Day 3&4 Travel Day and Glacier National Park

The real destination for our trip was Glacier National Park. After our day at Craters of the Moon, we headed off for 4 days of fun exploring the beautiful scenery at Glacier. For our first day in the park, we decided to start with the drive across the park on the Going to the Sun road. Of course, we had to stop and get a picture at the park entrance.

We took our time driving along this road and stopped when we wanted to have a chance to look a little closer at our surroundings.

At the highest elevation point along the road, there is a visitors center. We had planned to get out there and maybe do a hike. However, the parking lot was full. So Danny dropped us off while he circled the parking lot waiting for a parking space to open up(biggest frustration of the trip for him). We saw what there was to see at the visitors center and when he still hadn't appeared, we went back down to the parking lot to find him still circling(45 minutes later). He was super angry by this point, so we hopped back in the car and continued our drive across the park. I did get this picture of the kids while we were waiting.

This was the only glacier we actually saw while we were there. I did not realize this before planning the details of our trip, but the many glaciers in the park are not actually accessible unless you are willing to hike 10+ miles(which we were not). The glacier is the white on the mountain behind them, right above Ashley's head. This one was called Jackson Glacier.

After driving all the way across the park, we headed south towards the Medicine Lakes area. We found a kid friendly hike with the help of a park ranger and started off. Our destination was a waterfall about a mile each way.

There was a moose in this pond along the trail which we only caught a glimpse of. It was hiding behind some tall grasses

We thought this bridge was fun.

When we got to the waterfall, most of us took our shoes off and dipped our feet in the water. The girls posed for us.

Camden was Danny's hiking buddy. He really did not like sitting in that hiking backpack for very long.

On the hike back to the car, we spotted this white tailed deer. We stopped to watch it for a bit. The boys even stayed nice and quiet so that we could watch it. It didn't seem to mind us and walked pretty close to us before heading deeper into the woods.

After the hike, we went out onto this dock and enjoyed the view.

We considered day 1 in the park a success. Beautiful scenery, wildlife spotted, and Camden even got a nap.

Day 1&2- Travel day and Craters of the Moon

On August 5th, we embarked on our much anticipated family vacation. We had been planning this one ever since we printed off Alyssa's "4th Grader in the Park" pass back in September. Our first stop was Craters of the Moon near Arco, Idaho. Craters of the moon isn't actually a National Park. It is a National Monument, but Alyssa's pass got us into Monuments as well as Parks. We were surprised by how unique and cool Craters of the Moon was. We spent 1 day here seeing all that there was to see. It consisted of "cones" and caves. Here is a family selfie on top of the tallest cone.

The kids loved how light the lava rocks were. I'm just glad Tyler didn't drop it on my head.

The caves were our favorite part of Craters of the Moon. This was the first cave we explored. It was actually more of a tunnel because it had an exit at the back.

It had a little mini cave at the end of the tunnel right before climbing out.

 And we made it all the way through.

We bought head lamps for the girls and the adults. We were so glad that we had them because some of the caves were quite dark.

We didn't take the boys down into one of the caves because it was too tight of a fit to get into it so I got to hang out with them and wait while Danny explored the last one with the girls. Tyler liked having a turn in the hiking backpack when Camden got tired of it.

It was a nice little stop and we were glad we took the time to see it.

Miner Family Reunion

We got to go to our biannual Miner Family Reunion during the second week in July. It was at a really nice Cabin near Bear Lake(in Utah). It started on Monday and ended on Friday, so that basically gave us Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to plan fun activities. We decided that Wednesday and Thursday would be the best lake days because of weather conditions. On Tuesday we thought of checking out the cave tour nearby, but a lot of the group didn't want to risk having to wait hours in order to go through the tour. We opted to take a hike up to a lake instead. The cool thing about this specific lake is that it has a big rope swing and some cliffs to jump off of. Ashley loved the rope swing and did it at least three times.

Danny tried a couple of times too. Alyssa chickened out and I wasn't dressed for going in the water(plus I really didn't want to be cold).

Our kids were too young for us to let them try the cliff jump, but a lot of their older cousins jumped off and said it was awesome.
On our Wednesday lake day, we all went in on a boat rental. In addition to that, my oldest brother also brought 2 wave runners, a jet ski, and a huge water trampoline. It was a lot of effort to set the trampoline up, so we just left it floating on the lake overnight so we could enjoy it both days. We only worried a little bit that it would blow/float away, or get stolen. We took turns all day long on the wave runner(only one of the 2 would actually start) and jet ski and filling up the boat. It was a lot of fun. The kids enjoyed splashing in the water and playing in the sand.

