Kiera's First Hunt

So Kiera has been bugging me all summer to go do real camping. She doesn't feel that throwing a tent up at the cabin is true camping. She said that she wants to do the stuff like the bear guy that we watch on TV. You know, the "bear" guy that eats snakes and lizards, bugs, fish and all the other fun stuff. We all know him as "Man vs Wild". She has decided that is true camping. I really want to take her on a back country camping trip, but I am not certain that she will really like it yet, so I decided that we would take the next step and get her out in the wilderness to do some activities that are not quite so extreme yet and just let her get a taste of what's out there. A few weeks ago, my cousin Steve and I took her out scouting for deer one night. She loved being with the guys and had the time of her life sitting on top of a mountain with her binoculars watching all the deer around us. She was convinced that we had gone hunting and informed me that she was disappointed that we did not shoot anything to bring home to eat. So this last weekend was the opening for the Grouse Hunt here in Utah. My dad and I took her up on the four-wheelers and took her out on a walk through the thick brush and trees to see if we could find any birds. She was a trooper and actually made it through the three mile hike and only needed a little help in spots where the brush was too thick to get through. In the end, she helped find the grouse in which I shot. She retrieved it and was so excited to finally have something to take home to Mom for dinner. She made me promise her that the next grouse we saw, she wanted to shoot it. Unfortunately, we did not see any others to shoot. To my amazement, she even helped me pluck the feathers and clean the bird. She was awesome and I had a great time sharing in this little adventure with her.

Kiera is 5 years old

I can't believe that Kiera is 5 years old. She is at such a fun stage because she loves to explore and spend time outdoors and loves being with her family. She enjoys being a big sister and I think she embraces her role more and more each day as she is realizing that her little sister adores her. Kiera chose to celebrate her big day with the family by going minature golfing and having cake and ice cream back at the house. Kiera's Aunt Joni made this amazing ladybug cake for Kiera and I can't thank her enough. Kiera loved it!

Stopped to see the wildflowers up Little Cottonwood

We had been driving all day but I wanted to stop by and see Shay on our way home from California. When we got there she was raving about the sunflowers at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon. I had never even seen Alta or Snowbird in the Summer time so I was up for the detour. We hoped in the car and drove up. I wish we could have spent more time hiking around because it was beautiful and we got a decent family picture out of it. THANKS SHAY!

Golfing at Three Rivers, CA

Jeff, Kiera, my dad and I went golfing in Three Rivers, CA one of the days that we visited. It was a small quaint course but we had a blast. I again found out how bad I am at golf while Kiera continued to hone her skills. She loves being on the course with Jeff and she requested many times to ride in papa's cart. We got to practice our skills amongst the sprinklers which Kiera really enjoyed.

California Trip

Kiera had been telling us all Winter that she wanted to swim in Nana's pool. We usually visit my family in the Spring to avoid the Central California heat but the pool is usually not quite ready by then. So we decided to come later in the year to be able to enjoy the pool more. We headed off to Cali in Late July and crossed through Las Vegas and the desert to get there with temperatures raising well above 100 degrees. I kept asking myself what we were thinking. My parents are amazing and were willing to meet us in Barstow and pick up Ellie while Jeff, Kiera and I continued onto San Diego to visit the beach and Sea World. I know that Ellie would have loved our little adventure but in order for us to truly enjoy it and focus on Kiera's experience we needed to leave the busy, busy, did I say busy Ellie with my mom. And what better hands to leave her then with Nana and Papa. I promise you Ellie didn't miss her mom and dad at all.

Sea World was a blast and it took me back to my original thinkings as a teenager and younger that I was destined to be a trainer at Sea World and doing shows with Shamu. But I had to be content to be in the crowd. Kiera was great and enjoyed seeing everything. We went on the helicopter ride to the Artic and she truly believed that we had traveled by helicopter to get there and was concerned about how we were going to make it back to Sea World.

At my parents we truly enjoyed the pool as we got in 2-3 times a day.

Our Stop at the beach was short but sweet. We had a long drive ahead of us to get back to Visalia but Kiera enjoyed only the second ocean encounter in her life. She was about 4 weeks old when we traveled to Santa Cruz for my cousin's wedding. She was a bit unsure about the water that rushed up on the beach but she loved collecting things off the beach, rocks and shells. I think Jeff enjoyed the experience the most. He loves to explore and look for things. He found Kiera a very tiny clam.

The Cake Decorator comes to Day Care

This summer DayCare focused a month on occupations. It was such a fun month because many people from many different occupations came to visit the children and talked to them about what they did. They ranged from a Veterinarian (or Vegetarian, Kiera kept mixing them up), garbage man, mail man, hair dresser, cake decorator, etc. The girls each came home with their own personally decorated cake. Kiera said that Ellie had a great time decorating her cake.

Hello Dolly with the Crosbie Girls

Ok, here we go with a few updates on what we were up to this summer. We enjoyed a girls night in Salt Lake with all the Crosbie girls. We went to cheesecake factory then went to the showing of Hello Dolly. Kiera and Brinlie each got their own pillow to sit on to enjoy the show. The theater had a very cool set up with the stage in the middle of the room and the seating surrounded it. Kiera had lots of questions and continued to ask everytime the made a set change if it was over.