Zions Camp

So, after a whirlwind trip to CA and getting in LATE. The boys and I packed up and went camping. What was I thinking?!?!?! I was thinking that I have the greatest friends who would help with the boys and all that camping entails. And I was right!! Thanks GUYS!! So, this post is long, but A LOT happened just GETTING to Zions Camp. Here goes!!!
While running around the house trying to get everything together,Ben is CRYing. Not sure What is going on. So, after a few hours of that, we're getting in the car. The boys are climbing in and out of the car while I'm loading up. The car is beeping like the key's in the ignition. It's not so I'm not worried about it. Then, just as we're FINALLY getting in the car, I put on my sunglasses and all of a sudden they BOTH want theirs. After another half an hour of looking for the sunglasses and hats. Now we're off!! Or are we? I put the key in the ignition and........NOTHING!! Yup, we have a dead battery. What now? No problem, I'll use the other car to jump it, no luck, the hood of the truck won't open. So,now we have to figure something out. Half an hour later after squeezing everything into the smaller car, we were OFF!!! YEAH!! We finally make it to camp and meet up with the LeBarons to do some boating!!

After boating we decided it was time to set up my tent and make some dinner. I now remember WHY we got a new tent. It was pretty comical trying to set up the tent. I took it because it's smaller than the new one. But NOT as good. Then we had an amazingly fun evening of homemade ice cream, smores, and good friends who were there to pick up Ben EVERY time he tipped his chair over. Never once did he cry,he just got up and got into a new one.I can't believe how homeless my children look!!!

Thanks Kole for being the ONLY one to look at the camera.Cute posin' Kelli!! What a CREW!!!

Abe LeBaron, Alli Gardner, Audrey Gardner, Andrew Borland,Kole Kanekoa, Andrew Gardner, Karson Kanekoa, Ava Gardner, Kelli Kanekoa, Henry LeBaron, Benjamin Borland. After a long night of Ben wanting to go home and sleep in his OWN bed, we got ourselves ready for the day and sent everyone off to do service. The Gardners were nice enough to take Andrew with them. I love that we were able to go camping, enjoy time with friends and then help out with service as well. A definite tradition for our family.

After doing a morning of service we were able to spend the afternoon at the lake. Smile Audrey!!Fun times of splashing in the water,

Boating, playing on the rope swingAllison, THIS is how it's done

Check out that SPLASH!!

Thanks for a GREAT time everyone. We do need to do it again. With more friends next time. What a BLAST!!!

Memorial Day with Daddy!

So yes, we hopped a plane and came to CA for a few days. It's been fun, we've been relaxing and just enjoying being together, for Memorial Day we went to the park and went swimming at the pool here at the Bob's hotel. Not much, but fun memories for us. Enjoy the pictures.


This is how Andrew enjoys the pool. It takes him awhile to get used to the water. He LOVES his new suit, he slipped on the steps the first day and went under so we got smart and got him a new suit. Thankfully he's still cautious and realizes that he's still not invincible.Benjamin screams and cries the whole time we're getting him ready for the pool and would cry the whole way down and then the first 5 minutes or so, and then we couldn't get him out! By the end of the week they were actually jumping off the side of the pool! No pics though because we went while Bob was at work. We realized that this is Ben's first time in a pool. He's been to the beach several times, but never a pool. He thought it was "TOO BIG!"

We've gone to Lancaster

You heard right, the boys and I loaded up and flew to Lancaster to visit daddy. On Saturday, I couldn't take it anymore and I booked us some tickets. We were in CA by Sunday afternoon. We flew in to Long Beach, CA. What a FUN airport!! We were at the VERY back of the plane and I was prepared to be the last off. NOPE! We were able to unload from the back of the plane right on to the tarmac!!! We thought it was REALLY cool!! Then, guess where the baggage claim is??? OUTSIDE!!! YUP! the baggage claim was outside with a nice little cafe. I really felt like I was on vacation. We were picked up by Bob and Aunt Nancy.

