Now for something different...HIKING! (Oh wait)

Grandpa really does love hiking. We couldn't pass up a Sunday afternoon in Snow Canyon with him. Dad had something to do that day so we went without him.

We hiked to the Lava Caves. Grandpa took us big girls down while Mom stayed up top with the littles.

We were all really good hikers!

February Usuals

To be honest, we are back blogging here. It's half way through April and Mom is trying to help me remember what even HAPPENED in February. We did a lot of daily life sprinkled with visits to Grandma's and parks.

We felt like being ridiculous one day at Harmon's. And Mom let us. 

The cart was REALLY hard to push!

Mom was supposed to be watching Allie. She found Iva wearing Allie's jacket and helping her set up chairs on top of the couch.

 

Sam eats a ton of hot dogs. It's one of the foods that Mom feels like she can always get him to eat.

Mom checked us out of school early one day to go play at the new All Abilities Park and for once the train was open! We actually got to ride it!

Utah Gymnastics

While we were in SLC, Mom realized that the Utah gymnastics team had a home meet and suddenly she wanted to go. I was walking by her in the kitchen and she asked if I wanted to go too. OF COURSE I DID. Nobody else wanted to join us so Aunt Rachel dropped us off at the Huntsman Center. 

The Utah gymnastics team is extremely popular. They hold the collegiate attendance record for Women's Sports. And they've held it for like 10 years. Mom ended up having to buy tickets from a scalper, but we got in.

The funny part was that she thought the meet started at 7 and we got there at 6:55. Turns out, the meet started at EIGHT. We enjoyed hanging out and watching warm ups. It was so worth it to be there. They were competing against UCLA. Utah was ranked #5 and UCLA #4. We ended up winning the meet!! It was so fun.

The best part is that we have a very similar picture from six years before! I think that means it's a tradition!

We love Utah gymnastics. We have been to other meets besides these two, but it was still fun to have a comparison photo. 

SLC for Presidents' Day

Normally, we try very hard (and we don't usually have to actually try all that hard) to get the Preslars to come down to US in February, but we hadn't seen each other in so long and they couldn't come down. So we went up! 

Sam was so funny in his coat and loved going and playing on the slide.

Mom attempted a zoo selfie with us all. It didn't quite work.

The kind soul behind us in line took pity and took a photo for us.

The zoo always offers up some sort of gem for us. This time we played with these monkeys and they played with us. This guy kept trying to hold Mom's phone and play with her fingers.

It was impossible to capture but there was a brand new baby monkey on this Daddy's back! 

That was the other fun surprise. These particular monkeys stay in family groups and will sit on a branch and intertwine their tails. The dads are also the primary care takers of the babies!

Speaking of monkeys, more Iva shenanigans.

Mom loves this photo of Sam trying to eat pizza. We have all felt this way.

Church with seven kids on one row seems comical. We do our best to keep entertained.

Uncle Troy and Aunt Rachel have a beautiful chapel. It's so unique.

Before we had to run back to St. George, Dad gave Aunt Rachel her very own cello lesson!

Sam and Iva shenanigans

There are A LOT of photos of Sam and Iva. It's like Mom spends most of her time with those two. And, boy, are they rambunctious. Just one of them is worth two of Cara or me. It leads for lots of photo ops of course. 

Sam started climbing up the ladder to the playhouse. Mom can't leave him alone in the back yard because he has also started trying to climb DOWN. It's very stressful. He's fairly good at waiting for help, but it only takes one time where he doesn't wait!

The boy does LOVE being outside. The tramp, the playhouse, the swings, you name it, it's his jam.

Not to be outdone by Sam, Iva has started climbing things that she shouldn't. This is at Grandma and Grandpa's house. She LOVES to climb up to the top of the cement wall. And she's pretty good at it. We had to have a talk with her about waiting for grown up help though.

There are lots of sleeping pictures too. Mom is constantly trying to get Sam to sleep, but somehow keep Iva awake. It doesn't work.

Warm Front

For a brief moment at the beginning of February, it was really quite warm and we played outside a lot!

Grandpa was still healing from his shoulder surgery and wasn't a 100% yet so we went out and hiked with him a few times more. Iva, in particular, was happy to always be invited. She loved hiking with the boys, Colt and Carter, AND once she even tried to follow when she WASN'T invited, sobbing "I am bigger enough!"

We were waiting for Grandpa to meet us at the trail!

Veggies for a Month!

For the month of January, Mom asked us to set the goal to eat two servings of veggies every day in January. If we did it, we could go out to eat to Sakura.

We did our absolute best. We weren't a 100%, BUT we were dang close. We ate carrots 99% of the time, but we ate them and didn't turn orange.

Sakura was fun even with a toddler!