I know, I know...FINALLY!

So, I've taken a few weeks off from blogging. It seems about every year at this time that I have a few weeks where I don't have anything to post about, or I just need a break. Part of it is that I've gotten really busy since we came home from Stinky Falls. I started babysitting a little girl in our ward who is Park's age, Monday-Wednesday. I also started my advanced writing course online. Many of you have already heard my complaints about this English class and my professor. It also doesn't help that the one class I've always struggled with is English. I don't do horribly, but I have to work harder in English than in any other subject I've ever taken. I guess I'm just a mediocre writer, what can I say? And then to make it an advanced writing course, that is required, where I have to write a million critical essays...well lets put it this way, a lot of my time, free or not, goes into this one class. I swear it should be a six credit class as opposed to a three credit class. I guess I'm just all written out by the time it comes to blogging. So, enough of my complaints...here are some pictures of the the kiddos from the last few weeks.We went up the canyon to make s'mores with some of Scott's family one night while Scott was out of town.
Annicka with uncle Ned.
When Scott is gone, Park tends to attach himself to any male that is available. This is his cousin, William. Most of the time it's uncle Ned, or uncle Ross, if he's in town.
Our next door neighbors were kind enough to share icecream cones with us one night, and as you can tell, Park LOVED it! Our own little Santa Claus in August.

Time for the toddler bed.

Well, a few nights ago Park broke his crib. If you've read Scott's sister Lori's blog, you'll see what I mean. We have the same crib. Park was shaking his crib like CRAZY one night (I wouldn't doubt it if Annicka was helping a little) and Annicka came into our room and said, "Park broke his crib." We went in and sure enough the spokes on one end had come completly apart. So the next day I went to our neighbor's house and took one of her extra toddler beds.
Ever since then Park has decided that he is also too big for his high chair. He insists on sitting at the table like the rest of us, he won't even sit on a little booster chair we have. He even throws a tantrum every time we try to put him on either the booster or in the high chair. What a funny kid!
And, of course, we had to throw in a picture of Annie.

Our trip to Stinky Falls!

We know that you have all been wondering why scott's email is stinkyfalls and why he talks so much about this place. Well here are the pictures. We had an AMAZING vacation! We rented a house on the Guadalupe river that had a rope swing out back that went into the river. All of Scott's siblings were there minus one, with most of their spouses, and NO children! Scott's younger brother and only unmarried sibling proposed to his girlfriend while we were all down there. Congratulations! It was a great place...we'll probably all go back again. We got to go to Schlitterbahn (the largest waterpark in the world), which is just a block away from Stinky falls. We didn't get any pictures there because it was raining all day from Hurricane Dolly...but that was fine with us, it kept the lines down. We got more done in four or five hours than we would have all day if it had been sunny and crowded. The next two days were spent at this place called Stinky Falls. It's actually called Prince Solms tube chute, but the Chamberlains have always called it Stinky Falls. It's a tube chute on the Comal River about 30 minutes outside of San Antonio. And every trip down is death defying. The life guards have to jump in to save someone at least once an hour...usually way more often than that. Most people just float down on their tubes and with their beer on the way down the river, but not us Chamberlains. Scott and his four brothers all go down without a tube or life jacket and the rest of us put on a life jacket, brothers-in-law included. Then we go and go and go all day long! The pictures never seem to do it justice, you just can't get how the undertow pulls and pushes you until you are there and go down. But here ya'll go!



Scott jumping in at the bottom.
The actual tube chute with a bunch of Scott's siblings and spouses.
Me jumping in at the bottom.

Hike to Timpanogos Cave

Since we will be off to San Antonio for a little Chamberlain family reunion at a wonderful place called Stinky Falls tomorrow, Scott decided to take yesterday and today off as well. He had the wonderful idea of taking a hike up to Timpanogos cave yesterday. I'd never been before and it had been 20 years for Scott and he said that it was an easy 1.5 mile hike, that was paved. While paved it was, it was anything but a nice walk. We couldn't take a stroller up and so we had to carry Park most of the way, which he was okay with....at first. He started into his squealing about half way up.These first few pictures are right at the beginning. Scott said, "why don't you just wait until our way back down?" I said, "I want them to be happy in at least a few of the pictures." So, happy they are.
This is Park pointing at everything. We would walk about three steps and then stop to point.

Here we are in the cave! It was really neat and very cool (temp wise) in the cave. Notice the expression on Park's face in the pic below, he was just starting into one of his squeals because I was trying to put him down.

Here we all are on the way back down...This pictures just shows how tired and upset Park was. Although Annicka was tired, she was such a trooper! She walked most of the way up. We did, however, have to carry her all the way down. Despite all of the screaming and whining, Scott and I got a great workout. We did decide though, that we wouldn't do this hike again until our youngest child is about five.

Park's Sympathy Walk

Hopefully this won't be one of those "you had to be there" stories. Park was playing with his little superman book last night when we were trying to get kids in bed and he was soooo upset when we took it from him. In his moment of an emotional breakdown he searched for anything that would fill the void of not being able to play with his book....he grabbed a crutch from one of Annicka's dolls and started using it to help him walk out of the room all the while crying his heart out. Poor Poor Park.

More summertime fun!

We've been having lots of fun outside with the hot weather. Here are some pics to show you what we've been up to!
These ones are from our neighbor Daniel's birthday party. Annicka couldn't get enough of the slide.


We've discovered a fun new use for sidewalk chalk. You color in a wet spot on the ground with a lot of chalk and then rub your hands and feet in it and you can make hand and foot prints with it. Pretty fun!

We've been to a splash park in Herriman that Lori, Scott's sister, introduced us to.


Finally, this morning I got the sprinkler out for Annicka. I didn't bother getting Park a swimsuit on because he hasn't stepped near it this summer. I went to check on them and Park was soaked and he was trying to get a drink from the sprinkler! Crazy boy!

Another ultrasound!

Well I had another appointment yesterday and I got really lucky! Apparently the doctor I was scheduled to see (I go to a group practice) likes to do an ultrasound again if you are less than 13 weeks. He says it's easier to see the baby's heart beat as opposed to just hearing it when they are still that small and he just likes to visualize it better. So I said, "That's fine with me!" It's actually starting to look like a baby! This is a frontal view, looking straight at the baby. It's head is there to the right and you can even see it's arms and legs, those little white lines on, and next to the body.I've been toying with the idea that since we now have one of each, just waiting until the baby is born to see if it's a boy or a girl...I don't think it'll happen! I just can't help thinking every day, "so, are you a little boy or a little girl?" And then getting another ultrasound I just knew that when it came down to getting the 20 week ultrasound I would want to know right then!