Shasta Lake

I cannot believe it has been two weeks since I last blogged! We have been so busy.  I feel like I can't keep my head above water half of the time lately.  We went camping two weekends ago and then picked my Mom up at the airport on the way home and since then I just haven't been able to find the time to sit down and write a post.  Anyway, here are some pictures from our latest camping trip!  It was completely different (weather-wise) from our first trip... this time it was almost 100 degrees outside during the day!  We went to a gorgeous lake down in California and stayed at a campsite right on the water.  As soon as we pulled in and got settled we all made our way down to the lake via a little trail right across from our site and the boys spent at least an hour just throwing rocks and sticks into the water.  They had a ball!

I brought Reid's bouncy seat down to the shore and he fell asleep in there... sweet baby.  I think he was happy to have his arms, legs, and feet exposed to the nice, warm air for once!

Emmett, of course, was the first to venture further out into the lake and ended up completely drenched.  The water was really cold and he was standing there just shivering, but that didn't keep him out of the lake.  Jackson even got in himself and got soaked.  They were really having a ball.

 

After we had our fill of the cold water we went back up to the campsite to dry off and roast some hot dogs for dinner.  That's pretty much all the boys ever want for dinner when we are camping... hot dogs, strawberries, and pickles.  Oh, and chips... especially Cheetos.  

The next morning we were all up super early before the rest of the campground (around 6:30), so we went on a bike ride/walk before it got too hot...

Then around 10:00 we went out onto the lake on our friends' boat!  We spent the entire day out there and we all had such a blast.  This was Reid about 15 minutes into the trip...

Shasta Lake is really amazing.  It is HUGE and the water is greenish-blue and super clear.  It is so beautiful.  The water was pretty cold for my liking, but that didn't stop any of us from getting in and swimming.  It was really hot outside, so it felt so good to stop every once in a while and jump in the water.  Here we are enjoying lunch on one of our stops...

This is one of Jackson's best buddies, Alyssa.  They love each other!  She is so super sweet.

After lunch Emmett started to get a little fussy and we could tell he was really tired.  I held him on my lap for a few minutes and lo and behold... he fell asleep!  He usually doesn't like to sleep anywhere but his room.  He doesn't even sleep for that long in the car anymore.  I held him for a few more minutes and then attempted to lay him down on one of the seats and he ended up sleeping for about an hour.  Even with everyone talking and yelling and laughing and loud music playing.  We. were. shocked!

While he was sleeping, I got to have some "Mommy Alone Time" in the water with a beverage and two of my besties, Michelle and Lana.  We put our lifejackets on upside down like diapers so that we were able to sit and float in the water and sip our drinks.  It was the best 30 minutes I had all week!

Here's Alyssa holding Reid for a few minutes.  We lost Reid's pacifier for a bit while we were on the boat, so we had to borrow Emmett's while he was asleep.  Reid didn't seem to mind.  He was pretty good the whole day... I just fed him a lot more often than I normally would have to keep him happy.  :)

As soon as E woke up he demanded to have his paci back PRONTO!  He was a little grumpy.

But then he got to go on the tube with Daddy and that made him SUPER happy!  He loved every minute of it!  He was yelling and pointing at us and smiling almost the whole time.  It was right up our little daredevil's alley.  We tried to get Jackson to go with Phil, too, but he wanted nothing of it.  Maybe next year!

Then on the way home Jackson looked a little sleepy, so I asked him if he wanted to lay down for a few minutes.  He said yes, and then was completely out within a minute!  Phil and I were just amazed.  I guess the water and sun really wore them out!

We stayed out on the boat until about 6:00 P.M. because we were just having such a great time.  As we pulled up to the dock we realized that we may have pushed our limits a little bit because everyone was pretty grumpy.  We came back to the campsite, ate a quick dinner, and then put everyone to bed.  Emmett had a really rough time getting to sleep because it was pretty hot in our trailer (Phil tried to get our air conditioning to work for a few minutes to cool it down in there, but the generator we borrowed wasn't powerful enough to run the air).  Plus, right before dinner E had decided to ride his bike down the little hill that led to the lake while Phil and I weren't looking.  He got going a lot faster than he expected, ran into a rock, and took quite a tumble.  Aggghhh!  He is SUCH a daredevil!  Luckily, he had his helmet on, but he still got a big shiner on his forehead.  We think that probably contributed to his bedtime fussiness, too.  All his protesting didn't keep Reid or Jackson awake, though!

We totally let the boys roast marshmallows after breakfast the next morning, since they didn't get to the night before and we were leaving that day.  Jackson loves to roast the marshmallow, but then doesn't want to eat it or the s'more.  That works out okay, though, because Mommy and Emmett sure love to eat both!

