My baby is growing up

Hudson has been doing lots of growing lately. Not so much physically, although I think he's grown at least an inch he's still pint-sized, but he has just started doing so many things that make me realize he's not a tiny baby anymore.

Last Sunday he let go of the couch and walked to Spencer. It was maybe 6 or 7 steps but this was a first for him. He's still experimenting with walking but he is getting braver and braver and will let go of things and just start walking. He will walk along walls, around tables, then let go and keep going.

We were able to get a video of him walking that night. Sorry about the tantrum in the background, Roman REALLY wanted us to video him walking instead.

He is such a monkey. He climbs everything. And I mean everything. He figured out that if he pushes a little chair over to the little table he can get from the chair onto the table up onto the kitchen counters. He pushed another chair up to the side of the couch and was climbing over the arm and jumping onto the couch.

He LOVES baths, showers, anything that involves water. Twice in the last two weeks I have been alone at bedtime so I've gotten the boys bathed and Hudson out first and into pajamas then went back for Roman. Both times Hudson has gone back into the tub nose first, fully clothed in his pajamas.

He has started talking so much. I LOVE every new word he says. I've started writing down the words that he says and I know that I am missing a few but here are the words that I wrote that he can say:

Mom (he says it more like Mahm)

Dad or Dada

Bubs (Roman)

No

Up

Go

Drop

Cup

Milk (He calls it Guk)

That (and he points to what he wants)

Okay

Yeah

Stuck

Hi

Lo (hello)

Car

Bed

Keh (Monkey)

Down

Ah Duh (All done, he tries to sign with it but we haven't been as good about signing with Hudson as we were with Roman)

He can identify his head, ears, nose and mouth. Sometimes he gets stuck on his nose though and no matter what you ask, he thinks it's funny to always point to his nose.

He likes to make funny noises and he loves to make people laugh. His two current favorites are sticking his lips out and blowing out then sucking in and holding his nose and talking. Both he knows almost always guarantee tons of laughter.

Family trip to Duck Creek - Part 2

The weekend before we went to Duck Creek my sister, Marla, made tie dyed shirts for all the kids to wear while we were there. We had them all wear them on Saturday and got a picture of them all in their cute shirts.

Sunday morning was nice and slow. Dave brought his whole computer, wireless extender, huge monitor, (and more I'm sure) so the kids enjoyed watching movies in their room.

Chris and Paul had to leave on Sunday to head home so that they could be at work on Monday so we had an early dinner before Paul left (Chris left before that) then we had the rest of the day. We decided to do things that were near Duck Creek so we went to Navajo Lake with the intentions of having a picnic dinner there but the kids were too busy playing to care about food.




When the kids were done playing in the water there was a sign right by Navajo lake that said "Cascade Falls" with an arrow. We decided to go check it out. Janeene stopped to read a sign that said that Navajo lake was formed by ancient lava flow. There were rivers that flowed into the lake, but the only water that flowed out was through lava tubes. Cascade falls was one of those lava tubes that the water comes out the side of the rock face. It sounded really cool and the hike said that it was an easy hike round trip 1 1/4 miles. So we decided to do it. Well, it's an easy hike if you aren't hiking with 7 kids, oh and most of us were wearing flip-flops. It was a beautiful hike though and the view was totally worth it.

The waterfall was HUGE, roaring, totally worth the hike!

Hudson wanted to climb right into the water. Spencer had a hard time keeping him back, he was trying to climb right over the fence. Roman on the other hand found a place that he could climb under the fence. Good times. Luckily no one went into the waterfall.


Monday we all went to Zions National Park with everyone that was still there except Brenda and Dave. They needed to leave on Monday and Dave wanted to stop in Kanab on their way home. So the rest of us drove to Zions together so that no one ended up in the wrong place. In Zions you park in a main lot then take the shuttle through the park. As we were waiting for the first shuttle Roman claimed my Camelbak and wore it the rest of the day.

He found that not only was it convenient to have water everywhere he went, it also worked great as a pillow too.

Hudson was traveling in style in the backpack. We had actually forgotten to bring the backpack with us and were going to have to carry him through Bryce Canyon had we gone on Friday. We had my brother, Chris, stop at our house on their way down to pick up the backpack and our Camelbak's.

We went on one short hike then we stopped at the lodge for lunch. After we finished eating we wandered into the gift shop to look around. We got the boys matching Park Ranger hats. They had the cutest Jr Ranger outfits that matched the hats, but they were $45 each, so they just got the hats.

After our lunch/gift shop break we went on the hike to the Emerald Pools. About half way into the hike Roman was complaining that his feet hurt. So Spencer carried both boys the last little bit of the hike.

