Home Sweet Home

Darin came home bearing gifts!

We just finished off the last of the chocolate, we have been enjoying it every night.

The kids and I did the Ogden Waterfall hike.

 We stopped by the Ogden farmers market and picked up some Crumb Brothers cheese bread along with fresh cilantro lime pesto.....so good with our garden tomatoes! 

 Miriam's Ballroom Intensive ended with a parent recital.  

She learned a cute salsa dance and met some kids who will be on the team with her next year.

Lisa and Emily stayed with us for a few days.  We LOVE having them visit.  We stayed up way too late every night but it's so hard to end our conversations!

Lisa treated Miriam and I to Grand America tea with Emily and Alicia.

We enjoyed great tea, delicious food and baby Parker.

We had "Craig Donuts" on Saturday and then got to celebrated Parker's 1/2 birthday.  

Alicia is the cutest hostess, and Parker is the most adorable baby so the party couldn't be anything but a success.

Weekend Trip to Carbon County

We were up early Saturday morning to made a trip to Scofield/Price for the weekend.  My parents were spending the weekend painting the new bathroom and laundry closet in the basement of the cabin.  It is always amazing to me what those two can accomplish.  

On our way to the cabin we stopped by our friend Diedre's family cabin. Our cabin is on the west side of the lake, hers is on the east so we pass right by it every time we go around the lake.  They spend almost every week/weekend up in Scofield so I was pretty positive they would be there.  They were so generous to let us play on their dock with kayaks and blow up tubes.  Miriam kayaked all the way across the lake with Diedre's boys Caleb and Peter.  So much fun with only one minor injury.  We invited them over to our cabin, but they were leaving the next day. So...next time.  I really think next summer I am only going to sign up for week long camps so that we can spend more time up there.

Miriam and I took an "internet hike" on Sunday morning because I thought Darin would be able to message me and the reception on the deck is spotty.  It worked! We shared photos of what each of us was doing. Here is our view:

I need to have him send me his photos so I can document his views.

After church Grandpa took us on a little jaunt to Fish Creek.  Sheep swarmed our cars on the way there.  We were seriously stuck in sheep....hard to go forward or back so dad just inched his truck forward a bit at a time and the sheep dispersed.  I was too overwhelmed by the sheep swarming to take a photo which was a bummer.

Top priority on my kids summer bucket list was to come to Price and go to the Wave Pool.  My kids LOVE that place! So we drove home via a 45 min detour to Price to spend almost an entire day at the pool.  It was worth it.  I got to work out with my sister Sarah (we hardly EVER get to spend time together) and then cousins met us at the pool.  Hazel and I rode some waves together.

Ending with this photo because it makes me laugh.  4 wheeler rides + horse visits.

Summertime

I promised the kids a break from chores this entire week.

I miss those chores...they bring such a rhythm to our days.  Alas a promise is a promise. 

We went hiking instead.  Although there are no photos, Miriam and I were there too.

kids tidied their rooms, while I thoroughly cleaned out the fridge.  

We went to buy honey from cousins and visit their bees. Lisa was so kind to show the boys inside the hives. 

Errands at Station Park....we were messaging with Darin along the way and sending random photos...

The boys and I hung out at the Apple Store while Miriam was at Ballet.

Ladies hike Friday - We found our way to Patsy's Mine (no thanks to google maps).  Such a fun hike that switch backs across the mountain, for sure a morning hike, the afternoon would be in the blazing sun.

We could see the flag the whole time so we decided to keep venturing on to the top.

So glad we did, the views were fantastic!

Bear Lake - Day 3

Bear Lake Crepe and Coffee right by Rasmussen Lane!

We were up so early again that day, we beat the crowds.

See? Place to ourselves...although there were 4 other couples/families who had arrived by the time we left.

One more chance to walk along the beach out onto the rocks and then we had to head out.

We arrived home just in time for Byron's Archery class and friend picnic, which was a surprise. I thought we would miss it for sure.

