Fun Hikes!!

The month of August has been filled with lots of out door activities for the Gilchrist Family. We have had beautiful weather so we have tried to take advantage of it before it turns cold again! 

First off we made our annual trip to Stony Brook National Park. We love going here and hiking along the path, wading in the water, and seeing all the beautiful water falls. We never get sick of visiting this fun place! 

Grayer did awesome, with all the walking and going up tons and tons of stairs. He never complained:)
Plus he has a cute little bum! 

Andy's a goof! 

Proof that we have a thumb sucker

They have this Olympic sized pool  that they have made out of the river. It is awesome! 

We also took our first trip to Fillmore Glen State Park. This was a lot like Stony Brook very beautiful, lush and green but we didn't like it as well as Stony Brook because it was a little less kid friendly. It made us a bit nervous as we were hiking along because there were lots of cliffs for our little 4 year old to fall off of, so needless to say we had a tight grip on him the whole time:) 

A non-cliff area so we let him walk on his own

Happy 4th of July

Andy was still in Utah over the 4th of July. I was a bit bummed because who wants to celebrate the 4th all alone? But, lucky for me I ended up not having to... we have wonderful friends who invited the boys and me over to celebrate with their family.

We had a delicious meal complete with chicken-bacon burgers, snicker apple salad, and homemade root-beer! It was so fun to sit and eat and have good conversation!

Families from our ward: Mawells, Scotts, Gammons, and Hendersons. Love them all! 

Jordan Scott, and awesome Young Man in our ward

Allegra Maxwell, a wonderful Young Woman in our ward.
 I swear she is a baby whisperer she is so good with Finden! 

Ben Maxwell, another awesome guy who is leaving on his mission in a little over a month

We also went swimming in their fun pool.

Grayer, Ian Maxwell, Coltin Scott, and Nathan Maxwell 

And since fireworks of all kinds (including sparklers) are illegal in NY we did a glow stick parade outside in the dark. It was a great substitution for fireworks!

Here we are getting all done up in our glow sticks!

Grayer and Ian

Pretty Cool - huh?! 

Grandma Time

Back in June Andy left for a 3 week voice institute in Utah, which left me home alone with my boys... lucky for me, however, my Mom came out to visit for one of the those weeks which made our time alone A LOT more enjoyable!!!

We enjoyed a lot of outside time together like swimming in our little pool, going on walks, going out for ice cream, going to the park, and going to the beach....

We also spent a lot of time inside doing some sewing projects - Well I guess I should specify that my Mom did the sewing project while I watched:) - thanks Mom!!! Grayer really enjoyed playing with Grandma's iPad, as you can see from the pic Grandma is multitasking with sewing and showing Grayer how to play a game on her iPad.

We had lots of play time with Grandma, including lots of games.

Mom helped me by sewing us a new bedroom set!! I loved our old set as well, but it feels good to have something new after 8 years. We love it, thanks again Mom for coming out to be with us and keep us company while Andy was away. Grayer misses you, the other day he asked me when we were going to see Grandma again. 

Surprise Visit to Bloomington, IN

Back in June we went to Bloomington, IN to visit my sister, Megan, and her family. They were not able to be in Idaho during our family reunion and were the only ones who had not met Finden, so we decided it would be fun to make the trip... The best part was that Megan had no idea we were coming. I called her husband, Justin, to make sure it was a good time to come and told him to keep it a secret from the rest of his family. We knocked on the door and got this awesome greeting! My poor pregnant sister didn't know whether to laugh or cry:)

We love visiting the Whitings because we always have so much fun hanging out together. We have been to Bloomington many times and we love doing the "must dos" while with the Whitings, like... swimming, a trip(s) to Chocolate Moose, visit to the Farmer's Market, making DELICIOUS food, watching a show on Netflix, and hanging out at home. We wish we could have stayed longer and the list of fun things we did would have been much longer, but even though it was a quick trip we were sure glad we went!  

Grayer in his "Oggles" aka Goggles:)

Cousins Eva, and Maggie with Grayer

Cute cousin Beau

At the Farmer's Market the kids got soaked in the fountains

Walking home from the Farmer's Market -- Megan was poppin' some skittles! 

We were there over Father's Day and Andy's Mom sent all the boys these matching ties for church! 

Cousin Time! 

FINDEN Time!! 

Cousin Maggie and Finden

Cousin Eva and Finden

Aunt Megan and Finden

Thanks to the Whiting family for letting us come and stay. Can't wait for our new baby cousin to come in October so we can come and visit again!!! Love you all.