Bear Lake

For our one last Hoo-Rah of summer we went to Bear Lake for a few days. 

We haven't been here in a couple of years so everything was all new to us. 

We camped at Bear Lake Hot Springs.

This place is small. Camp neighbors are close to us. Camp fee is cheap. There's only potta-john's. The store is expensive so we tried not to forget anything. The pools are pricey and small. Our reservations got jumbled and we had to move camp sites twice. 

But after all that this is our favorite place to be. 

Because we had to move camp sites twice the staff gave us a 1 day pass to their pools so we took advantage of them after we set up.

 I love my weirdo bunch! ♥

Hand stands in the pool and throwing kids is what my husband does while on vacation.

Yup that's Mike under water holding his breathe. He wanted to break his record of 1 minute 38 seconds.

While camping this was my first time making tin foil meals. I do believe my camp cooking skills have improved over the years. Tonights dinner chili cheese fries. Yummo!!

The next couple of days consisted of camping is sort of a blur. It was so relaxing. Our usual get-aways require us to be on full speed. Drinking energy drinks from morning to late evening. Even giving our kids a Redbull to keep them going. This time we just relaxed. Woke up to birds chirping. Watched sunrises and sunsets. Got sand in our toes. We were just... chill!


A few of Lily and Ducati's fave spots to stand and sit. And yes, they named each spot.

 "Tentee"

 "Cave-y"

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"Stool-ie"

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 "Stump-ie"
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 "Big Tree"

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"Rock-ie"
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But to camp at a lake front place means we went to the lake A LOT!
That's fine with us. We froze a little but that just adds character to our personalities.

Here we are 9am and I'm freezing my cookies off. No amount of leggings, hoodies, blanket, or direct sunlight could warm me up. Brrr!!But our kids.... they didn't feel a thing. They wanted me to splash around in the water with them. Sorry kiddos- No way! I waited until 1pm when the sun was right above us and the water was warm.

Mike totally fell asleep in his chair in the lake. It was so adorable!

This place is absolutely beautiful! Next years goal is the come in the middle of summer when we're sweating at 9am instead. (haha).

But camping with my family lead to some funny moments.

 Our Ducati looking so cool in her shades. She cracks me up!

 Me and my guy. I love him so much!

This owl coming over every night. Our girls just watched him. Mike would get bored and pull out his laser pen. The owl would chase it around the tree branch and it's feathers which just amused everyone more which lead to staring at it longer.

Me wanting to not cook again on our vacation so we headed into town for the most expensive fast food meal we've eaten to date. La Beau's might be famous but they are expensive.

Ducati's invention on how to eat a corn dog without dirtying her hands.

  Mike and Hailey enjoying their expensive burgers.

  My crazy kids. I love this bunch so much!

This trip was not well planned. We forgot towels, spent way more money that we planned, got tons of bug bites, lost a bag of food which had groceries inside, and forgot to pack warm pj's and pants.

But this trip was exactly what we needed to feel centered again. To regain our family unity. To get connected before the school year starts again. We're all so thankful for these peaceful moments we can reflect on later.

Love a Cop

repost from instagram:

Liily and Ducati have been a little frightened of police since one of them got a ticket last year. She got a ticket for unbuckling in her car seat (while I was driving). So I made her pay her ticket herself. She's held some resentment since she had to sell her Monster High bedding to pay her ticket. 

While at 7-11 we seen two police officers. My girls kept eyeing them 👀 around the corner.

When we were up to pay for our Big Gulp's the officers came up behind us. Ducati points and says so loud,"Mom it's a cop!" I explained myself to the officers and told them the story. So one cop told my kids they love to keep people safe and to give high-fives. 👋
My girls loved it!

While we were walking out the first officers partner ran up to us and said she had some shield stickers for my girls so they keep people safe too. 👮This just made their day even better!
So my girls fear of being ticketed has now vanished and has been replaced with love and appreciation for our law enforcement.  And it's all because two people took the time to show them the good.Thank you! For the rest of the day Lily and Cati gave me citizen arrests. 

We all need is love

After Hailey and Mason were gone for 10 days this is the reaction when Lily and Cati seen them.

They were overjoyed to be together again. Over the years I've seen their relationship grow and bloom into something I wish I had as a kid. But I'm glad they have it now.

Utah Adventuring

It's been my goal this summer to explore Utah and all it's wonders.
I've lived here for close to 20 years (next summer) and have not seen all that it has to offer. So every week we have been to someplace new and unfamiliar.

This has lead to so many new and exciting experiences that we, as a family, are so thankful for. Some placed I've posted already but here's a few I haven't yet.

Willard Bay in Willard, Utah.
We've been here before, years ago, but with Ducati not remember most of these places she's been to it's like starting over with a clean slate.

We packed up lunch, towels, our sun shade, and went to enjoy ourselves.

Our kids had so much fun! Our swimmers swam with Mike around the Bay. Our semi/none swimmers floated around the Bay with  Mike. We built sand castles. Skipped rocks. Ate lunch. Dropped lunch pieces for the seagulls. And left a few hours later with a tan and exhausted.

I love this photo below of Hailey. She reminds me of that saying, "Mermaid Hair. Don't Care!"

Another week we went with my sister-in-law to Kaysville Castle Park. We packed up lunch, water, and let our kids loose!

