Wild Wild Wild Kratts

 For Brynn's 3rd Birthday she asked for a Wild Kratts birthday. For those of you who aren't familiar with Wild Kratts, it is a show on PBS about animals that Brynn and Mason are currently obsessed with. What can I say, my kids love animals.  If you don't know anything about the show then Brynn's party won't seem nearly as cool as it was.

The Cake. All she wanted was the real pictures on her cake.

 Brynn's only requests for the party were that I make creature power suits and that her best friend Lydia come. That may seem simple enough, but our wonderful friends and neighbors, the Ferrins, moved to Logan last month.  So I had the idea to go to Hoagle Zoo for Brynn's party and invite the Ferrins to join us. It was perfect because Brynn is my child that loves to go places and we hadn't been to the new Rocky Shores exhibit yet. It was also very fitting because Tanner and Lydia were the ones that introduced Brynn and Mason to Wild Kratts and share their excitement for it. So thanks to pinterest I whipped up these creature power suits and creature power discs for each of the kids and they ran around the zoo playing wild kratts and activating their creature powers as we saw the animals. It couldn't have been any more perfect.

Mason, Tanner, Lydia, and Brynn

The Wild Kratts themselves.

These girls are so cute together. We really miss Lydia.

Family picture by the Orangatan, one of the kids' favorite animals from the show.

 We loved the Rocky Shores exhibit. It was by far the kids' favorite part.

Brynn loves the carasal and was beaming the whole time she was on it.

Tessa, Camille, Me, and Miles

It was so wonderful spending time with the Ferrins. We have missed them more than words can tell. I swear our families were meant for each other. Camille is such an amazing person and I miss having her a part of my daily life. I couldn't have picked two better friends for my kids than Tanner and Lydia. People in our ward could hardly keep our kids straight because they are so much alike, both in physical appearance and personality. Having them live a few houses away was just too perfect and now there is a big hole in our life. Good thing Logan isn't too far away.

That night we finished off Brynn's birthday celebration with a family BBQ. It was a day filled with friends and a fun outing, the things Brynn loves the most. 

Happy Birthday to our Brynnie Bug!

A Camping We Will Go

 

A couple weeks ago we took our first official family camping trip to Lake Hill. It was an absolute blast! After arriving and setting up camp we grabbed our fishing poles and started fishing right away. Scott and I were shocked at what great fishermen Brynn and Mason were. They would cast out their lines with a little help and then just sit and wait patiently for a fish to bite. What was even more amazing is we only had one tangled line the entire time. Miles even got in on the action, but he was more interested in trying to eat the fishing pole than catch a fish. The fish were active and we never had to wait too long before we would have a nibble or two.  Altogether we caught five fish, but only kept two to cook up for dinner. In all honesty, I was expecting the fishing portion of our trip to be a disaster. Boy was I wrong. The kids loved every second of it and it turned out to be a very relaxing and fun time spent together as a family. The rest of the night included gutting our fish; cooking the fish, hotdogs, and marshmallows over a small fire; rafting out on the lake; and bedtime stories in the tent courtesy of Mason. I wasn't expecting to get much sleep camping with 3 kids under the age of 5, but we put Miles to sleep in his pack and play in the back of our Sequoia (where I later spent the night with him) right at his normal bedtime and didn't hear a peep from him until morning. Mason and Brynn washed up and got in the tent as soon as the sun went down and both slept until 8am. Scott and I were able to sit out under the stars together and have our own little date night once the kids were in bed. Perfect.

The next morning while we enjoyed a yummy birthday breakfast for Brynn, a deer wandered right through our campsite. Scott took the big kids for a hike around the lake while Miles napped and I cleaned up camp.  They encountered some kind of large animal, most likely an Elk, that gave them a little bit of a scare, so they decided they were done hiking. On our way out we drove up Skyline drive, sharing Grandpa Thompson stories along the way. After standing on the top of the mountain and looking out at all the beauty, we headed home. I'm glad we were able to take this trip when we did, because less than a week later wildfires started up all over the state of Utah, including areas close by Lake Hill. We don't think the fires have reached Lake Hill yet, and we pray they never get there.  Our time spent at Lake Hill was straight out of my daydreams from 7 years ago when I watching Scott fishing with his little brothers and sisters and thought how I couldn't wait for the day when I would be watching him help our children. Well folks, we have arrived and I am not disappointed at all.

