Yay Dillon! Yay Kayda!

Sorry no pictures this time but there's some exciting news!

Dillon FINALLY decided to roll over, ON PURPOSE! He did it this evening. He was playing on the floor and after pushing himself around in a circle he decided he wanted to look around and slowly but surely pushed himself right over (tummy to back). It's so exciting! I've been waiting at LEAST a month for him to decide to do it on purpose! He's done it a few times on accident but I consider this his official "first" since he meant to do it. Of course after we (Daddy and I) got so excited about it he didn't have the opportunity again, Kayda kept deciding she would help him so that he'd get cheers again. Every time he started pushing himself up and twisting a little she'd run over and try to push his side to help him flip over. Cute that she wanted to help but frustrating when we wanted him to keep doing it on his own.

Sweet little Kayda... She is slowly but surely deciding that she is interested in talking. She is starting to work at saying the words now. Granted she tends to get as far as the first, maybe second syllable. She's saying "mama" very well (she used to go mamamamamamama etc) and she is saying "baby" again. She started saying it just after Dillon was born and then stopped a couple months later. She has a LOT of things she has sounds for that kind of resemble the actual word but she is actually trying now!

She has been cracking me up in the morning. She has several things that she does with Dillon. She whispers "hi", pats his back, tries to help him roll over, tries to hold him, grabs his hands and dances with him, and the newest addition... she tries to tickle him. She does "crab hands" on his belly and says "ahhhhh". She's imitating the way we tickle him of course but that doesn't mean it's any less adorable.

Lake Wenatchee State Park

From Aug 6th to Aug 10th we were at Lake Wenatchee State Park with the H Group. When we had our maximum of 8 families there we had a grand total of 30 people there, not counting the little one in progress (Sarah's). It was kind of crazy with all the little ones running around and I was sick all day Thursday so we didn't get as many pictures as we would've liked. The campground was nice. The only problem was the walk down to the lake was long. It was a gorgeous lake and oddly enough you could walk a long ways out into the lake, no swimming required.

Kayda LOVES camping and had an especially good time since she had all of her cousins there. To my amazement we were actually able to get her to play in the pack - n - play with Peyton a couple of times. I didn't think it would be possible considering we were outside and she could run free. Her cousins were very helpful, they would play with her, or follow her around for us occasionally. I was very impressed with the "Older kids" meaning anyone over the age of 4. They included the little ones quite a bit and kept an eye on them as much as you can expect a kid that's excited about camping to be able to.

Kayda got to ride on a bike for the "first time". It's not actually her first time but every other time it was just around either our yard or my parents yard so it was the first time she got to go anywhere exciting. She wore my brother's helmet from when he was little because I was unable to get her one before we left (without spending a small fortune). She wore it in her bike seat and then decided on her own that she should wear it whenever she was trying to ride her trike. It was so cute to see her grab the helmet, try to stick it on her head, then once it was on (with our help), she would climb onto her trike and expect to be pulled around.

There was a playground in the other loop that the kids thoroughly enjoyed. Kayda insisted on sliding down the tallest slide every time. She REALLY enjoyed it when someone would slide down next to her. She wasn't very interested in sliding down in anyone's lap though. She thought it was very entertaining when little brother went down too. Here's Grandma G with Kayda and Dillon getting ready to go down the slides together.

Kayda loved being outside all the time. She ran around with her cousins and on a few occasions willingly sat down to eat or snuggle. This one was too cute to pass up.

 Of course Grandpa G had no problem carting around the babies to help them explore. He'd stick Dillon in one arm and chase Kayda where ever her little heart desired.

One can't forget one of the best parts of camping... Smores!!! Course not everyone shares this opinion but Kayda sure liked the parts that make a smore. She munched on some chocolate and a marshmallow, decided it was too much and would pop the marshmallow in and out of her mouth to try to eat it. She was quite a mess by the time she finally finished.

Dillon liked being outside most of the time. He didn't like going down for naps while we were out and about. Grandma G was actually pretty good at getting him to conk out though. He got snuggled a lot because he would get tired of the exersaucer or high chair. He learned a new sound "ga" and spent quite a bit of time working very hard to make it over and over again. He also rolled over TWICE from tummy to back. I was tyring to put him to sleep and had laid him down. He decided he didn't want to be down yet and flipped himself over (this was Thursday night) of course I haven't been able to get him to repeat it.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa G! Once again they let us use their tent trailer so we were fortunate enough to be able to bathe the kids every night. Here they are waiting for mommy to get it ready. I love babies in diapers!

Friday we went to Leavenworth with the Grandma and Grandpa H branch (minus Uncle Greg who didn't come camping). We wandered around the stores for quite a while. They were fun to wander in and out of as long as the babies were in their back packs. We got a picture of our little family and almost immediately afterwards Dillon passed out. I love pictures of him sleeping in the backpack!





























































When we were done exploring we went to the sledding hill.  The chiblings, plus Kayda and Tyler, had a marvelous time rolling down the hill. Kayda tried desperately to roll down but always rolled her feet faster so she would end up the wrong direction. She and Ella decided that they liked to run down the hill. One time they ran down together and Ella tripped at the bottom, Kayda pointed at her like "hey pay attention she fell" and then proceeded to grab Ella's shirt and try to pick her back up.

 Dillon eventually woke up and got to play on the hill with Grandma Peggy.

All the grandkids attacked Grandpa Mike and Grandma Peggy and we were able to get some really neat pictures of them with ALL of their grandchildren. Unfortunately I didn't take any with my camera but when/if I get a copy I'll post it later. Grandpa Mike, being wrapped around Kayda's little finger just as much as Grandpa G, treated Kayda to a shoulder ride on the way back to the car. What won't grandparents do for their grandchildren?

Of course following G family tradition, and apparently H family tradition as well, there had to be some sort of water works while we were camping. So Friday night we got treated to a thunderstorm, this includes HAIL. I'm not just talking about little hail either, this was the size of mothballs. Kayda did NOT like it so we retreated to the safety of Grandma and Grandpa G's trailer. Grandma Peggy joined us there to play with blocks and cards to escape the weather for a while.

The last night we were there (Saturday Night) a group of campers walked around the campground wearing glow in the dark attire and yelling "happy camping". I say that we need to start this as a tradition for the H family camping trip, the little kids would have a great time. I tired to take a picture but have never taken one with this camera. I moved it before it was done on accident but it turned out pretty cool anyway.