I love how Heidi is eyeing Emmett's treat here.  She loves camping because she gets to finish off a lot of the leftovers.  Now that she's so old we don't worry so much about her eating table food!

My happy little rough-and-tumble sweet-lover.  Do you see the shiner?

Boy, it is so nice having my Mom here!  We had a birthday party for Jackson yesterday and she was such a huge help.  We always make do pretty well by ourselves, but then when she's here I find myself thinking at least three times a week, "What on earth would I have done if Mom wasn't here?"  The boys are just totally in love with her, too.  We are all camping again this weekend and I'm really looking forward to having an extra pair of hands around!  :)  Thanks, Mom!!

Catching Up

Here are some things we've been doing that I forgot to post about...

1.  Playing at the park (before the weather finally got a little nicer!)...

2.  Watching and waiting for Daddy to get home.  The stool was really for Emmett to be able to see better, but he kindly shared it with Jackson...

3.  "Graduating" from 3-year-old preschool...

4.  Looking cute in the bathtub...

Growing Up So Fast

Phil was outside with the boys the other morning and at one point stuck he his head inside and yelled for me to come quick!  I ran outside and this is what I saw:


Untitled from Heather G on Vimeo.


Untitled from Heather G on Vimeo.

I couldn't believe it!  Phil had taken J's training wheels off just to see how he would do and he did great!  Unfortunately, J still needs help with stopping and starting so Phil put the training wheels back on for a little while.  J needs to get just a little taller for his feet to reach the ground enough so that he can easily get on and off.  We're still really proud of him!

Three Month Reid

Three months!  Wow!!  Actually, I say that, but I have to admit that for some reason with Reid the months seem to be crawling by.  Is that weird?  I feel like he should be nine months old by now.  I am really trying not to wish the time away or anything because I'm sure that the next time I turn around he'll be one year old, but it does seem like he should be older to me. Weird.  Maybe I'm just really ready for him to sleep through the night.  :)  Other than still waking up at night, he continues to be the sweetest, best baby.  Phil and I are constantly amazed at how easy he is.  We're always saying to each other things like, "Look... he's been laying on that mat for like 20 minutes without fussing once." or "Can you believe he's happy just sitting and looking around in that car seat without fussing or being asleep?" or "I almost forgot Reid was over there because he hasn't made a peep!"  Of course we always know where he is, but we're just not used to such a sweet, easy baby. 

 

We just bought a pack of size 3 diapers yesterday! He is getting so big!!  Most of the 3-6 month clothes that he has are fitting just right.  He'll probably be too big for them soon!  He wears lots of 6 month clothes, too.

He has started smiling all the time now, and he "talks" and coos a lot, too.  The other day I was watching a recorded TV show while the older boys were napping and Reid was sitting on my lap.  He was "talking" so loudly to the ceiling fan that I had to keep rewinding the show because I couldn't hear what was said!

He found his hands the other day.  It was so cute to see him sitting in the Bumbo like this.  Doesn't his hair look red in this picture?? **please excuse the spit-up all over the shirt**  His spitting-up is getting a little better, I think (knock on wood).  Phil and I just noticed that in the past couple of days.

Like I said earlier, he's still not sleeping through the night!  I feed him before I go to bed around 10:30 or 11, and then he usually wakes up around 3 or 3:30.  Then sometimes he wakes again around 5:30 or 6:00, but I think he's getting over that.  He has just started rolling onto his back (arrrggghhh - all of our boys did this and it is so frustrating) so I think he might sleep longer if he didn't wake up and roll onto his back and then think that he's hungry and want to eat before going back to sleep! 

I think he's really close to rolling from back to stomach, though.  He's been rolling over and laying like this on his side on the play mat lately so I hope it's only a little while longer before he rolls all the way over.  He usually sucks his thumb when he's in this position.  It's so cute - I can hear him sucking away from across the room!  He's pretty much over the pacifier but loves his thumb when he can find it. He does still really love the pacifier when he's in the front pack, though.

 

He loves to lay on this play mat and grab and hit the toys that hang there.  None of our other two liked to do that!  And they would only lay on the play mat for about 1.5 minutes before getting mad. :)

He loves his brothers!  He has started watching them a little bit and smiling at them.  Jackson loves it when Reid does this... I love to hear J say in such an excited voice, "Wook!  He's wooking at me!" or "Wook!  Reid's smiwing (smiling) at me!"  J always wants to love on Reid... lots of kisses and hugs!  He is such a good big brother and an amazing help to me.

 

Speak of the devil... it's almost 11:00 P.M. and I hear him in his crib fussing on his back!  Stinker!  Guess that's my cue... 

We love you, sweet little three-month Reid!