Roll!

Bowling was all the rage for this years Tory and Tegan Birthday Week™. Tonight we went to Jupiter Bowl in Park City. Josh, Heather, and Serisa showed, as did Sam and Sophia. Jarrett and Mel were there, and Uncle Nate too.

Watch as Tory nearly picks up a split:

Hiking at Brighton

Rather than try and go back and separate out each event that happened over the last two months, here’s a bunch of photos from that time.

The main reason I’ve missed so much is our camera had a series of unfortunate events… but we’ve got it back now so I’ve no longer got an excuse for not posting.

He's got his lunch, must be heading to preschool.

My mom used to take a picture of us kids on the front steps of our house on the first day of school each year – so it’s only right that we get one of Tory on his first day of preschool. He’s been so excited to go, it’s fun to see the day finally come.

His friend Sophia is going to the same school too so he’s got a buddy to lean on. There are many new friends there to make too though and I’m glad that he’ll be able to branch out a little from his current circle.

Tory takes a ride in the Firetruck. And yeah, there's more ↑

I’ve had to start titling these posts with a year extension as we come around to doing the same events year after year, but what the hey… I could do some kind of clever title, but that’s not what this site is all about so again – what the hey.

That aside, the Kids Fair went off again this year and thankfully the weather has finally turned here as it was a beautiful day. I wasn’t actually there this year, but luckily the camera was and I can live it as everyone else who wasn’t there does. I heard Tory took a tumble head over teakettle style on the big slide and decided he’d had enough… I don’t see any pics of Tegan here, but I know for a fact she was there… Sorry Tegie, this isn’t second child syndrome, I don’t think.

Tory and Soph climb the rock. More for clicking, yes do.

Willow Creek park is one of the bigger places for the kids to run and jump so we were happy to find that it had finally melted out from the long winters nap. At least for a day, anyway. The next day we woke to another 9″ on the ground.

Party Goers: Sawyer, Soph, Piper, Tegan, Evan, and T1

Grandma Pat and her sister always had to share their birthday parties, and the advice is – even though there’s less than a week between Tory and Tegan’s birthdays – do separate parties. We’ll definitely take that advice, but for the next few years while they could really care less, we’ll do them together. And this year it was a pool party!!

I was swimming most of the time as well, so the camera didn’t get taken out until it was nearly too late, but there’s a few to see in there. Click the picture above for more.

Soph enjoying a little ice cream. Immensely. Click for a few more.

Kari took the kids to Cold Stone Creamery the other night while I was out.

The ice cream man commeth. Click for a few more.

The ice cream man drove by the other night, and it being such a rare event, Sam decided to partake.

And no, I don’t normally let my kid go shopping in his birthday suit. It was a swimming pool/potty training thing.

Tory takes it off trail. Click the pic for more of this schtick.

We always go to the Uintas to camp, because it’s relatively close, and so very woodsy-mountainsy. But we like to explore new places too, so we treked on up near Powder Mountain to a place that looked pretty good on the map. The bummer part is that lots of other people had that same crazy idea, and there was no room at the inn. So we drove around for a while, detouring at a road that read “National Forrest access.” To me, that means there’s probably lots of little roads here and there that one could pull off on and find a little spot to camp. Neeuuop.

Long boring story short we ended up back in the Uintas 4 hours later, and vowed never to try a new place again. At least not until next time.

We camped and hiked for the weekend with Michelle, Sam, and Soph, and had quite a nice time chllin’ in the woods. We even had to swat at some mosquitos, which I thought were extinct here in Utah. What? What’s that I don’t hear from my Minnesota friends?

Tory and Soph are starting to become real troopers in the field, both hiking most of the way there and back. I think we made it all of 3 miles in! Actually, I carried Tory most of the way back on my shoulders after he fell into the drink and soaked himself from the belly down.