We took another hike up Little Cottonwood Canyon, on the White Pine Lake Trail. We've been there before, but this time we managed to make it a little farther.
First we stopped to eat lunch. The kids thought climbing up a hill and eating snuggled by a tree would the perfect spot.
Getting started hiking up the trail.
The only vibrant fall color this year was yellow, most of the reds and oranges were very muted in the mountains.
Camden was in the hiking backpack when I took the picture above and he was upset he didn't get a picture taken either. So I took a selfie of us and it made him happy.
I tried to take a picture of all three once Camden got out of the backpack. But now he was out and he wasn't going to hold still.
The yellow was pretty with the mountains.
A weeping rock. Someone put a little angel statue underneath,
Boys on a log.
Julia was on the side and told me, "Tell me when you are going to take the picture." So I did, and she ran out in front to block the picture!
Our big boy Camden is now 2! If you ask him though, he will insist that he is still our baby and not a big boy (although today I did get him to admit he is a big baby ;) ).
We went to Cornbelly's, Thanksgiving Point's fall festival, to celebrate his birthday.
He loved riding in the little tractors, even though his face doesn't show it. He tends to be very observant and focused on the moment when he really enjoys things and thus doesn't really look all that happy, but he liked it. Just like the giant slide. I wasn't going to let him go because a sign said no lap riders, but Grandpa saw other people taking their kids on laps and decided to take Camden. We got to the bottom and his face was wide eyed so I figured he had gotten scared (he is our most cautious child and gets scared easily). But then he asked to go again! So we took him again.
Not really sure he knew what the corn maze was all about. He did realize the plants were growing corn though- he loves corn on the cob.
Camden spotted the tractor pretty soon after we came in and said, "tractor, tractor!" He was really excited to see all the tractors. His vocabulary has really taken off in the past few months. I'm sure it helps that he has Julia and especially Micah (they are rarely apart) to converse with. I can understand most of what he says and he can usually has the vocabulary to get across what he wants. Thankfully, because he really knows what he wants and does not give up easily to get it.
Trying to figure out what these minion things are.
Earlier in the week, on his actual birthday we celebrated by blowing out candles over brownies (everyone here likes it better than cake) and opening a couple birthday presents. Now every new thing he sees in the house he says, "It's me (mine), for my happy birthday!"
He got a collection of stories about trains, trucks, and things that move that he loves. Micah loves it too. So much that that night he took it to bed with him and couldn't sleep because he kept coming out and asking me to read him a book. Later I heard him downstairs and found him playing with Camden's other new presents at 11:00 pm.
Camden's other present, a toy workbench and tools. The boys love it. They'll sometimes take the tools outside and pretend they are building their playhouse outside while the real construction workers pound away on the new houses being built near our house.
Robert wasn't able to make it to the BYU home opener so I invited my cousin Hillary to come with me. It was one of the best football games I've ever been to. They were down by three with less than a minute left and they scored a touchdown! Everyone was so excited they were high fiving strangers. Then less than fifteen seconds later they had an interception and and scored again!
I took the kids to the Utah Museum of Natural History. We all got free tickets from the county library summer reading program. These kids had no problem reading enough books, but I had to actually make an effort to read so I could earn my ticket.
Dressing up as animals and bugs.
Julia got her school pictures back and looks super grown up. (She is in first grade this year)
We went to an open house at the new Draper police station. I think Julia got the most out of it because she understood when I told her what each area was used for, but the boys were decently behaved as well. (Except for a couple times when Camden tried to run away and I had to chase him down the hall.)
Julia celebrated the moon festival at school.
And then the next week we went to my parents house to see the super blood moon- a lunar eclipse with a supermoon. The moon was fully eclipsed by 8:45 so the kids were able to be awake for the whole thing. Afterwards Julia said she was going to re-paint the picture she made for the moon festival and change the moon to red.
Julia practicing her Mandarin characters.
I found the rest of the store bought cookies in the case like this one night. I know exactly who did it. Camden does this with the food on his plate. He takes a bite out of everything. Sometimes he'll finish his food, but everything gets at least one bite taken out of it.
