Here is our new puppy. My Aunt rescued a dog off of the side of the road, who was about to give birth. Gracie had 11 puppies! So we got one of them. This is Goliath. He was the largest of the bunch...a few weeks ago anyway. But he has such a sweet personality. He is so calm and laid back. He is very cuddly, and totally content to just lay beside you (or Toby in this picture). I have never seen a puppy that was this calm, and with such a sweet personality. I went and picked him up today. He is an "Early Christmas present" for the boys. Seth went with me, and Goliath and Seth whimpered and howled for the beginning of the trip home, and then not to far down the road, they both fell asleep! It was so funny!

Our new puppy only wanted to lay under the ladder for some reason. Toby was protecting him. Every time Toby would come near him, Goliath started wagging his tail! It was so cute!

making friends

My handsome hubby, driving us over to go camping! Yea! I am glad he doesn't mind driving, because I do not even want to learn how to pull our huge camper!

Every time he gets in a moving vehicle, he does this! Poor baby. he would open his eyes, look around and see that we were still in the truck, and go back to sleep. He slept the whole way!

Levi in the truck, on our way to go camping....

View from the truck, as we are driving into the park.

View from the truck, as we are going down into the canyon.....

Seth, doing his favorite thing, playing in the dirt! He was in dirt heaven! haha

Seth, saying "cheese".

Levi was so happy to finally be there. He was running and playing, and checking it all out. Here he is standing beside a huge tree trunk that was at out site...Daddy made good use of it, as a holder for his coleman lantern. :)

This was our first day of hiking. This was the beginning of the first path we went on. This was a replica of what a man lived in, who started a "ranch" in this canyon, long long ago.
Daddy and the boys are looking inside....basically it was just dirt and rock in there.....oh, and a fireplace.

Stephen and the boys at the replica of "Goodnight's dougout". It was very "rustic"....I wouldn't have wanted to live there!

We saw this huge rock on the side of this cliff, right off of the hiking trail. So the boys and I decided to climb up to it so that Daddy could take our picture. I didn't know if Seth was ever going to make it though! haha He would climb a little and then slide back down to where he started.....then after the picture, Daddy and the boys decided to climb all the way to the top! I didn't....until I heard Seth crying and they weren't telling me what was wrong. I scaled the side of that so fast, I couldn't even believe it! Seth tends to be clumbsy, and doesn't pay attention to where he is going....and he had fallen down on a prickly pear cactus. Needless to say, Stephen and I stripped him down and cleaned it all out of his legs and pants, and shoes.....and he was very cautious around any cactus he saw after that!

The boys and I, sitting on the rock....whew, I didn't think we would ever make it up to the rock for the picture! haha

Stephen and the boys decided to climb to the top of this cliff, just because they wanted to! haha Levi LOVED it!!!! That is all he wanted to do from then on, was go straight up! :)

Stephen and the boys at the top of the cliff.

Stephen took this picture of me and the boys, at the "lighthouse" information/rest spot. By this time we had been hiking for about 5 miles.

Stephen and the boys, at one of the mile markers. We were getting closer to camp....only about 2 more miles to go... :)

They reached the top, and then sat down for a rest! haha

I snapped this picture of Stephen, while the boys were climbing their "mountain".

This was toward the end of our hike. We went about 8 miles or so, this first day. By this point the boys were worn out and we carried them most of the way back to camp....then the boys took good, long, naps....all 3 of them! haha

Stephen and the boys at the "scenic lookout". Levi is looking at me with his "nockulars".

The boys and I at the "scenic lookout".

We were taking pictures of each other with the boys, then a man and his wife walked up and he offered to take a picture of all of us together.

This is the part of the canyon that we looked at from our camper door. We climbed to the very tip top of that highest peak! It was only about a 1 mile total trip, but it was mostly "up". Talk about FUN!!! :)

Here is a "zoomed in" view of our camper, from where we climbed to the top of the canyon.

Here is the view of our camper, from the top of the canyon. Wow! Talk about a long way down there!

I set the timer on our camera, and took a picture of all of us, together, on top of the canyon. We climbed straight up this thing! Even used a rope at one point to get up/down the side of some extremely tall rocks, with the boys! It was so amazing!!!!

Daddy and the boys on top of the canyon! Isn't it beautiful up here?

The boys found some rocks on top of the canyon that marked white like chaulk, so they were coloring.

Here is Levi in his new shirt and tie. He found a tie in his brothers room, from last christmas and had wore it all day, the day before this. Levi said he was "working at the church, like Papa". Stephen asked him what he does at the church and Levi said "I don't know". Then Seth piped up and said he worked at the "cookie church", and I asked him what you do at the cookie church and he said, "um, make cookies!" haha They are so funny! I LOVE this Age!!! :)

Later that day, Levi asked me if I would buy him a longer tie, but when I went out to buy groceries, I forgot. So his Daddy stopped at the store on his way home (Thanksgiving morning) and bought Levi and Seth both shirts/ties. They looked so handsome! They wore them all day for Thanksgiving, and thought they were big stuff! :)

Levi knows he looks "cool". :)

Seth posing for the camera....crazy kid!

Seth, being silly! (By the way, he picked out his own "pants"....)

Me, hugging my boys....and telling them thank you for letting Daddy take our picture.

We took the boys to Bass Pro, they loved it. Here they are standing beside a huge bear!

The boys and I are watching the huge fish!

Daddy took the boys outside to play some baseball. They were having so much fun, I couldn't resist taking some pictures.

Levi was hitting the ball to Daddy and Seth

Seth was trying to catch the ball after Levi hit it.

Toby was relaxing with his blankey, and watching the boys play baseball.

Seth discovered the camera..... :)

They decided to give Daddy a turn too!

The boys helped me put up our Christmas Tree tonight. I got tired of Levi begging to go buy a tree! haha So we got the stuff down, and started decorating.

The boys helping decorate the tree.

Levi took this picture of me and Seth.

Thank You Aunt Michelle

Aunt Michelle gave me a CD with lots of Really Great Pictures on it! I put a few on here...I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. It was really nice to look back at all of the pictures, and remember what a Great Summer we had this year.

We are all standing outside of the floating villa we went to in September. We all had so much fun! The boys definitely did not want to leave.

Here I am, freezing!

Levi really gets into his fishing! :)