The Zoo

We had the opportunity to go to the zoo recently. My friend Amanda is learning American Sign language so she can communicate with her niece better. Her class was going to the zoo and would be learning all the different signs for the animals. She invited us to come along. The kids were very excited to go and I was excited to learn some new signs. I have been trying to teach the kids a little bit of sign language as part of home school. Noah picked it up so fast and remembered all the signs better then I did. It was a long hot day, but we had fun and learned a lot!

Noah LOVED the snakes! I think it was his favorite part of the zoo. It was a very warm day so most of the animals were hiding in the shade where we couldn't see them.

The kids and I sitting on a big alligator statue (only you can't see the alligator in the picture).

Noah and Emma outside the monkey cage.

Mana's Visit

We have some changes coming into our lives soon. My Mom is moving up here the middle of August and will be staying with us for a little while. She was up visiting this past week and looking for work. We are so excited to have her closer. Can we say free babysitter! Yea! (Just kidding mom).
My Mom (Mana) with the grand kids.

Mana, Emma, and Emily making silly faces!

Noah wanted us to take a picture of him making a silly face too!

Family Visiting- Kayak Park

On Saturday my sister Jessica, her daughter Emily and my brother Joshua all came up for a visit. We took advantage of the sunny warm weather and went to our favorite place, kayak park! We packed a lunch and then let the kids play and wear themselves (and us) out.

These two girls were so darn cute the whole weekend! Emily is a year older then Emma, but they are the same size, both have blond hair and look just like they could be twins.

Daniel, doing what he does best....eating of course!

Daniel discovered the slide and went down it for the first time ever.

Emma and Emily were inseparable the whole time. Usually it's Noah and Emily playing together and Emma gets left out, but it was the opposite this time. Poor Noah was having a rough time by the time the weekend was over.

Emma and Emily splashing in the water.

My Jessica and Joshua brought up their dog and he really enjoyed the water!

I love this picture, the dog had just come out of the water and started shaking the water off right onto the girls!

Emma and Emily playing in the water. Can you tell what Emily wants to be...

Daniel loved squatting in the water, it was sure cold!

Daniel was a little puzzled about the little waves crashing over his feet! He just stood there watching and wouldn't move.

Noah had big plans for uncle Joshua! There is usually a little log cabin type fort made of driftwood and Noah wanted to make it bigger with the help of my brother, and Kendall.

When we got to the spot it was all taken apart and so they had to start from scratch.

It was hard work building the fort! Those logs were heavy!

It was a long day for little Daniel who fell fast asleep on the way home.

Hiking With Friends

Kendall had a 3 day weekend so we decided to take advantage of it and do something different. My friend Amanda told me about a place she called the ice caves that are about an hour from our house. It's a little over a mile hike round trip and an easy trail for kids. So Friday we decided to go check it out and Amanda, her husband Chad and their kids came too.
The view was so amazing! I love the mountains!

Here we are happy to be out of the car, eating a little snack before the walk to the glacier. Everyone is in good spirits so far, it's a little warm, but that's okay.

Break number one, still in pretty good spirits. Emma is starting to tire but Noah is still going strong! He was very excited to go on a real hike. I have to pause in the story of our day to tell you about Noah's new fascination with a certain show, called Man Vs Wild. It's basically about a man named Bear (who names their kid Bear??) who shows you how to survive in different situations in the wild. Noah likes the fact that I get all grossed out when he eats things like yak eye balls, and drinks animal blood. But anyway...it is an interesting show and Noah LOVES it. When we started out on the hike Noah kept saying things like "Wow, this is just like on Man vs Wild" There was a group with a guide and the guide was showing the group about how you can eat certain plants, one being leaves from an evergreen tree. Noah wanted to taste it so he could be just like Bear, until we reminded him of how he is very allergic to pine trees.

Noah, Emma and Abi taking a rest, we are almost there, who knew 1/2 a mile could be so tiring?

