August Fun!

The end of July/beginning of August brought us to our longest road trip this summer

We drove to TEXAS...

Cam had training to do in Abilene, so the kids and I obviously gluttons for punishment

stowed away.

We were dropped off at My sisters house in Frisco.

Then every 2-3 days we would drive to my Parents house in Paris 1.5 hours away...wait 2 days drive back to Frisco....wait 3 days drive back to Paris...wait 3 days drive back to Frisco...wait 1 day and drive back to SD.

Despite all the driving we wouldn't have traded staying home for anything. Seeing

so many cousins (we saw 13 of their 19 cousins, the other ones we just saw a few weeks before) is always worth the drive. Plus my kids are amazing travelers.

THANK YOU PERSON WHO INVENTED IN CAR DVD PLAYERS!

While in Texas we did lots of swimming,

(TAUGHT CREED HOW TO SWIM!!)

went to the Dallas Children's museum which by the way was totally awesome, saw movies, and hung out with some of our favorite people in the whole wide world...

The Children's Museum..

Callan spent most of the time climbing into the sorting bins for all the

food they would harvest at the farm.

My boys making their grandparents proud milking that cow...it really squirted out water, yuck...

I think I need to move them to a farm they would love it!

What cute lil' cowboys
They loved the insect area where they could dress up in an abundance of costumes and play in different insect habitats. Here they are ants trapped in the spiders web..

Grandma and Cal swimming at my brothers pool...

Helping Grandpa mow the lawn....boy was it hot!!!

Mack and 2 of the 3 cousins his age Kelsey and Eliza

Creed and 1 of the 2 cousins his age Katiana

swimming at my sisters pool...My kids would wake up get in the pool...eat lunch get in the pool...before bed get into the pool... They loved having a pool at their fingertips.

On our way driving to Texas we stopped in OKC and I am so glad we did. The memorial

is such a wonderful tribute and the spirit there is so strong.
The Oklahoma City Memorial Park

The rows and rows of chairs were such a somber sight, the children's chairs

were especially heart wrenching.

As a way to leave your impression on the memorial site you are allowed to wet your hands in the reflective pool and make hand prints on the wall.

where did you go?

Gone seriously....

I feel like I have been robbed of

something beautiful, something magical.

It is called SUMMER!

I had so many lofty ideas and so many exciting excursions for me and the boys

and "BAM" with little to no warning it is taken away from me.

I am so far behind on my posts which is extremely

indicative of many other aspects in my life right now.

Here is my official WARNING:

the infomation and photos you are about to see are extensive in content. Extreme caution should be taken while viewing photos of the ever-so-cute Shirley offspring in all their summer glory. dizziness may occur from excessive scrolling due to the enormous amount of photos, It may also cause cavities, due to their sweetness in nature and loss of sleep wondering how you too could have such a fun filled summer....ENJOY!

10 months

Don't mistake my delayed posting as meaning that nothing exciting happened

to Callan this month because this boy is anything but boring.

Cal did great on our 2 day drive to Texas to see

my family and while there he mastered his crawling!

he not only moves but moves extrememly fast!

His 2 front teeth have come in which makes for a total of 6, unfortunately

it means he has also biten me a few times...he learned quick that is not OK!

We did a lot of swimming at my sisters house and at my brothers house

and he is quite the little water baby.

He really enjoys watching t.v. (not something I am proud of but

none the less think it is quite interesting to watch his focus)

His favorite things are balls. It doesn't matter if it is him or someone

else with the ball he will watch and giggle intently (going back to the t.v. thing he

will watch sports with Cam)

He can even throw quite well.

So feast upon all these delicious pics of this month and try to not to get a sweet tooth!

at the childrens musuem in Dallas

At Aunt Katies house (notice him tied to the chair, its for safety not punishment)

His cousin Nate

What happened to July?

July started with my brother Spencer and his family

coming to spend a fun filled 4th with us.

And fun we had.

