Forest in the Springtime

I love spring and to celebrate the first day of spring this year we decided to go back to another one of our favorite places...Tryon Creek. Charlie loves to run through the forest and I love all the green and that I don't have to worry about being the "sharing police" that is inevitable at the children's museum or other play dates.

Our happy place!

He was practicing his expressions for me 

He took a break to get a pebble out of his shoe.

And then Charlie helped Miles walk...He'll be running through the forest in no time.  

And then we had to hike back up this big hill which was a lot harder with the stroller than I thought it would be. Charlie ran up it like a champ but then the next morning he told me his legs were sore.

And then we had a snack break!

And then Charlie realized that when he yelled out, his voice sounded pretty great in the forest. He would yell then laugh and laugh encouraging Miles to do the same thing. I'm sure all the forest goers enjoyed the screaming children.

Miles loved yelling too, and really doing anything that makes his big brother laugh.

Charlie was excited to find a couple of bird houses along the trail. It became a game and we were able to spot three!

And when his legs got tired he tried to climb in the stroller with Miles which backfired when Miles was constantly snatching Charlie's glasses.

And there you have it! Springtime is here and we are excited to have more and more adventures.

Charlie's First Talk

Charlie gave his first talk in primary today. There are no pictures to document it, but I wanted to make some notes here to remember it. Moments before it was his turn to share his talk he was jumping up and down like crazy saying he had to go to the bathroom, seeing as it would be very troublesome for him to wet his pants in front of everyone, I just decided to take him out and hope they would let him do his talk when he got back. Of course that was fine. This is Charlie's talk: 

God speaks to us through prophets.

In Amos 2:7 it says Surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secrets unto his servants the prophets.

We have a prophet today named Thomas S Monson. He teaches us how to follow Gods commandments and find joy. We can hear from our prophet in 2 weeks and learn what Heavenly Father wants us to know. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen. 

He didn't act one bit shy, He repeated everything I whispered in his ear and only let the microphone distract him for a brief moment. I was pretty proud, and I think Charlie was too.  

Since we didn't get a photo of him doing his talk this one will be sufficient for this blog post. Charlie's new Grandpa Don requested an Armenian Book of Mormon for his collection and while we were delivering it to him Charlie decided to study it. It makes me happy. This little cell phone photo really represents so many good things in my life. I love that Charlie is really enjoying his sunbeam class and learning to better know his Savior and to pray. 

Family Picnic

Last week for family night we went back to our favorite park and had a picnic. I know you aren't getting sick of my park pictures just like you aren't getting sick of my museum pictures. Oh well, I like them and I'm getting lots of photo practice as well as documenting some of our favorite places to go as a family.

Charlie and I made sliders on homemade bread

Miles liked eating some big kid food!

And once his belly was full Max decided to throw him around, But then we realized that he doesn't really like to be thrown super high.

 So then we played on the playground.

And Max swung in circles around Charlie

And I don't think I've ever seen this kid happier. He was "catching" Charlie at the bottom of the slide and loved it.

And then Charlie jumped to Daddy.

And then there are these amazing moments that just make me wonder how I ever got so lucky to be part of this family!