Clear Creek 2014

Another year at dear old Clear Creek.  The weather was great -- no snow this year.  Nate wasn't on crutches.  And most important, I had my very own bathroom!  No more potty tent peeing for me.  Last year Nate was awesome and bought us a trailer so we wouldn't have to be hard core and tent it anymore.  We decided on a pop-up tent trailer for several reasons.  1- we found a new one for a super great deal. 2-we have to have something small that the Tahoe can pull.  As much as we would love to buy a truck to pull stuff with it's just not going to happen yet.  One day.  3- My parents used a tent trailer when I was growing up so I didn't really see anything wrong with them.  We took it out camping 1 whole time!  

Fast forward a year and I started thinking about the camping season and how I hate not having a trailer with a toilet.  I was sick of the potty tent.  I wanted to sit to tinkle without fear of something biting my rear.  Those potty tents let any and all bugs in.  No good in my book.  So I started doing some research.  Turns out they make light weight trailers for SUV's to pull.  I then convinced myself, and Nate, that it was okay to upgrade.  It's an investment, right?  With four boys I will be spending all of my summers camping.  I'm not quite sure how I feel about that but now that I have a real trailer with a toilet all will be okay.  

So we shopped around and found something that was perfect for us.  Definitely more expensive than the pop-up but not as gut wrenching as I thought paying for a real trailer would be. Plus we got more on trade in for our pop-up than we actually paid for it.  Bonus baby!  I even got to unwrap a brand new, never used toilet in it.  I threatened my children for days before we went that I would be the first to use the potty and if anyone so much as touched it they were toast.  It made camping so much more fun.

The boys loved every second of it.  You can't put a price tag on that. 

 Grif kills me.  There are no words for this boy sometimes.  But he sure does know how to relax and enjoy life.  I need to take some pointers from him.

I'm still trying to scrub dirt off of them.  They should be nice and clean by the time we head there again next year.

Dax wins!

I have no idea who this guy is.  Chuck Liddell I guess.  Someone from the UFC.  I have no idea what that is either.  Wrestling?  Okay so I just googled it so I didn't look so pathetic.  I guess it's some sort of fighting.  That is all the info I need to get on it. My interest is non existent on this subject.  All I know is since we gave Grif a mohawk the first time people kept saying he looked like him.  

Other than the hair I see no resemblance. 

This week Dax decided he wanted to join Grif and get a mohawk too.  

I say he's the winner!  He looks more like this Chuck guy to me than Grif does.  He even has the fat/split lip like a real fighter would.  He got it tripping out of the car but it still counts. 

UFC fighter look-alikes seem to be appropriate at this house.  Seems like that is all these boys ever want to do.  Play or real, it's going on all the time. I'm praying I make it through the next 15 years.

I have a new favorite 5 year old

Happy Happy Birthday my little Dax man!  Dax decided for his birthday this year he wanted to go camp at Willard Bay for a night.  Easy enough, so off we went.

 Why oh why is it so hard for Nate to just smile in a picture?

We spent the next day in the water and when I say we I mean the boys.  I don't do water, especially if it is a murky brown color.  The boys didn't seem to mind that there were probably alien looking creatures with fins swimming along side them. 

Cousin Elle came to join the fun. I don't think she was as thrilled about it as my boys were but she was a trooper for awhile.

 and don't forget Jude.  The cupcake he devoured right before this picture was taken didn't stand a chance.

 Mike was much scarier than the before mentioned alien fish. See the look of  sheer terror on Dilon's face.

 Several hours of fun in the sun wiped them right out. 

 Watching his brothers get to open presents is almost unbearable for poor Baylor. However,.....

 .....Dax took pity on him and let him help.

 His main present....a cold pillow.  Lame for a 5 year old?  Nate got one several months ago and Dax kept trying to steal it because he just has the hottest pillow in the whole world.  Who cares about toys when you can have a pillow.

Happy Birthday Daxy.  We love you!

Not much happening here

Nothing fantastic has happened lately at the Wright house so I figured I would just blog about the little things that have been going on.

We celebrated Father's Day with this awesome dad

He was extra awesome that day and decided to throw a 4 year old's bike away for not listening.  This was the outcome of that

 A little boy sobbing on his dad's shoulder until he got his bike back.

We have super rare/awesome/unexpected moments like this when they all love each other

 Then we have the moments when there is non-stop fighting so I make them stop and do the Hokey Pokey.  It worked and they stopped fighting.  Except not for Dax.  He was crying again.  Must still be traumatized from the whole bike incident.  Or he just needs more sleep.  I'm guessing that's what the issue is. 

Today was extra fun for me.  Baylor decided to throw up while we were at school lunch.  I, being the patient person I am, kept shoveling mashed potatoes in his mouth so we could leave.  Serves me right I guess.  At least I caught it in my hand and with the tray so it didn't get all over everything (TMI?).  I've learned a thing or two being a mom. 

And these little ones have anxiously been waiting to go camping.  Only a couple more days until we at least go for an overnighter to Willard Bay for Dax's birthday.  Real camping to come soon.  Until then they will just pretend to be camping out in our driveway. 

Take me out to the ball game

It's baseball season again.  Finally, Dax is old enough to sign up for something.  He has been waiting for almost 5 whole years to get to actually play sports instead of just watching his brothers.  It's been torture for the kid.  I talked him into T-ball instead of soccer which I'm not sure was the best idea.  Now I have several games where I have to run (and by run I do mean walk) back and forth between ball fields to try and watch Dilon and Dax at the same time.  Dax was so excited to play and now that he is, the kid won't crack a smile to save his life.  I don't know if he's just super serious about it or if he built up so much excitement about playing that it's not as cool as he thought.  Either way he thinks he's pretty darn cool rockin his shades during the games.  

 

Dilon on the other hand is all smiles when it comes to sports.  He is loving every minute.  He started playing catcher this year because no one else on the team wanted to and he actually really likes it.

Then there's Grif.  Good ol' Grif who doesn't want a thing to do with sports.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of him eating nacho's, sippin his slurpee, and cheering for his brothers. 

And then Baylor.  Baylor is chill hanging out at the slide which makes going to the games nice and relaxing for me (well except when there are two at the same time that I am "running" between).  I love ball season.

we be jammin

Do you think I'm breaking some kind of child labor law with this?

It's fine.  It is teaching them the value of good hard work right?  Plus maybe it will help them realize school isn't so bad after all.  Staying home with me is much worse.  I make them replenish the raspberry jam they seem to drink straight from the jar.

I blame my lack of patience.  I could have done a batch or two at a time.  But nope.  Who wants to wait around when you can do all five batches at once.  It only took about an hour to do.  It took me another hour to wipe all the sticky off everything after we were done. Baylor didn't quite understand the concept that your stir with the spoon and not your hand.  Therefore, everything he touched after "helping" had that fun stick to it.  But hey, we have freezer jam again.  Bring on the scones, Nate (hint hint).

School's out for summer and our final graduate of the year

We have one final graduate for the year.  Dilon graduated from grade school.  I'm not ready.  Oh well, not much I can do about it.  I guess they have to grow up sometime. 

 Dilon got a first place ribbon on his Science Fair Project this year.  He decided he wanted to do something with his Diabetes so I helped him brainstorm.  I had the bright idea of saying lets eat the same food and test our blood sugar 4 different times after eating it to see if your pump works as good as my pancreas.  I don't know how he pokes his fingers so many times a day.  I wanted to change his project every time it was my turn to test.  These kiddos with T1D are stronger than most people realize.   

 Both boys got awards at the assembly

 and finally.....school's out for summer!