Palmyra, New York

On the Sunday of our camping trip to Watkins Glen State Park we spent the day in Palmyra, NY, which was about an hour or so from our campground. We went to church with the other families we were camping with and then visited the LDS church historical sites in Palmyra. I hadn't been to these sacred sites since I was ten years old, so it was neat to be back.  

 Palmyra Temple

The property where Joseph Smith grew up.

The first home Joseph Smith lived in on the property. 

 Some cute sister missionaries giving us some historical background in front of the second home on the Smith property. 

 Bryn and Mya loved looking through this "old-fashioned house" of Joseph Smith.

 Mya and cousin Abby walking from Joseph Smith's home to the Sacred Grove

 We had a little family devotional in the Sacred Grove and talked to the girls about the First Vision, how Joseph Smith prayed to God and his prayer was answered by God and Jesus Christ appearing to him. It was a special little moment and the girls were really into it. Afterwards they wanted to "say prayers like Joseph Smith". It was cute :)

 This was the point where Tate suddenly got a fever and totally not himself. We ended up leaving the church sites earlier than the rest of our group, driving back to our campsite, and packing up one night early. We knew Tate was going to have a rough night and we wanted to get home and get him on a breathing treatment, etc. Poor guy! We snapped this picture just to prove he really was there with us :)

 It really was a special day and we felt like we were on holy ground. 

I'm sure my kids are young enough that they'll probably forget this day in Palmyra, but hopefully they'll remember it for at least the new little while. 

Camping in Watkins Glen State Park

The week before school started we took one last family outing, a 3-night camping trip to Watkins Glen State Park in upstate New York. We went with five families (The Ures, Mathuseks, Rahlstons, Vivakas, and our cousins the Hawkins) and we had such a great time in such a beautiful place. 

Bryn, her cousins Leah and Abby, and three of the Ure girls

Prepping food for the dutch ovens with my sister in law Tyra and my niece and nephew

Our campground was awesome! One perk was the swimming pool! Bryn had just gotten her stitches out and her plastic surgeon wouldn't allow her to swim (or even take baths!) yet, but we caved and let her play in the kiddie pool for a while as long as she kept her head out of the water. She was bummed that she couldn't do the diving boards, but it was still a fun afternoon.

 Camping with a 10 month old! Yikes!

To be honest, it was a bit rough camping with Tate at this age. All he wanted to do was crawl around, get dirty, and eat dirt and rocks. Then on the last day he got sick and had some breathing trouble, so we left early and ended up having to do an antibiotic and an albuterol breathing treatment a few times a day for two weeks. Poor guy!

 Chewing on rocks, happy as can be.

My shy, little Mya got a bit overwhelmed sometimes with all the cute, energetic kids in our group, so we would do little nature walks to give her the quiet time she needed. 

Bryn, on the other hand, was right in the middle of the action at all times. She had such a great time running around with so many of her friends.

 My brother in law Jake was teaching everyone how to long board. It was actually really fun!

Sometimes Mya pretends to be mad when she really is having a good time. This is totally a "fake-mad" face! 

 Right behind our campsites was the hike to Watkins Glen Falls (I'm totally guessing on the name of the hike. It was the main hike in Watkins Glen). This was one of the coolest hikes we've done as a family. Such a beautiful landscape!

 Bryn was feeling pretty special to be hiking buddies and matching-hair buddies with her cousin Abby.

 Such a fun camping trip! We're so grateful for the wonderful people we've become friends with in New Jersey and for the beautiful places we've been able to visit back east. 

*We spent the Sunday of this camping trip up in Palmyra, NY and I'll do a separate blog post on that.

Tate Ten Months

 Tate is ten months old and full of smiles, mischief, and cuddles. Here are a few blurry pictures and ten-month stats to document this age...

 EATING

Pretty much the same as the last month- He nurses at about 6:45 am, 10:45 am, 4:00 pm, and 7:45 pm. He also has mini meals with us at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He's officially transitioned from baby food to 100% table food. His favorites are bananas, pears, peaches, berries, pasta, wild rice, scrambled eggs, and teddy grahams (as pictured in his mouth in these pictures. Bribery!)

Knock on wood, but Tate is finally growing out of the crazy spitting up phase. He doesn't soak through burp cloths anymore, just a few little spit up drops every couple days. Woohoo! It was a long ten months with lots of laundry, but thank goodness his tummy has decided to keep his food down.

 SLEEPING:

Same as the last few months- He sleeps from 8 pm to about 6:30 or 7:00 am. Then he naps for an hour and a half in the morning (at about 8:30 or 9:00 am) and then again for two hours in the afternoon (usually from 2:00 to 4:00 pm). 

 Tate only lasted about 5 seconds on the couch until he shimmied off and climbed the step ladder instead. He loves climbing lately, whether it's our staircases, porch steps, ladders at the playground, whatever. He also loves climbing up plastic slides. He uses his little chubby feet to grip and he is so proud of himself when he makes it to the top of a slide. 

He can walk with the help of his bus or if he scoots a bin along the room. He loves opening and emptying cupboards and drawers. He loves climbing into the dishwasher and pulling out the utensils and plastic ware. He has a problem with unwinding and shredding toilet paper and reaching into garbage cans, so we always have to keep an eye on him. 

He is busy and active, but still really cuddly. He loves to burrow his face into our shoulders and give hugs. Then he usually grabs our face and tries to suck on and bite our chin or facial features. He has eight big teeth and often uses them to chomp on his family members... we're working on that! When he gets too excited he bounces up and down and then yanks our hair, so we're working on that, too! I'm kind of amazed we all aren't bald by now from all the hair he's yanked.

But all that mischief aside, we LOVE Mr. Tate so much! He is such a smiley, happy child and he is such a good little buddy. 

Bryn, Mya, and Tate at this age.

(Tate just got his second haircut, which explains his little bald head.) 

We love you, Blondie!!

Backyard Camp-out

Josh has been trying to convince me to buy a tent for our whole marriage and this summer I finally caved and said "yes" to getting all the basic camping gear our family would need to go camping. A few weekends ago we had our tent's inaugural camp-out in our backyard. I prepared myself for a wild, sleepless night with a tent full of giddy children (and a giddy husband), but it actually turned out to be such a great night. The kids slept great and we had so much fun as a family. (This was all Josh's idea, so he deserves the credit!)

Playing games

Every picture I took of Tate was blurry because he was crawling laps around the tent, drooling over all our bedding, and having the time of his life.

 Our view looking up.

Luckily our neighborhood has enough trees to make it seem just enough like camping in the woods.

Roasting marshmallows over the BBQ flame

 Bryn created a s'mores station with graham crackers, chocolate, and nutella. 

 Yum.

 After s'mores we cozied up in the tent and watched Aristocats on the laptop until everyone fell asleep.

Backyard camping is the way to go!