I washed the car, found my missing library book (I had left it at Grease Monkey!), unpacked, started laundry, took Miriam to her ballroom intensive class, waited for her to finish at the park with Soren and a friend while I video chatted with Darin for a few min. (happy surprise!). Then I set out on a mission to find out where the gross smell in our house was coming from (cauliflower in the fridge), watered the yard, and ended the day by making everyone watch Singing in the Rain.

Pretty exhausting day, but I will take a day of exhaustion in exchange for a little adventure. 

Bear Lake - Day 2

We were awake by 7:00 am on Tuesday...thats what happens when everyone is in the same room.  Silver Lining...we got to the beach early enough to get a primo spot with lots of clean soft sand to play in up next to the water.  Not many photos of our beach day because when there is only one adult, there isn't much time to dry hands, and grab the phone! We rented a Sea-Doo...but I was the only one who could drive so there were constant back and forth rides (Byron and Soren's favorite part of the day), then we took turns paddle boarding for 2 hours.  We were there from 8 am till 3 pm, by the end the beach was getting really crowded with boats parked here and there....paddle boards, floaties,  sea-doos, and kayaks all over the place, we were done.  Well, I should say Miriam and I were done, the boys could have stayed longer, but we were all slightly sun toasted by that point and needed to get out of the heat.

Here we are showered and ready for "linner".  Those boys laughed and laughed and laughed in that tiny cabin! Miriam and I may have felt a bit overrun but I want to remember forever how much fun they had.

We grabbed burgers at LeBeu's and then drove up to North Beach for some exploration.  We had planned on hiking Bloomington Lake, but the rain the day before mixed up all our plans and we couldn't quite fit it in.

More exploration time for the boys. Shells, rocks, bugs, birds... nature enthusiast heaven.

More quite contemplation time for M and I. Two things on my LOVE LIST; sand and the sound of waves.  If my toes or my hands are in soft silky sand it's like this relaxation drug spreads over my brain...then you add the sound of waves and I just don't think anything illegal could be better at soothing me.

Famous Raspberry Shakes for our late dinner on our way back to our cabin that night.

So good, so big!

Bear Lake - Day 1

We dropped Darin off at the airport on Sunday afternoon for a looong business trip.  Darin has had maybe 3 business trips our entire marriage so this little thing seems kinda big to me.  I had to make plans to get out and do something different than our usual routine because I know myself...I knew I would be sad, lonely and bitter staying home that long. I was kind of teary and weepy the afternoon we dropped him off, it was nice that I had no choice to get over it because of the trip I had already booked months ago.

So instead of wallowing in the strangeness of our week we took off early Monday morning for Bear Lake.  I had planned for this day to be a beach day and Tuesday to be our hike day but it was raining off and on as we arrived.  So we revamped and drove up to Minnetonka Cave.  We got there just before the crowds arrived so luckily we only had a 1/2 hour wait but they said rainy days are their busiest days....and even on a Monday there was a huge crowd forming.

The cave is in a gorgeous forest area....it smelled wonderful! Like rain, and pine trees, and everything fresh and good about the world.

We were blown away by the magnitude of the cave in size, stalactite/mites, and in the man power needed to create the stone steps throughout.  I felt a little claustrophobic, but mostly just amazed.  When our guide turned off the lights and we experienced sheer darkness I had this dizzy confusing sensation.   We all loved it....even the 444 stairs required to climb to see everything.

Then we drove back to our tiny log cabin to get ready for our Pickleville Playhouse show.  It just happened that the resort I picked was almost across the street from the playhouse so we could walk there. Not even planned, just a happy accident. 

Love and Dealth vs. El Bandito,  was like a modern melodrama/studio C sketch/musical all in one show. The piano accompanist was so talented!  We all laughed a ton, but Soren and Byron got the biggest kick out of the show.

Only Soren would wear the mustache and get a photo taken.  The guy in lederhosen was his favorite. 

We ate at their catered BBQ dinner next door. So convenient to just walk next door and dinner is there waiting for you, and such a beautiful location.

We were finished with dinner around 7:30 so we spend our last few hours on the beach scoping out where we wanted to set up camp the next day. Without TV, or computer games we were free to take our time and explore to our hearts content. I had plans to break out some games, but honestly by 9:00 we were dead tired, we all just wanted to go to sleep (especially me).