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.

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.

Midway, Utah

Mike's friend was super kind and invited us all to his families cabin for the weekend.
So right after work we headed up to Midway.
We've never been here and to see if up close it's absolutely beautiful!

With there being some traffic we got to Midway before his friends so we stopped and got some food at Dairy Keen.

I read tons of reviews on how amazing this place is. So of course we had to experience the train restaurant. The price was expensive. For us for we spent $32! But it guess this place can charge whatever they want; it wouldn't matter to the customers. This place was packed!

The cabin was amazing! It was huge!! After unpacking we all decided to go for a hike.  

While on the hike Mike's friend, Dave, showed us all the different flowers and trees. Since he grew up at this cabin he knew his way around this mountain. 

When we got to a meadow we played around with some BB guns.  

Our girls learned proper gun safety and after being carefully guided learned how to shoot. 

While we all took turns shooting business cards we also played frisbee.

Miss Cati hanging out with the guys. But it was getting dark so we paused the fun until morning and hiked the mile back to the cabin. The view of the small town was so pretty. I wish my camera phone would have transformed into a Cannon so I could take a better photo of the view.

Mike and Dave had a late night chatting until 3am. Guys!! But that didn't stop our girls waking up at 7am. So we made breakfast for everyone. For only being 6 of us we had enough food for twice that many people. While we waited for our friends to get ready we played outside.

Then once again we headed back to the meadow, this time driving, to practice our shooting.
Dave gave the suggestion to shoot Pringles since the shattering effect is just awesome to see. Ha!
We were all amazed when Mike made this shot and the chip didn't shatter.

My girls and I hiding in the shade tent. They are so dirty! I'm thankful they love being in the outdoors but I love more the silly faces they make when it's picture time.

From the night before of only learning how to shoot to now taking their shots themselves. Lily and Ducati improved so much. Plus instead of shooting business cards we collected all our soda cans and shot those instead. So they made a few clean shoots through the cans.

It was a great afternoon. But of course we needed lunch, a bathroom break (cuz us girls didn't want to pee on rocks in tick grass), and Dave needed to get his sister so Lily and I stood behind while Mike drove the rest of our party back to the cabin. This allowed us to have some funny time.

 The view is so pretty! But while I was taking pictures I noticed a little arm reaching for Dave's candy bag. Sneaky, sneaky!

Mike and his friends. Dave, middle, and Connor showing his gangster peace sign.

 When everyone came back we continued to shoot alittle more. But now we were getting bored! So we went back to the cabin, packed things up, cooked lunch, cleaned the cabin, chatted with our new friends, and went for a hike to find red rocks.

The trail we wanted was in Francis, Utah. Someplace I never heard of. The town was so small we had no idea where we were. Those are the best types of towns.

 While on our hike we found a herd of cows. Yes! COWS! They were so close that I was a bit freaked out. So I instructed our girls to walk between the grown ups just in case they charged. I know I was afraid of a cow. But safety first. So Connor and Dave took the front while Mike and I covered the back. This gave us the advantage of grabbing the girls and running if something happened with the cows.

We didn't find any red rocks. That's not the scientific term that Dave used but that's all I remember. But we did find this little waterfall. Along with lots of wild flowers, dead animal skeletons, "seashells"  (aka snail shells), cow poop, and lots of flies. 

 My handsome man! ♥

 

We left this hike sweaty and dirty! Which I am so thankful that my kids aren't afraid to get dirty.
When we got back to our cars we grabbed some towels and headed to the stream across the street and washed off. It felt so nice to stick our aching feet into the cold water.
Then we were treated to pizza from The Pie and drove home. After 2 showers each, brushing out hair tangles, and starting a load of laundry we were all exhausted. The next day at church we were all falling asleep. So after sacrament we went back home and took a much needed nap. A weekend of adventuring with family and friends makes such great memories. I'm thankful that I got to record it all .