Miles was one happy camper...literally.

Brynn loved the fish she caught...until it started flopping around.  She was very concerned when Scott was gutting her fish saying, "Daddy, your hurting him!"

Campsite 11, the ideal location.

We brought a present for Brynn to open on her birthday.  She loves her pink laptop and we're hoping she'll stop messing up our computer by pretending to type on it.

Lake Hill

Lake Hill 2005

Lake Hill is a campground and reservoir up Ephraim Canyon that is a special place for the Murray family and holds many great memories.  Most of these memories revolve around Scott's Grandpa Thompson, who grew up in Ephraim and brought his children and grandchildren back throughout the years to share his love of this mountain. Scott remembers every Memorial Day going down to Ephraim to the Scandanavian Festival and Parade. After making rounds to all of the family grave sites, they would head up the canyon for fishing and camping at Lake Hill. As they would drive up the canyon, Grandpa Thompson would recount wild adventures from his youth.  His stories about hunting with his brother, Jay, and friends in his 1955 Jeep Wagoneer that had stadium seats mounted on the front, could have been made into a book. He had traveled over every inch of that mountain and still knew his way around all the best trails. Most years the narrow dirt road was still muddy that early in the season. This never detered their plans to make it to the lake. Linda, despite everyone's protests, would pretend she was driving a four wheel drive, off-road vehicle, instead of their Astrovan and got them stuck on more than one occasion. Good thing she had three boys to help push them out each time. Once they made it to the lake, the fishing would begin... at least for the kids. Grandpa Thompson and Linda would sit in their aluminum chairs and untangled line after line after line. Between all the tangled lines and snags there were always plenty of fish caught and apparently this was before the days of catch and release because they would gut all the fish and pack them in a cooler to take home (where they would sit in the freezer untouched for months). Lake Hill is also where Scott's phobia of bears started. One year there was a sign posted stating "Bear in area, camp at own risk".  Linda decided to take that risk and poor Scott was traumatized by the constant threat of a bear ripping open his tent and dragging him out by his feet. The memories don't stop after Scott's childhood. When Scott and I very first started dating he invited me on the Memorial Day excursion to Lake Hill with his family.  That year the mud proved to be too much and we didn't make it all the way to the lake, but it was still a very memorable trip since Scott and I snuck in our first kiss while off on a little hike together.  The next year we made the trip as newlyweds and this time we made it to the lake. This was the best fishing trip ever because they were stocking the lake while we were fishing. Every single cast resulted in a caught fish. After fishing, Scott and I took Grandpa Thompson for a drive all over the mountain.  I was able to hear all of his riveting stories.  I wish so badly I could go back and record those hours spent driving around as he would point to a tree and tell us "that is the tree that stopped our car when it was flying off the cliff. If it weren't for that tree I would be dead." He told all the stories like they had happened the day before, not decades before.  I grew to love Grandpa Thompson on that trip.  I believe that was Grandpa Thompson's last trip up to Lake Hill before he got sick and then passed away.  I am so glad we got to experience it with him.

6 months

This not so little guy is 6 months old. I wish he would just stop growing up already. I would be fine if he stayed my chubby, blue eyed, happy, ticklish, two tooth grin, fair skinned, grabby grabby, rolling machine, cat napping, scootching, not a peep night sleeping, sitting, jabber mouth, almost crawling, food loving baby boy.  

Love You Miles!

P.S. I love to pinch and play with Miles' fat while I snuggle him. My favorite rolls on his body include the big fat roll above his knee, the crease in his wrist, his sausage fingers, and especially the huge fat pad on the bottom of his big toes.

 If only my fat rolls could be this lovable? 

