Week by Week 6

I have decided to post about Utah at the same time as I am catching up on John-Luke's weekly posts. I will post about the corresponding week that we were in Utah when John-Luke was 6 weeks and so forth. Phew. With all that technical mumbo-jumbo out of the way, lets get to the point!
We spent the first few days recovering from our flight out to Utah and then we headed up to Alpine, Wyoming for our annual family reunion. It was quite fun except for when I tried to take the kids anywhere in the car longer than about 20 minutes. Here we go.
This is the way that John-Luke looked for most of the trip. Asleep. I just can't get over how easy he is. Even as I'm typing this post he has been asleep for 6 hours (since 3:30 pm) (yes, I do check to see if he is alive regularly). Doesn't he look sweet? This is how James looked much of the time. He would sit up to the counter and eat whenever anyone else was eating (which with 15 people in a house is pretty much all the time). It got to the point where no one would sit too close to him as he would secretly (or not so secretly) try to steal their food off their plates even as he had his own plate of the exact same thing right in front of him. This is James with his cousins Lexi (at the counter) and Ashlyn. James and Lexi were practically inseparable during our whole trip to Utah. They played awesome together.
We did lots of fun stuff while there even though I was stuck close to home with a 6 week old John-Luke. We went and threw rocks in the river.
And we played with sticks and mud and rocks in the water.
We built a fire.
And Lexi tried to burn herself. It could have been bad but ended up being very funny. My dad thought she burned her "privates" and the only water he could find was in Bubba's sippy cup so he was trying to dump it down her pants and it just wasn't giving up any water. He finally got the top ripped off and dumped it down her pants. Of course, Lexi was fine except she didn't understand why Edpa was dumping water down her pants. And my dad was really irritated at me for laughing when he thought she was hurt. It was classic. Perhaps you had to be there to really appreciate how my dad reacts to one of his family members getting hurt. Or when he thinks they are hurt.
Then we did a bit of hiking/exploring and found all sorts of fun stuff like rocks, sticks, leaves and even some flowers and berries.
Oh, and James discovered ashes. He liked them a lot. I didn't notice till it was too late and so I just let him finish the job. Of course, I always say that it wasn't a good day unless we are dirty from head to toe. This was a GOOD day!
We have a ritual of singing songs before bed at our house and we recruited everyone else in on the fun. Lexi especially enjoyed this ritual and her and James frolicked on the bed and around the room while we all sang fun songs every night.
John-Luke slept a lot. True to form.
Meanwhile, James was a blur we could hardly catch on camera. There was so much to explore he could hardly stand it. Of course, he had lots of fun playing with his cousins and his aunts who couldn't help but squeeze his cheeks regularly.
We ventured out to a little lake up the Gray's River Road. It was a great little outing. Here is John-Luke sleeping while his cousin Ryan smiled for us all. Ryan is quite the smiley baby. All you really have to do is look in his direction and he is ready with a smile. He is also quite a stiff little baby. His legs rarely bend so this is a gem of a photo with one leg bent. And (at least at this time) John-Luke was pretty much the opposite.
Here is James enjoying the mud on the lakeshore. He especially liked throwing the sand.
Here he is with all his Fila side cousins (except the babies). I think it is the only picture taken at the cabin with them all in it. They were getting ready to take the boat out onto the lake. It is a perfect lake for kids. Super small and shallow for quite a ways out.
Meanwhile, John-Luke was sleeping on his Aunt Karen. She loves babies and I took full advantage of her.
My sister, Pink, deserves a medal for taking all the kids out on the boat (including Bubba). She said it was all she could do to keep him from jumping into the water. I bet. At least he was well protected with all the gear they put on him.
That life jacket was just a bit too big eh?
And it wouldn't be a complete day unless we sampled some of the local mud.
More dancing and singing in the evening. Here James and Lexi are dancing while I sing Bingo. Ignore the singing please.

A rare occasion indeed. John-Luke is actually awake. Another pic of John-Luke with his older cousin. Ryan also wiggles constantly whereas John-Luke was constantly being mistaken for asleep even when his eyes were open. He just wasn't a very wiggly baby. I called him my Zen baby. Aren't they cute together?
James also got to ride a horse for the first time. He loved, loved, loved it.
My dad just rode around the coral area with him and he thought he had died and gone to heaven.
I just love how James is laughing with sheer joy in this clip. It is kinda long. Deal with it.
Meanwhile, John-Luke slept some more.
We (me and my sister, Wu) made the mistake of being talked into going to Teton National Park with the kids. We drove together with all 3 kids in the back. It was horrible. At least it was a pretty day. James and the babies pretty much cried the whole way unless we were singing.
Then we got there and couldn't find the rest of the family cuz we miscommunicated about where we were going to be. I let Bubba play in String Lake for a while till I discovered that John-Luke had crapped huge in his pink carseat. (I had to wash that thing about 9 times in 6 weeks. Talk about ridiculous). Me and James in front of String Lake (I was pretty livid by this time and done with the whole experience. Can you tell)?
So we went back home (after being there for about 30 minutes) and we all went to sleep.Overall it was a great trip. We played games. We (the adults) ate crap food (much to my dad's chagrin). We stayed up late talking and did all those things that you would think we would do at an annual Fila family reunion. It was great! We did discover that the cabin we stay in is just too small anymore. Too many kids and not enough rooms/beds. Next year we will have to see what happens. We have been going to the same place for 15 years. Unfortunately, Brian was still in Geneva working and didn't join us till the next week (just in time for the Gillespie family reunion). We missed him lots. I know this is a long post but I did take over 900 pictures and 77 videos while I was there. So this really is only a sampling of what I could have shared. Enjoy!