A pictorial of the last month or so...

Georgie has freckles on the tops of his ears.  I can't stop kissing them!  And the other thing I love to do is squish his nose.  It is so much fun to squish!  Like how I used to be fascinated with silly putty and flour inside of balloons.  George is still so much fun to play chess with.  Yesterday I was playing him and he just chooses any piece and makes it jump wherever and with the cutest sound effects, knocks my guys off.  His king magically jumped the entire chess board!  Pretty fun.

This outfit makes me happy

The other day he was carrying these treasures around, and it was very sweet to watch:

He gets picked on more than any of the other boys, but he hardly ever tattles.  He has a powerful sulk that will get him his own way with anyone (kind of like a survival mechanism), but if he somehow gets hurt or sad, he will run upstairs for a hug, then collect himself and head back down, usually without telling me what caused the upset.

The cutest sulker ever!

We have been lucky to see lots of family this summer.  We went to Edmonton for a week and had the boys do a basketball camp with their cousins.  They really enjoyed this and also gained some bball skills which were quite remarkable!  Here are some pics from our time in Edmonton:

George and Grandma playing with the jump-ropes--they traded off being the horse.

Cousins by the Dozens

We stopped at the Calgary temple on the way home--James and the twins did baptisms

Like father like son

Heritage Days

Prince George at the Russian booth

After we returned from Edmonton, we got to host Tom and his girls.  They came for most of the week.  One of our favorite days together was in Waterton.  We showed them our favorite hike and had fun working our way up the river.

George taking aim at "the Deers" on our ride through Waterton.

The fun didn't end there though!  We headed out to Missoula, Montana, soon after this visit to go camping at a KOA with our friends the Bridges.  We had a really fun time in spite of the rainy and fairly cool weather.  The kids each have a friend in their family, which makes for a fun time for everyone.  The KOA is the place to be!

These banana peel bikes were super fun

the playground at the KOA

I was fascinated by this tree

This was an incredible castle playground--made by all volunteers.  The kids loved it!

Ice cream treats--earned by dunking the dads in the pool

the handmade wooden carousel was a favorite

George didn't seem to mind how fast it was spinning

We got home and prepared for a visit with the boys' cousin Clay--he was down in Southern Alberta for a week visiting with us and some other cousins.  

James got the boys started on a workout regime to improve their hockey game

Owen and Tommy's school supplies came and right away they got to work on the packing paper doing some artwork.  I love this map Tommy made.  Owen turned the box into cardboard "underwear."  Good to see the creative juices flowing again!

the crocodile

The pirate ship and cutest pirate ever!