Catch Up

Before I move on to write about more recent events, I need to write about some of the not so big things that have been happening this summer.  I can't believe we have just over a month left of summer!  Once we made it through June, the summer is flying by!  This year we just happened to have nothing planned in June.  I mean nothing.  There were times it felt like an eternal month.  But July began in St George and it's not slowing down.  Note to self: Make sure to schedule something fun in June so as not to experience Eternal June ever again.

Really, summer has been going well.  We got right into a good routine, and that's definitely helped the summer along.  The kids know that if they tell me they're bored I'll give them chores, so it pretty much hasn't happened.  Hallelujah!  And don't feel too bad for them, I've given them plenty of resources of things to do.  Which is why I lose my mind if they tell me they're bored.  I'm such a good mom.

Anyway, I made it a goal that we would go on some kind of hike every week this summer, and I think so far we've accomplished that!  We missed last week, but we ran a 5k instead so I vote that counts.  We went to a Bees game that was a lot of fun.  We sat in the shade the whole time so we didn't completely roast.  At the end we got to sit on the grass and watch fireworks and they were the best fireworks we've ever seen.  We were so close to them that pieces of cardboard were falling on us.  We might need to make that a tradition:)

We stayed in Midway for the 4th because we love it here!  We went for a hike in the morning and then the kids played on the water slide our neighbors got all day long.  I looked around, realized I was alone, and headed to the theater to watch a movie.  I think I've started a new 4th of July tradition;)  Anyway, we barbecued with friends that night, ate scones from another neighbor, let off our own fireworks, and watched the fireworks on Memorial Hill right from our front yard.  I love the 4th in Midway!

And before we move on to pictures, let me just note that yes, I know there are an abundance of pictures of Sage.  We don't love her any more than we love the other kids, but that girls is constantly begging us to take her picture.  And posing.  You should thank me that there aren't more pictures of her, because if she had it her way that's all we would have.

A Sunday hike-a-walk that was exceedingly hot

Sage recovering from the extreme heat

Another pretty hike not far from our house!

The view from one of Jake's jobs.  I love our beautiful valley!

Our 4th of July hike

Watching the Memorial Hill fireworks

The traditional burning of Memorial Hill due to fireworks

Bees game!

Sage dancing before the fireworks

St George In The Summer!

I've never in my life been in St George in the summer months.  I love St George, but I've always avoided going there in the summer.  Until now.  Jake's extended family planned a get-together there, so we left the 80 degrees at our house for the 100 degrees of St George.  Despite the heat, we had a great time.  We had great fun visiting with family again, and the kids enjoyed getting to know their cousins better!

We packed a lot into two quick days.  The girls swam for hours and hours, and would have swam more if we had time.  They loved it.  Jake, Zack and I went on a mountain bike ride early Saturday morning to beat the heat.  Jake's cousin and uncle came with us and it was a really fun ride.  Beautiful scenery and not even too hot!  It was a more technical ride than I like, but not too bad.  I even managed to hurl myself off a two-foot drop off without killing myself.  I'm so hard core.  We also went on a night hike, which was an adventure.  I haven't done that for a long time.  We went up to Snow Canyon and ended up hiking like 5 miles, even though we had only planned on hiking like 2.  Why is it that everything I do with Jake ends up being longer and harder than what he says it will be??

We went to Zions and hiked a couple of miles into the narrows.  I haven't hiked in there for years and it was really fun.  So beautiful, and fun to hike in the water when it's so hot outside.  We had to turn around before everyone so we could head home, but we had great fun.  We definitely need to do it again when we can hike further! 

See, we packed a lot in for the weekend!  Phew!!

We went to the Black Bear Diner for dinner.  Sage loved her sugar (dinner)

Zack attempting to eat his HUGE hamburger.  He was in heaven.

Zack loves it when I hug him

Beautiful!

Mountain biking dudes

The Narrows!

So pretty!

Camping!

We finally went camping this summer.  We don't have a trailer anymore, so it's not so easy to just throw things together and go.  I admit that I'm a little bitter at the loss of Tiny.  It's so much more work to get everything together for tent camping.  And when you get there it's so much more work to set everything up, and take everything down.  And then there's the fun of sleeping in a tent.  So not fun.  Nothing like sleeping in a row with your entire family.  I was really hoping that everyone would miss Tiny so much that we would unitedly decide we must get another trailer.  Unfortunately, that didn't happen.  It looks like I'm stuck with a tent.  Which means my family is stuck with two day camping trips - I won't do one day because it's way too much work for one day, and I won't do more than two days because I'm not sleeping in a tent for that long.  So there.

Anyhow, back to our actual camping trip.  We went up to the Uintas.  I love, love, love the Uintas.  So beautiful.  We camped at Butterfly Lake Campground, our first time camping there.  Our site was pretty awesome because it had this hill right behind it with big rocks that were perfect for the kids to climb on.  They loved it.  We fished, hiked, roasted s'mores, and every thing else that happens when camping.  On Friday we went adventuring.  We took off in the truck and just drove to random places we'd never been.  We ended up in some remote areas.  And we got to see the great dragon fly migration (I've never seen so many dragon flies.  It was pretty cool). 

Our campground without Tiny:(

An awkward picture of Jake getting ready to fish

The lake in right by our campground

The view from behind our campground

Climbing on the awesome rocks

My favorite thing to do while camping

Lunch break in the truck

It's so pretty in the Uintas!!!