Everyday we thoroughly enjoyed the black hills and had so much fun.

We hiked around Sylvan Lake

(the lake that is shown in the second national treasure movie)

pretty sure they found the

secret rock that opens up the city of gold. Went to Jewel cave
the 2nd largest cave in the world.

Drove needles highway and iron moutain road.

joined the masses to watch fireworks at Mt. Rushmore

only to be weathered out at the last minute.

Very disappointing!

In all the years we have lived here

we have never attempted the crowds and

the one year we do we don't get to see them.

Went to story book island, dinosaur mountain

and spent a record of 8 hours at Watiki the indoor water park.

My family loves that place.

Finished off the the trip with an amazing hike

up little devils tower.

B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!

We loved having them here.

The kids the first morning. Right after the "all you can eat 99 cent pancake feed". No, there jaws were not dropped from so amazing site, they all had jaw breakers in their mouths.

Mack and Megan


Creed and Kate in their "secret hiding place they found in the needles"

we are still waiting for the "city of gold to be revealed"
(this is right before that snaggle tooth fell out)

all the kiddos watching a movie

while waiting patiently in the parking garage

for our turn to go home after the fireworks that we couldn't see.

Its about 11:00 here. Pretty happy kids don't you think?

Jewel cave. This picture was taken in total darkness.

oldest to youngest on the dinosaur tail

I love this picture, Alexis and Mack aka "Jack and Jill"

at Storybook island.

Watiki

Thanks uncle Spence for hauling Cal up the mountain!

Our crew having a snack at the top.

What an awesome view!

after our hike we cooled off at Center lake and roasted hotdogs

and had smores. YUMMY

The June happenings

June was spent trying not to get washed away and cherish any

outside time because we had too much rain,
what I am sure was a thrilling fathers day aka "king for a day" for Cam,

a whirlwind one week trip to Utah for lots of reunions and

while in the aforementioned Utah we were involved in a lovely little car crash.

and an all too quick one day spent in Idaho where we celebrated a little early

the 4th "Shirley style" in the driveway .

Our King wearing his painted tie made by the boys in primary

and his breakfast in bed. I feel bad Cam surely deserved a post all of his own

for being such a great dad, but for time's sake he doesn't.

(which for the record is fine he doesn't read the blog anyway)

The Terry gal cousins

Hickman reunion at Pinedale Resevoir

the babies of '08

our car after it went crunch! (i just wish I had taken one of the other car,

it was a mess)

Not our fault by the way!

My dashing men!

Creed and his best lil buddy/cuz Kate

the shirley grandkids

Uncle Mitch wondering how he got roped into this one

Cals first ride on a the Rexburg Carousel and splash park

Mack will hate me one day for this, but I made him mad before he

went down the slide and he came out pouting.

The look on Creed's face is pure joy realizing that he can actually win a wrestling match...

the look on poor Callan's face wondering why he is being sat on.

the boys lighting their first fireworks. (NOT MY IDEA!!)

I love these pictures with his grandparents

again this boy is not going to be thrilled but he always does this with his pants and

I think it is so funny

9 month baby!

Cal on top of little Devil's tower... What a great hiker!

Watching the fireworks on the 4th
This is how mezmerized he is while watching baby Mozart...

What a charmer this guy is!

Eat! that is what Callan does...

Eat! that is what he loves...

Eat! that is what he reaches for...

Eat! that is what he cries for...

Have you gotten the picture, he eats everything and I mean everything.

I am thinking I need to put his food a few feet away from him so he will be motivated to crawl. For now he will move from a sitting position to a crawling position so we are assuming the crawling is not too far behind.

These 9 months have truly been such an honor and such a blessing!

one boy's loss is another boy's gain!

It seems that everytime Mack loses a tooth Callan gains one!

I am starting to think we should have named him "Cullen".

Cam says its my fault because I was obsessed with reading Twilight while pregnant with him and I dragged the poor baby at 6 weeks old to the midnight showing of the movie.