stream, I convinced him he should maybe let it go on some dry land.

After we finished the hike, our companions took us to a really cool playground in Fruit Heights. It's a castle. It was awesome. After we'd played for close to an hour, and it was hot and we were beyond ready for lunch, Nathan tried to negotiate for more time: "Can I just play for six more hours?"  No. "How about three?" But after the bee stung him on the ankle he consented that it was time to go. On the way home he lamented: "Why did Jesus make bees and hornets? I hate them!" I've often wondered that about mosquitoes.

Then home, lunch, and naps! for me and then Levi. It was possibly my favorite part of the day. After we put the kids to bed we got some chinese takeout and watched a movie. It was a low key sort of anniversary but it was good. We've made it to eight years--so I guess our marriage has reached the age of accountability. How would one go about baptizing a relationship?

Hey, August

So, do you like how i posted a billion times during June, and then... kaput. I'm not dead. Alice has taken up playing peekaboo. And saying please! in sign language. Today at lunch she pointed at the drink she'd thrown on the floor. I told her to say please, then she clapped, folded her arms, and then remembered the sign for please. Success! We've been working on this one for a while.  Nathan and Clara have taken to playing Scouts. Which means they assemble a lot of toys in the living room and pretend they're camping. I love my kids, and their creativity, but everything involves a lot of mess.

I got to go to education week at BYU-Idaho last week, which was wonderful. I went with my mom, sister, aunt, two cousins, grandma, and great aunt. I was exhausted when I left, and more exhausted when I came back. We stayed up late to play games, and then not even on purpose waking up early, which meant I went to 7 am Zumba. I'm really bad at Zumba (no coordination and/or rhythm) but it's fun and a great workout and it was free. Also there was an awesome trip to the Rexburg DI, wherein I realized I have an addiction this summer to buying green shirts from thrift stores  (I'm up to 4 since June). When I came home (after only three days) it was really hard to adjust to cooking again. Cooking is the worst. I really like cooking, but lately it's too hard to think of things to make. I've even started making a monthly menu which hangs on my fridge. Then I look at the menu and think, "I don't want to eat that today," or "that sounds good, but I don't have the things for it." So I'll make something else on the menu or just come up with a new idea (thanks to Pinterest for last night's cornbread waffles and chili).

Also, August, what's the point? Why are you so hot? I'm kind of ready for fall. Fall should be six months long.