Roman remarkably recovered when we got to the top and saw his cousins playing in the water.

I wore Hudson in the backpack on the way back down and the lack of sleep and the steady rock caught up to him and he fell asleep in the backpack.

We only went on one more hike that day because it was over 100 degrees and the kids were dropping like flies. In fact, Gabby was the only one that hiked to the weeping rock. All the other kids stayed behind with Israel and Melissa. We were joking that hopefully they would all survive. Luckily all the kids (and both adults) were alive and well when we got back.

The weeping rock.

Gabby, Marla and Mom cooling off in the water.





Tuesday was another lazy day. We were getting ready to head home the next day, and we were kind of tired from Zions the day before so we did Boondoggle, played games, let the kids play on the playground, then that afternoon we went to the Mammoth Caves. We didn't know what to expect, and were a little disappointed when we pulled up that it was just a hole in the ground. Then we got down into it and found that it was more then just a hole. It had caves that went off to the sides. To the one side you had to climb up onto a ledge and the cave narrowed very quickly.

Then Spencer and I went the other direction with Roman and Jaren. It just kept going. We just had 2 tiny flashlights that my parents had brought with them, but they were enough that we could see directly in front of us. The flash from the camera makes it look much lighter then it was.

It was SO DARK in the cave, and it kept getting narrower and narrower but I didn't want to get down on my hands and knees because I was wearing white pants. We kept going until we could see the light at the other end. Spencer wanted to climb through but it was so tight... and I was just wearing flip-flops...and white pants...and we had 2 little boys with us, so we turned back.

After we were back out of the cave we found where the other end let out and it was a tight squeeze. While we were looking around there Roman and Kaylee found a little tiny cave that they were playing in. Roman found a place that he could climb up out of the came between some boulders so Roman and Kaylee were running around going through the cave then climbing out the top.

Wednesday morning we all got up, had breakfast and on the road home. It was a fun week with my family. Roman was so sad that his cousins weren't there every morning when he woke up, and he couldn't play with them all day every day. We are looking forward to three years from now when we get to do it again!

Family trip to Duck Creek - Part 1

Every few years my parents take my entire family on a vacation. The last trip that we took was to Yellowstone three years ago. This year we talked about a few different places but my parents has heard of this place in Southern Utah called Duck Creek. It was between Bryce Canyon and Zions, near Ceder Breaks, Brian head, Ceder City. Sounded like fun. Then we had to find a time that worked for everyone. That's hard when you are trying to figure out a time that works for 21 people. We narrowed it down to May or August because that was when the people who were in college had breaks. Then upon further discussion we decided it might be too cold in May so we decided to plan for August. It was good that we did. With the VERY wet winter that we had in Utah this year there was still a significant amount of snow in Duck Creek in May (It's at 8400 ft so it had snow pretty late into the year).

The plan was for people to come and go as they could but we would have the ATV on Saturday and figure it out as we went along.



We drove down on Thursday, August 4. It was a beautiful drive down. We drove through Brian head and Ceder Breaks. We decided to stop in Ceder Breaks to get out and take a look at the landscape. It was amazing.





Thursday night everyone that was there went to dinner together at the diner at the resort we were staying at. We were all starving and we didn't see a lot of options so we decided it looked good. I think our crowd was a little much for their one cook. It took so long to get our dinner. By the time dinner was over it was time to wrestle 2 boys into their pajamas and get them to bed.

Friday morning we decided that we were all going to go to Bryce Canyon together. We needed to run to the store, Janeene needed to too so we decided to head out because Hudson really needed a nap then we would meet up with the others along the way. Janeene's car said it had low tire pressure so we told her that we would follow them so that if they had a problem we would be behind them. We compared routes then got on our way. Spencer said several times that Bryce was East and we were going West but we kept going...until we ended up in Ceder City. We checked the maps once we were there and from there it was almost 2 hours to Bryce. We called the others and told them not to wait for us and we decided while we were in Ceder to do a little grocery shopping. We stocked up then got on our way back to Duck Creek. On the way back we did stop at a pullout to admire the view. Once back at the resort we asked Janeene if Roman could play with their kids and as we put Hudson down for his afternoon nap we also took a very much needed nap. It was so nice to just spend a day and relax. That's why we were on vacation anyway!



Saturday my parents had rented a big 6 seat ATV and we were taking turns riding it for 1 hour blocks of time. We were the first to go with Brenda and Dave. We had planned to take Hudson on a short ride but there wasn't a helmet small enough for him to wear. Hudson was NOT happy about us leaving him. AT ALL. It didn't help that both of the times that we had the ATV were Hudson's nap times.



