Someone enjoyed her smoothie.
One last hike to Battle Creek Falls with some neighbors.
We went to the wood park in PG after the hike to have a picnic lunch.
Goodbye, sweet shirt. (Ignore the pit stains.) This gem of a shirt has been one of my favorites for a long time. A couple of years at least. I picked it up at Old Navy for $0.97. It's okay to be jealous. I wish I were skilled enough to fix the rip that occurred when I Hulked out on my kids.
We went to Bear Lake! As a family! With our friends! It was a last-minute trip, and we had so much fun. We went up Saturday morning and came home Monday night. We camped on the Idaho side of the lake.
The weather was supposed to be rainy all weekend, but when we got there it was gorgeous, so we drove straight to North Beach and played for a few hours.
It was really crowded, but since the water is so shallow for so far out, it wasn't a big deal.
We took our kayak up, and it was a big hit.
Look! I was there too.
The Jackson's brought their paddle board, and it was also a hit!
Look at that handsome man running in the background.
This was our campsite. It was near Minnetonka Cave. It was a cul-de-sac with like 4 individual sites, and we had reserved them all, so we were all alone, and it was amazing.
In the tent. It rained really hard Friday night. We had the rain fly on, but one of the ties came undone and a small triangle of the tent was exposed to the rain and leaked. I moved Colin out of the way of the puddle and put his fleece blanket on the puddle so the water wouldn't spread. At some point during the night Colin moved himself right back into the water, and he pulled his wet blanket inside his sleeping bag. Geez. I didn't sleep at all. Between the sounds of the storm (the lightning was cool to watch) and the sounds of the children and how cold I was, it just didn't happen.
Sunday we woke up to wet chairs, because none of us thought to put them away. Oops. Also, the Jackson kids sleep in way later than our kids. We went to Minnetonka Caves at 1 pm for a tour. The formations weren't nearly as impressive as Timp, but the rooms were huge! There were something like 888 steps in the cave. I can't remember now, but you'd think I would because they mentioned it like a million times.
In a few thousand years these guys will grow together.
Kate did Sophie's hair. And I did Kate's hair. They both insisted that they wanted 3 braids.
A few of them were actually asleep, the others were pretending.
When we got done with the cave the weather was nice and we did some activities around camp. Games and shooting bb guns and hammocks and horseshoes and stuff.
The view from my hammock.
"Mom! Take a picture of my cool place!"
Good morning! I slept like crap again. Maybe this is why I don't like camping? Everything else was so fun and so great. But I just couldn't sleep.
Monday morning we packed up camp and then drove back to the beach. We hung out there all afternoon and then went to a show at the Pickleville Playhouse. The little boys liked the "pool" someone had dug out and left for us.
We watched Juanito Bandito, which is apparently a thing. It was funny. Racist, but funny.
We met up with my old friend MacKenzie and her kids at the splash pad. Colin and Malea are in the same class at school.
This is what potty training naps look like. Jude might have been sick again at this point.
This is not the same zucchini. This is all new zucchini.
On the 12th I had made plans to go on a hike with my friend Kaylee, but my brother had borrowed my backpack and Jude wasn't feeling his best. So we just went to the Grotto in Payson Canyon, and it was fun.
We tried to drive up to one of the lakes, but I didn't really know what I was doing, so we ended up going too far. Then we decided to just drive the entire Nebo Loop at that point, and it was a great decision. A look out over the valley.
Did you know this was in Payson Canyon?! Because I didn't. And it's awesome. I was so glad we pulled over and checked it out. It's called Devil's Kitchen, a mini Bryce Canyon. So cool.
Hey, there's Mt. Nebo, which is apparently the highest peak in Utah.
Jude was super worn out when we got back, and after his nap I decided to take him to the doctor figuring that he either had Strep or an ear infection or both.
Poor li'l buddy. He ended up having an ear infection and a throat infection, but the throat infection came back negative for strep at least, which was good news.
Gray turned 5 on the 13th! He was so excited. I begged him for weeks not to turn 5 and go away to kindergarten, but he always told me that he had to and I couldn't stop it.
He wouldn't take this Pokemon stuff off all day.
Sometimes you don't feel well and you throw a fit and then you fall asleep leaning on a chair.
One last hurrah at Hannah's pool. We went with Lenna and her kids, it was last minute, but what else was I going to do that day? Stay home and scream at my children? I was glad we went. I even bought snow cones for everyone. (But only because we got into the pool for free.)
I'm prodigiously proud of this quiz result.
I love going to the Utah County Fair. I just wish I could have gone at a different time because going made my day hectic. But we enjoyed it.
We watched a sheep getting shorn. Shaved? Shorned? Shunned? It was cool, but there was a lot of fluff in the air that I didn't appreciate.
The Lego exhibit was the coolest. Ghostbusters!
Statue of Liberty!
Mountains and snow!
Lord of the Rings!
Monorail!
Disneyland!
Gray loves lizards. (But that's Colin's reflection in the picture.)
More Legos! Skyscrapers!
A city!
The monkey show was cute, but also a bit of a letdown.
We came home from the fair and got ready for Gray's birthday party with friends. (We celebrated with family on his actual birthday.) Gray requested and was granted a Pokemon party.
My brother named every single Pokemon for me. Not that the kids knew them by name, but I felt like it was important to have the correct information to go along with the bingo game.
My friend Ryan Francis made this pin-the-tail game for me. It was super adorable!
Another day with the newly-local cousins. I decided to occupy Kate and Addilyn with embroidery. They both loved it. Like really loved it. Like I may have created a couple of monsters.
After those cousins left I took my kids to Fake Uncle Doug's house to see their other cousins and swim in Doug's pool. It was fun. Doug made us food and my mom and all my brothers (and their wives) came.
Nate needed a green shirt for his soccer team. I didn't want him to go and buy one, so I offered one of mine. I thought he looked tough, but Nate didn't agree. Or appreciate that I was taking a picture.
Seriously, who's kid is that?! He is so dang cute. Probably because he is the baby.
Jude was my little corn shucking partner.
I just can't handle the cuteness of him in his backwards underpants.
And now he's making a "nest" on the couch.
Someone enjoyed his snack.
Peaches/grapes from my tree/vine! A delicious breakfast. We planted red table grapes and concord grapes, and they both did really well this year!
"Hi! I'm Olaf. And I like warm hugs!" You're welcome, World.
