Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Happy Birthday Clayton

Three years ago today our second little miracle came into our family! I love this little guy so much!
These are some of the responses that I received on Facebook:
Rosalyn Whetten Cute dude.
Gena Peterson Oh my goodness! He is so cute! What a handsome little guy ! Hope he enjoys his special day!
Kellye Murray Hatch Happy birthday Clayton!!! We love you!! That is one amazing cake!!! I bet he loved that!!! :)
Carrie Douglas Morris Happy Happy Birthday Clayton! We sure love you!!!
Shannon Booher Happy birthday, Clayton!! His tractor cake turned out great, jenn--nice job!
Sean Hatch Happy Birthday to my little buddy Clayton!! I wish we were there to celebrate with you! Have a wonderful day! We love you!
Rachel Moyes Happy Birthday to a sweet little boy named Clayton!!
Jill Douglas Dodson Happy Birthday, Clayton! We love you! ♥ Brayden, Brooklyn, & Jill
Sallie Hislop Happy birthday Clayton! Your cake turned out great Jenn!
Jennifer Vest Hatch We love you!!
.Julie Phillips Clark Happy birthday to Clayton :)
Laura Newman Nixon What a cutie!
Brandon Douglas HAPPY BIRTHDAY cLAYTON
Shayne Hatch Happy Birthday. We love you Clayton. You're one handsome dude.....it's almost like looking in the mirror.
Roger Douglas WE are sure glad he is our grandson, love you, and hope your b-day was great.
In April, we got onto Pinterest to find a cake for Cooper's birthday.  Clayton helped me look at all the different cakes.  We saw so many tractor cakes. He has been telling me since April that he wants a tractor cake for his birthday!  I think it turned out nice. I am definately not a professional cake designer, but I really enjoy making birthday cake for my boys....I like the challenge!
I know I have many birthday parties ahead of me, so we decided to have a "low profile" birthday party.  We invited Jacqui's family over for dinner, cake, and icecream.  Landon and Clatyon were equally excited about the presents! The Patterson kids also stopped in right when we were doing the cake. What a cute bunch!
Clayton received some nice gifts.  He got a tractor book and backpack form Gma and Gpa Hatch. He got a truck, trailer, and four wheeler from Gma and Gpa Douglas.  Jacqui got him this cool "build your own tractor" kit and mom and dad got him a big rig and some legos.  He really enjoyed his toys and had a good birthday!
It's crazy that he is already three.  It seems like we just got pregnant with him.  I love my little Clatyon so much and I am so thankful that he is part of our family! He brings so much spunk to our lives!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Monte Cristo

On Saturday, after Cooper's soccer game, we decided to go on a ride that was closer to home.  We drove up past Pine View, Huntsville, and Monte Cristo.  When we got to the top, we parked our truck and took off on the trail.  We had never been up there, so we weren't quite sure where to go.  Come to find out, almost all the property up their is privately owned and so you have to stay on the main road that takes you up to Hardware Ranch.

Bryce and I decided that it was a pretty boring ride.  It was not pretty by any means and we were on a gravel road, not a trail.  Basically, we were driving through the desert.  The hillsides did not have trees.  The only thing that looked nice, was the river, but we didnt' have access to it.
When we got up to Hardware Ranch, we took the boys up the trail about four miles where we stopped to eat lunch and shoot Cooper's BB gun.  That was actually  so much fun.  Cooper had a hard time holding his gun steady, so we put him on the wheeler to help rest the gun on handbars.  He did a great job shooting the bottle we put in the trees.  I think Bryce and I had just as much fun as Cooper.  Clatyon enjoyed eating the food and putting Bryce's gloves on his little hands!
 After spending about an hour there, we headed back to our truck.  We wanted to try out the BBQ place in Huntsville on our way home.  It was a nice little restaurant tucked back in the trees.  In fact, they had a little concert going in the back yard.  Erice Dodge was performing.  He is an upcoming country artist. He has some really great songs. Cooper enjoyed sitting on the front row listening to him sing.  The place was decorated very nicely and we all had a great time listening to music. 

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Labor Day Weekend

We had so many activities planned for Labor Day Weekend.  It seems like when we go to Cache Valley, we always pack alot of things into a short amount of time.  I am not complaining because it is always fun to get together and do fun things with the family.
On Friday night, Alpine had a pool party at Logan Aquatic Center.  They served dinner at 6:30.  Bryce helped grill hamburgers over a grill that literally seared the hair off his arms and I helped by stirring the beans. They served hot dogs, burgers, beans, salad, chips, potato salad, cookies, brownies, ice cream, and drinks.  The food was great and it was fun to see a few old Alpine friends!  After dinner, the boys and Bryce went swimming at the pool.  A storm moved in that evening so it had been rainy and windy.  I was cold out of the water, so I was not going to get in the water!  Good thing Bryce was a good sport...he went down the water slide with Clayton once and then Clayton was done.

