Memorial Day in Capitol Reef

We spent Memorial Day in Torrey and at Capitol Reef. I was excited to take the kids back down to my old stomping ground. I always wish we could spend more time there, but it is hard with three little kids, especially now that my mom isn't there. But anyway we went to the cemetary and put flowers on the graves. I am hoping to help the kids understand a little better about my dad. I am still not sure they really understand the situation, but I know they will eventually. We were able to see the American Legion program and all the flags by the graves. Stockton has learned a lot about veterans at school the last two years and thought it was all really neat.

I have been dying to get the kids hiking at Capitol Reef. I miss it so much!!! I have been waiting for them to get a little older. So I decided we would try Hickman's bridge this time. Luckily we found a little break in the rain and took off. I carried Peyton in the carrier most of the way up, but he didn't love it. So Andy took him the rest of the way.

Luckily its not a very long hike. We will have to figure something out for P if he won't stay in the carrier.

I always loved this little overhang as a kid. I thought it was so cool. I knew the kids would love it too.

The kids were so thirsty. We had to stop a few times so everyone could get a drink.

If I wasn't so lazy I would have scanned in the picture from my scrapbook of me and my sisters playing in this same hole at about the same age.

A nice Japanese lady offered to take our picture so that I could be in it. I hope this is the first of my family hiking trips at Capitol Reef. The kids had so much fun exploring all the little holes and tunnels in the sand stone. I realized that they probably could have spent several hours on that hike. If it didn't look like we were going to get soaked with a downpour at any second we would have taken longer and let them explore all over. We will for sure have to go back on a better day and spend a long time!!

Abby's Preschool Program

I cannot believe the school year has gone by so quickly! It is killling me that Stockton's first grade year is basically over. The kids just continue to grow up so fast that I can't believe it. Abby had her year end preschool program this week. They had a slide show of pics from the year and the kids sang a few songs. It was pretty simple, but fun to watch. I love Abby's preschool! It is the same one Stockton went to. She has had a hard time leaving home and being away from us, but it has been such a good thing for her. She has loved school when she got there and got busy having fun and learning.

Abby, Teacher Carrie, and her helper teacher Joann

Abby getting her little "graduation" certificate

Singing the itsy-bitsy spider

She loves to sing and had a great time singing and doing all the actions. (only after I pryed her off my leg and begged her to sit with her class. I hope she gets over her shyness)

Stockton's Birthday Pictures

As you can probably tell I am really into photography and loving to take pictures of my kids. Stockton's birthday is coming up soon and I needed to take his yearly pictures. I have gotten into the habit of getting their pictures done for their birthdays and don't buy the school pictures. (except for the class one).

This is one of my favorites. (The one above)

Loving the real laugh and smiles.

A little serious, but I love the lighting!

I was a little unsure how I was going to get a good smiling pic of Stock. He has this very funny square smile when he is faking it. It is totally funny, but not really in a good way. So we got some fun serious pics. The lighting was awesome! And we started with the fake smile. Luckily Uncle Justin came by at just the right time and acted silly long enough to get a couple of cute real smiles. The real thing is so cute!! I am super happy with how they turned out, so thanks a million Justin!

Soccer with Dad

We have been enjoying the warmer weather so much. It was great to have Andy home today. He loves to play outside with the kids. They had fun kicking the soccer ball around tonight. Peyton thinks he is just as good as anyone.

I was trying to get some fun pictures of P. He was so hard. I don't know if he just didnt like the camera or what, but he would not look at me to save my life. I would say his name and he would make sure he looked the other way. But I was pretty happy with how some of these turned out.

My big soccer player. He is loving playing with the big kids!

The spittin' image of his dad as a little guy. He has a tiny bit of me, but not much! Oh yea, and almost all of the pics have his tongue out. He is a tongue man.

Edits from Abby's photoshoot

Ok, if you are sick of Abby pictures just disregard this post. Otherwise, here are the edits I did. There are just so many fun things you can do to pictures. It makes it really hard to choose a favorite for me. If anyone has a favorite please comment and let me know which one.

Abby's 4 year old pics

I used to take the kids to Kiddie Kandids every year around their birthdays for a "yearly picture." But since I have gotten into photography, I have been having fun trying to do it myself. I took Abby to Salem Pond to get some tonight. It was super crowded. Who knew it was clean up salem pond night. Literally. So I just went up by the community center across from the pond. It worked out pretty well. Abby is always up for getting her picture taken, so she just ran around and I followed for about two hours. I ended up with about 250 pictures. I have edited down to about 50 now and I am having a hard time getting it down much from there. These are straight out of the camera. There are some others that I totally love that need a little bit of editing. I will post those soon. Please indulge this post with way too many pics of my kid. I know the grandmas will love it.

The "real" Abby smile. The Chesnut eyes closed thing. Just can't get away from it. She also got the Chesnut bunny teeth with the gap. But I love that it came from my dad. I know theres at least a little of him in there.