oh, blessed mountains!

the weather was beautiful last saturday so we took the opportunity to put all work aside and go into the mountains.

oh, how i love the mountains! i feel blessed to have been born in a family that did so much camping. as a mother now, i can see how difficult it must have been for my mom at times, five young children to keep track of in the wilderness, and my dad, how many times he had to untangle the fishing lines! but i'm so glad they did it and stuck with it. those camping trips are some of the fondest memories my siblings and i have of our youth.

and we all grew up with an appreciation for the mountains.

which is why, naturally, on the first gorgeous spring day i just had to go to the mountains.

ethan and i are so happy we live so close to the mountains. a hike is just minutes away. all the kids loved being there too and i know we will frequent the mountains often this summer (how are we going to get any work done?).

we did learn something saturday, though. some of the kids, i will not name names, are not too fond of hiking during their regularly scheduled nap time (our hike lasted about 15 mintues).

we will have to work on that.

linkies birthday

last weekend was pretty busy for us. the kids were invited to two easter parties on saturday then we went to the american west heritage center for baby animal days. the next day, easter sunday, was lincoln's birthday then after his birthday/easter dinner we went to my parents house for an easter family home evening with all my siblings. it was a great weekend.

here are pictures from lincoln's birthday:

"happy birthday dear linkies . . ."

his very first taste of cake.

he decided it was good and he just went for it like none of our other kids did.

"yummy tastey. can i have more?"

"wait, i don't have frosting on the top of my head yet."

"that's better."

"i can't believe i survived one year! wahoo!"

we went to my parents house to open gifts. but as you can see lincoln wasn't much interested in gifts. every picture i have of him "opening" gifts is of the back of his head as he is heading elsewhere. maria and hudson opened all of the gifts. he got a couple outfits from grandma and grandpa and two sleepers from us.

we are all so glad to have lincoln in our home. he is such a funny and lovable baby. he does things all the time that make me laugh and he is almost always ready to laugh and wrestle.

happy birthday linkies!

baby animal days

here are more pictures of when we went to the american west heritage center the saturday before easter. they were still doing "baby animal days" so the kids got to see many cute little things.

they enjoyed petting the calves and goats. the especially loved running through the big barn.

(don't know who the extra kid is)

they loved the pony ride and the train ride. the awhc has built a tunnel for the train since we were there last. that was very exciting for the children.

they got to hold bunnies and see baby turtles, ducks and chicks.

they were particularly excited about getting their faces painted. it was so cute to see libby hold so still while her cheek was being painted.

ethan and the kids got a chance to carve wood and the blacksmith's shop was interesting to everyone.

our new house!

we are so excited to show everyone pictures of our new house!

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it's kind of small . . .

and there's only one bathroom . . .

but the views are spectacular!

okay, so we're just kidding (but those of you who know ethan well were probably a little worried - he would totally do this), but we did visit the American West Heritage Center on saturday (or as hudson calls it, "the wild west").

almost there . . .

it's been so raining and gloomy it hasn't felt much like spring. however, we will know spring is in full swing when the apricot tree blooms. it's running late and we anxiously await the arrival of these blossoms.

linkies is 1!

i can't believe lincoln turns one year old today! as you can see he is quite a happy kid.

awww, what a cutie. more birthday pictures coming soon.

digging

libby loves digging. she's always outside, always digging.

and it doesn't matter if it's snowing. she's still digging.

even in her jammies.

other random pictures:

i personally would not be comfortable writing this way, but who am i to judge?

i love seeing her so focused on something. we were writing in our journals.

hudson's snowman.

i don't even know what to say.