The Past Seven Weeks...

Wow! its been seven whole weeks (and some days) since we welcomed our little Mason into our family.    It has actually been quite busy for us even with a new little baby!
The week after Mason was born, Avery & Lily went to Idaho to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Turpin.  Boy they sure had a blast and we sure missed them during that time!  It was so quiet that  week as Brian had the whole week off and got to stay home with Mason and I (Amanda).  We drove up to Idaho the following Friday (so Mason was ONE week old) to get the kids.  While there, we had to go out on the boat (Grandma stayed on dry land with Mason) since Grandpa had promised Avery he would take him for a ride.  We tried to tell him it was going to be cold (since it was only in the 60s that day) but he insisted that he was going to get wet and ride in the tube.  Needless to say, after one trip around, he came back on the boat and said "I'm NEVER going back in the water."  He did actually go out again though.  

The following week we went to an Owen family reunion.  The kids loved playing with all their second cousins and it was fun to see extended family.  Mason is Amanda's Grandma Owen's 68th Great-Granchild!  (And she got 2 more great-grandkids within the next month!)  

The following week was 4th of July and so we went to the parade and festivities here in town.  Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures but it sure was fun.  Avery went nuts over the fireworks that night (they are pretty awesome since they are so close).  Aunt Candace joined us that afternoon and evening for a barbecue and picnic.  Mason slept through the entire firework show.  Lily was a little nervous for the firewokrs, but also loved them.

Then we headed up to Idaho to camp out and go on a hike up Table Mountain in the Tetons. It was Mason's first camping trip at 3 weeks of age! We stayed at a little campground (with nice restrooms) for the night and then went on the hike.  Amanda, Lily & Mason drove back to Idaho Falls instead of going on the hike. The hike is like 7 miles up and 7 miles back with snow along the way.  They made it quite far, however, a storm rolled in with rain and lightning, so they turned back.  

Mason's 1st Camping Trip-3 weeks old!

Table Mountain Hike trailhead

Then we stayed in Idaho Falls to go to Brian's brother's baby blessing that Sunday..  Mason & Lincoln are 3 weeks apart.  It was such a beautiful day and blessing!

On the way home, we stopped by to see Amanda's other Grandma (Downs).  

We thought we would be all done with adventures for the summer, which we were for a couple of weeks.  We did go to the Treehouse museum one Saturday (since it was free for Weber County RAMP Days).  The kids enjoyed that even though there were a million people there!  We also camped again in our backyard as a family and had a fun block party with our neighbors for the 24th of July.  They had a crazy candy cannon that shot the candy up in the air over 100 feet.   Some of the candy had become powder when it landed.   Then we had a really good firework show which luckily, turned out all right (note to self and others: don't put the ariel fireworks up on a board between two ladders like the ground fireworks, the box had 'jumped' up and landed luckily right side up on the ground in the middle of the aerial fireworks going off).  We were quite blessed.  

bubbles in the backyard for the campout

at the Tree House museum

Gathering up the candy from the Candy Cannon

 We also made a quick trip to Idaho to do some swimming at Downata.  Mason is 6 weeks old and its his first time swimming!  He didn't mind it at all and even drifted off to sleep a bit.  Avery got brave enough to ride down the hydrotubes and Lily just loved being in the pig pool.