Happy Campers

I love camping. Jonny does too. And lucky for us, our kids happen to be happy campers as well! Before this summer we had only been camping with our kids once - last year. It was so fun (and not as tricky with toddlers as I thought it would be) so we were looking forward to more camping this summer. I wasn't sure how newborn Evy would do, but turns out she was just fine. She was calm and really seemed to enjoy the mountain air. (Plus, it was fun to snuggle with her in my sleeping bag. But not so fun with a slowly-deflating air mattress. Better than no mattress! And yes, I am that kind of camper these days.)

So we fit in four campouts this summer. (And once we had an indoor campout in the basement when our plans were rained out. S'mores by candlelight! Oh, and Gabe joined Jonny one night of Scout Camp.) One was at Bear Lake with my family and the other three were up Ophir Canyon - a perfect little oasis of a canyon just a 30-minute drive from our home. The kids would have been thrilled to go every weekend. It is amazing how much fun they can have out there with sticks and rock and dirt. Who needs toys? I love the mountains.

I tried to choose a few pictures of each camp out. Tricky! So here is a long parade of summer camping pictures. Fun times.

Ophir Canyon Trip 1: 

 We only had Jonny's phone for pictures on this one. But we had to document Evy's first camping trip!

Bear Lake: with my fam

Raspberry Shakes, of course! 

 

 I love Mom in this one. Very enthusiastic!

We tried to see how many people we could fit in Mom and Dad's Tab. I think it was 10, maybe 12?

 Playing and Boating at Bear Lake

Here are the oldest and youngest cousins chillin'. Crazy that I so vividly remember when Jordan was Evy's size.

 Brady and Gabe are inseparable.

 

Next time we will bring more shade. Yikes! 

 Scout Camp/Fathers and Sons:  
Jonny and Gabey

 This was totally awesome for Gabe. He can't stop talking about the boy scouts!

Ophir Canyon Trip 2: with Rudi

 Oh how the kids adore Aunt Rudi

Ophir Canyon Trip 3: with my Fam

Phew! Can't wait to camp again next summer. Although a crawling/toddling 1-year-old may be a bit more tricky to camp with than an infant strapped to me. I guess we'll find out...

First Days all around!

Today was Julia's First Day of Kindergarten and Gabe's First Day of Preschool. (Plus it was my first day of preschool for this year and Evy's first day as a napper through preschool. She slept the whole class. Atta girl.) What an exhausting emotional roller coaster for me...

Most people already know how I feel about sending Julia off to kindergarten. But after she left today I only had time for a tear or two before I had to get ready for preschool to begin. And it's a good thing I kept busy or I may have cried a lot more. I am not a big crier. But Julia is my first baby and has been at preschool with me since before she was born. I loved having my big boy Gabe in preschool today, but I truly missed my girl. I just love having my kids at home. They are my peeps. And my being slightly resistant to change doesn't help much either.

Julia, on the other hand, was ecstatic about her first day. All morning she carried around her back-pack and said things like, "I can't believe my first day is actually here! I just can't believe it!" So imagine my shock when she was all-frowns at the end of school. I asked about her class and she just started crying. All I could make out was that she fell at recess. But it was not like her to carry on about that.

Well you can imagine what I did! I hugged her and rocked her and rashly told myself she was never going back to school again. Back at home I noticed she was hot so I checked her temperature. Sure enough, it was high. After some Tylenol, resting with a TV show, and flowers and pink milk from Daddy, she was back. She told us all about her teacher and the classroom and the playground and how very very excited she is for the 100th day of school party. (They must have begun the count down. This could be a long 99 days...)

I asked questions and listened and loved hearing all she had to tell. (Especially her recount of seeing a neighborhood friend at recess. She said, "I told him, 'Hey, I under-spect you. You are Nathan!'" She meant "recognize." I suppose understand/expect could mean about the same as recognize.) And then I resolved to let her go back tomorrow, temperature-pending. Bummer. I thought for a second there I got to keep her for good. My baby loved school just like I knew she would. And I guess I really shouldn't cry over that. Or at least I'll try not to.

Not sure why Gabe is so sad in every picture. 

He really was quite excited for preschool.

 There's my Gabey!

Oh brother, he is already looking too cool for school.

Julia loves her sparkly shoes.

And here is Evy. May her next 5 years creep slowly by...

P.S. Here is Julia on the second day - just as excited as the first. Hopefully she comes home with that smile this time!

The Evy-lution of a Name

Years ago Jonny and I easily agreed that Evelyn would be the name of our next baby girl. (She is named after his Grandma Evelyn, and Ju Ju is named after my Grandma Julia.) But we weren't quite in line with what nickname to adopt. I was all for Evie (rhymes with TV) and Jonny was liking Evy (rhymes with heavy). During the pregnancy the kids started calling her Evie. I figured I had won the nickname debate and that was that.

Then, nearly three months ago, along came Evelyn. And that's what I called her. Evelyn. Even though the kids would sometimes call her Evie, it wouldn't roll of the tongue for me. The few times I did call her that I kind of had to force it and it just didn't sound right. 

Meanwhile, on occasion Jonny was calling her Evy. He surely wasn't doing it out of spite, as of course it comes more naturally since it has the same vowel sound as her full name. And do you know what? I really started loving the sound of it. It even occurred to me that she looks more like an Evy than an Evie. 

So Evy* it is. And I love it. But mostly I love her. She is getting more and more chubby, which makes her funny little knee dimples even more adorable. She coos and smiles at me when she wakes up in the morning. Gabe always wants to "have a kiss of Evelyn" and Julia loves babbling baby-talk to her. As for Jonny, I am sure he is in love with every little thing about his Evy.

*I am still not positive Evy is the best spelling. At first I thought Evvy looked right. But that looks like it has a w in it when handwritten. Hmmm. There is also Evi, or Evey, or even Evie could be pronounced that way. So I suppose it doesn't really matter. I think I like the simplicity of spelling it Evy. And who knows, maybe she will go by Evelyn most of the time so it won't quite matter.