Building Forts

Bracken asks me multiple times a day if he can build a fort. Whenever I say yes he pulls every cushion off each couch, gets all the pillows from our beds, and every blanket he can find and piles them into a heap in the middle of the living room floor. Then he burrows inside any hole he can find with his lion, bear, and blankets and plays all sorts of imaginary games. He often wants me to let Chandra play too. That means I move Chandra from place to place around his fort as he commands and save her from falling cushions and getting tripped over. He is always so proud of every fort he makes.

Camping at the Lake

We went on camping at the lake while in AZ! Brian has been telling me about these camping trips since before his mission. Lake trips are some of his favorite family memories growing up. I was worried about how camping would work with Chandra (3 months old now), but she was a dream. She just slept snuggled up on a camp chair beside my cot. She hardly ever cried. She loved riding on the boat, and we even took her swimming in the water with us. She seemed to like cooling off. Bracken loved every minute of our three days there. He played in the sand, in the water, with his cousins, rode the bumper tubes and on the boat, and even went water skiing with Brian! Brian was so proud of Bracken for water skiing. Brian asked Bracken if he’d like to water ski with him. Then he had Bracken hold onto his life jacket tight while Brian was pulled out of the water, then Brian held onto Bracken with one arm and just skied one handed. Bracken was grinning ear to ear he was so proud of himself. They skied 3-4 times. I'll try to get a video of them on here later. What an adventurous little boy we have!

Left: Bracken and Grandpa Rob

The grandkids had so much fun swimming with Grandma...unfortunately Grandma forgot sunscreen the last day and got burnt like a lobster! Bracken still tells me, "Mom, I am big like Ethan and can go under water!"
Brian
Playing in the sand...for hours.
Bumper Tubing!

Chandra in her camping chair bed. She slept here for naps and nighttime for all three days!
We had uninvited guests in our camp at night: skunks! They were only about 10 feet away from us the first night, eating and fighting over the hotdog pieces the kids had dropped on the ground. After we went to bed we could hear them wandering around our camp (We’d put away our food and garbage) and Rob even heard them under his cot. Yikes! Thankfully they didn’t spray and we hardly even smelled them.

Thanks for an awesome lake trip family!

"I see Heavenly Father!"

Bracken was laying on the grass beside me when he said excitedly, "Mom, I see Heavenly Father!" I was confused for a second, and then he said again, pointing above him, "I see Heavenly Father like when He came down to see Joseph Smith!" Following the direction of his pointing finger I saw the sun and its rays shining through the tree branches above us. I said something like, "that does look like when Heavenly Father came down to Joseph Smith" and then Bracken said, "I'm going to talk to Heavenly Father." And he sat looking up at the sun and started telling Heavenly Father about how he raked the grass in Parawan by himself and liked milking the goat with his Uncle Dallin. Just a normal little conversation. What a sweet little man!

Pioneer Day

Bracken and I have been reading pioneer stories out of the "Friend" magazine and singing pioneer songs the last few days. We wanted to be ready for Pioneer Day! Here's what we did:

We went to the Pioneer Parade in the morning. Bracken got to see the handcarts and wagons, and people dressed up as pioneers, but mostly he ran after salt water taffy and tootsie rolls and shared them with us and our neighbors. Our friend Andrea took him to pet a miniature horse and he hasn't stopped telling me about it since.

We had a Pioneer FHE. Bracken and I made gingerbread cookie "pioneers" and a wagon with an ox. Brian helped Bracken make a little handcart out of a box and a rope. We had a little lesson, and then Bracken loaded his handcart up with the things he thought he'd need most for a trek. He took his blankets, his tools, his piano, and a box of cookies. Then we walked around our apartment complex and he stopped at some of our neighbors doors to share his (now broken and mostly headless) cookies. Then he played with his left over snaps and sparklers from July 4th. We had a fun day together.
Bracken is wearing his favorite pajamas (he wouldn't change after his nap) and blue rain boots. He loves the boots because he can put them on himself, I don't care if he stomps in mud or puddles with them, and hey, they're bright blue!

Pretty or Handsome?

Brian to Bracken-- "Do you think I'm a pretty good dad?"

Bracken--- "No Dad, you're not pretty, you're handsome!"

Milk too?

Bracken was looking carefully at the picture of Abinadi teaching Wicked King Noah.

Usually he points to the different people and says things like, "This is Gideon. He was bad but then he repented and now he is good and happy!" or "This is Alma, he repented too!" or pointing to the spilled wine, "King Noah drank wine, we don't drink wine because it's bad." or "Mom, Abinadi is a good man."

Today he pointed at Abinadi's chest and said, "Look Mom, Abinadi has milk too!"

What do I say to that?