Have you ever had a lot of fun things that you wanted to do as a family durning the sumer but couldn't find the time to do any of them? That's the problem that we were facing as the summer was winding down. So we decided to have a staycation! It was so much fun, we loved it!
Tuesday we started things off at Seven Peaks. Our favorite slides were Avalanche and Cave In. Avalanche was fun because about 12 people go at a time. Everyone gets on their mats at the top and then races to the bottom. The line was super short so we did it tons of times. After doing Cave In, which you ride down on a tube, both of the kids shouted, "Let's do that again!" We had a great day. Brad and I had so much fun being together and playing with Aleah and Cade!
Wednesday my brother and his kids came with us to Lagoon. It was great! Emma is tall enough to ride a lot of the big rides now. So Brad and I would take the kids on some little rides while Nate and Emma went on a big ride and then we would switch. It worked great and we all got to go on a lot of fun rides.
Emma and Aleah were just the right heights to allow them to ride a lot of the rides together. It was great and they loved the independence of getting to ride together instead of with an adult.
My brother is the picnic king! He brought such a great picnic lunch that he ended up sharing most of it with us. Good thing he brought lots!
After lunch we were ready to get wet! As we waited in line we talked to the kids about how we were all going to get wet, that it would feel good since we were hot and that it would be silly since we were not in our swimming suits. They were all ready to get wet.
It's a good thing that they were ready because there was now way to miss the waterfall! After going through the waterfall we all started laughing!
Aleah got the wettest out of all of us. She was completely soaked! Water was dripping from her shorts. It made me laugh every time I looked at her. She was a good sport and just laughed about it.
Our favorite family ride was Bom Bora. It's a roller coaster that we could all go on, except Grant. He is close, hopefully next year! We went on Bom Bora over and over and over again!
Brad, Nate, Emma and I got to go on the new Wicked ride. It shoots you straight up and then straight down and then twists and turns... it was awesome! We had such a great day and all the kids have been asking if we can go again. It might have to become a middle of August tradition!
Thursday, my Mom's birthday, we headed out to Deer Creek Reservoir for some boating.
We convinced Braedan to get on the EzSki for a picture. We told him that we wouldn't drive.
Once he was on we convinced him that we would just go slow. He wouldn't stand up, but he did it.
You can tell that the water was very cold by the look on Cade's face. Good thing it was a hot day!
My Mom did her biggest jumps for her birthday!
It was such a beautiful day. I did some good jumps, but the water was pretty choppy for me and so I crashed a lot!
The choppy water was perfect for the air chair. Brad and my Dad had a great time.
Brad, Aleah and Cade were pretending to be asleep on the tube.
After boating we went, in our swimming suits, to Macaroni Grill for my Mom's birthday dinner. We all looked so lovely! But, it was fun to visit and relax for a minute.
Friday we had a nice relaxing morning and then went for a hike up American Fork Canyon. It was beautiful! All the kids did great on the hike. Even Grant hiked the whole way!
Our cute little hikers!
We stopped along the way to look at the mountain views, the river, trees, rocks, pinecones, acorns...
Cade and Braedan wanted me to take a picture of their backs. Silly boys!
The kids kept sitting on rocks and standing by trees and saying, "Take a picture!"
Cade found a lot of spider webs on the bridge. As he was counting them his voice would get louder and more amazed with each one that he would find. "Seven Mom! I see seven spider webs!"
After four days of play play play, I think that we successfully wore the kids out! They both fell asleep pretty much the second that we left the trail head.
That evening we had a pool party, barbecue, and celebrated my Mom's birthday and Brad's birthday.
Aleah is tall enough to touch the bottom of the pool. She thinks that it's pretty cool!
Cade practiced and practiced his, "Swimming!"
Aleah and Brad had fun relaxing together.
Aleah and Emma got some little mermaids from their Grandma Great. I think that the boys played with them more than the girls did!
We always celebrate my Mom's birthday and Brad's birthday with some yummy pumpkin pie.
Saturday we went out to Utah Lake for some more boating. The weather did not cooperate with us. I did some tubing with Aleah and Cade.
My brother started to do some tubing with his kids when the boat quit. We couldn't get it to turn back on and the storm was heading straight for us!
My Dad wiggled some wires and adjusted the battery cables and it started up right as the storm got to us. We went as fast as we could, but the storm stayed with us. We put the boat cover on the bow and let the kids climb in so that they were protected form the rain. It was coming down hard!
We got off the lake and put the covers on as fast as we could. It was a really big lightening storm and we were so thankful that we were able to get the boat to work so that we could get off of the lake. The storm was not letting up, it was getting worse. So we headed over to Cabellas to see the fish and all the stuffed animals.
We had a fun family staycation. We loved all the time that we got to spend together and all the fun things that we got to do. Brad and Nate had fun staying up late playing Portal 2. I don't think that my brain was awake enough to play that game. I tried a couple of times, but really my brain just wanted to sleep.
Other exciting news: Some baby Quail got stuck in our window wells. We put a board down in for them to climb up, but they wouldn't. The mom and dad kept flying from window well to window well talking to their babies.
Finally, I just got the kids toy net and climbed down in the well. They were super fast and a little tricky to catch! Brad had to come outside to protect me because every time I turned my back to catch the babies the mom or dad would try to attack me. It was a little scary! I successfully saved all the little baby Quail.
Cade got his camera and had to get a picture of me with his net.
For preschool we made paper towel bridges. It was fun to see the colors climb up the paper towel and then mix to make new colors!
On Brad's birthday we got a call from the executive secretary saying that the Bishop wanted to meet with us. We both had a feeling as to what his new calling was going to be, but kept saying, "No, it couldn't be that!" Sure enough, it was! Brad is now the Young Men's President. We were both really enjoying his calling of a Youth Sunday School Teacher! He has already had a lot of meetings, but it's ok, I know that he is going to really enjoy working with the young men and they are going to love him!
