Parading Pioneers in Panguitch

If you're going to go to Panguitch, you gotta go over the 24th of July. 

Because on Pioneer Day, Panguitch comes alive.

I'm talkin' semis.

I'm talkin' free candy spewed onto the streets.

I'm talkin' whistles.

And a cute little train loaded with your kids' cousins.

I'm talkin' about the Panguitch Pioneer Day Parade. Centered at the only stoplight in town.

The great thing about a Panguitch parade is that if you have the right connections, you can become a part of the action mid parade! Carson and Eli were welcomed aboard the Choo-Choo-Choose the Right Express to finish off the show.

Kaelynn was helping with the "Root Beer Float" where she handed out homemade Root Beer to parade goers.

And the thing about a Panguitch parade is that it ends with a fire truck hosing down the crowd just as the afternoon sun began to gleam.

Truth be told, we went to Panguitch for the world-famous parade, but it was an added bonus that Jeff's sister lives there and was able to show us some hot spots of the area. We went over to Bryce Canyon one afternoon for a hike to Mossy Cave.

I want this group to be our permanent hiking buddies because they sure helped motivate my boys to keep up!

We made it to Mossy Cave!

We kept going to find a waterfall. Carson started reaching meltdown mode, so cousin support in the form of hand holding became necessary.

This hike was so fun because part of the hike we walked through water. Eli loved the thrill of sploshing around as we made our way to the waterfall.

We found another spot on the way back to stop and let the kids play in the water. Eli is obsessed with dam building, so he got right to work blocking up the waterways.

He comes by his obsession honestly.

Meanwhile Carson's mood refused to improve. He who thinks his life is in peril if he spills a molecule of water on his shirt demanded to strip down once he realized his clothes had been splashed. Then he scowled on the rock while begging Jeff to carry him back to the car.

We made it through the hike and promptly put the kids to bed early so they would be up and at 'em for another day of adventuring.

We went to a skate park that doubled as a roller coaster when we braved up and started sending people down the ramps on that green car. Confession: I went down a ramp on that tiny green car and it may or may not have been one of my favorite parts of our whole trip.

Then we went and grabbed some snow cones!

That evening we found a campsite where the kids began stoning each other. It was unintentional, but two children of one family were accidentally hit by two children of another family and I'll just let you guess which children were the ones throwing with reckless abandon. *cough* mine *cough*

Here's where Carson began warming up to the 4-wheelers. Here is also where Jeff rekindled his love of 4-wheeling and will now be dreaming of 4-wheelers for the next however many years until he convinces me we need to buy a 4-wheeler.

Raise your hand if you love Panguitch!

It took a couple of days for the boy cousins to notice Lincoln, but once they did they repeatedly came up to me and said, "Your baby is really cute." "I like your baby." And things of the like. I love seeing boys especially take an interest in babies. And then, of course, Kaelynn had Lincoln wrapped around her finger! She was my #1 baby holder while we were there. I almost convinced her to come home with us!

Coleman and Carson are the cutest. They are the same size. The same mischievousness. The same interests. The best of buds.

The same could be said for Eli and Caleb.

There was a moment of uncertainty when we had to pass this bit of water via 4-wheeler where I shriveled up in fear and this mountain man confidently came to my rescue. I fell in love with him all over again.

We had such a blast in Panguitch! The weather was perfect, the kids got along, the food was divine and the lodging was superior! My only complaint is I had to hear Eli literally sob for a solid hour after we left to go home because "it was just so fun" and he didn't want to leave.

Then he realized he had left the walking stick he found on our hike behind and that unleashed another hour of unruly screeching. We tried to convince Eli that we'd be able to find another stick just as good as his Panguitch stick, but he was not having it. He had found the best stick, we left it, and life as he knew it was over. Plus he was exhausted, so that wasn't doing us any favors.

A half hour into debating the stick debacle, Jeff calmly stopped the car on the side of the road and got out. The car fell silent as we watched Jeff wander through the shrubbery to find a stick up to Eli's standards. I fell in love with him all over again...again.

Eli was introduced to Star Wars while we were in Panguitch, so Jeff emerged with what he announced as the "Light Saber Stick" hoping Eli would accept his attempt to find a stick substitute.

Eli stubbornly hid his smile as he began inspecting the stick imposter. Jeff and I exchanged victorious glances as we were sure we had convinced Eli we had found a better stick and the screaming was now behind us. Almost as if he could smell our relief, Eli's face went sour, he threw the stick down and rejected it, once again proclaiming his original stick as the best stick ever.

We continued on our way as Eli slowly sobbed himself to sleep. He woke up with stick amnesia and hasn't mentioned the dang thing since. That was a freebie!

Thanks Laura and Ben for the fun trip! And sorry about that stick we left lying around somewhere in your house. You have my permission to burn it and never speak of it again lest we unleash a mix bag of emotions in Eli.

