He Passed!

Today Pat passed his final insurance exams! All that studying has finally paid off. Next step is training (all of October and November,) and then he is all set to open up his agency in December. Congratulations Pat!

Fun at the Zoo

We took the kids to the zoo last week. There's Kyler sandwiched between his cousin Jonas and his friend Logan. (I'm surprised we got them to sit there and smile at the camera, all at the same time.)

The three boys...checking out the muir cats.

Kyler holding on to his Lightning Car (as always.)

All Over the Place

Tehya's modelling the new headband I made her, while she practices her crawling skills. She almost has the crawling thing figured out. Here she is, up on her knees...a little wobbly but she's getting there.

Back from Yellow Stone

This years annual Backpacking trip was in Yellow Stone. Those of us who went were: Ben Wadsworth, Kevin & Brad Beck, and me. We started at the Bechler Ranger Station and hiked 8-miles to Dunanda Falls where we stayed for 3 days and 2 nights at our reserved campsite. These falls are awesome! The river that runs off the top of these cliffs- fall over 160 feet into a secluded area surrounded by hot springs and green grass. We were able to climb behind the falls and even walk into them getting a nice massage on our back and neck. We spent hours marinating in the hot pools. We had a sweet view of the falls and the crashing water falling from the cliffs hitting the rocks created a mist that drifted over the hot pools giving a perfect temperature balance of hot soaking water and a cool wet breeze. On Saturday, we used a GPS device and went off trail about 6 miles into the Valley of Death which is a valley of boiling geysers. It's recommended you don't enter the valley, let a lone walk close to these hot pots, but of course, we did. In fact, we climbed beside them up to the top of the mount where we overlooked the hill of boiling holes and sunken pits. After eating MRE's and being eaten alive by mosquitoes, we hiked back to camp. As always it's a great adventure and we look forward to our trip next year... TBA.

Tehya's Revenge

We thought this was funny...the other day Pat was rough-housing with Tehya (as usual) and received an unexpected surprise! Maybe he'll learn his lesson, and be more gentle next time. Look at the smirk on her face!

Another Silly Kyler Moment

Every now and then, Kyler likes to torture his trains by hanging them on the fireplace...he's always making us laugh with the things he comes up with.

Like Brother, Like Sister

Here's Tehya doing the "backward finger suck" like Kyler...it must be in the genes! She doesn't do it too often (she's usually sucking her thumb instead.) We were glad to get a picture of it, even though it is a little blurry from her jumping around.

Family Update

Well, here's a quick summary of what's going on in the Clayton household. We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary in May. We can't believe it's been 5 years already...time really flies! Pat is starting up a new job, as an insurance agent. He's glad to get out of the mortgage industry, and focus on something new. I enjoy staying home with the kids...it's the best job I could ever have. We now have 2 beautiful children. Kyler will turn 3 in October, and Tehya is 6 months old. We have so much fun with them, they are constantly making us laugh with their cute little personalities.

Kyler is very talented and intelligent. Pat's teaching him Spanish, and Kyler is catching on really quick! Pat and Kyler have full-blown conversations with each other. I only understand them about 50% of the time...but I'm learning slowly. Kyler has now memorized and can locate over 30 countries on the map. It's amazing how smart he is, we keep wondering where he got his brains from. He definitely got his energy from Pat. He's like the Energizer Bunny (just keeps going and going.) But he is full of life and brings so much joy to our family. He loves his little sister and is kissing/hugging her all day long. I have to keep a close eye on him at all times to make sure he's not smothering her to much. He's such a good big brother.

Tehya is growing so fast! We can't believe she is going on 7 months already. Her personality is really starting to show, and she is so much fun. She is such a beautiful and happy baby girl. She's constantly smiling, squealing and laughing at us. Her smile is very contagious, and uplifts our spirits. She's got the same energy that Kyler does. She rolls all over the living room, to get from one place to another. She's also learned how to do the "army crawl." Any day now, she will probably figure out the correct way to crawl (we're in trouble.) We are so happy to have her in our family, and we are very blessed to have such wonderful children.

Here we go...

Well, we finally decided to give this whole "blogging" thing a try. We figured it would be a good way to keep in touch with family/friends, while at the same time allowing us to keep a journal of what's going on in our lives. We are a little clueless when it comes to blogging, but I'm sure we'll learn as we go.