DRUM ROLL PLEASE....Caleb Can Now Ride a Bike!

In April my parents surprised us by buying Brydon and I bicycles.  We were so excited to finally get bikes (first time in our marriage) and Caleb loved that Mom and Dad could keep up with his great bike riding skills.  So we have done a lot of bike riding lately and love it.

Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

However, Caleb quickly learned that his little bike with training wheels, was no match for Mom and Dad's bikes.  He began to get frustrated and really wanted to learn to ride his bike without training wheels.  Since Caleb is so tall, we decided to look for a new bike that would be easier to learn on.

We found this great mountain bike!  Caleb loves it and it is a great mountain bike.  The day after we got it, Caleb and Dad spent about 15 minutes outside working on riding his bike and...........YEAH CALEB CAN RIDE WITHOUT TRAINING WHEELS!

We still have a few things to work on like stopping the bike and getting off with out falling over.

And starting the bike all by himself, but for the most part we are pretty good.  He crashes every once in while, but does really well.

Yeah!!  Way to go Dad!

So fun to see him flying down the street and of course Cooper is right with him.

He has now gone on a few 2 mile bike rides and progresses everyday.  I think I stress out more than anyone when we ride on the streets.  It is hard to watch my baby ride his bike on the road.   I have to ride in front and not watch.  We did have an incident on Saturday where Caleb tried to take a bridge head on.  It didn't work out so good and we almost lost the bike over the edge of the bridge.  But he survived!  Man, growing up is tough!  But so Fun!

Here are a few videos of the bike rider.  I haven't edited them so you get them how they are.  Mom's commentary and everything.

Adventures in Utah

After we went backpacking in Bryce Canyon, we headed up to the Salt Lake area to visit family and friends.  We were able to see so much family!  It was wonderful.  We spent time with my Grandpa and met his wonderful new wife, saw all of my aunts and uncles on my mom's side, spent time with 2 sets of great aunts and uncles, saw all my siblings, Caleb spent time with all of his grandpa's and one grandma, had dinner with Brydon's aunt and uncle and saw 2 of his cousins and their children, got to see many of my cousins, and even visited friends from Philadelphia!  Whew!  We were busy but it was a lot of fun.  I was really glad we were there to see my cousin, Kendra, graduate and see so many family members.  The weather was beautiful and everyday was a great adventure.

Sure do love that cute boy!

We got to have one really fun play day!  We spent the whole day with Grandpa Simpson and my 2 sisters.  It was a blast!  First we visited Hogle Zoo.  We loved Hogle Zoo and visited often when we lived in Utah.  It was so exciting to get to visit again because they had just opened the new polar bear and sea lions exhibit.  It was amazing! 

Hehe....we knew Arielle could actually fit in there!  Too cute!

When we moved from Utah, the elephant was close to having her baby.  It was fun to see the baby elephant and her mama.  She is so cute!

The Polar Bear Exhibit!  It is a beautiful exhibit.  We got some great views of the bear.

We did have one of those moments that I really wished I had caught on camera!  This giant elephant squirts water out of his trunk unexpectantly.  When we first arrived at the Zoo, Caleb was excited to play on the elephant and didn't remember that it squirted water.  The elephant started to sing and so he stood right in front of the trunk.  All of a sudden it squirted him really good in the face!  It was a priceless moment!  He was so surprised and shocked and jumped out of the way as fast as he could.  His face was the best!  We all laughed so hard.  Wish we could have recorded it.

The whole crew at the Zoo

Caleb with his new cousin Brayden.  We were so excited to met him.  He is so cute!!!  I love those super cute cheeks!

Aunt Arielle and (soon to be, we hope SOON to be...hint..hint....hint....Uncle) Ryan

Since we were by the University of Utah we stopped by The Pie Pizzeria.  We got to try eating this GIANT PIZZA.  It tasted amazing, but was so huge!

Later that afternoon, we left the two little boys with Ryan's mom and the adults (even Grandpa) spent the evening at Boondocks.  We just missed Ben, who was unfortunately sick.  We had so much fun!  Brydon and I had never done Go-carts and Bumper Boats or arcade games together.  We laughed, played, got each other wet, and just really had fun.  The evening included Bumper Boats, a Go-cart race, 2 rounds of Bowling (I am most definitely the worst ever at bowling!), a game of mini-ture golf, and arcade games.  Before we knew it, we had spent 5 hours playing!  We had not had that much fun on a date in a really long time and it was so much fun to play with family!  I wish we all lived closer and could do it more often. 

My two beautiful sisters!  They are the best and I am so grateful for them.

A sad Caleb who wasn't getting his way!

Pictures with Uncle Ben.  We were sad he was so sick while we were there.  But we had to get a picture of Caleb and Ben together.  Aren't they handsome and look alike too!

On the way home we stopped by my sister Sierra's "Farm".  She has chickens, a snake, a turtle, ducks, and two dogs.  I am so sad!  I lost the pictures of Caleb with the chickens.  It was so cute to see him hold the chickens and he was excited to collect the eggs.  He madesure to knock on the egg to make sure a baby chick wasn't inside before we could keep them.  Caleb was thrilled to feed the snake a rat and we saw the snake eat half of it before we left.  It was pretty cool!