Dave drove first and after a while we got to a puddle. As we were leaving they were giving us driving instructions and had said that they thought it was pretty dry. So we went through the first mud puddle and came to a bigger puddle but Dave went through it slow and it wasn't really a big deal either. Then we got to a HUGE puddle. We decided to stop there. Except Spencer. He didn't want to stop there. So we all got out and let Spencer go through the big puddle. The first time he went through it he didn't even really get wet. The water was spraying off to the sides and he had such a great time he wanted to go back through it. So we got out cameras and phones to get pictures/videos of him going back through the puddle. It was so funny, he got out after he had gone back through it and he was SOAKED. So wet he had to borrow my sweatshirt (that he had given me a hard time for wearing) to warm back up.

I don't know if you can really tell in this picture but his clothes are dripping.

After Spencer was done playing in the puddle I got a turn to drive and it was a lot of fun.

Becky's family on the ATV.

Mom, Dad, Chris and Melissa.

Just down the road from where we were staying there was a coral that offered horse rides. We walked down and they were full right then but we were able to get on the list to take Roman for a horse ride right after lunch. So while we were between turns on the ATV we did that. Roman was so funny. He had never been on a horse ride other then pony rides where they are tethered to the walker. He had a million questions. How do you make it go? How do you make it stop? How do you make it turn? Where's the navigation? He had a million questions for our guide too. I think the guide was probably glad that we were only going on a 30 minute ride, not 1 or 2 hours.

As soon as we were back from the horse ride, Roman was ready to go on the ATV.

He wanted to be right up front so he rode up front with Brenda and Dave while Brenda was driving. We were on our way to the pond and we knew how to get there but the directions we had were "go down this road until you get to TrueValue the turn between the two orange poles." Brenda is looking at the map trying to figure out where in the heck we were so I decided it was a good time to get a picture. We did finally find the poles. Roman wanted to get in the back with me and Spencer so we were cruising along and he told us what we had feared...he was getting motion sick. So we hurried and pulled over and got him out (fast!) then he didn't want to get back on the ATV. We were almost to the pond so I walked the rest of the way with Roman and Brenda, Dave, and Spencer went up ahead. Brenda had a tiny signal on her cell phone so after about 3 phone calls with the phone cutting out they were able to get a hold of Becky and had her come pick Roman and Spencer up at the pond and I got to drive back. They said we were going to be late getting back because of all the time we took trying to get Roman taken care of...I made sure we weren't late. We got back RIGHT on time. I drove fast, and it was so.much.fun!

Saturday night after dinner we decided to go back to Ceder Breaks. There was a place called Sunset point that we decided we wanted to go back to to watch the sunset. Roman was so tired from everything we had done that he fell asleep on the way and was too tired to even wake up when we got there.

We went straight to sunset point, waited for about 1/2 an hour then decided it was going to be a while before the sun actually set so we would go check out a few of the other areas while we were waiting.

We got back to Sunset Point right as the sun was setting and it was spectacular. The view was breathtaking. I wish a picture could capture just how spectacular it was but it was amazing all around. Behind us the sky was purple and pink, the rocks were illuminated, it was definitely worth the wait! (And Roman slept through it all.)

Wet and Wild

On Hudson's birthday Radio Disney had a water party at the Gallivan Plaza downtown. Becky invited us to go with them to it. We met Becky and her girls at the Gateway and rode Trax over. When we got there the fire department had just turned on their hose.

Roman did NOT want to get into the water, he was nervous about it. Kaylee was willing to go check it out if her mom went with her, but wasn't sure she wanted to get wet, and Gabby was dancing in the water. While watching the fire truck we ran into our neighbors the Iverson's. It was their first time going to the water party too and wanted to see what it was all about. We decided to wander around and check everything out before we did anything else (BAD IDEA!) It was so crowded by the time we decided what to do there were long lines everywhere. The shortest line was for the train ride (because it wasn't free...of course) so we started there.

While we were wandering around there were a few areas they were blowing mist so the kids played in that, and there were several bubble machines that the kids had fun playing in the bubbles. There was a man handing out water guns so the kids got water guns and had fun shooting each other (that is until they ran out of water. Then the girls lost interest. Roman is a little too interested in guns so he didn't care that it was out of water he thought it was awesome.)

We tried going to get their faces painted but the line for that was so long they had closed it so we went over to the line for balloon animals but it was moving so slow that we asked the kids if they wanted to go over to the Gateway to get some lunch then to play in the fountains.

Roman is always VERY hesitant about playing in the fountains and as usual would only go in if he was holding someone's hand. Kaylee and Gabby were great about holding his hand and helping him run through.