Usually we find ourselves camping over the Fourth of July each year, but this year my dad was on call for work and so was I. So we decided to hit the local festivities. In Centerville, the fireworks were on Friday night, and then my family likes to get up and go to breakfast before the parade at 9. For a 2 and 4 year old, that isn’t much sleep. So we decided to ghetto camp this year. Cami will be embarrassed that I made it public knowledge, but it was a lot of fun. We took our trailer over to my mom’s house and camped out in the backyard. Peter brought his as well. David and Katie slept over. Julie and Tyson were there. April hung out for a bit. We just had a big long weekend at my mom’s house.

For the Centerville fireworks, we went up on the side of the mountain up above the city and watched the fireworks.  We actually got a double header–West Bountiful did their fireworks a few minutes after Centerville finished. Of course, I took pictures.

Then we got up for breakfast at IHOP and then sat in the hot sun and watched the parade. What kid doesn’t love having permission to play in the road and take candy from strangers?

Not exactly sure what happened to here leg here…

Jayci was particularly proud of her glass slipper she had thrown to her.

I played around a bit with a new photography technique called HDR during the parade.

After the kids took a nap, Cami, Martha, and I took them down to the park for some lunch and the festivities. The kids got to play in the bounce houses and had a blast on one of the obstacle courses. I had to help Corbin through the first couple times, but then he really got the hang of it.  I nearly killed myself trying to roll down the last hill.

Jayci wouldn’t go home until we went and played on the playground. Instead of going to the crowded one at the park, we went across the street to the school and the kids were by themselves. I played around with some more HDR.

Saturday night, mom and dad bbq’d some teryaki chicken and we had some chips and watermelon in the backyard. Cami and I brought the fixins for some patriotic drinks.

Grandma had some bubbles for the kids, and Cami bought them some interesting bubble blowing PVC pipe things at the park. Of course, I had to be a good dad and test them out thoroughly to make sure they were safe for the kids.

Then we sat around the fire and roasted marshmallows and socialized for a bit.

And I did some more playing with photos and HDR.

Then Pete and I got up on top of his trailer to get some pictures of the sunset.

The weekend wouldn’t be complete without a few pictures of the kids together.

On Sunday night we made our way to Applebee’s for dinner and I played a bit more with my camera and Pete’s beer.

We stayed at Mom’s until Monday morning and then we headed home and got ourselves ready for more fireworks and dinner in Farr West with Pete and Wendy. The greek food there is awesome. And the kids talked mom into a snow cone.

We were up close and personal with the fireworks.

Took the kids to the Syracuse Heritage Days Carnival on Thursday. We saw pretty much all the neighbors that live around us. We took the kids on some rides. I had to go with them because Cami was a little scared! hahaha. The kids were troopers. They loved the ferris wheel. They would put their hands in the air and scream when we were at the top or when they go down for mom to take a picture. They liked the slide at first, but by the bottom their face said OH NO! But then they giggled and wanted to do it again. Not for 3 bucks each!

We got the kids faces painted. Corbin looked a bit scared or mad about the process, but he wasn’t. He loved his dragon. Just new for him, I guess. He was so upset when I had to wash it off before bed. And dang, look at those kids and their baby blues!  I did not add extra blue in those. Maybe the blue sky helped.

Cami took the kids out to play in the sprinklers a week or two ago. Cute pictures.

Quick note about the last one…  I have no idea what is going on. I had nothing to do with it. I was inside working.

I got to go out flying with Peter earlier this week. He took me down to fly around one of my favorite places in the world: Bull Valley, where I spend a lot of time camping and pretending like I’m hunting. We got to fly around Mary’s Nipple and get a totally new perspective on a very familiar landmark for me. We had planned a much longer flight, but the first airplane we got into wasn’t sounding quite right, and that is not something we were willing to chance, so we bailed on that one and got in a different plane. We got to the end of the runway and tried to takeoff and the engine wouldn’t get up to speed and we could barely get rolling down the runway. So we aborted that one as well and went back to park it. By that time, the techs had found out what was wrong with the first plane and had it fixed up, so we moved all our gear back to the original plane and finally got on our way. It was a fun time with about 3 hours in the air, and then we went and had dinner and talked for a couple hours. Thanks, Pete.

We went to a family reunion today for my Dad’s side of the family out in West Valley. Had some fun hangin’ out with family that we don’t get to see too often.  Got some cute pics of the kids playin’ around.

The kids were fascinated with the bubbling garbage can… full of root beer.

The kids got to try making some slime out of glue, paint, and borax water.

Halle was just chillin’ with Grandpa.

Corbin gave horseshoes a try.

Then afterward, we decided that we weren’t ready to go home yet, so we took the kids out to North Ogden to a trout farm to go fishing. They have several ponds out there with thousands of fish. They have poles for the kids to use that have a little piece of leather on it resembling the food that they feed the fish. The fish aren’t stupid, though, but it didn’t take long before the kids had caught 5 or 6 fish. After Corbin caught his second fish, he got so excited that he backed into a shallow area of muddy water off of one of the ponds. Each time Jayci caught a fish, she performed a little dance. You have to keep whatever you catch, but they clean, and optionally fillet and skin the fish for you. They charge you based on the length of the fish. If you are looking to go get some good cheap trout for dinner, this isn’t the place. It cost us about 18 for about 5 or 6 fish. But I would definitely go back to take the kids. They had a great time. They also sell a BIG cup of fish food for 25 cents and the kids had a blast throwing food to the fish.

