Dutch Oven Night with the Barlows

We wanted to show the Barlow kids the beautiful landscape of Utah. We all went up into canyon for some good old fashioned Dutch oven cooking (thanks to Jeff's skills). Here are some of the pics.

Even little Chloe loved the adventure.

Here's Uncle Jeff showing Maddie his mad marshmallow roasting skills.

Cass and Chris seemed to enjoy it, too. Either that or they thought we invited them up there to take engagement pictures.

Only Coco made it to helping number four. Go Chris!

Max loved the marshmallows.

This picture doesn't even do Maddie justice. She was so covered in dirt after hiking around everywhere. She was made for the outdoors.

Who couldn't love this face? He chilled like a villain in his stroller all night, watching his cousins and taking in the outdoor time.

A Little Barlow Fun

First of all, I would like to personally thank all of you who have left comments. The blog strike is officially over and I am very happy to know that people are actually checking my blog.

Secondly, my wonderful sister Jodi and her family are in town visiting and we are loving it! Here are some pictures of everyone swimming at Cassie's.

Here's Max. With a smile like that it's pretty hard to ever say the word "no."

Maddie, Cass, and Caleb. Cassie threw those swimming rings in the pool for these two, which kept them very happy for a long time.

Chris and Max living it up.

Jo and Cam practicing their waving skills.

Lec, this one is totally for you. I saved the best picture for last. Chloe ran out of gas and slept through the pool party in Cam's little wagon. It was absolutely adorable.

You Want Some of This?

So, at the request of my sisters I've been blogging for about two months now. I will admit that I don't update as often as Cassie and I'm not quite as witty as Aleca, but I'm trying. However, I have been a little disappointed at the lack of response from my posts.....so I thought to myself,

"What a blogging girl to do when no one comments on her posts?"

Well, I've devised a plan. Unless the people who look at this blog start leaving comments (which is easy to do and is the desired gift of every blogger) I will be going on a blogging strike. Yes, I mean it, which is why I've included a picture of me "meaning it" below. (I've been working on this look as I'm preparing to be a mom.)

So, you've all been warned. No peeking at the blog unless you're leaving comments. That's the new rule and I mean business.

The Adventures of Camden and Cheri

Since Cassie is out of town this weekend, I've had the pleasure of hanging with Cam all Thursday and Friday and we've had some fun adventures. Thursday's highlight was the mall. Yes, I know he's not interested in shopping, but they have this cool discovery area for kids. However, my plan failed me when I realized that 10,000 other moms had the same idea that day. The place was packed, so I decided to make the mall our own "discovery area." I let Cam stop at every planter of flowers, every bench he wanted to sit on, we rode up and down the escalators, and we watched the fountain they have there. He had a blast and felt like a crazy free man since I didn't bring his stroller.

Day two was lots of fun too, but he got into a little trouble. We were playing in the backyard and I ran in really quickly to get something. When I came back I found Cam sitting down with red stuff all over his shorts. My first thought was...."oh no, we're going to have to amputate and that officially makes me the world's worst aunt!" Then I got a little closer to discover what had really happened. He found my strawberry plants and he was smashing the strawberries between his fingers, feeding them to Blue and himself. Blue seemed to like it a lot more than the rocks Cam had been trying to feed him all afternoon. Anyhow, here are the pictures.

Maybe I should have fed him more.....I don't know.

My Mommy Haircut...

So I was getting to that "my-hair-is-flat-and-boring-and-I-can't-stand-looking-at-it" stage. I thought I'd do something to spice it up and give me the mommy look. I cut off a couple of inches and finally got the swoopy bangs I've been trying to convince my cut for three years. (Now they'll probably go out of style.) Anyhow, here's the look.

We put in a pool...

Due to the heat of the summer, we put in a pool. Okay, really my little sister bought a kiddie pool for Camden to play in at our house, but it's still pretty exciting. My feet fit into it.

We have two lawn chairs which have become very popular. Cam likes them...

...and Blue has always thought that they belonged to him.

I love the summer!

Who doesn't love watermelon...

One of my favorite things in spring is a big, juicy watermelon. Well, I found someone who likes it as much as I do.