Island Park part 2

Friday night after we unloaded at the cabin some of us went for a ride up to Big Spring. It was absolutely gorgeous. After we came home to find many of them in the hot tub. This of course is where David was. He loves hot tubs.

Saturday morning we took a family picture. Then we canoed down the Big Springs river. I didn't take my camera because I was afraid it would get wet but I wish I would have. The river was so beautiful. We had a raft and four canoes. We took turns being in the raft and canoes. Along the river we saw moose, fish, and beautiful birds including a Bald Eagle. That evening we went and watched the fireworks over the lake. Before the fireworks they had a boat regatta. Several boats were all decorated for the fourth with lights. The sunset over the lake was so pretty. The fireworks were some of the best I had seen in several years. We were so close to where they were letting them off you had to look straight up to see them.

Sunday we spent the day in Yellowstone. It had been fifteen years since I had been to Yellowstone. It was fun to take the boys for the first time. With only one day in Yellowstone we tried to do as much as we could. We stopped at Fountain Paint Pot geyser. Then we headed off to Old Faithful. (This was probably the highlight of the day. Kage was really excited to see a geyser). We watched the geyser and had lunch. Then we went to Fishing Bridge, Yellowstone Lake, One of the waterfall's, Norris Geyser basin. We were headed out only to get stuck in traffic jam. We were told to turn around so we did. We went back to Canyon Village only to find out that the road was open and if we would have stayed where we were then we would have been able to keep going shortly. The whole ordeal ended up taking us an extra two hours in the car. We ended up spending the better part of twelve hours in the car that day. I would love to go back to Yellowstone and spend a little more time.

Monday morning we packed and cleaned up the cabin. As we left we stopped at Mesa Falls. It was so pretty. We had a great trip and it was a lot of fun to spend some time with my family.

Island Park Family Reunion

We just got back from a fun long weekend in Island Park. My entire family (Minus Kelly who is working in South Carolina for two weeks) spent four days and three nights in a cabin in Island Park. Most of us left Thursday July 1. We enjoyed breakfast at IHOP to start then we stopped at Smith & Edwards in northern Utah. My mom gave everyone one dollar and we were trying to find the most creative thing for a dollar. It is a very interesting store. Then we went to Lava Hot Springs. We enjoyed a great afternoon swimming and jumping off the diving board. They have platforms you can dive from. Chelsea, D.J., and Gregg all jumped from the top platform. Kage wanted to but I was too nervous to let him jump. He loved jumping off the diving board though.

After we left Lava Hot Springs we drove to Idaho Falls and spent the night. The next morning we took a little time to enjoy the falls and take a few pictures.

Our next stop was Bear World. You get to drive around and see elk, buffalo, wolves, and bears in "natural" environment. We did see several animals but I wouldn't spend the money to go back. They had brown and black bears that were pretty cool to see.

After you drive through part of it they have a petting zoo that is pretty cool. They had bear cubs playing (not to pet), the kids did get to pet deer, chickens, goats, and pigs. They also had a bunch of carnival type rides. The little kids loved it. David thought he was too old for the rides. All he wanted was fudge.

Summer So Far

So far this summer we have spent a lot of time at home and a lot of time building rockets. Saturday before Fathers Day we participated in a rocket demonstration out at Miller Motor Sports Park for Clark Planetarium. We thought it would be a lot of fun but it was kind of a mess. It was very windy and the location they had us launching took all of the rockets over the fence. Kelly ended up climbing the fence to look for other people's rockets and walked over a mile to get back in. Of course I didn't take pictures I really need to get better at that.

Saturday was the monthly launch out at Pony Express Test Range. The weather was great. The boys launched several rockets. We also had some neighbors come out and launch and that was very fun. I know that rockets will continue to be a big part of our summer.



We have spent a little time at the pool and enjoying the summer weather. We look forward to more summer time activities.

