Camping at Payson Lakes

We had a fantastic camping trip to Payson Lakes over the weekend. The May family may recognize this "hotspot" just past the turnoff to the main lake. We roasted hot dogs, ate s'mores, whittled sticks, caught 5 rainbow trout in about 45 minutes, rode bikes/scooters to the ranger station and had such a fun time. Here are some pics...





Ben and the boys roasting hot dogs over the fire.











When asked about their favorite parts of the trip, Sean and Jason both mentioned sleeping in the trailer as one of them. I'm not sure it was Ben and my favorite part (Kyle kicks a lot), but for a 7+ month pregant mom, it sure beats a tent:)

Kyle reeled in his own rainbow trout, Sean reeled in 2 and Jason reeled in 2. Thanks to Ben for some sweet casting!

Here's one of Jason's prized fish...it's a whopper!

Sean and Jason both loved whittling with their pocketknives. Luckily, they both have all ten digits still intact.

This was taken before our trip, but I couldn't resist adding it here. Kyle found this plastic magnifying glass in the playroom, walked out the front door, came in the back door, went to the office and took a piece of paper from the cupboard, went back out the back door and tried to light a fire in the shade. Future boyscout? I think so! (Yes, we have HO insurance, but I'm not sure if we're covered in the case of a 2 year old starting the house on fire with a magnifying glass)

Apricot Season

What a great time of year! Jason woke up one morning (before any of the rest of us were ready to be up) and went outside to pick apricots by himself. Childhood can't get much better than that:) We are eating fresh apricots every day now and wishing summer could last forever.

Here is Kyle helping us pick apricots. He is not going to be left out of anything if he can help it!

Sean and Jason climb the branches and get all the ones that I can't reach from the ground or a ladder. They are awesome!

This picture is for Kristy...a belly shot:)

The finished product...some beautiful bottles of apricots for the winter. Quite pioneerish, huh?

Kyle's Birthday

Our little Kyle turned 2! Happy Birthday! He is such a fun, energetic, happy guy. We don't know what life would be like without him!

Here he is at his birthday party...fun brothers, friends and cousins.




He is such a fish! We couldn't have a birthday party without water:)

"These are all for me?!"

There's nothing like cake, ice cream and a couple of big brothers.

This is one of Kyle's birthday presents. I can't believe how well he does on it. Now he can be one of the big boys.

The May Family Reunion

We just had a great family reunion over the 4th of July. Yummy food, water games at the park, campfire up the canyon, and had a wonderful time! I think there are a total of 50 people now in the May Family. Wow! I sure married into a neat family...


Here is Ben and Kyle playing on the water slide


Sean and his cousin, Ben (notice the sweet matching shirts)

A happy marshmallow eater, Jason.

I think this fountain may have made some noise:) The boys were thrilled with the fireworks this year. They were setting them off every night for a week prior to the fourth and can't wait for the 24th.

On the Lake

Ben and I met wakeboarding on the lake, so it's no surprise that we still love it! We're lucky that our boys like it as much as we do. Here are some pics from the past couple of weeks.

I learned to waterski on a 'Ski Bob' like this one. It's fun to see the boys enjoy it. Here's Jason with a 'thumbs way up!' We were shocked to see him stand up, but as soon as he did, the thumb came up too:)


Yeah, he's still got it! What a hot husband I have.

Kyle yells 'OFF' anytime the boat motor stops. We then have to lower him into the water by the handle of his life jacket or jump in with him.

What would summer be without good friends?! These are five happy boys.

Like father, like son. I wonder where he learned this? Those are some sweet guns!

Loving Summer!

First of all, I have to confess that I opened the crib tent, put it up, and absolutely love it! Poor Kyle is not as big a fan, but hey, it works. I remember before I had kids all the things I swore I'd never do...oops. Well, here's a few pics from the fantastic summer we are having. I LOVE having the kids with me all day. I may sing a different tune by the end of the summer, but until then, on with the fun!







Here we are at Hill AFB...

This one cracks me up. Sean catches a duck at the pond (wild, yet fed daily by visitors I'm sure) and Jason tries to get him to put the duck in a ziploc bag.

This is Kyle showing me that he just touched a duck. He's so proud. And, truthfully, so am I. It's no wonder I'm having another boy. I love boys!

Jason's massive cutthroat trout.

My friend had passes for the Children's Museum and Planetarium, and we had such a wonderful time! Here the boys are in the Air Med helicopter.

My awesome crop of rhubarb. Father's Day pie? Of course.

Kyle and I hanging out in the shade in our backyard.

Our newly added rope swing. Ben shimmied all the way up the tree to get the boys this amazing swing. The seat he made out of walnut from the tree the original rope swing was on.

Kyle The Mountain Lion

My sister Kari summed it up well when she said that Kyle is like a mountain lion. He climbs and he growls. Last night Ben and I had a date night at home planned. Sean and Jason were at my parents for a sleepover so we took Kyle to dinner with us and rented a chick flick. It did not go as planned! Kyle learned to climb out of his crib. I say he learned, but my suspicions turn to Jason. He and Kyle play in the crib a lot, so I think Jason secretly taught him how. Anyway, Kyle was up until after midnight and up again at 5:30 am. I spent $70 on a crib tent this morning that may signal a visit from a social worker. I don't know how it can be quite legal to zip a kid into bed. However, desperate times calls for desperate measures. I am happy to say though, that I have not had to open the box yet. I waited until he was nearly asleep on his feet for his afternoon nap, then woke him up before he could get too much energy built up for tonight. We moved the crib into the room with his brothers and they all had some fun with that. I would walk by the hall and hear really loud laughing mixed with "no, no Kyle." He climbed out a few times and I had to retrieve him from the top bunk once, but they are all asleep in their own beds right now. Happy day! I'm not taking the crib tent back just yet. I think we may have just been lucky tonight.