More Camping and a Zoo

 September seems to have been our vacationing month even though the girls have already started school. We had one free weekend at home during the month of September, but two weeks after our trip to Utah for Labor Day, we had another camping trip with our ward. I picked up the girls from school and drove straight over to Tyler's work where we picked him up and then drove two hours into New Mexico to a camp area owned by the church. Our ward has this camp out every year and we were super excited to be able to go with them this year. There were a lot of people already set up when we arrived, but after setting up our tent, we relaxed around the fire while the girls found their friends and roamed from firepit to firepit. It was very cold, but luckily we knew in advance and were very prepared. It was even colder than what it was in Utah, so we took all the same clothes, plus an extra layer to stay warm. I even remembered hot water in a thermos so we could all enjoy hot chocolate with our s'mores.

We survived the night and spent time playing Saturday morning. There was a little zip line for the kids, so each of the girls took a turn. The adults had to help re-align the pulley every time and run it back to the top so they got a work out too. Aubrey even took a turn, but I guess I didn't get a still picture of her. I was able to get videos of each of girls having a turn though.

 There were so many kids, the girls didn't want to leave. They were having so much fun. There was a huge hole near the playground that kept the kids entertained when they weren't roaming the forest.

 We left the camp area around lunch time, so we took our time driving back home. We got to stop at all the fun places we saw on our drive up the night before. There was a country store on the side of the road that advertised apples, fudge, desserts, and souvenirs. The girls each picked out a bracelet and we got our picture by the huge apple boy.

 We picked up lunch and then stopped in Alamogordo, New Mexico where there was a zoo/playground on the side of the road. It was so funny. I saw a caption that said something like "oldest zoo in the southwest." It was actually bigger than we thought, and well worth the $1.50 per person price. We walked through an aviary and I think the birds could smell our recently eaten lunch because they were following us everywhere. Tyler had to shoo them away just so we could get out of the double gates.

 Some of our favorite exhibits included the llamas, mountain lions, kangaroos, bears, monkeys, and turtles. 

  There was a huge stage in the middle of a grassy area that was probably used for bird or animal shows, but the girls used it as their very own dance stage.

 Taryn was awesome in her stroller for the whole visit. Whenever we stopped long enough I had to catch a few pictures of her. She wished she could have gotten out to dance on the stage too, but I loved the outside shots where you could see her beautiful brown eyes.

The sidewalk along all the animal exhibits also included some stone animals that were perfect picture spots. I used them to get all four girls together. They wanted to roar like the lion in this first picture. 

 I was so happy Tyler was willing to take the side trips on our way home. It made for some really fun family time and awesome memories. I'm so glad we're taking time to make some family only time even if it's just a quick trip on a random weekend of the school year. We love it!

Labor Day Gibbons Family Reunion

So one week into school and we already had the girls miss a day. But it was for an awesome adventure. The Annual Gibbons Family Reunion over Labor Day! Tyler's parents were in charge this year so we wanted to go to support them, so we made a quick trip to Utah and back over the long weekend. The girls were very excited to see all their cousins and to go camping.

We drove a new way since we were coming from El Paso and we went through some really pretty mountainous areas of Colorado. We saw this little tunnel, but wouldn't even let the girls look because we didn't want them getting carsick. We went through the quickest, tiniest switchbacks I have ever seen, but luckily the girls slept or kept their heads down resting through all of them. Once in our camping area, outisde of Vernal, we saw and heard lots of wildlife. We got pictures of these deer right next to our eating area and we heard lots of coyote howls through the nights. Tyler was convinced he heard sniffing near our tent the first night, but he couldn't find any tracks in the morning so we hoped it was just his imagination from all the howling we heard.

 It got pretty cold and it even rained quite a bit, so Taryn spent the majority of the weekend wrapped up like this. Luckily she didn't seem to mind and she didn't even fuss with the hat that snapped under her chin. Grandma and Grandpa Gibbons had a few trailers, but we toughed it out in our tent. We stayed warm by sleeping all close together and wearing multiple pajama layers.

  Cousin Andrew brought his newest birthday present - his go-cart. He spent a lot of time driving all his cousins around the campsite. He even gave some of the adults a turn. Tyler thought it was fun too and I was able to get pictures of him with each of the girls. (I even had a turn driving while all the boys were away and it was so much fun!)

 There were other toys that grandma and grandpa brought to entertain the kids and one of them was this blow up body ball. The kids loved getting inside and trying to walk around in it. Unfortuantely the ground was too rocky and pokey so we weren't able to roll the kids around while inside. 

 The kids loved playing with all their cousins and second cousins. They didn't even need too many toys. They found a little stream all on their own and spent many hours playing here together. I found them one time so I could get some pictures.

 With all the rain that we had, we were excited to show the kids the rainbow that finally came out. It even had a faint double rainbow that you can't see in the picture. Trying to get the kids with the rainbow was kind of hard. They were so far away, so I got a closeup too, but then you couldn't see the rainbow.

 Aunt Joyce passed out adorable crocheted headbands and hats that she had made to all the little girls. They loved wearing them and they were so cute! 

Even with the rain, the cold weather, and the long drive, we were so glad we went. The girls talk about how much fun they had and we always love seeing our family.

End of Summer, Beginning of School

So before I head into our vacation weekends, I want to finish off our summer. First, to go back a couple months, we had a ward activity watching fireworks on the fourth of July. I got a friend to take a picture of our whole family. Tessa was sad because she wanted to take the picture, not be in it, but oh well, it's the whole family at least.

We spent many evenings at Chuck E. Cheese, usually when Abby was asked to play at a friend's house, and this was the activity Tessa and Aubrey chose to make up for the fact that they couldn't go play too. They had a lot of fun every time we went.

