Sunday at Sylvan

Three weeks ago on Sunday May 7, while driving to church in some pretty glorious weather, I got the itch to go for a drive in the hills. So that's what we did after lunch because that's Terry's way of helping me not go crazy. It was a bit last minute, but we all packed in the Envoy and it turned out to be some pretty good practice for our upcoming summer two week Utah and California trip - it made me sure I did not want to drive the Envoy!

Once we arrived we headed directly for the big rock that goes out into the middle of the lake. The kids and daddy climbed up and I stayed lower with Luna.

Terry's view of me and Luna!

I passed the dog to Terry so I could climb up and take a few photos and they went on to the next rock. See them?

They're good little cheesers.

Panaramic from northwest to southeast.  

I always take a selfie up here, like last summer and February. Kids are behind me.

We explored behind the second big rock for a bit. I like exploring. When we first got down to the water, there was this kid sneaking up on that turtle and he caught it! The kids were pretty impressed. When he let it go it climbed right back up on his log again and the kids, especially Evie just wanted to watch it for a while.  

We decided to brave Sunday Gulch, just like last summer, despite the warning from park person that there was still 6 inches of ice on the stairs. She was so wrong. There was no ice except in a couple deep places next to the stairs.  

It was just beautifully spring down there. 

I was wishing we hadn't brought Luna though, or that we could take her off her leash. At every step she was in danger of jumping down stairs and then getting hung up by her leash, literally. 

 But we made it to the bottom. Terry really wanted to keep going and do the whole loop, and for a while we did. The kids finally wore him down though. All they wanted to do was go swimming so we hiked right back up the canyon to do just that. 

I trucked back on up with the three olders (huffing and puffing because they were surprisingly fast!) while Terry slowly meandered with Ezra, both of them taking their time and enjoying the scenery.  

Ezra. I want to kiss his face at all times! 

I didn't take any pictures once we reached the beach because I wanted to enjoy the sun and I had forgot my good camera anyway. Terry did take this video of Evie dunking herself in the frigid water (I was making Boomerangs which were pretty funny). All of our kids got wet, though of course just like two days before in Marianne's creek, Evie went all the way under.

On our drive out of the park we stopped by Paul and Jana's house to see their mostly complete home remodel they had been working on for a while. Jana was kind enough to make us dinner too! Afterwards we walked around their land and creek, the kids swung, I fished Samuel's brand new sandal out of the muddy creek bed, we argued about which vehicle to take on our trip, and Luna became infested with at least ten ticks. It was a great day except for the ticks!

twinzies prank!

On Saturday May 6 we awoke to find we had been pranked once again. 

Terry had an elder meeting at eight and Noah had got up with him for a little early for a run. When I came down shortly thereafter, it was to find Noah sitting on one of those deck chairs, amidst all these streamers and balloons like it was no thing, just a normal day on the deck. Ha! Terry said that his car had been window painted with the words, Proud Parents, Yay estrogen, and Yay testosterone. 

Pretty funny. Many people who drove by did so slowly to figure out what was going on and our neighbor asked Noah if we were going to have more babies. In fact, I got a congratulations text from a friend who misread my facebook caption of the prank and thought it was for real. Ha!

While he was cleaning it off, Natasha drove by. But when she saw Terry, she sped up and zoomed past the house in order to avoid being seen. It backfired because who will you notice more, someone casually driving up your road or someone flying your hair back at ungodly speeds? Despite her obvious speed, Terry clearly saw a giant grin on her face. By the time he got his car cleaned and pulled off our street, he saw Natasha  driving by again, pretending not to notice him (she also had a meeting at the church at 8). Emma and Jazmin made the same mistake last time - I saw them with my own eyes then too. Amateurs.

But even before Terry told me this, I knew Natasha was responsible in part. It was her birthday the night before and whenever she has friends over our house gets pranked, like last September or the time before that when they showed up with silly string at our front door and we sprayed them with the hose. Both incidents took place when Natasha had friends over. I just knew in my mind that Jazmin, Emma, Prae, and Zoe were involved. All their mothers more or less confirmed this, along with my secret eyewitness. I figured Prae was the mastermind since this was pretty clever, however, it was all down to EMMA! What was news to me was that KATRINA (newly known as K-Train) took part as well! I mentor her and she does this to me?!! Gasp!

My favorite part of their prank was these little girl and boy doll shoes they had lined up at our front door. Apparently there were twins in my belly that even I didn't know about, a boy and a girl. 

The garage door had two banners, "IT'S A BOY" and "IT'S A GIRL," along with it written on the windows and decorated with streamers and balloons.

What it looked like just before the kids took the balloons off. I was so glad I had waited to plant anything in that front flower bed because it would have been completely stomped to death after this.

I had dug up my old pink hydrangeas the previous week and waited to plant new ones, thankfully, until later that day.

 Streamers and baby shower plates from the corner of the house.

A closer look at the plates.

The full picture. 

Even the New Yorker was hit.

"Jesus take the wheel, take it from my hands." Sing it Carrie Underwood. 

This side announced a boy. 

This side for the girl. 

Yay indeed for twinzies! 

Mummy mailbox.

Nice one girls!

tubing on the creek

Two weeks ago on May 5 we were invited up to our friend's Marianne and Kenroy's place to hang out. We brought our swimsuits since they have Rapid Creek running through their backyard. Honestly, I didn't think the kids would do more than get their feet wet, but for only Ezra did that prove true. He prefers to throw rocks.

They had these heavy duty inner tubes that we used to float down the creek. Noah and Evie went first and then Samuel. Poor guy was unbalanced and didn't have a very good grip though...

He's about to fall off! He's not a swimmer yet and I was quite alarmed when he fell shortly after, but it was shallow enough that he just bounced right back up. Plus Terry was nearby.  

Thereafter daddy went with the littles in a bigger tube. 

Noah and Evie, mostly Evie, continued to use the purple tube. 

Much safer this way. 

Lazy river-like. 

The olders had a few turns in the big one as well.  

Noah had been sitting here in the middle of the creek when Ezra threw a rock and hit his head. I thought it was accidental but Noah was convinced it wasn't and was understandably mad for quite some time afterwards. Ezra can be so naughty! But I was struck by how grown up Noah looked out there. Maybe because he didn't have his glasses on? He is twelve now! 

It was an absolutely idyllic afternoon, 80 degrees with warm sun playing on the water. Ahhhh.  

More of that big boy. 

Ezra is fishing with his stick. 

I waded across the creek to try to get a different view. 

Panoramic view. 

Fun times!

Samuel liked to stay in the shallow water and catch the tubes :D 

Samuel trying to splash Daddy and Evie and I think he got Noah.  

I'd like living next to a creek. Maybe one not so deep since I'd worry constantly about the kids. But I just love moving water. 

Beautiful. 

The water wasn't quite as cold as our last foray at the beginning of April, but still, in South Dakota, it was definitely not warm. Evie insisted on going under though. Counting down...

"3...2...1!!!" 

There she goes! 

Crazy girl. She loved it. 

More lazy fishing. 

After nearly an hour and a half we went up onto the deck and the kids washed off, then got to soak in the hot tub while we made pizza. 

Seriously, this was a perfect afternoon and exactly what we all needed. We enjoyed it so much. 

Their view of the creek. I spent most of my time on those big boulders taking pictures. 

I love Marianne so much!!! 

We all had a fantastic time.

We got home and I was surprised to see that our apple tree had finally blossomed. It's skipped two years instead of what we thought was the usual one. Yay for apples! And yay for beautiful days with good company. :)