We were sad to say good-bye to everyone and leave all the fun behind.  Unfortunately vacations always have to end.  On the way to New Mexico to visit my brother again, who was kind enough to let us stay with them, we stopped by Arches National Park to stretch our legs.  We love Arches!  We stopped to get some water and walked this short trail.  It is such a beautiful area. 

 

It was a great vacation!  Thank you to everyone who let us stay with them and hang out.  We had so much fun with all our great family and friends!  We miss you!  Come visit Texas anytime!

Bryce Canyon National Park

Whew!! I finally got a bunch of our vacation to Brydon Canyon uploaded. The computer and I have not be getting along but I did have a ton of pictures to upload!

Right after school got out, we took off for Utah's Bryce Canyon National Park to go on a remote backpacking trip for our family vacation this year.  We had an interesting drive.  We have very mixed feelings about New Mexico.  My brother and his wife live there and we loved seeing them!  But after our visit we found ourselves in a sand storm for 45 minutes.  Not a pleasant experience and it did make us contemplate why in the world anyone lives in the middle of nowhere New Mexico!  Most definitely worse than Wyoming,  But we made it safe and sound.

Saturday night we met up with both our Dads at a regular camping spot outside the park.  It was FREEZING!!  When we left Texas it was 100 degrees.  It was not 100 degrees in Utah.  But we were able to build a fire and Caleb roasted marshmellows.  We then tried to sleep in the frigid cold to begin our hike the next day.

Bryce Canyon is so beautiful!  And it was so fun to just be together as a family and have our Dads with us.  Caleb was so excited for some Grandpa time.  Did I mention that it was still FREEZING outside!

Our hike to base camp as about 1 1/2 miles at a 1000 foot drop in elevation.  We were pretty loaded!  (Learned that we packed way more food then we needed!)  Caleb even had his backpack and we had to carry the bear proof food container, in case of bears.  Caleb did great and we made it down pretty easily.  We made base camp at Yovimpa Point.

Our little base camp!  We had hoped to be able pitch tents in multiple areas throughout the trail but the lack of water kept us at Yovimpa Point.  We had a leave no trace policy.  Which meant no fires, a nice hole to do your business, no trash cans, and a stream to collect water from.  This was Caleb and I's first time remote backpacking.  I think we did pretty well!  It was a lot of fun, we had great Mountain House meals to eat, a log provided decsent comfort for a girl doing her business, and the area was so beautiful.  Only problem, it as FREEZING!  Fortunately the afternoons did warm up but the 17 degrees at night were a bit rough for those of us that like the warm weather and did not have cold weather sleeping bags.  But it was a great way to enjoy nature, unplug from life, and really spend some quality family time together.  It did make the freezing worth it!

Caleb's Mountain

Everyday Caleb wanted to climb this "mountain" and throw rocks from the top.  He loved it up there.  If you look carefully in the first picture above you can see Caleb on Grandpa Mannings' shoulders.  He said he was the "King of the Mountain!".  I did not ever make it to the very top.  There are some things moms just don't need to see.  And watching your son stand on the edge of a very, very high cliff with lose rocks is one of those things.  Dads and Grandpas can do that kind of stuff.

Caleb sure did love having so much Grandpa time!  He had there full attention for about 5 days in the wilderness, doing boy stuff.  He was in heaven!  He is lucky to have such amazing grandpas and it was so fun to hang out with them.

Remote backpacking is most definitely a great way to just have good family time.  We made some great memories, had some heartfelt talks, and just enjoyed being with each and in nature.  It was truly a "Family Vacation".

Boy Heaven!

He loved getting more and more dirty everyday!  I think a cloud of dust followed him everywhere he went.  I tried to get a photo every day of the filthy boy but I did get these two shots.

Grass and Grasshoppers!  We found this beautiful green meadow with a stream running through it.  It was a great place to rest and play.

                   

Caleb was a great hiker.  He hiked to our camp spot.  Hiked up his mountain every day.  And we went on about a 10 mile hike one day.  (It was a great 10 miler with a small break for pizza and icecream in the middle!)  He was amazing!  Dad did have to help him out every once in a while, but he did the best he could.  He never cried or complained.   He just loved being outside.

Throwing rocks was a huge part of our entertainment.  Caleb threw rocks everywhere he went.  Can you see the flying rock in my pretty landscape picture on the right?  One night ALL the boys had a rock throwing contest.   There were moments that it was funny to be the only girl on the trip.  I did not find rock throwing as entertaining but it was fun to watch and cheer for them.

Nature's Beauty

We really did get to see so much natural beauty.  Utah is a beautiful state and Bryce Canyon is breathtaking.

 

 

See proof that it was FREEZING!

We hiked into the Canyon Sunday morning and left Wednesday afternoon.  The hike out was a bit tough.  Caleb was worn out!  The 1 1/2 miles out climbing 1000 ft was a bit difficult.  We took many stops and then with a lot of "The Ants Going Marching" and "This Old Man' and any other marching, sillly songs Mom could come up with, we made it!

We completed our first family remote backpacking trip with the grandpas! 

It was totally worth it!

Maybe if we are lucky this will become a family tradition.  Who knows where we will get to go next year?