Grandma and Grandpa Black came to visit for a couple of days and they bought the girls new school clothes. Of course the girls talked them into pretty dresses, and how could we pass up coordinating ones even for the two who aren't in school?!?

Tyler's work had a family day, so we were able to spend the whole day with Dad. We went early in the morning (it was good practice for school) and hung out at his office for a couple hours. The girls got their eyes checked and then we went to a park for their festivities. There was yummy BBQ, jump houses, a water park, face painting, balloon animals, free popcorn, snow cones, and cotton candy to name a few. Basically everything you could think of for a carnival. It was so much fun!

 I think the water park may have been the girls' favorite. Abby was a little sad that her face  painting washed away, but she talked us into standing in line again to get new ones before leaving.

 Abby lost her second tooth during the summer. It was pretty funny how it came out. The girls had friends over and they were dancing to music. Abby came upstairs and said that her tooth was out and that Aubrey had punched her while they were dancing and that knocked it out. She was happy about it and very excited to leave her second tooth for the Tooth Fairy. And she was even more happy when the Tooth Fairy left her an actual dollar bill instead of four quarters this time. 

 While grocery shopping, we came across these monster pinatas. They had dozens of them out so we had to take some pictures showing their impressive size. It was crazy how huge they were. 

I took a picture on my iPad for a new wallpaper of all four girls and I really liked how this one turned out. It's become one of my favorites, especially because of Taryn's adorable smile.

 And with that, the summer ended all to quickly, and the new school year began. Abby and Tessa were both excited to start school and Tessa did awesome on her first day of Kindergarten. We'll have more thorough posts in the future about their school years, but here's at least a first day picture of my two school girls.

Ten Months of Taryn!

Taryn is 10 months old today! Seeing previous blogs of Aubrey when she was about this age, I figured I'd better do a blog entry for Taryn and all that she's been up to. Here are some of our favorite pictures showing what we love about Taryn and what she's learned over the past 6 months or so.

I had to get a picture of Taryn with her fingers. She has continued the tradition of a completely different self-soothing approach than all the other girls. No pacifier or thumb for Taryn, but two fingers. It was three when she was really little until her fingers got too big and then she went down to two and has kept that up. She usually covers her fingers with her other hand, so getting an actual picture of the fingers in her mouth was quite the accomplishment. With the help of the Bumbo, Taryn began sitting up on her own quite early and was really good at it. I love this picture as well because you can see the difference once she lost all her newborn hair. She went bald for a bit after all her dry scalp patches would take big chunks of hair anytime we cleaned her head. I was sad to see all that dark hair go, but once it was gone you could actually see all her new "big girl" hair growing in.

I tried really hard to get a picture outside of Taryn closeup so we could see her beautiful brown eyes, but she wouldn't ever look right at me, but I at least caught her smiling which was sometimes hard to catch with the camera and its bright flash that was so distracting. And here is Taryn in her first Easter dress, with the adorable huge flower headband.

Taryn began eating baby cereal right around 6 months old. She loved it, of course, once she figured out how to get it in her mouth. I love these first pictures of the girls in the highchair because they just look so tiny.

Another attempt at getting a good picture outside. I was holding Taryn and putting the camera around and in front of her so she kept trying to grab it, which is why we have the waving look.

During Spring Break at Tyler's apartment in College Station, Taryn had her first swing ride at the park. As you can see, she loved it! I had to put her in with Aubrey just to keep her upright because she was so little in that big bucket seat. She also loved the hotel that we stayed in and the purple bed. She's really good at sitting up on her own now.

The girls love to play with Taryn like she's their very own doll. They begged me to take a picture of Taryn after giving her a princess crown. During the summer, Taryn went swimming for the very first time. She liked it okay - it was still pretty cold. Once she was in the water though, she didn't mind it too much.

While living at Grandma and Grandpa's house, Taryn slept in the pack and play. If you laid her down in the bed, she immediately started to cry, but if you sat her up she loved it and was very happy as long as she could reach her piano toy.

While vacationing in Utah, Taryn found a pretty interesting teething toy. It was cold and squishy and yummy. Too bad Dad took it away after she dropped it on the ground outside. It was a good idea while it lasted. We also took some time trying to get a picture of Taryn's first tooth, which came right around 8 months. This was the best we could get, so if you look really closely, you can see her first tooth on the bottom.

The pillow pets were a good distraction while unpacking in our new home in El Paso. The girls wanted this picture in the blog because they liked the fact that her hand is blurry, showing that she was waving at the time the picture of was taken.

Around 9 months, Taryn started on her first finger foods with some teething biscuits. They didn't last long once she figured out that they weren't that tasty. She spent most of her time throwing them overboard and watching them break into tiny pieces. She much prefers those puffs and cheerios for snack time.

Taryn has been slower than the other girls when it comes to crawling and pulling herself up on things. She still has yet to do either. We finally started standing her up by the ottoman or couch and she'll stand there until she gets bored and then plop back down on the floor. She has no desire to move along the couch or anything yet, which is fine. I want this baby stuff to last as long as possible. Like I said she isn't crawling yet, but she does know how to get around. She kind of scoots and army crawls and rolls to get where she wants, but never on her hands and knees. My other kids usually did this as well - just going from an army-type crawl straight to walking. Regular crawling was never a long part of their growth milestones.

And finally a picture from today on her 10-month birthday. She loves her toys especially anything that makes music or that she can open and close with her hand. She has just started clapping for herself whenever we cheer her on and her 3rd tooth has finally made an appearance. She loves to see the pictures of each of the girls in their blessing dresses as we walk down the stairs. She talks to them every time we pass. She smiles whenever she sees any of her sisters and will talk contentedly to mom or dad or whoever will listen to her jabber. She's adorable and we can't get enough of her.

We love our little miss Taryn!!