Behind the park is a little trail. It's so beautiful! The trees curve down making it looks like they are using their branches to block out the sun just for us. The walk was peaceful.
There is usually a little stream that flows along the trail but when we went it was dried up.
We still walked the trail and enjoyed the wild flowers. 

Mason wanted to show us all the water tunnel him and Mike found. So we followed him and I got so excited when I seen the graffiti. It's the Chicago side of me that loves it!

 Of course we walked the water tunnel. It was more spooky for the older kids than the younger kids. At the end we found out why the water had dried up. There was a beaver dam that was blocking all the water. So we left it alone and walked back to the trail.

My nephew found this stick and was playing with it. When his mom told him to look at him; he started to charge her as if he was going to poke her. It was so funny!

So 6 kids, 2 adults, lunch, and another 30 minutes of playing at the park and I needed a nap.

It's been so much fun seeing and exploring Utah.

Washington, D.C.

The following day we all packed our lunches then packed up in our mini vans to adventure and explore Washington, D.C.

So 4 adults, 1 teenager, and 8 kids- ranging from 10 years old - 6 months old. It was a handful but so much fun!
Here's Angela and Jerome and their clan of cute kids.

I love Teagan's facial expressions from his hair being pulled by Jaycob then biting his finger. So I decided to post both photos. It's my journey and I want to to remember both.

Seeing the Lincoln Memorial was amazing. From only seeing it in movies to actually seeing it up close. It made this trip even more amazing! 

Walking the sidewalks to D.C. we took up the whole area. It was a sight to see. Almost like we were taking these kids on a school field trip. 

Korean War Memorial. From looking at these statues they might not seem like much. But having a brother in law who is military he was telling me each statues rank, his job, his duty, what he was doing; all from just looking at them. It was amazing to listen to him!

Washington Monument. 

Our girls really like collecting Jr. Ranger badges. So I looked up online and found that the National Mall (where all the Memorials are located) has a Jr. Ranger badge. But the booklet is like 16 pages. So I printed the booklet off ahead of time and we did some of the easy pages on the plane. Like the word search and drawing pages. But most of these pages require you to actually see the Memorial and find the answer on either a plaque, sign, or something like that. So here we are at the
Vietnam Memorial finding a name to copy.

World War Two Memorial

Again our kids are finding the answers to the questions from their booklets. Even though it was hot, humid, and raining they were determined to earn their badge.

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. One of my favorite things about D. C. was the quotes that were everywhere. Here's some of our favorites from MLK Jr Memorial.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial was one of my favorites. He has such a way of using his words that his wisdom was so blunt.

Mike and Mason having a little photo op fun.

After hours of hard work our girls were finally sworn in as Jr. Rangers.

Here they are showing off their badges. Ducati's facial expression cracks me up.

The "I HATE WAR" rocks. So powerful!!

I love this quote so much that I will be hanging it up in my home very, very soon.

 Hailey, Lily, and I walking along the Potomac on our way to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. We were surely dedicated to experience everything we could since we're still out walking when it's starting to rain on us. But then again water never hurt.

Like I said before we left we learned a lot about some of our country's history including those we are related too. So I had to take a photo of Mike in front of his ancestor. 

Hailey is rocking her poncho. Seriously we were prepared. We seen that there was a chance of rain while we were packing back at home so I picked up some ponchos and packed them along. So we carried these babies everywhere we went. Rain was not going to stop us.

Arlington National Cemetery. This was on Mike's bucket list. And with the weird freeway exits and our GPS not keeping up with our movements we were weary if we were going to find this place. But it's a once and a lifetime chance since we might not ever be back that way so we went for it and found it. We're so thankful we did.

Walking around and seeing all these headstones.... all the men, women, wives, children, who died protecting our country's freedoms... it was humbling.

We had the opportunity to witness the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 


To see this man walking back and forth, standing guard over this tomb, in the pouring rain.... I was crying. There's so much negativity about how this country is being ran that it can easily shift the focus off of all the good this country has done. How free us American's really are. How so many people have fought to protect this sacred ground that so many take for granted. Mike and I both agrees this moment, right here, filled our hearts with true Patriotism and love for our country.

After a long day walking around, soaking up our country's rich history our day was not done yet. We drove for 2 hours so I could meet my aunt and 2 cousins who I never met before. My mom and her side of the family aren't the type to reach out. They will talk among themselves but there's not really communication beyond their phone call. So for so long I felt isolated. But thanks to Facebook I was able to find and start a relationship with cousins I had never met. So this was a very important moment for me. Meeting my cousins and aunt for the first time. I loved every minute of it.

My Hailey played with my cousin's Hailey.

Here I am smiling like a goofball because I just talked my aunt's ear off asking her so many questions about things I never knew. I never knew how she and my uncle met. They were both in the Army and stationed in Germany. They were together for 22 + years. My uncle moved to Maryland from Chicago when my aunt was called to duty during Desert Storm. Her family helped my uncle since he was taking care of Chris (my cousin who was not able to come) and twin baby girls. I learned about my uncles death. I learned about my uncles twisted sense of humor. He performed autopsy's and would bring his girls to work with him and close the door to the freeze with them inside. I learned about my cousins and their families. How they met their spouses. The work they do. Some stories about their childhood. It was just amazing!

This was so special to me. I wish I could visit them more. I'm thankful I had this moment so I won't get greedy. After dinner with them we hugged and took the drive back to the base.