Family Vacation to Bear Lake

We used to go to Bear Lake every year, but we have missed the past two years.  The last time we went I was pregnant with Aleah.  We love Bear Lake.  It is one of our favorite vacation places.  We love the beautiful water surrounded by the mountains, the cooler weather, the raspberry shakes... the water temperature however is not really our favorite.  Although you do get use to it after the first freezing cooled dip in the lake.

This year we went up on Sunday afternoon with my parents.  Monday morning my parents left early and drove back so they could work.  They got back late Monday night.  So we had Monday to play, just our  little family.  We found the city park.  Aleah loved the big blue baby swings.

She was very excited to go down the slide until she noticed that it was all wet.  She is not very fond of getting her clothes wet, probably my fault!

This picture cracks me up because he totally stopped to pose before going down the slide.

Aleah was excited to try out this, "New slide!"

Cade is very fond of getting his clothes wet and really enjoyed that the slide was wet with big puddles at the bottom to splash in!

We found that the park had a boardwalk that took us down to this really nice little beach.

 I didn't know that we were going to the beach so I was not prepared.  I asked the kids to try not to get their clothes wet.  Aleah's lasted a lot longer than Cade's, especially since he was already pretty wet from the slides, but by the end their shorts were soaking.  We had a lot of fun throwing rocks into the lake.  I love skipping rocks!

Cade would pick up a rock and hold it behind his head for about 30 seconds, maybe trying to build up as much energy as possible, and then he would let it fly.

Aleah would collect as many rocks as she could and then she would throw them one at a time.

Tuesday thru Saturday mornings were spent on the lake.  We got an air chair for Christmas and so we had a lot of fun learning how to ride it.  It took us a few tries but then we were able to get up and ride it around a bit.  When you get the board of the air chair off the water you feel like you are flying.

Aleah and Cade were really good at holding the flag up when someone was in the water.  After one of Brad's turns Aleah said, "Wow, you're really good Dad!"

As you can tell, I take more pictures of Brad than he takes of me.  So there are not as many to choose from of me.  I had a lot of fun on the wake board this trip.  I'm really starting to feel comfortable like I did before I got pregnant.  I had some really good jumps and enjoyed a lot of smooth water!

My brother and his family and my sister and her family got to the condo late Thursday night.  It was really fun to have the whole family together for two and a half days!  It was also fun to have a birthday party for my Mom, Brad, and my nephew Braedan.

Cade is one and a half!

As of August 1st Cade is 1 1/2!  Yes, I am almost a month late with this post.  My little man is growing up.  He is average in all his stats, maybe a little above average in his height.  He has been eating with a spoon and drinking from a cup for many months now.  His talking has really taken off!  He tries to say everything now.  When he does something naughty I ask him to say sorry mom and he does.  It is supper cute!  He loves to say sunscreen.  He makes animal sounds when he sees horses or cows as we are driving. 

He likes to climb, swing (he can swing on the big boy swing now), go down any slide even the super big ones, run, jump, ride his bike, ride any scooter he can get a hold of, dance, splash in the water, play in the sand, play with his sister... he is a busy boy!

He can always spot the airplanes or helicopters in the sky and makes sure that we all can see them too.

He is a very determined kid.  He knows what he wants and he will not stop until he gets it.  He will take our hand and show us what he wants.  If we are following him he will always check to make sure we are still there.

He is still my cuddly little boy.  I love that he is so sweet and loving.  He will stop what he is doing sometimes to come over and give me a hug and then he is off again.  I love love love him!  I am so thankful that he is part of our family.  His smile and the cuteness that radiates from him really keeps me going.

Annual Pioneer Day Party

Every year we get together with my family to celebrate Pioneer Day.  We had a fantastic pool party.  Aleah loves jumping into the pool.  Cade tried too.  He mostly just falls in.  They loved watching Brad jump in a make a big splash.  After watching Brad, Cade tried really hard to make big splashes.

They are getting good at blowing bubbles and kicking their feet.  Aleah did some swimming all by herself while holding this yellow floaty.  I had a big scare.  Cade was playing on the step with a noodle.  I turned around to help my nephew for a second.  Then I heard my Dad yelling, "Cade, Cade!"  I looked and he had stepped off of the step.  He was under the water treading water.  It felt like it took me forever to get to him.  When I pulled him out of the water he just pushed me away and tried to get back on the step.  It was crazy!  He must have been holding his breath.  I am very thankful that he was ok!

We had dinner and a little birthday party for my brother-in-law Tyler.  Then we did some little fireworks for the kids.  Sparklers... I love them and I hate them!  Right after I took this picture of Cade he touched it and burned his fingers.  Poor boy, he was so sad!  Brad took him in the house to put it under cold water.  When I came in he looked over at me with a cute little pouty face and showed me his fingers.  I kissed them and gave him some ice to hold.  I felt so bad for him!

They loved the poppers!  Aleah was really good at throwing them and making them pop.  Cade was cute, he would hold it by his head for a few seconds and then he would throw it.

Here we are watching the fireworks.  We did some flashers, little fountains and the favorite, smoke bombs.  You can see the ice in Cade's hand.

When Aleah gets really excited she does super clapping, it is really cute.  I love it!  

She is excited all the way to her toes.

We all loved guessing what color the smoke was going to be!

Then we put the kids to bed and visited and watched some really big fireworks.  My brother bought two and we bought two.  The first one that my brother did was too close to us.  It was seriously right over our heads and coming right at us!  My brother-in-law got hit with one of the sparks right on his shirt.  It was cool, but also super scary!  I was screaming the whole time.  We moved the last three further away and they were very enjoyable!

Boat Swing!

Growing up we would go to my Grandma Stone's house almost every Sunday and visit with family.  My Grandma has a swing set in her back yard that has been there since my Dad was a little boy.  I have seen pictures of my Dad with boards strapped to his arms trying to fly off of the swing set.  It has two ladders with monkey bars on the top.  Two swings and a really fun boat swing.  My cousins and I would play on this swing set all the time.  When we got older we would sit on the top on the monkey bars and just talk.

A few Sundays ago we went over to visit my Grandma Stone.  My kids had so much fun playing in the boat swing!  It is crazy that this boat swing has lived through my Dad and his siblings, me and my siblings and cousins, and now my kids.  It was fun to watch them and remember how much fun I had when I was little!