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!

Birthdays

Way back in May, Seth turned 7!  He is such a fun, creative, smart, silly boy, and we love him so much.  He is a Lego "master builder" for sure and is always busy making "recipes" and trying "experiments."  Seth has Legos everywhere and by that I mean everywhere.  He can still make a mess faster than anyone I know and has world's loudest speaking voice, and he is awesome!  He loves school, reading, swimming, and playing just about anything with his brothers.  Seth's swimming skills are actually pretty sweet.  He is all over in the deep end diving down, off the diving board, you name it.  He's great!  Love you Seth!

Seth had some friends over for a Lego themed party at our house.

 Yes, that may resemble something with 6 nipples, but it's supposed to be a Lego block!

 

In between the boy's birthdays we had a family party for them both at Wellsville Dam.  I did not take a single picture!  Grandparents and cousins were there and we played a sweet game of kickball.  My dad pulled a hammy but everyone had lots of fun.  They also both enjoyed their birthday doughnut breakfast on their big day.

Two weeks after Seth's is Luke's actual birthday.  I really gave him the shaft as far as pictures go!  He invited as many friends as we had seats to the Aquatic Center.  They had a great time and ate a ton of food!  We came back to the house afterwards for a quick pizza dinner and then it was time to rush off for baseball games.  Because of that I didn't really take pictures and we didn't sing to him at the party!  I'm slacking off, but he did have swimming, presents, friends, pizza, and ice cream so I think he was satisfied.

Luke is a smart, sensitive, clever, helpful, funny, sometimes crazy kid that we love so much.  I can actually type helpful now and mean it.  This summer he has really stepped up a lot and has been a big help to me.  He and Seth still have their moments, but it has been much better.  Luke is still the one that's likely to get things all riled up and get a wrestling match or some other kind of wild play going, so I don't know if he'll ever grow out of that.  He is a lot of fun to be around, and it really does kill me how grown up he seems sometimes.  He loves his family, traditions, and is quite the sentimental kid.  He loves to be outside exploring, playing with friends, playing soccer, swimming, and just hanging out with the fam.  He's kind of a homebody like me.  Love him so much even if I've only got one photo of the big day!

On a funny sidenote that night after baseball we let the kids stay up late because it was Luke's birthday.  There was a Diary of the Wimpy Kid movie on TBS that we let the kids watch.  There is a scene in that show where the brothers are watching a scary movie about a foot that is detached from a body.  It totally freaked Ian out.  Since then (although it's starting to get better) Ian has been petrified of "the foot," and hasn't wanted to go to bed or anywhere in the house alone!!  Bedtime was a nightmare for over a month.  Seriously, "the foot"!