Family Vacation

We had a great family vacation last month - here's a quick overview.



We stayed in Park City and took a few day trips. We took a tour of the Conference Center across the street from temple square in Salt Lake. These views are from the roof.



This kid was asked several times by our guide to get off the wall:


A day spent at Raging Waters - water parks have become a yearly tradition for us.





We also got to visit some family in Utah that we don't often see.



We saw Grandma Simmons and Aaron and Rachel Earnest. The kids met a bunch of cousins they didn't know they had and had a great time with them!


An afternoon spent at BYU - where it all began....

The Bean museum...


Lunch at J.Dawg's...


While in Nevada and Utah, we got to see some old friends from college. It was so fun to see these good friends again - it's been years but it felt like no time had passed at all.

What are big sisters for?

The cousins came for a quick visit!! And I forgot my camera everywhere we went! But, of course, Beth had hers so we have photo documentation of the fun!

The splash park....wait for it...wait for it....





Floating on the river....






It's all fun when the cousins come! We have been lucky for the past few years to have my sister and her family just a few hours away. The kids love having cousins to visit often and I have my only sister. "A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost."

The month of July

Wow ! July is almost over and we haven't updated our blog all month!! We've been too busy having fun to sit inside blogging... It all started with my birthday on July 1st (or June 31st as Chris refers to it - just so it doesn't sneak up on him). The girls made me a delicious smoothie for breakfast - doesn't it look good?


Then came the 4th of July which was very quiet for us this year. On a Sunday with no family in town. It just wasn't the same without the cousins and grandpa and his blow torch. We did have our traditional funnel cakes and watched the fireworks from the front yard.



Then we did a lot of hiking - I won't bore you with the details, just some beautiful scenery. I was the hike leader at Girls' Camp this year and we had to go check out some hikes before camp. Good thing we did - one of the trails was covered in snow. Chris joined me each day (and Mattie and Lauren came on 2 of the hikes) and we hiked 13 miles in 3 days!

Jack Lake with Three Fingered Jack in the background.

Sahalie Falls

Somewhere along the McKenzie River

Tenas Lakes

After all that hiking we had to take a break and go visit Beth and some cousins. These kids sure have fun together.




Redmond has a new park, too - this is what the kids do there:









This is what I do there:


I love summer - seeing family, having fun, playing in the sun, and relaxing. Exactly what summer should be.