Hot Air Balloon Festival

I have a love hate relationship with the Fourth of July. For the most part I love it! I love spending the day with my family, celebrating our nation and freedom, hot air balloons, barbecues, and swimming, It comes second only to fall and winter holidays, but I really am not a fan of summer, and my dislike for it has only grown from having small babies. It's so hot! And with little babies I can't be outside in the sun or really go swimming.  Small children also make fireworks a lot less enjoyable, since it doesn't get dark until hours after bedtime, and they're so loud! Once my kids are all a little older, I'm sure my love for the Fourth will be full blown again. This year my dad, Lisa, and Omi were here visiting, so it was even better than normal!

We got up bright and early and went to the hot air balloon festival in Provo. I've been a few times before, but have never seen the balloons launch because it has always been too windy. It was definitely worth getting up at 5:30 to make it down to see the balloons! Dunken and Quinn loved it too.

The strawberry balloon was my favorite!

Daley and Desiree were here too! They stopped by our house passing through on their way from Canada to California, but due to some car trouble were able to spend a few days with us. It was a lot of fun having them around since we don't see them often enough either. 

I think I could take a million pictures of the balloons and love every one of them.

Dunken, Quinn, and Jasper

Dunken and Quinn have been loving having Jasper around.  Dunken had a much harder time adjusting to Quinn than they seem to be having now. He was so used to having me all to himself that he was pretty jealous to have to share my time. 

They both come into my room looking for the baby when he's napping and when he gets up in the morning they love to give him kisses and rub his fuzzy head.  Dunken keeps asking when Jasper can go out and play in the mud with him, it's pretty cute.

A new addition to the family!

Jasper is here! He gave us a little surprise and came 3 weeks early! He's already a week old and we are all loving the new addition to our family.

 Dunken and Quinn were so excited to meet their new little brother!

First family photo!

St. George Jeeping at Sand Hollow

A few weekends ago we went to St. George, Utah for a family jeeping trip. Despite the terrible weather we had the first couple of days it was a lot of fun! We stayed in condos of a friend who also went on the trip, and that made a huge difference! I really do enjoy camping, but not having to stress about sleeping and dirty children was so so nice! I may never want to camp again ;)

The weather our first day there was definitely the worst. It rained and rained while we were out jeeping. We planned the trip with about 7 other families months ago hoping for nice sunny St. George weather, and of course the weekend we go is one of the few it was cold and rainy.  The jeeps got so muddy out on the trial!

Right before we stopped for lunch we had the most breathtaking view! Those clouds were almost dancing over the cliff edge. It was so amazing in person!

We stopped for lunch and most people got out of the jeeps for a little break. I stayed huddled inside ours because I didn't even think to bring warm or waterproof jackets for the trip. I also accidentally left our cooler with most of our lunch back at the condo, so I was feeling pretty grumpy about that.

 

After lunch a little way down the trail we got a break in the weather. It was still pretty cold out and windy, but the rain let up for a few minutes. We were in a nice open area with a few obstacles for the jeeps to get over, so it was the perfect spot to let the kids out to play for a while.

Dunken loved jumping in the muddy puddles and driving his jeep Matchbox car over the rocks!

After our break, back to more jeeping.  Here's Jensen in the tightest squeeze. Both of his tires were almost rubbing on the sides, and he had to fold in the passenger mirror to fit! 

We had one more break near the end of the trail for the kids to get out and play. Of course Dunken and Quinn found the biggest muddiest puddle they could to play in.  It was all fun and games until Quinn fell in! I didn't bring any extra clothes, so she had to ride the rest of the way back practically naked, wrapped in a blanket.

Even after getting off the main off-roading trail, our day was far from over! We drove out on a long sandy road and our friend's wheel completely fell off! I'm so grateful this happened on the soft sand, and not out on an obstacle or they could have been seriously injured. A few hours later after trying ot fix it, we were finally headed back into town for pizza and some relaxing.  Jensen and a few other men had to head back out to pick up the broken jeep and tow it home.  What a long day! I was out for about 8 hours (and my normal "get me home right now" max jeeping time is about 4 hours.  Dunken and Quinn were so so good though, which made it much better. By the very end of the day Quinn was hungry and fed up with the jeep, but only cried that last 30 minutes through town until we got back to the condos.