Here is the group(not everyone was there, but most of us were) in front of the lake on the second beach day. We didn't have the boat on the second day, but still enjoyed all of the other activities.

On the final evening together, the adults left all the kids at the cabin and went out to dinner together. Here is the whole group right before we left for dinner.

In addition to the daytime activities, the cabin also had a pool table, foosh ball, toys for the little kids, a play set outside, a volleyball net, a theater room, plus there was Grandma's Bingo every night for the grand kids and great grand kids. My brother also made a bubble solution for those gigantic bubbles and made wands to blow them. I think most of us tried making some big bubbles during our down time. Mostly, our kids just enjoyed playing/spending time with their cousins. It is always so fun to get together with family and we are already looking forward to the next reunion that will take place in 2 years. We are so grateful for Mom and Dad and their efforts to get us together every two years.

Foam Day

Around Pioneer Day every year, Lehi City has foam day. The Fire Department comes into a park and sprays foam all over the grass for the kids to play in. This is our second time going and the kids had a lot of fun. Danny was out of town for it, so I had to brave it alone. We got there right when it started with the plan to stay for only 2 hours. Unfortunately, the foam didn't even start until 2 hours after start time, so we ended up staying 3 hours instead. We got to do all of the other fun stuff while we waited for the foam, including water slide inflatables, sponsor booths giving away prizes, and the play ground. Here I am waiting with the boys for the foam to start. Camden was so tired by this point and actually ended up falling asleep about five minutes before the foam started.

And here are the three older kids enjoying the foam.

As you can see, Ashley enjoyed it the most. She was the one that we had to finally drag away. We were all starving and my arms and back were sore from holding a sleeping baby. Hopefully daddy can join us if we decided to do it again next year.

Summer Catch Up

We've been busy since the 4th of July and I guess that, as a result, my blog has been a little neglected. So now I am going to attempt to catch up on the last 6 weeks of summer. Here is a jumble of pictures that don't really have a theme, but that I thought were cute or needed to be included on the blog.
First off, the girls got a new little cousin, Abigail, born the beginning of June. She was in the NICU for the first few weeks of her life and we were all so happy to finally meet her and hold her when she got to go home. Here is a picture of Alyssa holding her on the day of her baby blessing.

We took the kids to see "Alice in Wonderland" at the Hale Center Theater. All of the actors were kids probably ages 8-18. The boys actually did really well(we were on the front row so we were a little worried). The girls, of course, loved it. After the show, Alyssa told us that she wanted to be in a play again. As a result, we are letting her audition for a play at the Lehi Arts Center in a couple of weeks.

Ashley with the Cheshire Cats(there were three in this production and they acted as narrators).

Ashley took this picture of Alyssa jumping rope and I thought it was cool. This was at the school Library's Reading Circle(they did some fun activities for the kids once a month during the summer).

Camden apparently loves to wear sunglasses. These belong to Ashley.

 Camden finally got his first haircut. This is the before picture. (he even let me do it with the electric clippers).

 

The after picture in the bath. He had swimming hair for the hair cut which is probably why that group of hairs is sticking up on the top.

I think we took this at the Lehi Fun Center while Ashley was mini golfing with Tyler. We were hot, hungry, and tired but the two of them were still going strong.

We also spent a lot of time at the swimming pool, Thanksgiving point, and an occasional trip to the water park. I don't take pictures at these places because we are usually too busy having fun.

Independence Day Celebrations

 We enjoyed our 4th of July weekend. We started it off bright and early(5:30am) on Friday the 1st by going to Balloon Fest down in Provo. It was sure fun to see all of those balloons inflate so close to us. Danny even took the kids close enough to touch one.

 It was even more fun to watch them all take off and float around above us.

On Saturday, we got to go to Stadium of Fire. We had extra tickets so we invited a friend(and their families) for each of the girls. it was a lot of fun, as always. We aren't huge Tim McGraw fans, but the fireworks show was spectacular.

 On the 4th, we opted to set off our own fireworks. Danny brought home a huge pack and the kids loved it.

We are so grateful to live in this country where we enjoy so many freedoms.

First Steps

We have another walker in the house. I love watching him take those first steps with his arms wide and that big smile on his face.