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.

June 2021

With school out and us right in the middle of construction zone at our house, summer started off a bit crazy.  We also started back with 2nd hour church and since I'm still primary president that made it even a bit busier trying to get things all organized again.  But we got our kids into their summer schedules.  I always give them 5 things to do each day and then pay them 10cents for each item.  It isn't much but does add up over the 11 weeks of summer vacation.  They have to read, do a chore, practice their music, do some math, so some sort of writing.

We did still try to make time to do some fun things in June as well.  The kids had fun with this app that turned our pictures into cartoon characters.  They all look so cute I thought.

Aria spent one afternoon setting up a race horse track.

We ate hamburgers outside one night.  We don't eat outside that much but hopefully with our basement done we will start doing that a little more often.  It's hard to carry everything downstairs and then back up again but we always have fun when we do it.

We went on a hike to Battle Creek Falls in Pleasant Grove, pretty short hike but fun to hike to a waterfall.

Shane had a major milestone birthday and although I thought we would've gone on a trip or something a little more elaborate, we were in the middle of construction and with people at our house everyday it just wasn't working out.  Instead we tried to plan a fun weekend of doing 50 things in 50 hours for someone turning 50.  It was a fun weekend and these kids sure adore their dad and love spending as much as time as they can with him.

We let the kids choose one big activity they wanted to do this summer.  Jaron chose soccer camp and even though the week he went it was 100 degrees he still loved every second of it.  Siena chose a school camp at this charter school where they had a farm, did pottery and had a space simulation lab.  She absolutely loved her camp and couldn't stop talking about it each day.  She even learned about the supply chain cycle and gave us all a lesson about it over dinner that night.  It was quite cute to think she was having fun and learning so much at the same time.  Aria chose horse riding lessons and was so super excited. She couldn't stop counting the days and was lucky she got to spread out her lessons over the whole summer.  They all had a fun time and it was fun to watch them go out and explore different areas of things they love them most.  I missed a picture of Siena at her camp but here are some from Jaron and Aria.

My Aunt Joan died.  She had been living in St. George but was my aunt that lived closest to us growing up just 30 minutes away.  Jeff and all my sisters except Lori went down for the funeral along with my parents.  It was sad to say good-bye but we had a fun weekend seeing cousins and relatives we hadn't seen for a while.  We don't get to see my uncle Bruce who lives out in Florida so it was fun to see him.  We also made a weekend out of it and got tickets to Million Dollar Quartet at Tuacahn and had a fun Father's Day breakfast with my dad. Shane was a good sport to spend his Father's Day with just the kids and I made it back in time to have dinner with them that night.

I took the girl's to our now annual Lehi Round Up Rodeo.  Always a fun night and for the 2nd year we got tickets right by where the horses run in and out all night and Aria stares at them all night long.  Her favorite seat in the house!

House Projects

In March one night Shane and I started discussing re-financing our house since interest rates were so low.  After discussing it one night we decided to fill out the application and just do it all online.  We were able to lower our payment and then we pulled out some money and decided to finish our basement.  

We weren't really dying to finish our basement but knew if we were going to stay here for a bit having some extra space for the kids to go play would start to become more important.  Also, Shane needed to have an office that was a little bit quieter and right off the front door wasn't working so well on a lot of days.  We hired a contractor that a couple families in our neighborhood had used.  We got his bid and went for it.

We had the HVAC work done in April and then they started framing the first week of May.  We finished up the 3rd week of June with carpet and we are so happy it's done.  We had our share of issues and went to Home Depot and Lowe's way more than I can even count.  We spent more than we were hoping too but we are so glad it's done and glad we did it.  The kids love playing done there.  Shane has a quiet office down there and it's just nice to have everything done in the house.  We moved our treadmill and elliptical into the small bedroom, we put a small kitchenette by the back door and plan to get a couch, tv, refrigerator and stuff down there at some point.  I mostly just wanted soft carpet and I love the carpet we picked out.  Every time I go down there I think oh this carpet is soft.

Here are some before, during and after pictures.

And then in case that wasn't enough in the middle of it we also decided to redo our shower and floor in the master bath.  We had this tiny little shower that had this gross insert and I seriously couldn't stretch out my elbows while shampooing my hair without hitting both edges of the shower.  We basically had to move out of our room for about 2 weeks though, including clothes from our closet so they could tape off our closet.  This was right as school got out and was a bit, ok very, crazy couple of weeks.  Kids home, I'm working in Siena's room on her bed, we all shared the kids small bathroom to shower, etc.

To say I love my new shower is an understatement and I'm sure I love it more than I love the basement.  We knocked out a wall to make it bigger and then brought it out a bit wider as well, put in a bench and tiled the entire thing.  We put a frameless shower door up and then re-tiled the floor with some really pretty marble looking tile.  Every time I shower I think about how much I love my shower.  Worth every penny on that one.

So in the span of about 8 months we added a room upstairs, re did our shower and finished our basement.  We went from a 3 bedroom house to a 6 bedroom house and we are happy our projects are over for a while.