just linkies

these are some recent lincoln pictures:

happy baby.

awwww. don't you just love when they are asleep?

i was trying to get a picture of him in his sunday best, which is soooo cute, but the rascally baby can't hold still for even 10 seconds. maria tried to hold him but you can see it wasn't going well for her.

where's linkies?

cheesin' out for the camera.

drooly-face.

man, i love that cheese.

lincoln is a pretty good baby. he's not as happy as some of my other baby's have been, in fact, he is easily the whiniest baby. he also wins the award for the most annoying cry which is more of a scream. but i thinks he's my funniest baby. he does things that make me laugh all the time. i also think he's the snuggliest baby. now, don't misunderstand. i wouldn't really call him a snuggler, but i do get more snuggles from him than i ever got with my other babies.

he's constantly moving around and will rarely sit still. for that reason changing his diaper is typically a two-person deal. he loves to climb and wrestle. he's really amazed us with his climbing ability. he's starting to walk a lot now. he can stand up in the middle of the floor and walk around. he's also very noisy. i can hear him right now. all the kids are supposed to be down for nap and i can hear him loudly talking to himself and making random noises.

he's a pretty funny baby and we all enjoy laughing at him and playing with him.

where's linkies?

this is a video of lincoln playing peek-a-boo. i giggle every time i watch this. i think my baby is so cute.

maughan hollow

we went hiking again last saturday but due to computer troubles (again) i am just getting the pictures up.

we started out hiking the right hand fork trail. as i mentioned last week, the water is crazy here right now and the river was all over the place. there was water on much of the trail as you can see from the picture below.

we passed over this first section and a couple other wet spots without much difficulty. then we came to this:

uh, ya, that's the trail. where you ask? right there. that raging rither of death you see. apparently the river is so full it decided to jump tracks and go down the trail a ways. right where ethan is standing it flows back into its original course. the river is just to the right of maria.

we decided to head back at this point and take the high road, another trail from this same trailhead that goes up, up, up to maughan hollow.

i told you it was up. the kids quickly got tired but it was a beautiful trail, one of my favorites so far. the downside is the steep drop off on the right side. we had to hold libby's hand most the way for fear she'd tumble down the mountain. so for that reason, and the fact that it is so steep we declare this is not the best of hikes for kids. more pictures:

beautiful, yes? loved the mountain views. the dirt was very red on this trail.

we saw and attempted to identify many different plants. this is lupine. we also saw arrow-leaved balsamroot and a few other things that i have yet to positively identify. i'm working on being able to identify more plants and know their uses. plants are amazing! there are many uses for the balsamroot. many.

snack time. thank goodness we brought those snacks. that was the incentive to get the kids to walk longer.

ethan is explaining to maria why it's important to stay on the trail. they found a spot where someone had gone of the trail and the result was erosion. ethan and i like to teach the kids as much as we can when we are on the trail. we must be doing a good job because maria told us, "you guys know everything about the mountains!" i told her that was because our parents took us to the mountains so much.

i love this picture. look at them mountains in the background (and them handsome boys)!

tree seat.

we had a great time on this trail. we only got sprinkled on just a little and the rest of the hike was just about perfect.

we don't get to go into the mountains this saturday, but we will still be having fun. ethan and i are going to a homeschool convention while the kids play with cousins all day. i do have some stinking cute pictures of linkies to post, plus maria's soccer pictures, so watch for more stuff coming soon.