May Mayhem

We thought that once Jared's semester was over, the summer would be much less busy. If possible, it feels like we are even busier- I can't believe that May is already over! I guess that's what happens when working on a PhD! Hope you enjoy a few more of our memories from May!!!

Tori and Garrett love making "houses" for all our roly poly friends!

Garrett has discovered the magic of bandaids- he made us put 5 on one night before he was okay to got to bed!!!

Saying goodbye to Daddy as he leaves for work in the mornings! (Love this!!!)

Jared has an awesome opportunity to be involved in a big research project this summer, which took him to Gary, Indiana for almost a whole week. These two were so glad when their Daddy got back home!!! (I was, too!)

This handsome boy is getting way too grownup!

Tori and all her friends were ready and waiting to read the Book of Mormon!

On those rare days when Tori is tired enough to take a nap, she now pulls out her sleeping bag, gets it all set up along with a bunch of friends, and puts herself down for a nap!!!

Derek and Camila's wedding is now only a little over a month away. So, we have been keeping up our wedding hair style practice with Tori all through May. It has become a really fun thing we do every Sunday!

This one turned out so cute!

I loved this one- a little unique, super cute, and it stayed in really well!

This one was gorgeous!

This one made for a super cute twist on the pony tail!

And we can't leave out this handsome little guy!!!

Hurrah for all of our fun memories we have gathered this May! And now on to June!!!

Splash Pad

Today we learned that Karst Park (which we have visited a couple of times now) also has a splash pad! Last year Tori and Garrett would run around the edges of the splash pad by our old house, but never really get wet. So, I was so proud of Tori when she actually played in the water today!

She really liked this cool bench!

Garrett skipped right over the splash pad and went for the playground!

Tori did a great job climbing up this wall!

She was so excited to make it all the way to the top all by herself!!!

  She literally flew down the slide!

Jared was a trooper and went down the slide with Garrett- Garrett was a little nervous to go down by himself!

Daddy worked his magic and finally got Garrett to try out the splash pad- he had a grand time!

And finally got all wet!!!

Hurrah for a fabulous afternoon full of playgrounds and splash pads!!!

RCA Park

This morning we joined some friends in discovering a new park! RCA park has lots of fun things to climb on!

I have to admit that the lack of railings on this one scared me a bit!

But Tori absolutely loved it!!!

Tori and Garrett enjoyed a little rock climbing!

Hurrah- we found a little bridge!

And Garrett found a slide that was just right for him!

We are having a grand time trying out all these new parks!!!

Lone Gardening

For our gardening program we can come on Tuesday evenings or Saturday mornings. This week it turned out that we had other activities both of those days that we couldn't get out of. So we decided to come this morning to at least get a little more work done on our garden. We started out by adding compost to the rest of our garden plot. Tori is great a breaking up soil and helping to mix in the compost!

Then we went to work and planted almost everything else in our garden! Luckily, we made a new friend named Andre that helped us find all the plants, seeds, and cages we needed- he really was a huge help!

Tori and Garrett were especially excited to water our garden!

And they did a fantastic job...

...making sure everything was nice and wet!!!

There were tons of strawberries ready today!

So we made sure to bring some home with us- yummy!

For being all alone in our gardening today, we did a pretty great job!!!

Gardening Week 2

We started out our second day of gardening by taking a soil sample. Tori and Garrett did a great job of getting the soil we needed!

We learned all about the different components you need to have great soil for our plants!

Our next task- adding lots of compost into the soil in our garden plot. Garrett did a great job helping Daddy get the compost in our wheel barrow!

And then Tori did an equally great job helping Daddy push the wheelbarrow! (I love that they have little wheelbarrows for the kids!)

What a cute kid!

Once we got the compost mixed into our soil, we got to start planting our garden. We were able to get about a fourth of it planted today!

Tori and Garrett were such awesome helpers!

Our last activity- harvesting! Even though we are just planting our garden, the people that work at the gardens have tons of things they have been growing and are now ready to be picked!

Tori found some carrots!

Today was awesome! Not only did we learn a lot and get tons of things done in our own garden, but we came home with carrots, lettuce, radishes, beets, rhubarb, chard, and strawberries!

And also these absolutely beautiful flowers! Feeling really blessed right now!

Father and Sons Campout

Jared and Garrett just got home from their very first Father and Sons camp out! Jared has been looking forward to their camping adventure for weeks! Here they are all ready to go!

They wasted no time in getting camp set up! And yes, Garrett really did need his coat- it was very cold last night!

Which means they needed a really big fire! Garrett loved sitting with Daddy since it was so cold!

Garrett totally surprised Jared by eating some hot dogs! There's a first time for everything!!!

Even though it got down into the 30s last night, Jared and Garrett stayed nice and warm in their tent. Hurrah, they made it through the night! 

Garrett's waiting for some yummy breakfast!

Once it started to warm up, Garrett finally started exploring the campsite!

And, of course, he found a big puddle! Which led to finding tons of rocks and throwing them in it- he was in heaven!!!

Their first Father and Sons was a huge success!

And just in case you were worried about Tori and me- we had our own girl party while Daddy and Garrett were gone!

We all had a great time this weekend!!!