Emma was happy to finally see our destination. We could feel the cooler air blowing off the snow and ice and it gave us new energy to reach our destination.

The light reflecting off the snow was blinding!

Noah went exploring and found a little ice cave (just like the ones in Man vs Wild, of course).

We had fun on the ice and snow and then headed back home. By this time we were all hot and a little tired. Emma thought we were the meanest parents ever because we wouldn't carry her down the hill. She whined half way back down the trail, till I sat her down and told her I would leave her there if she didn't stop. It took me walking away for her to think I would really do it. So the rest of the way was peacefully quiet.

Almost done!

Noah found this tree and just had to check it out!

We made it! And I didn't even have to leave any kids along the way. After the hike we headed for home and stopped by a little soda shop and got the kids ice cream. It was a long hot day, but so fun. I've decided our kids are in need of more exercise as an easy mile hike nearly did them in!

Emma's crazy hair

Emma is so a Daddy's girl. I love this father daughter photo.

Sunday I wanted Emma's hair out of her face, and I was in a crazy mood, which was reflected in her hair that day. 5 little buns in the front and then I ran out of time so the back was just down and straight in the back. In the evening I took her hair out and this is what it did....

She thought it was the coolest thing to have her hair all curly.

Gardening

Well not much has been happening here at the Hepworth house, except gardening so that's what I am going to post about.
Here is one of our little gardens where we are growing strawberries, a pumpkin, peas, oregano, broccoli, radishes, and beats. It's amazing how much you can grow in such a small space! Oh, and the pansies are my favorite!

We have found that planting our lettuce and spinach in pots keeps the snails and slugs away and we have a great rotation and keep lettuce and spinach all spring and summer long, as we plant new seeds every weekend.

Kendall gets home from work and goes straight out to the garden and checks on all the plants, I think it's kind of a stress release for him.

So this is where we had our squash beast last year, we decided to plant peas here instead and they have grown huge! I think it's something about this spot that plants love. Our squash beast was a good 6 feet tall this time last year, but this year it's only about 2 feet tall right now.

Daniel and Emma are helping Kendall plant some lettuce and spinach.

Daniel just LOVES playing in the dirt! Can we say bath time!

Noah loves searching for strawberries, which never seem to make it into the house.

Strawberries, YUMMY!

Noah snitching some lettuce.

Noah eating the peas. The last couple of days all the neighbor kids have been coming over and just love that we have food growing in our yard, they are always grabbing peas and strawberries.

Emma with her wild hair eating a pea.

Daniel loves to be outside and we have had such wonderfully warm sunny weather this last month so we go through a lot of sunblock as they are out all day long!

The Drive In

Saturday we decided to take the family to the drive in theater in Everett. Some friends of ours told us about it and we thought it would be fun to all go. Kendall and I have never been to a drive in before, so it was a first for the whole family! They were playing 3 movies that night. The first two movies were very kid friendly; Up and Night At The Museum 2. I figured Noah and Emma would stay up for the first one, but had my doubts about Emma staying up for the 2nd movie. Daniel fell asleep in my lap about 10pm, when the 1st movie started. It was a cute movie and Noah loved it! Emma was getting tired when the 2nd movie started (about 11:50pm). But she actually stayed up for the whole thing! She fell asleep on the way home, though. We got in about 2am. I brought Daniel in and laid him in bed. I was just going to have Kendall carry Emma in and put her in bed, and skip the whole bed time routine. But as he was laying her in bed she woke up crying. I went to see what was wrong. She was upset cause we were putting her to bed without reading scriptures and saying prayer, which is our normal bed time routine. So there we were at 2am Sunday morning reading scriptures as a family! Our children keep us on the straight and narrow...

Emma enjoyed hanging on the little pole by the car.

Daniel and Emma hanging out in the car before the movies started. Noah thought it was the coolest thing ever to watch a movie in your car! It was a nice treat to go out as a family and a fun time was had by all!