July 2021

 Jaron still loves to go Mountain biking but hasn't gone as much this summer as last.  Shane decided to take him one afternoon for a fun ride.

Since Shane and I couldn't be convinced to go camping this summer we decided to go up the canyon and have a cookout.  Hot dogs and smores make an easy dinner and always a fun time.

For the 4th of July we went down to Provo and met up with the Pace's.  We watched stadium of fire fireworks.  We met at a school and I would say the best part was the flyover that literally went right above our heads.  The rest of the night was a little disappointing.  The fireworks were just ok.  They didn't even start them until almost 10:40 which had all of us very impatient.  And then they started, were just ok and then they just completely stopped for over 10 minutes.  By then it was almost 11:00 so we just left knowing it was late, we had to drive home and were going to hit traffic.  I probably won't be doing that again next year unless we get tickets to go inside the stadium.

The best part of the 4th of July was going to the Provo parade on July 5.  Our cute niece Eliza is a missionary in the Provo mission and was assigned to Springville so she got to march in the parade.  So our whole family set up on a street corner thanks to Jeff for getting there super early.  The kids were disappointed because they didn't throw candy but man when the missionaries turned the corner we made the biggest scene.  We start chanting Eliza's name and it was so fun to see her as a missionary. She gave my mom, Kali and Ella big hugs and then had to re-join her group but we sure had a fun time.

We don't take as many pictures but we still go to our pool all summer long.  The kids sure love to swim and are always up for the pool when we get some free time.  This day we happened to have the pool all to ourselves which was a nice treat for us.

We used our get out pass and took a trip to Splash Summit water park.  We had such a fun time.  The kids are old enough they can go on the slides without me walking them around and had a great time.  We met up with the Pace's which always makes it even more fun to have friends to pair off with.

We made a trip to the ropes course at Provo Beach for a fun afternoon.

For Jaron's birthday (birthday post coming after this) we went to Lagoon.  The kids love Lagoon and all are getting braver at the big roller coasters.  We all went on Colossus and Wicked.  Jaron and Siena cried almost the whole time getting onto Wicked and I think they liked it but I'm not sure they went a 2nd time.  Colossus is probably their favorite and go multiple times in a row until I can't do it anymore, then they go by themselves.  Aria insisted on going on Cannibal even though it was broken down most of the day.  When it opened up we waited for about 45 minutes and literally we were the next ones on the ride and it broke down again.  Luckily it was only for about 10 minutes and man that's a scary but super fun ride.

Grandpa teaching Jaron to golf one afternoon at Jennifer's house when we got together for dessert.

Jaron is 8!

Jaron turned 8 this year.  Jaron has turned into an all about soccer boy this year.  He has always loved soccer the most but this year has stepped it up a notch.  He is always asking if someone will go out and play soccer with him (usually on the hottest or coldest days)  and he never gets enough of it.  He is signed up to play AA this year with some friends and neighbors and couldn't be more excited.  Jaron is smart and school isn't hard for him.  He already knows his multiplication and division facts.  He likes to read, doesn't love to read and it's a constant battle to find books he enjoys.  Jaron has lots of friends and his best friend is still Graham Alley that lives in our neighborhood.

For Jaron's birthday we went to Lagoon that I posted about in another post.  It was a fun day and Jaron is happy he's finally tall enough to ride all of the rides.

The week after his birthday we had a birthday party for him.  He really wanted to go somewhere but really wanted to invite a lot of people too so we settled on doing another bounce house in our backyard.  They had a great time but man the boys were so wild and I was nervous the whole time that someone was going to get a concussion or break a bone.  Luckily no one did and it ended being a fun time.

We also had our family dinner with all the July birthdays, Lilly, Grandma, JD and Max.

Family Vacation 2021

Our summer family vacation this year was to a few national parks and places none of us had ever been before.

We started the first day with a stop at Martin's Cove in Wyoming to learn a little bit more about the pioneers and what they endured.  We walked with a handcart for a little bit, checked out the museum and hiked to Devils' gate with about a million mosquitos (don't ever do that, seriously so many mosquitos!)  We also stopped just up the highway at Independence Rock to see the carvings on pioneer names that had passed through there.

Our 2nd day we went to Devil's Tower.  At first I didn't think it was going to be that great but we ended up having a great time.  We did a hike around the base of Devil's Tower and it was such a pretty day and a great place to enjoy.  

That afternoon we went to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in ND.  For sure the highlight of this park was we saw a wild horse not too far away from the road and then on the way out we saw the whole pack of horses from quite a distance away.  This was by and far our little horse lover, Aria's, highlight of the trip.  She always talks about seeing wild horses so she was so excited!!

The next day we headed down to Spearfish Canyon.  This was such a pretty drive and we stopped at a few waterfalls and short hikes in the area.  It was cook and rainy this day but it was so green and pretty.

That afternoon we headed to Deadwood.  Kind of fun to see but so crowded.  We saw to re-enactments of a shoot out right on main street which the kids really liked and it was fun to see how the main street just shuts down for them a few times a day.

The next morning we headed to Mount Rushmore.  I also enjoyed seeing this more than I thought I would.  It was cool to see and we enjoyed the hike up to and across the monument to see it from different angels.

After Mount Rushmore we spend the rest of the day enjoying Custer State park.  I think this was my favorite part of the trip.  We drove the Needles Highway which was gorgeous and also fun with their small little tunnels we had to fit through.  We saw the open land and some wild donkeys/burros, something like that and then spent the rest of the time at one of the lakes where the kids could have spent many more hours hiking over and and top of these large rocks.  While we were there we had a nice fly over (so close and so loud) from the air force jets which was so cool and unexpected.  Not sure where they were going but it was awesome to see.

That night we got some yummy food, ice cream and ended the day at  Crazy Horse Monument where we spent some time at the museum, did a scavenger hunt for some prizes and then watched the light show once it was dark.  

The next day we headed back to Custer State Park and let the kids climb on the rocks again and then went to Badlands National Park via the famous Wall Drug store to get some souvenirs.  Badlands was really cool...and by cool it was super hot that day but fun to see something kind of different.  We went on a hike that just about did us all in cuz of the heat and I even slipped off this ladder as I was coming down and bruised my tailbone so bad.  It hurt for several weeks afterwards.

That night we spend the night at Margene's place.  It was fun to see her because it had been a few years since we had seen her.  She made us cheeseburgers and then taught Siena how to sew.  Margene showed the girls the little baby kittens that live in the laundry room.  Siena and her cut out a pattern for a dress and it was a fun night.

The next morning we had to drive all the way home...it was over a 12 hour drive not counting the stops for lunch, dinner, gas, etc.  We did find this cute park with an old school merry go round where we ate some doughnuts to celebrate being in Nebraska for the first time.  We went to 4 states (WY, ND, SD, NE) We were all tired but happy to be home.  We had such a fun trip and I can't believe everything we got to see while we were gone.