Labor Day Weekend Camping Trip

For Labor Day weekend, we went on a camping trip to Palisades State Park. We have wanted to camp here for a long time and finally made it happen. Alyssa didn't want to come with us and we missed having her with us on our adventures. We arrived on Friday night and barely had time to explore the campground before it got dark. On Saturday, we rented an ATV for the day. It was pretty muddy, so the trail splattered us with mud from the sides and through the open front window. We were still scraping mud off of us that night. We went on a shorter ride in the morning and then came back to the campsite for lunch.

Later in the day, we went over towards Manti and up Manti canyon for a longer ride. There were some fun sites along the way.

We made the mistake of trying out a smaller trail for the drive back down to Manti called "sheep's trail." The kids all know this name well because we were cursing sheep's trail all the way down the mountain. Danny had to drive most of it because we got to the first crazy, steep, rock covered trail and I was too scared to try to drive it. There were multiple times where we thought we were going to tip or not be able to make it up a steep incline/decline. It took a lot longer than anticipated to get back down to Manti and we were so glad to finally leave "sheep's trail." Now that it is over, we can laugh about it, but we sure weren't happy about it as we drove it. After returning the ATV, we went out for some much deserved ice cream.

On Sunday, we had church in our trailer in the morning, and then spent the afternoon out on the water. We had a paddle board and a pedal boat between the 5 of us(and the dog). Amazingly enough, Lula got on the paddle board with Ashley and the 2 of them rowed all around the lake. Lula does not like water, so I was surprised that she went on the paddle board at all.

The pedal boat was fun too, and much more stable so I think Lula liked riding in it more than the paddle board. The kids quickly tired of the pedaling, so Danny and I had to do it for most of the time.

After the water, we went over to Manti again to walk around the temple grounds. Unfortunately it was closed for renovations still, so we couldn't actually get on the grounds, but we found this pioneer garden across the street and walked around that instead.

 

On Monday, we had a lazy morning and then packed up and headed home. It was a fun weekend and the kids loved having Lula along for the trip. Sadly, Danny's parents are selling their trailer, so we won't be trailer camping again in the near future. We have had some good memories camping over the past 7 years, so it is sad to see that end. We will just have to find other ways to explore our beautiful world.

St. George Trip for Alyssa's Final Tennis Tournament Trip

Shortly after school started, Alyssa went with her tennis team down to St. George for a tennis tournament. We took the other kids with us and stayed at the Las Palmas resort again since they enjoyed it so much the last time we stayed there. They got to swim a lot in the pools and play together in our condo. Danny and I watched a lot of tennis. Alyssa played in the first doubles position for the tournament with another senior named AnneMarie. They did well together and ended up taking first place in the silver bracket in the end (which is 5th place overall). Here is a picture of all of the seniors taken after the tournament was over.

One of the nights that we were down there, we took the kids to Grip Ninja. It was on our get out pass and when we looked up the location, we discovered that it was the next building over from Las Palmas and within walking distance. The boys claimed that it was the best Ninja gym they have ever been to. Ashley did some things, but got bored pretty quickly with it.

Here is Alyssa and Annemarie together with their medals.

It was a fun trip and we were kind of sad heading home afterwards knowing that we would not be coming down to St. George again for a girls tennis tournament. We shall see if either of the boys becomes interested in tennis. They are not showing any interest yet. We love St. George and will miss having an excuse to travel down there.

End of Summer and First Day of School

Our Stake had a Mother/son primary activity at the pool to end the summer. The boys stuck with me for about 10 minutes and then found some friends and I hung out with the other moms from my ward.

We grew a friend in our garden this year. The kids named him Toe-ma-tae. We obviously couldn't eat him after he had been named, so he eventually rotted on our countertop.

I took the kids to Airborne Trampoline Park (another get out pass). 

The first day of school came and went. Only 1 of our kids (Camden) was excited for it. The rest of them complained a lot

 

July Fun

These pictures are not in chronological order, but this post is all about the fun things we did in July.

On 7-11 day, we got free slurpees at a few different locations. The lines were much less than I expected because we went early in the day.

We went to a few different places included on our Get Out Pass. One of them was the Provo Beach Resort. We had fun with the ropes course, bowling, croquet, and laser tag.

I took the kids to the Steel Days Carnival in AF. We went on a Thursday night and the lines were crazy long. We were not able to ride very many rides before we got sick of the crowds. 

We did find these cute puppies on our way out and the tent was not crowded at all so the kids had fun cuddling with them.

Another Get Out Pass day was spent at Splash Summit Water Park. It was a crowded day, but it didn't stop us from having fun. We even convinced Alyssa to come along with a friend. 

I took the boys on a hike while the girls were at FSY. I don't have any pictures of them from their week, but they both had a lot of fun. They went to snow college in Ephraim and enjoyed the smaller campus. This hike was to Stewart Falls. I have wanted to go here for a long time and the waterfall and hike were as amazing as I expected. I was proud of the boys for walking the whole distance with me.

We took Ashley to Newsies at the Hale Center Theater. The show was so good. A few weeks later, her school announced that they would be doing Newsies for their Fall musical. She was so exciited.

Not on our Get Out Pass, but a favorite for the boys is the Ninja Playground in Sandy. We took them there while the girls were gone and they had so much fun. 

We only got sparklers this year for the 4th, but they were really long ones that lasted a long time. We lit them that night and a few times in the days leading up to the 4th.

The YSA ward had an activity at manila pond with kayaks and food. We took the boys and they had fun swimming in the water. We also took them out on a kayak, but didn't get any pictures.

Alyssa and Ashley went to Trek in July. Ashley dreaded it and called me multiple times during Trek to tell me that she could not do any more walking. She stuck it out though and was proud of herself for doing a hard thing. We were proud of her too, and told her afterwards that she never had to go on Trek again, unless she wants to.

Alyssa participated in the end of summer tennis tournament. She played in the highest division this year and took first. The last few years she has slowly moved up from the bottom playing in a higher division each year, and always placing second. She was glad to finally pull off the win.

She also went to BYU for a week in July for their tennis camp. She got some experience playing some really good players from other parts of the country and had so much fun. And she did it all on an unhealed stress fracture in her foot.

Ashley's reward for doing Trek was to be able to have Lula spend one night in her room. They both loved the experience and Ashley has tried to convince us to let it happen again. But it was a one time offer.

Cousin Time

Shortly after the cruise, we got to spend some time with the Knudsen kids. Connor and Tamma were coming to Utah to attend EFY at BYU, so we talked them into flying out a few days early to spend some time with our kids. They had so much fun together. The girls took their cousins to Labyrinth, a carnival, they worked the Saratoga Springs Temple open house, and we all went to Stadium of Fire. It was a fun weekend and not nearly enough time for my girls.

Ashley was dog sitting, so they had fun on the tramp with the dogs.

Stadium of Fire at BYU

These girls both had their hair straightened.

While Connor and Tamma were at EFY, Claire flew in for some alone time with Ashley. We tried out a new pool where they had fun going off of the high dive and standing under the large dumping bucket.

We also took her to the Butterfly Biosphere at Thanksgiving Point. They held a bug and caught a butterfly.

Connor and Tamma came back for one more day at the end of the week before flying back home. It was fun to have them visit and the kids were all sad when they went home.