4th of July Weekend

July 1, 2016

Dance Camp

A couple Young Women in our neighborhood put on a dance camp this summer. Henry only participated in the last day, but he had so much fun, I left kicking myself for not signing him up sooner. I just wasn't sure how he'd feel about it, but he loved it! The girls did a good job teaching and the kids had so much fun.

Back yard camp out

Friday fun also included a backyard camp out! We had hamburgers, ice cream, and camping under the stars. This was on the summer bucket list and worth doing again!

July 2, 2016

Freedom Fest

Mr. Mike, the awesome guy at Henry's school that does reenactments for the school and for fun, told us we should check out Freedom Fest this year. It was so much fun! I couldn't believe how many activities there were for the kids to participate in!! We kind of followed the gun fire coming from the various demonstrations, but Henry did get to participate in a few of the activities and he had a blast! We'll do it again next year, only we'll go first thing in the morning before it is stinking hot.

July 4, 2016

This is one of my favorite pictures of the summer. They're watching fireworks and being sweet to each other. They're almost always sweet to each other, but it's not often you get a pictures of it. So sweet!

St. George Vacation

June 9 - 11, 2016
St. George and the swimming vacation

This year our goal is to get a certain 2 year old that driving long distances can be fun. This trip we decided on St. George. She made it down without total scream fest, but not without a lot of effort from everyone else in the car.

As soon as we made it into our hotel room, we all changed for a couple hours of swimming. Supper that night was especially of note because of how excited Henry was. We had a Cracker Barrel right next to our hotel!!! Henry's favorite! So night #1 was Cracker Barrel! With full bellies, we went to the St. George temple, where the kids had fun exploring the visitors center and temple grounds.

Hiking Snow Canyon

The stopped at the very first hike we could find as soon as we entered the park. We had no real idea of how long this hike would be, only that it went to lava tubes and we are fans of a good lava tube. We made good pace to the scenic overlook. We thought we had a ways to go, but when we got up the scenic overlook we discovered we were practically to the lava tube when we split off to go to the overlook. Henry and Nate scurried up the overlook while I kept Clara safely on the ground. Henry was awesome and grown up at the top of the mountain, while Clara helped me watch a bunny hop around and look for "rar" (dinosaurs). In hopes to make her day, I pointed out the first lizard I could find and convinced her it was a teeny tiny "rar". She was pretty excited.

(The outlook the boys climbed)

After the outlook we made our way to the lava tube. It was a bit steep to get down into the tube, so we decided not to climb down and the do a lava baby toss to get Clara down and then back out, so we headed to the car. This was not the best marked trail ever, so the way out was a little interesting. There was one intersection with particularly confusing signage. Nate and I were standing there trying to remember which way we came from. I vaguely remembered wondering where one trail went, so I was pretty sure which one we wanted, but not certain. In the mean time, Henry was standing there looking at his shoe, then the ground, shoe, ground, shoe ground. The says, very confidently, "Guys. These are my shoes. We came this way." We were pretty proud of our brilliant, never been trained to track, just knew it on his own tracker guy!

Seeing the Sights and looking for "Rar"

After the hike, a dead battery, a jump, and lunch in the car, we headed to find "rar" like we promised. We found our way to Johnson Farm, where they found all kinds of dinosaur tracks and bones on what used to be the edge of Lake Dixie. Clara was in heaven, discovering all of the dinosaur tracks and fossils. It was pretty need to see the remnants of the edge of the lake and all of the life that once was there.

(borrowed from dinosite.org because we took zero pictures)

We also visited Brigham Young's winter home and the home of Jacob Hamblin, who worked to build a relationship with the Native Americans of the area. More swimming concluded the evening. The kids were pretty worn out and happy to climb in bed for a show and sleep.

Driving Home & Cove Fort

Our trip home was almost melt down free and included a stop at Cove Fort. I was again happily surprised by how much there was to see and do there and how hands on it is for kids. The kids had fun seeing how the Hinckley family lived in the fort and what life was like for them. It made for a fun ending to our St. George adventure. 

Summer Family Day

June 25, 2016

This morning I woke up wondering why I don't live closer to a beach. Not wanting to dwell on that, I moved on and focused on today. It's been a crazy couple of weeks, so we decided to take a play day. We hit up the very first showing of Zootopia at the closest dollar theater. There were probably 12 people in the whole theater (including us), so it made for the perfect try at Clara's first movie experience. Everyone did pretty well and I think we all enjoyed the movie.

We took the scenic route home so Clara could get a nap in, but when we got home we pulled out our little pool and had a pool party. It was as close as we could get to a nice beach day while living in the middle of a land locked desert state, and it was nice. We played until shade took over our back yard and everyone started to get chilly. Now we are watching Star Wars, Episode IV and chillin' til bed time. Fun day!

Kindergarten Graduation

May 20, 2016

Today Henry graduated from Kindergarten! There was an adorable program where they marched in wearing hats, that I'm assuming the teachers made. All of the kids had an assigned spot on the stage where they sat very nicely through a couple of short speeches. One of the speeches was given by his Daddy, who also helped to hand out the Kindergarten diplomas. The best part of the whole program was the song the kids sang about graduating. Afterwards, they served refreshments and parents forced their children to pose with their beloved Kindergarten teachers. Henry really did love having Ms. Craner as a teacher. She did a great job guiding him through Kindergarten and getting him ready for first grade.

Priceless conversations that came after graduation:

Nate: Henry, are you going to miss Kindergarten.

Henry: No.

Me: Why? Didn't you like Kindergarten?

Henry: Yeah, but I need a break!



Henry, while riding up to the zoo after Kindergarten graduation, discussing friends at school next year: I need a bigger crew. McKenna has a bigger crew than me.

Me, with suspensions that McKenna has a little crush on Henry: Aren't you and McKenna friends?

Henry: Yeah, but we have different crews.


After the little graduation, we took the rest of the day to have some family time at the zoo, including eating giant sandwiches in the car. I was pleasantly surprised by how much there was at the zoo and the kids both loved seeing the animals.