Disneyland

Last week my parents took my boys to Florida for the week. Kelly and I decided to take a road trip and we ended up in Southern California. We spent most of our time in Disneyland.
One of Kelly's favorite rides in Disneyland is It's A Small World. Every time we have gone to Disneyland we have to ride it at least once. We spent parts of five days in Disneyland.
On Wednesday we went to the beach. We ended up at Newport beach first. We walked out on the pier and watched them fish for a little bit. We also laid on the beach and walked through the shops.
Then we drove down to Laguna Beach. This beach had a ton of seaweed all over it. We did walk down and look at the tide pools. This is about the only picture we got of the two of us together. We had a great week. It was really nice to spend time together just the two of us.

4th Grade Program, Pinewood Derby

Last week the Fourth Grader's put on a Utah program. David got to be a Pioneer. They did a really cut job.Here David is in front of some of the props.

Friday night was our wards pinewood derby. This year both David and Kage are in scouts. David just wanted to have fun with his car so his is a hot dog. It looked amazing. Kelly and David did a great job.
Here is a picture of both of their cars together.
Kage's goal was to have a really fast car. He was successful, he won first place! It was a slick little car. Here he is with his car.Here the final four are waiting at the end of the track for the race.
The leaders all made cars as well. They were pretty creative.
Here I am holding my pink car.
Kelly always has so much fun with pinewood derby. He helped a lot of other people with their cars and is the official weigh in guy.

Plays, Breaks, and Birthday's

The last month has been very busy! David tried out and got a part in the school play Beauty and the Beast. They worked really hard especially the last couple of months. They performed the play April 1, 2, and 3. They did an amazing job! Here is David in his wolf costume. It is the only picture I got of him during the play.
Easter weekend we headed up the canyon for a very cold Easter Egg hunt. Most of us were bundled up in coats but Kage after running around ditched his coat.After we hunted for the eggs then we rolled/ threw the eggs down the mountain side.


Sunday we went over to my Mom and Dad's for another Easter Egg hunt! This one is always fun. My mom and dad put money in some of the egg's. My boys decided the egg's with money were better than the ones with candy. Kage and I were lucky and found the two eggs with twenty dollar bills in them.The day after Easter was my birthday. We had spring break. We were planning on going snowboarding but the weather report was terrible so we decided not to go. We ended up going to Gateway shopping. We also played at the Clark Planetarium for a while. Here is Kage and Kelly doing a weather forecast.

Tuesday the boys and I went shopping with my Mom. We went to lunch at Gardner's Village and a little shopping then down to Tai Pan. Wednesday I went and got Amber's boys Colby and Tyson and they came to our house to play for awhile then we all went to the dollar movie. Saturday we finally went snowboarding. I actually tried snowboarding instead of skiing. It was fun but boy was I sore (and still am four days later).

Hawaii Part 1

We had the great opportunity to spend six days in Hawaii last week. We had a wonderful time. I don't have all of the pictures I want on my computer Kelly has some on his computer but I thought I would at least blog what I have for now. We spent a majority of our time on the beach. The boys played in the sand a lot. We did some snorkeling and boggie boarding as well.

We spent a lot of time up on the north shore of Oahu. We snorkeled at Hanauma Bay and Sharks Cove. We ate at lots of good restaurants. Our goal was to never eat at the same restaurant twice or eat any where you could get at home. We stuck to it with the exception of one breakfast at McDonalds. We stopped at a shrimp truck one day and Kelly got shrimp. The rest of us ate shaved ice and smoothies.

We saw several turtles on Turtle beach. The turtles crawl right on shore and sun themselves. You could walk up close to them and they wouldn't even move. (You could've touched them if it wasn't against the law and they had turtle watchers out making sure you didn't). One day we took a tour out to swim with dolphins, turtles, and snorkel at a reef. Swimming with the wild dolphins was amazing!

The last day we spent a couple of hours at the Polynesian Cultural Center. The boys enjoyed playing traditional games, trying to start fire with two sticks (Kelly was actually successful at it), fishing, and making fish out of palm strands. It was very difficult to get on the airplane and come home.