Full Time Dad

Scott and I have joked throughout our marriage that I should be the breadwinner and pursue my career and Scott could be a stay at home dad. It's always been a joke, but when life recently gave us a push in that direction, we decided to give it a try...for a few months, anyway. So I went full time at work and Scott became a full time stay at home dad. It was a shock to our entire family in the beginning, but thanks to our amazing Daddy-o and his great attitude, I can honestly say life has never been better in the Murray household. Scott has completely shown me up with his cooking, cleaning, organizing, and overall ability of running a household. He has even managed grocery shopping with all three kids in tow. While I have never, ever, claimed to be a stellar homemaker, I have always considered myself to be a decent Mom, but he has even outdone me in that department. Scott has fully embraced his role as Dad and my activities now pale in comparison with the fun things he and the kiddos have been doing. Fortunately, my night shift schedule allows us to spend a lot of our days together as a family. This has allowed us to have the most amazing spring and summer, filled with many family adventures. These last few months could have been, and probably should have been challenging for our family, but because of Scott, and all of his hard work, they have turned out to be some of the best times our little family has ever had. I think I can speak for both Scott and I in saying we are looking forward to getting back to our usual roles come August when he will start BYU's MBA program. However, a lot of good has come from this temporary shake up. So Happy Father's Day to our full time Daddy! We love you!!

Moab

Last weekend we took a quick trip to Moab so Scott and I, along with his brother, Steve, could compete as a relay team in the Moab Xterra triathlon. An Xterra triathlon differs from the traditional kind in that the bike and run are off-road. We opted to do a relay since Scott and Steve didn't feel comfortable doing an open water swim, I don't mountain bike, and I don't think Steve enjoys running. So it worked out perfectly for me to do the mile swim in Ken's Lake, Steve to mountain bike 15 miles on the world-famous Steelbender trail (this was one seriously tough and technical course!), and Scott to run the 6.8 mile trail run to Faux Falls, through the red rocks, and around Ken's lake.

This is only the second year of this race and they still have some organizational kinks to work out like parking and making it more spectator friendly, but the race itself was really fun. This was my first time swimming a full mile in open water. I felt really great in the water, even when the wind picked up making the water kind of choppy. I was happy with my time of 36:23. 

Next up was Steve, who took off on what would end up being a 3 hour bike ride. Everyone was talking about how insane this bike course was...and we were in MOAB...people live on their bikes down there.

 Last, Scott took off up into the mountain for his trail run.  Scott, with his fresh legs, was flying past everyone. The other racers were commenting in awe of how fast he was running until he explained he was part of a relay and hadn't done the bike or swim. He finished in a great time of 1:02:19. 

During all of this we were juggling our 3 kiddos which was especially tricky since there was no shade and nowhere to sit, just gravel and dirt. We did take the kids back to our condo during Steve's bike, but even with that it was a long morning for them and they were all troopers.

The race was the main purpose of the trip, but we were able to squeeze in some fun before and after. We shared a condo with Steve, Jenna, Isla, and Weston which was the perfect set up. We asked both of the kids what their favorite part of the trip was and neither one hesitated a second before answering, Weston. They had so much fun running around and playing with him. They probably just drove him crazy the whole time, but he was sure a good sport. Miles and Isla enjoyed each others company and loved sitting across from each other in their bumbos and stealing each others toys. Spending time with Steve, Jenna, and Isla was definitely the highlight of our trip. We just love these guys. We were able to go out to dinner, go swimming at the local pool, have a BBQ, and I got in some good chatting time with Jenna while Scott and Steve made their late night grocery runs. The actual Moab things we did included seeing Indian petroglyphs, dinosaur tracks, and a last minute trip through Arches on our way home. It was a short but sweet trip.

Hiking the Y

One day we decided to take the kiddos to hike the Y.  The hike is only 2.4 miles round trip, but add in the 1100 ft gain in elevation and it provides a pretty good workout.

The kids were very ambitious and took off running from the beginning.  That lasted for about the first two switchbacks out of twelve.  Mason's excitement to see the Y motivated him all the way to the top, but Brynn required a little cheerleading and at the very end a ride in Daddy's arms. Miles just kicked in excitement the whole way up. 

 

 We all loved the view of utah valley and had fun spotting landmarks like the temple, BYU football stadium, and 7 peaks along the way.

                                     Our little Wild Kratts enjoyed identifying all the creatures we crossed paths with.

                                                                                     At last we made it!

 Hiking down the steep trail proved to be almost as difficult as hiking up. But Mason taught us all to walk like this to keep our balance.

I love living where we are just minutes away from endless nature adventures.