Ah Pinterest, how thou hast failed me.

I give up. It was so cute when somebody else's kids did it. And now dude can't stop talking about how mommy wrote on his feet. Years of lecturing on how we only write on paper down the tube. Awesome.

Does Baby G like camping?

 I think that's a yes.

Then, to avoid waking up the entire campground at 5:15, which is when that cute little punk above woke up and then woke up the rest of the family by doing things like sitting on them or patting them lovingly on the head until they opened their eyes, we took an early morning drive around the National Park. Apparently that's when all the animals are out and about, thinking they own the place! We were pretty sure we were going to have to turn around and head back the other way when we came across this traffic jam!

 And while I was distracted by the large group ahead, this guy snuck up beside us for a closer look. Kinda startling.

 And then, for the first time, we saw the wild mustangs up close!!! The girls were out of their heads excited. And I gotta admit, I'm not even a horse person, but there is not much better than seeing these beautiful, strong wild animals roaming the paved highway like they used to do back in the Wild Wild West. They were so beautiful!

 And there were some babies! None of us had ever seen a baby horse in person before! Talk about all legs!

 Older baby. Man, these animals are incredible.

 And when they run? SO awesome!

 One last baby shot. Had to include this one because I love how the Mama was trying to stare us down. As we inched along in the car, another horse and her moved to stand between us and the baby. What a good Mama!

Another successful trip to the park! Especially because Dude can't stop talking about how we all camped in a tent, although he was disappointed that we didn't find any T-Rexes on our drive! He kept insisting they would be there :)

Hiking in Teddy's Park

 Ooooh look! A trail! We're outta here!

 You guys coming too or what?

 And at the top of the first hill, whoa! what a view!

 Hold on. Short legs make a little hill seem like a mountain.

 Still waiting for Ms. Short Legs. Cheeeeese!

 Baby G would've happily walked the whole way but there was no guardrail along the sharp drop-off of an edge of Wind Canyon, so....

Finally all in one place!

And proof that I was there! But what to do? The path is blocked by a very large, muddy puddle. Somewhat related, the last time we were here this park was not nearly so green. And pretty sure that river wasn't that big either. Amazing what a crazy rainy spring can do!

Speaking of what rain can do...

Is that why we didn't see any other hikers? Turns out clay is slippery when wet. And sticky. Very, very sticky. Imagine how hard it is for very small legs to lift feet like this step after step! Dude kept saying, "whoa! This is di-rty."

 And speaking of more things the rain can do ... by the way, the kids are not behind this rock. They are inside it. Tried to get dude to go down in far enough to peek out one of the holes, but he kept saying, "Nooooo, what animal is it? What animal?" Poor little nervous guy.

 More gorgeous views! Man, this is so green it's hard to remember it's North Dakota not Oregon!

 J: "Mom, what makes the rocks red?" Me: Um ... science.

 Another hill conquered and another spectacular panaroma enjoyed!

 And another rock enjoyed. Baby G thought each and every one was so cool. Even with that, we succeeded in finishing our .3 mile hike! What's that you say? Only .3 miles? Sure didn't feel that short with so many little legs and so much steep wet clay with so few guardrails and so many buffalo chips to avoid! Good times!

Random Phone Pics

Forgive the randomness, but before I forgot about these pictures entirely, I thought I'd just throw them all in one big, catch-up post!

Here's the girls' first recital:

 Baby G LOVING the slide!

 Handsome dude all ready for church, wearing a tie just like daddy:

 J's new summer look:

 M with her natural blush:

Everybody painting Mother's Day rocks:

 Enjoying my Mother's Day goodness:

 A rare night out at a restaurant. Think chubbo-cheeks was enjoying the buffet?

What's to see in Bismarck?

Grammy and Papa decided to come visit us for a few days since they were "on the way" when they dropped Che and her kids off in Utah. I guess since Utah is closer to Oregon than North Dakota, you could kind of say that ... 

So we decided to head into Bismarck with them and see the "sights." Actually, we had a ton of errands to do at, you know, stores. We don't have a ton of those here in town. For example, there isn't a single dry cleaner so we have to drop Coop's suits off once a month when we go to the "big city" :) While there, before the kids exploded from a long day of running here and there, we thought we'd show Grammy and Papa a few things around town like the capitol. Here's our cute pics! 

Beautiful day! We're so glad they were able to come and just wish they could've stayed longer!

Last Day of School!!

 So classic me, I decided the girls should make presents to give to their teachers on the last day of school...on the second-to-last day of school. And naturally I wanted them to be handmade by the girls so they'd mean more. To the girls that is. So we went straight from picking them up from school to Walmart to buy supplies and then raced home and began cutting out paper flowers until we dropped. They were so proud of them though so it was totally worth killing a whole afternoon and evening for! We filled the little pots with pens and pencils the teachers can use next year, put paper flowers on the tops and they included a little note that said, "thanks for helping us bloom and grow this year." Cute girls. I thought it would be even more meaningful to them because both of their teachers are switching to the new school next year and they were having a hard time dealing with that. Thankfully, daddy also got a quick picture of them with their teachers after school so they can always remember :)

If you can't tell, they're soaking wet here from apparently being sprayed by a fire truck's hose at the last day carnival. Wish I'd got a picture of that! 

And with that, let the summer games begin! I spent the morning getting ready with our new, "Fight boredom, not each other" jar full of fun ideas if things to do. So for once I'm one step ahead! Or I've potentially fought boredom with lots of projects that require my involvement, which will most likely always happen at the least convenient time possible. But it'll be fun! And jokes on them because I snuck some chores in there too, and the rule will be if they draw one they can't put it back! Russian Roulette anyone? Anybody bored yet?