Halle Reese Hales was born on May 18th, 2010 at 8:47 AM PT. She weighed 8 lbs. and was 19.5 inches long. She is just adorable. She was NOT happy at all to be taken out of her warm spot and out into the world. She showed us right away that she has a nice set of lungs. Except for during her first hair washing, she cried for just about the whole time from birth to her first snack. Since then, she has been a quiet and happy baby sleeping at times, and looking around taking in her world. The kids just love her and couldn’t wait to see her. Their Grandma Hales took them for the night and brought them up to meet Halle at the hospital. They couldn’t wait to hold her. Grandma Hales was excited that she was the only one able to come up so early and got have Halle all to herself for the morning. Well, her and Jayci had to fight over her a little. We had a bunch of visitors throughout the day, and we very much appreciate everyone’s support. We love you all.

Here’s a bunch of pictures from today. I was going to caption some of the, but it’s been a long day. If I’ve done my job as a photographer, you shouldn’t need captions anyway.

[Show as slideshow]

We have been on a couple more camping trips since Easter. Our first one was kind of a spur of the moment thing. We decided at the last minute we wanted to go out to Antelope Island but found out that all of the sites were booked for the weekend. Even the walk-in sites that aren’t supposed to be able to be booked. So, because we had already packed up the trailer we decided to find somewhere we could go. We ended up going to Willow Creek where Rob was headed to go hunting in a few weeks so we figured he could do some scouting. Besides it is just a nice place to camp. The weather was nice and the kids had a lot of fun. You give those kids some dirt, a shovel, and a bucket and they are entertained for hours. I’m sure I’ve said that before. They love it. They both got to take turns shooting their Dad’s gun and they also love to go 4-wheeling and we got to a bit of that too. It was the first time our family has ever gone camping by ourselves. We always have someone go along with us. I was a little worried we would be bored but it was actually some really nice family time. I loved it! I realized I do a lot more with my kids when there aren’t other people to sit around and chat with all day. I really need to try to spend that kind of time with them regardless.

Shooting Daddy’s Gun

Playing in the Dirt

Jayci found this dead tree and drug it around everywhere!

My 3 favorite people in the world!

Next we went to Plymouth. Not the same kind of camping. We were at a campground. I definitely prefer an atmosphere like Willow Creek. Just camping in the middle of nowhere. We still had lots of fun though. We usually do. There was some fun 4-wheeling trails. Rob bought the kids some goggles to wear with their helmets. They love them. Corbin is a totally different kid on that 4-wheeler now. It’s surprising the difference those goggles make. He screams and cheers and enjoys every second of the ride. And we thought he liked it before. Now there is no doubt. We played a little on a playground. The kids were frozen though and of course on the walk back to the trailer we got slammed by a rainstorm. It was cold!

Wendy and Peter welcomed a new addition to their family on April 17th. They had an adorable baby boy who they named Lucas Patrick Pop. He weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. and was 21″ long. He is such a good, quiet baby and such a cutie! Well deserved for these two and their long journey to get this little guy here. We couldn’t be happier for them!

Congratulations!!!

A bit behind here, as usual.

We went camping this year for Easter. I know. BIG SURPRISE! We go camping so rarely. Anyway, we went to Coalville with my family this year.  It didn’t exactly turn out to be the springtime festival you’d expect for Easter.  This is what things looked like the first morning.

While Cami was helping prepare for the easter egg hunt, the kids and I decided to build a snowman. The camp host saw what we were doing and brought me out a handful of carrots for accessories and offered up a hat and scarf when we were ready. He also told the kids that he was having a snowman building contest. The first kids to build a snowman got an ice cream. Not sure if he thought through the prize very well. Hot chocolate, maybe? But nice gesture, and the kids loved it. Grandpa Hales made the hat we stole Jayci’s gloves and the flower from her hat and made it a Mrs. Snowman.

I was a little nervous about coloring eggs in the trailer. Eeek!  I wasn’t crazy about the idea of a rainbow floor. But we spread out a table cloth on the floor and the kids were really good with it. Cami got an egg spinner, which was a lot safer than the dyes. Cami did most of the dying and we let the kids use the egg spinner to spin the colors on. They were so proud of their eggs.

They loved the egg hunt and got a TON of candy and toys. Thanks to my mom and all my aunts for putting it together for them. We had lots of kids come up to camp for the easter egg hunt. The snow was so deep that a lot of the treats were dropped in footprints in the snow.

Hmmmm…  Left over egg dye. What shall I do with it?

The easter bunny hid their baskets around the trailer and they had to go hunt for them. They loved their umbrellas. They still want to use them every day!

Cortney and Brett welcomed a new addition to their family on March 24th. They had a beautiful baby girl who they named Reegan Paige Powell. She weighed 8 lbs. 6 oz. and was 21" long. She is so precious! It makes me baby hungry and even more excited for our baby girl to get here!

Congratulations guys she is beautiful!