Peaceful

Beck always looks so peaceful when he's sleeping.  Sleep tight little man.

Uncle Greg

We love it when Uncle Greg comes back to town!  Baby Desh gets some good snuggle time in!

 And Keen gets to hang out with his namesake!  We love Uncle Greg!

In the Stroller

I bet Desh feels like he lives in this stroller.  But being the last of 6 kids that's how it goes and that's the only way to keep a sane mom. 

And once in a while there is a little accident that may or may not be one of the brother's fault, but Desh rolls with it.  Liev was trying to push the stroller down the stairs and it didn't work out so well.  Poor Desh was stuck face down and strapped in the stroller.  I rescued him as quick as I could but not before he got a good floor burn on his forehead!  Sorry bud!

Dinosaur Museum

We love having cousins in town!  While they were here we took a trip to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point.  I love this picture of all the handsome boys!

 Even the little kids had a great time looking at all the dinosaur bones and hiding in the caves.  

 And everything loved digging for dinosaur bones and getting dirty of course!

Sunglasses

Love these pictures of Desh trying to figure out how to get these glasses to stay on...

Losee Reunion in Moab

This year we had our Losee Family Reunion in Moab.  Justin and Steph were in charge and found an awesome cabin up in the La Salle mountains just past Moab.  It was amazing and huge and fit all 30 of us into one cabin with room to spare.  It was the perfect place!  Here are the highlights of our week.

The long ride down tuckered our kids out.  They were all asleep at one point on the drive.  I'm not sure how comfortable any of these positions are but somehow they managed.

This is the cabin.  When we were getting close the kids could see this cabin and a few others up ahead.  They all said "I hope that big one is ours!"  Turns out it was!

All the kids had such a fun time playing with cousins.  The deck around the cabin went all the way around in one continuous loop.  It was perfect for the kids to ride their wiggle bikes around and around.  Josh also brought our hammocks and strung them up for anyone to relax in.  And dad and Justin both brought their rangers so those were a constant source of entertainment!

I went for a run each morning and loved seeing the views in the distance.  Since we were in the mountains the weather was perfect.  Not too hot even though it was the middle of July.  Dad also brought their electric bikes and I went on a ride with both the girls.  So fun!

 This was one of the art projects the kids worked on during the week.  They split into groups and traced one of the kids on these huge sheets of paper.  Then they each took turns coloring in one part of the body and making the paper person have a portion of each of the kids in the group.  It was really cute and such a fun idea.  They presented each of their drawings to Grammie and Papa to have and remember all their grandkids.  

 Not too far from our cabin was a small pond.  We drove the rangers down there every day to swim and canoe.  It was such a beautiful secluded little spot.  At one point we all got into a big water fight and I think everyone ended up in the water, clothes on and everything!

We had a birthday party one night and celebrated all the July and August birthdays.  Poor Beck fell asleep at the table before he could even eat his cake!  Too many late nights and long days of playing.

We played in the hot tub.  One day it poured and we all gathered in as a big group and stayed warmd!

 And one morning we drove down to Moab and took a hike through Arches National Park.  I will admit, this was not my favorite part.  It was cool to see the monuments but by the time we got there, made it through the carloads of people and actually went on the hike, it was so so hot and I was not happy to drag all my kids out of the car into the heat.  But we made it on our 1 mile hike and then back without any major issues!

Most of all we just loved being together with family and making memories that our kids will always remember!  On the way home we ended up with this handsome bunch of boys in our van.  They are all so close in age that they have a blast when they're together!  Thanks for the fun reunion!

Escape

Desh is learning to escape from the high chair.  Yikes.

Bubbles

Our kids have mastered the art of wasting all the shampoo and making lots of bubbles in the shower.  Baby Desh is following suit.

Trail Running

I've been running with a few people in our neighborhood and even doing some trail running.  It has been really fun and a different experience for sure!  My friend Wan is usually the ring leader getting us together and he's also really good at documenting our runs.  This morning was really fun (and hot!) on the trails up Yellow Fork Canyon.  Thanks for the pictures Wan!

