Glovers go Cruising

 For our family vacation this year we took the kids on their first cruise.  We had so much fun and although the destinations weren't that amazing or exotic we went for the ship and cruise experience and we loved it.

We drove down to Christy's on Saturday all day and hung out with her Saturday night and went to church Sunday.  Sunday afternoon we went to the tide pools that my kids always love doing.  

Out cruise left Monday afternoon but we were able to board at 11am.  That was fun because even though we couldn't get into our rooms yet it was fun exploring the ship, they had lunch out on the deck where the kids learned they loved their fresh grilled hamburgers.  Then we set sail that afternoon, found our rooms and had a great dinner.

Tuesday we stopped at Catalina Island.  We rented a golf cart and drove all around the island for a couple hours.  It was fun to see the island a bit and after we hung out walking through shops and the kids played on the really tiny beach there before we headed back to the ship to enjoy the activities on board.

Wednesday we were in Ensenada.  Without a really long side trip and lots of money there wasn't a lot to do there.  So we got off walked around the little vendor shops and then got back on the boat so the kids could swim, go down the slides and do the ropes course more.  They had parrots as we got off the ship that Aria loved holding.  

Thursday was an at-sea day and we spent it eating, swimming, playing games and doing some fun ship activities.  Some of the fun activities the kids loved was going to all the trivia contests they had.  We ended up winning 2 of them.  The girls loved the towel animals in our room each day and so they loved going to the towel folding class they had.  Jaron loved the miniature golf course and they all loved the ropes course.  The pool slides were fun for a little bit but then they thought the water was cold.  

The kids had a soda pass and in less than 4 days I think Jaron had 25 sodas and the girls weren't too far behind.  Add in the free ice cream 24 hours a day and they never were without one of those in their hands.  They all tried some new foods at dinner but loved the free cheeseburgers and pizza that were always open.

Friday we disembarked and drove home the whole day.  It was a long day but good to be back home.  We had such a fun trip and it's definitely something we want to do again as a family.

July 2024

Some fun summer activities.  

Siena and Aria went and did baptisms with Lilly and Collin at the new Taylorsville temple.

A bunch of cousins went and saw Inside Out 2.

4th of July in Riverton with the family.  We swam and Whitney's parents house earlier and then went to Riverton Park to watch fireworks.

We got to go to Splash Summit with some free passes and we invited cousin Lilly and Graham, Jaron's friend.

Jaron got to be a seat warmer for the RSL game that we also happened to have tickets for.  He did it with his former teammate Archer and it was fun for him to be on the field and watch the warm ups up close.

Siena and Aria went by themselves (well just with each other) to a Brighton Girls camp that I signed them up for.  They left early Monday morning and got back about Noon on Friday.  It felt like such a long week with them being gone and having no contact with them at all.  I was nervous they were going to be homesick or not have fun but when they got off the bus they had the biggest smiles on their faces and had the best week, made friends and were so tired because they had gotten up at 2am to go on a sunrise hike.

Jaron meanwhile had a great week playing video games and doing nothing.  Ok kidding, he had a soccer tournament, the first with his new team that did not go well.  They got put in a bracket way above them and it was not a fun tournament.

We went to Lagoon a few times, this time was apparently the first time I had ever bought them dippin dots...so we had to document it.

Aria got a little internship this summer helping a man train 2 young horses.  In return she got to go on a very long trail ride one Saturday (6am-3pm) up Provo canyon and had a few others chances to ride some horses with him.

We didn't go camping this year but the kids wanted to sleep in the tent in our backyard one night.  They watched a movie and they slept in the tent all night but woke up pretty early.

Took Siena and Aria's friends to Lucky's for snow cones one afternoon.

I baked my very own razzleberry pie for Pioneer Day.  Siena and Aria had fun helping me and it actually tasted really good!

Jaron turns 11!

 Jaron turned double ones...11!

We had a great week celebrating Jaron's birthday!  We woke up on his birthday and had cinnamon rolls and opened presents.  We hung out playing for the morning and then that afternoon we met up with The Pace's and went to Hang Time.  They had fun jumping and their favorite part was the climbing section.  After that we went to Jaron's all time favorite pizza place, 2 Jacks Pizza.  It was good pizza and it was fun finally tasting this pizza he's told us all so much about.  He first went there with Graham after going to Splash Summit a couple years ago.  After that we raced back so Jaron could get to a last minute scrimmage he team had just scheduled.  We went and got doughnuts and gave them to his team and they all sang to Jaron.  He loves soccer so it was a great way to end his birthday.

The weekend before his birthday we had a swim party up at the clubhouse.  It was fun to celebrate and the boys loved swimming and playing lots of games in the pool.  The worst part was the clubhouse air conditioning was broken so the actual clubhouse was 91 degrees.  So we spent a lot of the time getting ahold of the HOA and they sent someone to fix it.  Unfortunately, it wasn't fixed until the party was over.

Sunday we had a family birthday celebration for all the July birthdays!

Jaron is kind, helpful, sensitive, and a good compromiser when his sisters are fighting with him about something.  He still loves his screens, nintendo, youtube, and his tablet games.  I can often motivate him with more screen time but I really wish he would do more things off of screens.  He still has a good group of friends at Westfield and some friends in the neighborhood.  This will be his last year in Elementary school and I think he will be more than ready for that.  We love having Jaron in our family.