The boys fell into IMMEDIATE love with her. From there we headed to lunch and then off to the beach. At least for a stroll and a chance to get our feet wet.
Ben couldn't take his eyes off the water!!!

Running from the waves!!!

That's the UP blimb for the new Disney movie, the boys thought it was pretty cool.

Happy to be with daddy!!!!

More to come, we're here for 4 DAYS!!!!

Ben made breakfast!!

So one day last week as I was making muffins for the boys, Ben decided that I was taking too long and took it upon himself to make everyone breakfast. He got out the bowls, set them in everyone's place and then put 3 pieces of cereal in each bowl. What a big helper!!! Thanks for breakfast Ben!

Bob's Birthday

For Bob's birthday this year, He and I got AWAY!!! When a friend of ours found out he was getting to come home for 4 days, she offered to take the boys over night. Bob and I have NEVER left the boys for more than a few hours. This was big for us and SO needed! I got to do all the planning and made it all a surprise. We stayed at a hotel in Seattle and had dinner at the Space Needle at sunset. SO FUN!! Then we came home the next day and went to a movie before picking up the boys for dinner. We then spent the weekend relaxing and teaching Andrew how to fish. We had a great weekend and were really sad to see him leave again for 2 more weeks. Thanks for being such a wonderful husband and father. I know right now is tough for us all, thank you for being so strong for all of us.

Fishing

We (Bob and I) don't fish. It's not something we really enjoy and we don't really enjoy eating fish. But, I thought it was something Andrew needed to experience. So, I signed him up for a fishing derby. The section of lake that they fished in was stocked and every child was able to fish for 1 hour and take home 2 fish. We did it with some friends of ours and are happy to say that EVERYONE caught a fish!!! Albeit, for Karson, it was literally the LAST second. I hear it was VERY intense, my boys were DONE long before it was over. Here are a few pictures from our BEAUTIFUL Washington day. Although Andrew caught a fish... we did NOT bring it home, we gave it to some friends who took it home and ate it, i guess I better ask them how it tasted. You can see Andrew's not to sure about the flailing fish.

More Birthday highlights

Because Ben's birthday was in the middle of the week and Bob wasn't home, we celebrated for DAYS! We had to squeeze Bob's birthday in too. It was fun! Andrew and Ben and I had one cake on Wednesday...a train of course. Yes, I know it's pink, but it's STRAWBERRY! This kid is ALL about strawberry. One day he may regret it....naw...he's MAN enough to like pink. He LOVES to be Superman and Batman. I thought these PJ's were fitting for him. He was so jealous of Andrew's roller skates, that we got him his own. He LOVES them. He was so excited when he saw them. In fact he loved ALL of his presents.
Just before daddy left on Mon we had more cake. The boys love having a cake in the shape of the number they are turning. It's been perfect...not to much cake. As soon as he saw the candle, he started to blow on it. I couldn't even get a picture fast enough!

We love you Ben. You're our big happy Ben and we LOVE having you in our family. Definitely some comic relief. I love how you light up when Andrew wakes up in the morning. We love you Ben!!!

Happy Birthday Benjamin!!

Benjamin's 2!!! Some days I can't believe it's been that long!! He is such a joy to have in our family. When he thinks he does something funny and you don't laugh at him, (like when what he's doing is disobedient and you're trying to ignore him so that you don't encourage the behavior) he'll do it over and over again until you laugh. And if you're close enough, he'll get in your face and laugh until you laugh. Which generally happens because he's so cute. These pictures are pretty typical of him right now. A VERY messy face!!!

Benjamin also loves the color blue, cars, trucks, dinosaurs, trains and every thing boy. He also LOVES batman, or as he calls him...SUPER BATMAN!!Complete with a strongman pose. He LOVES to follow Andrew around and do what ever he does. He has hit the terrible 2's. I don't remember this AT ALL! NOTHING is right anymore, the strawberries are in the wrong bowl, he's wearing the wrong color pants...you get the picture...Ben's favorite word...'mine'. His favorite thing to do....throw himself on the ground when he doesn't get what he wants. If we're on pavement, he does it in slow motion, first..lean over, then slowly stretch your legs behind you until you are laying face first on the ground, wait for mom to acknowledge you. Yet lately, he's added the kicking of the feet. It's quite comical actually, maybe one day I will be lucky enough to get it on tape.