I knew that we were supposed to get storms on Saturday, so all week I was worried that we wouldn't be able to go on our four wheeling ride. On Saturday early morning, a storm passed through and dumped quite a bit of rain.  When we got up, it was clear blue skies and the temperature was perfect.  We headed out to Hardware Ranch.  We unloaded our wheelers at 11 and took off on the trail.
This was definitely one of my most favorite rides.  It was an easy ride and it had some of everything. We mostly climbed through Aspens and Pine Trees.  It was beautiful as we went up the mountain. The trail would wind up and down through the trees.  We also went by Bug Lake and then wrapped around some cliffs and caves. It was a 40 mile ride round trip. 

It was almost a perfect ride because....A. The temperature was perfect.  I wore a long sleeved t-shirt but I wasn't too cold or too hot. I love riding when its just a little cool outside.  B.  Because it rained that morning, there was almost no dust.  In fact we rode on muddy trails on the way up and they were dry by the time we got back. C. I was with my family and we were having a great time together!
We noticed that it was starting to get really dark over in the valley, so we hurried back to the trucks, loaded the wheelers, and got into our trucks just as it started to down pour.  What perfect timing!  We headed back to the Douglas to get washed up and relax before we were on to the next adventure.

On Saturday night, we went to a trampoline park called the "Jump Zone".  Everyone had a great time.  I enjoyed watching Clayton and Cooper get a little more brave as they would jump into the pit.  Cooper started doing front flips, which surprised me.  He did a great job!  The nieces were trying to be nice and tossed Clayton into a pit and his head over corrected and he bruised his sternum.  He still had a good time!
We played dodge ball with Bryce, Britt, Steph, Jaden, Ty, Shay, and Kylee.  It was a lot of fun until the crazy employee would try to help the losing team. He would blast the balls at us. Brittney and I got nailed in the face and Shaylee got hit in the chest.  I wanted to attack that man!  When we were getting ready to leave, Britt and Kylee Hellstern through Jocie in the pit and would let her out. They rubbed the foam bricks on her hair and kept jumping so she couldn't get out!
On Sunday, our family went to church with Bruce, Tara, and Hunter.  After church, we relaxed and Clayton took a nap. We had lunch over at Steph and Paul's at 5 pm.  Jacqui and Jared came up to spend the night their also.  We played cards and watched a movie that night.
On Labor Day, I got up and ran about 3 miles over to Chris and Michelle's house.  They live up Smithfield Canyon and they host a breakfast every Labor Day that is open to everyone.  They serve eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, biscuits and gravy, pastries, and drinks.  They always have hundreds of people show up and some of the Alpine employees help cook the breakfast.  This was the second year that I ran to the breakfast. It makes me feel better about eating a big breakfast when I know that I actually ran to get there!
As soon as the breakfast was over, we took the kids home and got them changed into their swimsuits so we could go to the lake with the Merrills.  The water levels are low right now, so we went boating up in Idaho to Oneida Reservoir.  Cooper decided to stay with Jaxson and Reese came with us.  The lake was perfect for the hour. 

Clayton hung out with Brittney for most of the boat ride.  At one point, he decided to get into the water with Bryce and I, but the water was chilly.  He didn't stay in for very long. Bryce waked board for a while and he did a great job. He also surfed behind the boat.  This is a hard skill to learn. You have to be in the right spot behind the boat and you have to make sure your weight is distributed just right on the board.  It was so much fun.  I tried it for a few minutes but it made my back thigh cramp up so bad.  I was probably doing it wrong, but I was able to let go of the rope and stay behind the boat for about 15 seconds!
After we all finished the surfing and wakeboarding, they took some of the kids out on the tube.  Clayton had a good time with Britt, Reese, and Addey.  He was actually pretty adventerous this day.  Last time we went boating, he wanted to get off the boat right away.  He just sat with Britt most of the time and ate licorice, grapes, and pringles.

Up at Oneida Reservoir, there are some "hot pots" that flow into the lake and into some locally owned pools.  The kids spent about 30 minutes in the warm pools.  Clayton really enjoyed this because the water was so warm.  I think it helped him settle down for a nap, because as soon as he got in the truck, he was asleep!

 We had such a fun weekend with all of our family!