Another birthday past, but not forgotten

It's birthday season here at our house. Three out of four kids have birthdays in the spring and summer, so I'm a little behind. Aaron's was in May, but I never posted anything for him...

 Aaron's birthday: May 24, 2017

I can't believe this kid is 11 now! My kids are growing so fast! He had a pretty low key birthday this year, mostly because of misunderstanding. I asked him several times if he wanted a party, and at first he wasn't sure. Then, when it was close to birthday day, he asked when the party was. It was too late by that time to get a party together. I felt bad, but I thought his unsure attitude meant he wasn't really into the party thing. I guess I was wrong! Sorry Aaron!

So, we just had a fun family party at home. He picked out this fun monster cake at Safeway.

Made a wish...

His gifts from the brothers, Pez dispensers.

The gift from us (the one thing he really wanted)...

 I love the birthday memories we can create with our children.

Happy 9th birthday to Aric

This  year was definitely more low key for Aric. We tried to do a party for the evening of his birthday, but so many couldn't make it that we decided to cancel.

Instead we took a neighbor friend, and went to see Cars 3 during the day.

 We had the whole theater to ourselves so I didn't feel bad getting these silly pictures.


Then we went out to dinner at the restaurant of his choice, Sweet Tomatoes. He says he's never going there again. He woke up in the middle of the night with an upset tummy from eating way too much. Sweet Tomatoes is a buffet, so he ate a lot.

 They had fun little ice cream cones though!

We were so full from Sweet Tomatoes that we didn't have cake. Good thing I never got around to making one!

Then he opened his gifts. He got this fun BB8 puzzle.

And 2 LEGO sets. A big one and a small one. This is his big set, which he already has built today.

It was a fun low-key birthday. I think he had a good day.

Flashback: Happy 8th birthday Aric

It's Aric's 9th birthday tomorrow. Why am I posting about his 8th birthday? Because I missed that post. A year ago. Better late than never right? I will eventually back date it, but I thought it'd be fun to have it for now since his birthday is tomorrow, again.

So, last year he turned 8. This is a big birthday for us because it is the year that children get baptized in our church. So, big year=big party, and lots of fun.

We found this number 8 pinata. So cool!

Of course, a number 8 balloon.

His birthday party was at a park in Silverton, so we loaded everything up into the truck and headed out.

The park was absolutely beautiful, and not too busy.

 We had a BBQ with cousins and friends.

He chose a skylander theme, so this is them playing "pin the potion to pop fizz"

Some of the gifts.

Cousin Aiden carrying Alex.

 Aric picked this camping themed cake out at Safeway. He loved it.

Happy Birthday!

 This pinata was so fun, and actually quite hard to break.

 Opening presents.

 Aaron was balloon man. He was very popular, and had a line going!

 I love this picture. It's a fun group of kids.

Some other happenings on his 8th birthday...

I made a number 8 pancake in the morning.

He also requested 8 little pancakes to go with it. Let it be known that he did not finish that plate of pancakes!

Tomorrow he turns 9. We've got a fun day planned to go see Cars 3 with a friend, and then to Bricks and Minifigs. I told him that this year was going to be a lot more low key since last year was so big. I'm thinking about trying cake batter pancakes for his breakfast tomorrow. Pancakes are his favorite, so that's one thing I know for sure I'll be doing for him.

Lava Beds National Monument

We had the amazing opportunity to drive down 1.5 hours from our campground to visit Lava Beds National Monument. It's amazing how much natural beauty is out there, but our focus was on the lava caves formed when the lava was cooling. Let me just say also, it's hot down there (outside of the caves)! It is Northern California after all, and we were able to visit using Aric's 4th grade national parks pass!

We started out at the visitors center to check out some big lanterns. We had plenty of our own flashlights on hand, but we thought the kids would enjoy carrying these around, and we could save our batteries!

We started in the easiest cave. This one we could pretty much walk through standing up the whole time, and it was lit with some displays. It was very short, but a good start.

After that the kids were ready to venture into some real caves! We sometimes had to climb, crawl, or shimmy. Alex was so brave, almost too brave. Since he was so small he could go ahead through some of the lower areas to scout out how long it would be that we had to crawl, or to see what's up around the next bend.

Everyone had a good time going under and around all the cool rock formations. The boys wore their bike helmets, but April got a cool lava beds bump hat. I didn't realize how important those hats were until I bumped my head the first time. Ouch! I didn't have a hat on, but will get one next time.

Sometimes the walk was long and hot to get to the cave entrance, but once you get inside the cave it's so nice and cool! 

Such a fun adventure with cousins!

 Everyone getting ready to enter another cave. Such a happy bunch. All four of our kids, 2 cousins, and Daddy. Not in this picture was Aunt Michelle, Grandma W., and me.

Going down...

Sometimes a few of us would sit at the entrance of the cave if we were tired, or one of the kids didn't want to go in that particular cave. It was cooler to sit in the cave than outside of the cave for sure! For this particular picture I was sitting with April at the bottom of the entrance. We didn't have our flashlights on to save battery, and the light coming from above just looked really neat. I'll call this one "stairway to heaven". We had fun joking about it.

Leave it to my girl to remind me to get a good selfie while in the cave too!

Captain Jack's Stronghold

After the caves, when all the kids were tired and hot, we made them hike a little more! Just a few miles away was not a cave, but a monument/hike called Captain Jack's Stronghold. The kids were not happy about having to get out and walk MORE, but they did. I wish they could have stopped whining long enough to enjoy how beautiful this hike was. Well, maybe by the end they were ok, but I don't know if they noticed all the beauty along this trail. The area where this is seems nearly desolate, but when you look closer there was so much to see! Beautiful wild flowers, dragonflies (lots of them), rock formations, butterflies (lots of them), and much more. I didn't take very many pictures on this walk, but I should have. Here are the 2 I got.

A beautiful flower in the middle of practically dead grass and nothing, surviving the heat.

Alex stopped in the shade and complaining, but he was willing to smile for me so I guess it wasn't all that bad. I loved how he was sitting on the rock with the wildlife around him.

There was certainly something special about this hike/location. I could feel the peacefulness despite the kids complaining, and the hot hot sun.

Happy 4th of July

These guys were so excited to get to do our own fireworks this year. Usually we are camping at state parks where there are no fireworks allowed, so we go and watch the big show somewhere local. Well, this year they just couldn't wait to get their hands on some of their own fireworks (with adult supervision of course). We headed to the local Wal store to get a pack at around 7pm on the 4th of July. Thankfully it was open, because that was the first chance we had after we got home earlier in the day.

We headed outside around 8:45 to set up our chairs and get ready for it to get dark enough. We did some sparklers while we waited. These were some packs I bought a few years ago, but we never got a chance to use them. Most of the other families in our cul-de-sac were starting to assemble in their own driveways. We had about a 2 hour show with everyone's fireworks! It was fun to be out there with all our neighbors.

Ours were some of the usual fireworks...

The firework wasteland (from us and other neighbors)...

But across the cul-de-sac, they had some pretty spectacular ones. I couldn't believe how many they had too!

I tried to get a good pic of the ones they had, up in the air. I kept missing it, but they were pretty.

It was an awesome night. I just kept thinking how grateful I was for our neighbors, and good friends, and my home, and my free country, and my family. Happy 4th of July!