Sasquatch Sighting

Laurie, Natalie and Emma came to town, so we decided to do with them what we do best -- take a hike!

Unfortunately for my hiking-loving family, I heard about the book Missing411. Have you heard of it?  Do you and your family a favor and don't let your researching into the book extend beyond this blog post. It started innocently enough. I heard the book investigated missing person cases in national forests that haven't really been solved or didn't have a real explanation to them once the person's body was found. Interesting, right?

Well I didn't realize going into my week-long obsession with Missing411 that the books had Big Foot/UFO undertones. So I was neck deep in Big Foot stories before I realized these stories were pointing to Big Foot as the explanation...and then I had no choice but to believe them.

So you can imagine my hesitation to enter the forest after hearing of countless stories of people mysteriously being snatched from the forest without a trace. And then, when I finally braved up and entered a national forest for the first time since hearing about all these stories, I had an encounter with Big Foot!

I realized it was me all along. Sar-squatch lives.

We hiked Adams Canyon which starts with a test of endurance in the form of sand-covered switchbacks that only seemed to hinder the adults.

We conveniently used pictures the whole way up as an excuse to stop and catch our breath.

Carson scoped out the view from atop a rock with his cousins and our second Big Foot encounter.

Onward, ever onward.

Lincoln fell asleep just in time to miss the creek stop.

Natalie and Emma dared to approach Squatch 2.

This is where my dad was having a tender moment reflecting on his brother's recent funeral which made him wonder which pictures people would use of him at his funeral. As I was snapping this picture he said, "This could be shown at my funeral." Which was a little unsettling until my mom chimed in with, "Well then take your hat off!"

I get my compassion and sensitivity from my mother. We just want to make sure you go out looking good, Dad!

Jeff stayed behind with my older boys while I continued on with the group up the mountain.

This picture is an accurate representation of our outing because at the end we were literally rock climbing. Which would have been a fun little adventure had I not had an infant strapped to my stomach. A sigh of relief from the whole group accompanied my footing each time I reached steady ground.

Lincoln was a trooper! He didn't make a peep the whole time, even the one time my foot half slipped and I gave him a slight case of whiplash. Other than that we carried on without incident...

Unless you want to count the half hour we were lost as an incident. For all the people we had in our group, you would have thought one of us would have sooner realized we had missed a critical turn. But we trudged through the mountain on a skinny trail slowly questioning our route only to discover our mistake after it was too late and our only option was to keep trudging. We eventually saw human life again and were able to reroute back to the main trail. 

Lincoln was smitten by the Thomas Girls. I would say the Thomas Girls were also smitten with him, but that time he spit-up in Natalies hair may have changed their minds, so I'll let them speak for themselves.

My Uncle Mark and his family were in town the same weekend as Laurie, so we did a birthday celebration of the century as we sliced each kid a square of brownie, threw a candle on it, and made every child's candle extinguishing dreams come true. All whilst preventing the community brownie from being showered in excited saliva. Genius!

I love an excuse to get together. Who's coming to town next?!?

Lincoln's Half Birthday

Our little Linker Lou is 6 months old! He's a thumb sucker, a foot chomper, and a total angel.

If he's not smiling, he's asleep. And he's even been known to be smiling in his sleep

I've convinced myself he's started giving people kisses, but mostly he just loves to put everything in his mouth including people's faces. I'll take that as a sign of affection though.

The older boys still adore and smother their little brother. They are the sweetest together.

He finally fits into these cute shoes I've been trying on him every Sunday.

We've been doing minor sleep training this week. We haven't ventured into crying it out yet, but we've been working on getting him to fall asleep completely on his own in his crib. It's been going pretty well! It helps that he just sucks on his thumb whenever his binky falls out. We also just stopped swaddling him in the last couple of weeks as we've been "sleep training" him.

We took him to the doctor and he weighed in at 15 pounds! He's finally on the non preemie charts in the tenth percentile. Meanwhile his head and height have soared into the 50th percentile!

We've started putting him to bed at 7:00 and he takes about three 1 1/2 - 2 hour naps each day. He wakes up around 6:45 in the morning and gets up at least once at night.

Jeff may be the older boys' favorite, but Lincoln and I are the best of buds. I figure we've got another two months at most before Lincoln makes the switch to Jeff, so I'm savoring the moments I have of being the favorite parent.

He still loves the bath and has gotten quite aggressive with his splashing.

Lincoln is constantly folding himself in half trying to jam that foot into his mouth. I want him to freeze this size forever. He's happy, squishy, bendy, giggly, and completely immobile -- my favorite baby stage!

Presenting the fake cough. Mastered this week. He finds himself hilarious when he throws himself into a fake coughing spell.

Lincoln is such a sweet, mellow, happy, chill, adorable little boy. We can't get enough of him!