Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Family Mini Vacations!

We took two mini family vacations this summer.  They were both short and sweet but really fun.  We're lucky to have such great families that live close and are fun to hang out with!  In July we went to West Yellowstone with my family.  We stayed in a cabin that ended up being right in town, but it was fun.  The kids love going anywhere!

On the way we stopped at Bear World in Rexburg--a place we have talked about going for years.  I think once is enough, but it was actually really fun.  It is cool to see so many bears, they had dorky little rides which the kids loved, and they have a petting zoo with tame deer.  Can't beat that!


 
   

 




Our first day in West Yellowstone we headed into the park.  We went to some parts I have never been to like the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone (which was so impressive) and Mammoth Hot Springs.


 
 

 
 

We spent another fun day visiting Quake Lake and playing in the water at Hebgen Lake.
 
 

 
On Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting with every other Mormon tourist in town, packed it up, and headed home--new crossbows and all!
 

In August we headed with Jer's family to Meadow Lake.  It's a beautiful place!  You drive right to it, but the campground is at 9300', and the hiking above it was really pretty.  The kids absolutely love camping with their cousins and make such fun memories every year on this trip.


Lots of fun fishing and rock slinging!
 
 
   
 

       

   
 



   



 
 
 

   
 
 Oh Seth!

Summer Blur

Summer was a bit of a blur.  Tons of fun but also super busy.  There are a few things I hope to write about separately like that once in a lifetime river trip Jer and I took in June and the fun little vacations we went on with each of our families but until I have time to do that and actually get caught up with current happenings, like the first day of school, I'm just doing one massive post about miscellaneous summer stuff!

 All the boys played rec baseball, but I failed to get a picture of anyone else.  We missed the last games when we were in Bear Lake...oops!  The annual 4th of July week at Bear Lake was lots of fun as always.  I only got my camera out once and didn't even take a pic of Luke but hey we had a blast!









A lot of time this summer has been spent exploring and catching all kinds of frogs and snakes.



 There's one of Seth in his catcher's gear.

 A little mini golf on a super hot day.

 All of the boys took swimming at Karen Campbell's back in June.  It was kind of a hassle getting them there, but they learn so much!  Ian turned into a fish this summer.  Leah actually went from being extremely brave to extremely nervous around water!  Leah and Ian also took lessons from our cute neighbor Cassie in their pool.  The other boys lucked out and got to come along and swim everyday for a week, so it was great.

 Lots of time spent in the dirt since we don't have a lawn yet.  They were filthy everyday!

Luke and I managed a day in SLC on our own, and we hit the aquarium.
 
 A visit from Seth!  Our Seth was so excited to meet "big Seth!"

  A fun afternoon at Porcupine.  Luke and Seth did quite a bit of kayaking and jumping off small cliffs.  Ian and I caught little fish, and he of course caught a snake.  I might have freaked out a little after I caught a water snake in a net and let it go!  Not Ian though he reached under a pile of rocks up to his armpit and came up with a snake!  This same day we hit That Famous Preston Night parade and rodeo with Jer's family--a summer tradition!

 School shopping?

 Lagoon with the big boys and my dad.  Luke is not a huge fan of rides, but he did pretty well.  My dad and I rode everything.  Probably not that many other 70-year-olds on Wicked and Samurai!

 Redneck waterslide.

And the salamander!  They also caught a snake, brought it inside, and while under Ian's watch lost it for several days until I found it!  No more snakes in the house!

We don't have a yard, but we do have a garden.  It has been a lot of fun.  It has tons of weeds, but we have been eating lots of corn, cucumbers, beans, peas, potatoes, and hopefully soon tomatoes.  Ian and Leah have been especially interested in helping and harvesting.  Nobody likes weeding much! I actually took my real camera out and took a few pictures of Ian having some fun in the garden.  That hat came with a kid's meal from Big J's!




 This was one of many like this.  Just like his dad it's hard to find many "normal" pictures of Ian!





This is Ian for you!  The cutest, most fun 5-year-old I know!