Freedom

4th of July was pretty quiet around our house.  We sat at Grandpa's and had a giant plywood sale.  Pretty boring.  I brought entertainment for the girls but they burned through that in 20 minutes.  Huntley took it upon herself to gain some freedom of her own and taught herself how to ride a bike.  Chris and I had both tried working with her earlier and gave it up as a hopeless cause.  We figured  we'd try again next year so we were pretty surprised when she yelled "watch this" as she went zooming by.  Now our lives are full of bike rides every single day.  The first day she started writing she told me "I want to ride all over the city." So riding around the city is what we do.  I love this fun new phase of life!

June: Part 4 {Final Chapter}

 Our last adventure for the month of June was our first camping trip of the year.  Probably the best thing about being done with fire is we can actually leave the county as a family and Chris doesn't have to be attached to his phone at all times.  So off we went on a dirt road to experience some quality family time.

Camping is a lot more fun when you're the kid.  It's Chris and I's favorite memory from childhood.  One of our main goals is to recreate those memories for our kids but I have a new appreciation for my parents.  Camping is hard work!  But when you get home and look back at the pictures you forget about the bad times and start planning your next trip. 

 I loved every picture we took camping and I hope by the evidence on their faces my girls loved camping.  Although any outing where you can have matching accessories with your dog should be a winner.

June: Part 3 {Road Trip Numero Dos}

We begin again.

And again we begin in the car.  But this car ride was a whole lot longer and not near as bad as the one home from St. George.  It sill had it's moments but out of the two it was better.

 Where would we go for such a long ride?

Well if you read this blog at all you know the answer to that.

Nini's House!!!

Ma and Pa were going on vacation for their anniversary and like the awesome people we are we tagged along.  No we did not stay with them the entire time.  Just when we were in the car.  And for a few meals.  And to use their swimming pool.  And one day trip to Big Sur.  Wow, okay so we were with them a lot and I owe them big time for spending their anniversary with us.

One of the neatest parts of the whole trip was we arrived on Father's day.  My girls were too little to appreciate the fact it would probably be the only father's day they spent with both of their grandpas but I thought it was pretty neat.  They have amazing men in their lives who do so much for us and if I was smart I would have gotten a picture of this occasion.  I'm not that smart but I did get a pretty cute picture of Pais hanging out with Poppy.  Hunt may avoid him at all costs but Paisley loves Poppy!

 It's not California if we don't get a picture of Hunt and her best friend in the whole wide world.

 One of the fun things we did was go to the boardwalk.  It's been a year since we tried that and this year went much better.

Look!  She's actually riding the rides!

 We also went down to Big Sur and hiked into where the river meets the ocean.  Our girls would have nothing to do with the ocean side but loved playing in the river.

 

 

 And when you get to ride home in the car naked, that makes for a good day!

June: Part 2 {the Randomness}

June was seriously the busiest month ever.

I felt like it was go, go, go, go, go.  Probably because it was go, go, go, go, go.

This post is the random things we did when we weren't doing big things, although they are pretty big things.

Like the fact I went to special needs mutual.

 Not really.  My girls are normal.  Just not when we have to go on 4:30 in the AM!!!!! hikes to see the sunrise that was covered by clouds.  Why did I volunteer to be the leader on that I am still wondering.  But look below I actually have a pretty cute group of girls who I loved spending the week with even if I got less sleep that I do with a newborn and our cabin smelled.

 While I was off learning survival skills I'd get random pictures like the one below and it would melt my heart.  Sometimes in the every day scheme of things I think it would be nice to take a break from being mom but I think after a day I'd probably come home.  I really love my cuties.

 Especially when we do fun things like go to the splash pad and Pais tries to be all cool like Auntie Merra and lay out.  This picture doesn't come close to capturing the awkwardness of Paisley trying to sun bathe.  It was hilarious.

 This month we also spent a lot of time with the other cutest kids in the world since it was their big birthday month.  Kristi knows how to throw the best party ever and we had soooo much fun.  Plus she takes amazing pictures that I stole off of her blog.  Thanks Kris :)

 Below is the amazing Nelson family and I had to steal this picture because whenever I have a bad day I'll just have to look at it and smile.  Scott is so stinking adorable and the funniest boy in the whole wide world.  Who else would want a polar bear reindeer cake for their birthday.  Plus his face just kills me!

So, this one time.....

It was June and we did a lot of fun stuff.  Since everyone else in my family is asleep I figured why not relive the past month via blog land.

Scratch that.  I just uploaded all of the pictures I wanted to share from June and there were 43 of them.  That's like 33 too many for one post so we'll now be doing a series on the fabulous month of June in the Harvey life.

Part 1 begins in the car.  You'll soon find out that a lot of June was spent on road trips with Ma and Pa.  We love Ma and Pa and how much fun they provided during the month of June but I'm sure they are glad June is over :)

 Our first road trip was a quick get away to St. George to stay at the "new big house."  That was Hunt's nickname for the place but it described it perfectly.  My parents, siblings, and all the grandkids spent the weekend together and the house was so big you could have gotten lost and not seen anyone else the entire time.  It's true, Ta'Merra practically pulled it off except for she got hungry occasionally.

We had lots of fun though.  Who wouldn't have fun when whale wrestling is involved.

 Or exploring the red rocks and looking for lizards with tour guide Uncle Josh.

Or spending the entire time poolside and living in your swimsuit.

Or hiding in the corner corner because your afraid of the water is still kind of fun too.

It was a great vacation except the coming home part.  Not only did we have to go home we had to listen to Pais cry for a really really really long time.  Poor Ma and Pa were probably regretting the fact they had another road trip that month with us and it was for a lot longer distance.  Find out how that turned out in another part of our series, coming soon!

Happy Father's Day (one month later)

My Daddy

By: Huntley Madison

Age: 4

My Daddy's name is: Chris

How tall is he: really high

How much does he weigh: 14 pounds

What color is his hair: black

What color are his eyes: brown

His favorite show is The Lorax.

He likes to play with me and draw pictures.

His favorite food is spinach.

His favorite drink is water.

For fun he likes to read me books.

I love it when my daddy gives me hugs and surprises.

My favorite thing about my dad is that he gave me a present for Christmas.

Happy Fathers Day a little late Chris!  We love you!