Sleepy Baby

"Swimming all day makes me sleepy.  I can't keep my eyes open any longer."

Boat Week

We love our Boat Week every summer and this year was no different!  Papa and Grammie are nice enough to let us stay at the cabin for a week and also use their boat.  They even come up for a day or two and hang out with us.  This is our favorite time of the summer to be at the cabin, be on the lake and just be together doing whatever we want as a family.  

The weather this week was PERFECT! Hot and dry and just right to be in the water.  As usual we head out early in the morning so we can have a couple hours to ourselves.  There are usually just a couple other boats when we get there especially on the weekdays.  Beck got into the habit of saying "The lake is ours!" as soon as Deer Creek would come into view.  

I was so happy that each of the kids got in the water and kneeboarded, tubed, skied or whatever they felt like doing.  A couple of the kids (Keen and Beck) took some coaxing, but once they were in the water they were happy campers.  

 Even Baby Desh could not get enough of the water.  Every time we would stop the boat he'd whine to get in and swim.  So we did that a lot!  The older kids got really comfortable jumping from the boat the water and a couple of them even got brave enough to climb up the tower and jump from there.  That was definitely spurred on by their dad.  

 We took a lunch with us every day and had "break time" to eat and swim and cool off.  And of course we got some good skiing in there too.  

 Each of the kids progressed significantly by the time the week was over.  Rease and Rhen both switched from the helper rope to having the rope tied to the boat while they skied.  And Rease stopped using the learner skis that are tied together and got up a couple times on the "big" skis.  She is determined to be a big kid! 

 And when we weren't on the lake, we were just having fun.  Shakes in Heber City are a must!

 We loved our hammock time at the cabin.  Josh brought his two backpacking hammocks and strung them up between the trees.  And we had the big hammock set up as well.  We spent every evening reading and relaxing on the hammocks.  This ended up being my favorite thing to do every day!

 We celebrated Mr. Beck's 3rd birthday while we were there!  

 The kids caught bugs and butterflies.

 One day we took a drive over Guardsman's Pass and ended up at our other favorite place in Utah - Brighton Ski Resort.  The kids couldn't get over how different it looks without all the snow!

We stopped at the crater in Heber and the kids thought that was pretty awesome!

 Most of all, we just loved being together and having a week to ourselves to do what we wanted.  Josh and I kept laughing at the "rig" that we took up to the lake every day.  Our van did great getting that boat in and out of the water! 

And we all came home with a good tan - some better than others!

7-11

Can't beat free slurpees!

Beck's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated Beck's Birthday at the cabin this year.  We kind of glossed over his birthday but not without at least having some cupcakes to celebrate!  He didn't seem to mind that there wasn't a big fanfare for him.  He's still as sweet as can be!

My favorite things about 3 year old Beck:

1) Beck has a uniqueness to his look.  He looks a lot like Papa Losee with his perfectly round head but also has a cute button nose.  His hair gets so blonde in the summer and it's at it's peak of blondness as we celebrate his birthday.  There are times that Beck can't manage his large head and it seems a little top heavy.  For some reason he manages to bump it in the same spot on the right side of his forehead just above his eye.  It has a good sized scar there already and I'm sure it's not the last of it.  

2) Beck is a shy guy but sweet at the same time.  It takes a little bit for Beck to warm up to someone new.  He doesn't always have a lot to say but he is always observing.  Underneath his shyness is a sweetheart of the tallest kind.  He truly loves others and wants to do good.  I love that about him.

3) Beck is smart.  Really smart.  All that observing that he does has it's benefits.  He can spout off the ABCs with the best of them and knows what day of the week it is whenever we ask.  He is learning along with his older brothers and I'm afraid he's going to pass them up before too long!  Quiet and smart is a good kind of kid to be!

3 year old stats from Dr. Erickson:

Height: 3'4" - 95%

Weight: 35 lbs. 8 oz. - 85%

  

Happy Birthday Mr. Beck!