We love you Ben. We're so happy you're a part of our life. Thank you for coming to our family.

Andrew's 5!!!

The week leading up to Andrew's 5th birthday was exciting. The weather had been really nice and so we had been spending a lot of time outside. Here are a few of his injuries, I wanted to document them, it's more then he's ever had at one time. These on his knees are from taking a spill on his big wheel, one of the many he took last week. The one under his nose is from climbing on the play equipment at the mall and falling head first, yes it's a rug burn, NOT a bloody nose like every one asked him all week, the one by his eye is from trying to ride a toy dump truck and it tipped over on him. I document these because to me, he's growing up, he's never been my adventurous one and usually won't getup and get going again after a minor injury and after all of these, that last year would have been life threatening in his mind, he got right back to what he was doing. I can't believe it! I hardly know what to do now!!

Now on for the fun. Bob was able to be home for the weekend before Andrew's birthday, so we celebrated the whole weekend! We let him open his presents slowly, hence the ward robe changes. Here area few highlights from our time together. It wasn't much time, so we didn't do to much, walked around the temple in the rain. Andrew wanted to touch the temple but unfortunately at the Seattle temple the best place is by the doors and there were people waiting for a bride, so we snuck in real quick but didn't get any pictures. Then we went to the Lego store and the boys picked out presents for each other. They LOVED it!!He remembered me making a small #1 cake for Ben last year and so he requested a #5 this year. He even frosted it himself. It turned out to be PERFECT! We each had a piece and it was gone. No left over cake!!!

Thank you Grammy! We actually tried to trick him, this one was hiding in our closet but it wasn't the same blue hot wheels scooter he had seen ( i can't find it ANYWHERE) so, I went and bought just a blue scooter. ( i wasn't very fond of this one) Anyway, this one was in our closet and so when he opened the other blue scooter he mentioned that it wasn't hot wheels! I asked him if that was OK and he said that there was a hot wheel scooter in our closet.WHAT?!?!? How did he see it? Anyway, we let him choose and this is the one he chose and he LOVES it!!

It was all about the wheels this year, new scooter and new roller skates. Another sign my boy is growing up. I never would've imagined Andrew would ride roller skates, he actually does pretty good! For a kid I thought would FREAK out when he realized they roll!!!

A few more pictures from opening presents. Who sees a blue theme? His favorite color is dark blue...can you tell? I love how excited they are!! They have been playing in it EVERYDAY!! It's their joint present this year.

Monday was Andrew's actual birthday as well as our weekly playgroup at the park (weather permitting). I decided this year that instead of having a big birthday party ( I just don't have the energy) we would celebrate with whoever showed up to playgroup. It worked out PERFECT!! I had found this GREAT cake mold and so each child ended up with their own individual train car cake.

I guess it tastes better this way. I didn't even frost them so we wouldn't have to worry about forks.
Andrew has become such a BIG help! I can't believe how fast he's growing up. He has been waiting to turn 5 so that he can go to kindergarten since he was 3!! Do this has been a big deal. Andrew's into Lego's and he LOVE's to ride his big wheel and now his scooter and roller skates. He loves to make deals to get what he wants and is VERY inquisitive. He's ALWAYS asking questions. Questions that I don't know the answers too. My answer...that's the way Heavenly Father made it. So, now he's come up with"Why does Heavenly Father want it that way?" WHAT?!?!? How do you answer that?!? I am so grateful for how helpful he's become, of course I sometimes need to slow down and let him help and not get impatient. His favorite thing right now?Changing Benjamin's diaper...yes, changing Benjamin's diaper.

We love you Andrew. You are a joy to our family Ben looks up to you and LOVES to be around you. I Love how sweet you can be to him and want him to be safe. Happy Birthday bud. Have a great year!!