A Jumble of Things

**warning: picture overload my occur while viewing this post.
I’m behind on blogging. So much has happened that I’m just going to have to throw it all out there without much thought to wittiness or entertainment value that usually comes along with my blog posts (ha! I know you all think my blogs are hilarious and entertaining). 
Back in July (yes, July. I am waaaay behind) my sister came up to Washington (yes, I was still living in WA at the time. Again, I’m way behind) to spend two weeks with Dev and I.  She brought her 4 kids to hang out and help us pack up for the big move back to Utah.  We did some fun things while she was here:
Lake Stevens (where we were for Dev’s first rotation) had a day of festivities called Aquafest. We went to the parade, which happened to be the hottest day of the year. I’m sure it was somewhere in the high 60’s (okay, it was probably more in the 80’s but that is my stab at the drizzly, rainy, dreary weather that hangs over Seattle).  My boys loved it, as you can see by the pure joy on Nathan’s face and the excitement on Cameron’s as the police cars and their noisy sirens went past us (and I’m not going to point out the nice butt shot we got of some lady that was next to us. Nice) --

Now Nate’s happy because he has some cool beads and his pacifier (which he is addicted to). 

Also while my sister was here, we attempted to go to the lake that’s within walking distance from where we lived.  I only lasted at the lake for about 15 minutes before I decided it was too much work to chase one baby on the beach while the other one charged into the water. However, Devin ended up getting a day off and so we all went to a beach near Seattle and it was much easier to have two of us chasing the babies.


We also went raspberry eating….I mean, picking. We actually did this twice within a week I believe. We couldn’t get enough. We got to ride a tractor trailer out to the raspberries. Don’t ya just love that cute little girl in the picture? She’s my niece and love’s her baby boy cousins--


Even Nathan was able to do some picking--

And Cameron had too many fermented raspberries--

My sister and I loved picking raspberries. We’d tell each other that we were done picking and 10 minutes later we were both still picking. “Just a few more” or “Oh, I just found a bunch of really good looking ones and I can’t just walk past them without picking them” kept us going and going. In my next life, I’ll be a field worker. Ha!

Devin apparently was eating them off of the bush

We did a lot of hanging out at home too. I think my sister went crazy staying home all day, but I just liked having the company and having people to talk to.


So then we moved. I hate moving. Let’s make that official. I hate moving. Devin’s mom and brother came up to help us and my sister, her husband, and their kids were all there to help us move. We drove the looong drive to Utah in two days. I was not sad to be moving from the first rotation, but I was sad to be leaving the Northwest. It meant no more ocean and it  meant moving far far away from Oregon, which I did learn to love. It meant moving further away from friends that I left in Oregon that I won’t see until Dev graduates in May, and some I may never see again. Sad. Depressing. Blah. Anyways…
3 days after we moved to Utah we went on vacation to Bear Lake with Dev’s family. We stayed in a fabulous cabin, went 4-wheeling, hung out, ate, and swam a tiny bit.

Dev’s mom threw a birthday party for Nate and Cam since not everyone was able to be there for their actual birthday:


Then two weeks later, we went camping with my family. This was the boys’ first official camping trip but I feel like we cheated a bit because we got to stay in my parents trailer while the rest of my family tented it. The boys loved it though and got dirty.

The boys had their first taste of hotdogs. Yum!



We made survival bracelets. Cool.

And in other fun news, we’ve decorated Nate’s helmet:

And in additional news, here are some cute bath pics: