Summer Adventures

This summer actually started out really rough for me. I had a really hard time making the transition from school to summer and I spent the first few weeks crying constantly (besides our wonderful St. George trip). Then one day something changed and I spent the rest of the summer enjoying it. And not crying. Yay.

Tyler got to go on his first Young Men's campout. It was like less than 24 hours which is pretty lame. But he had a time and Brandon got to go with him. They just invited dads if they wanted to go so Brandon went. Brandon stayed in this tent with Sam, Ben, and Dave Healey.

It was fun for me to get pictures sent to me of Tyler since Brandon was there.

Ava and Jackson slept in my bed with me while Brandon was gone for one night and they were so cute reading before bed.

This was also the summer of bike rides. I can't even count how many bike rides Mckinley and I went on. Mckinley's friends don't get together all that much so she was just usually hanging around with not a lot to do so we would just pick up our bikes and go ride around Lakeside Park, or this one time we rode together to Vineyard Grove Park. The bike rides were so fun!

Ava and Jackson singing in Church for Father's Day. Jackson was too shy to go up on Mother's Day but he totally rocked this one.

This was the day where my summer started to take a good turn. We woke up one day and it was kind of overcast and we just decided to go hike to Battle Creek Falls. It was such good weather and we had a great time.

Got ice cream at Purple Turtle after.

Later that same week we had a day at the pond with Kristen's family and my parents. The pond was super low but we still had a good time.

The Carillon Bell Concert has always been a favorite tradition of mine.  We got to do that this year. It was a small group, but it just feels so summery and so fun.

Kristen had told me about a lego display at BYU so we headed over there after the bell concert to check it out and it was really cool!

Off on another adventure to the Planetarium. Kallie hadn't come with us the last time so I was excited to show it to her. The kids always have so much fun there!

Headed over to the Capitol Building. Kallie whined about it quite a bit but I just love being there and seeing the beauty of it. We didn't stay long this time, but I'm glad we went.

Something I have been wanting to do for a few years now is go see the Kennecot Copper Mine. So we made it happen on a Saturday and Brandon came with us too. It was so interesting and so cool to see! We missed our tour time and had to wait for the next bus and then we got this bus driver who knew so much about it and gave so many interesting details on the drive into the mine. It was awesome!

The size of the trucks is honestly hard to comprehend! Even though you're there and seeing them with your own eyes, they are so far away it's hard to imagine.

Another item on my bucket list was to go see the Up House and it was close to the mine so we hit this up quickly on our way home. So cute and fun to see! Quite a small house though.

Had the best evening riding scooters to the sand park with these two littles! I think all of our older kids were doing something else that evening.

St. George Trip and our 18th Wedding Anniversary

Took Brandon along with us for our hike to the poppies this year. Such a fun one and so pretty!

Enjoyed some perfect summer nights on the new turf fields at Lakeside.

Kallie and Sophie, still the best of friends, living their best life out on the deck in amazing weather.

Jackson went to a water birthday party at Liam Hack's and I completely forgot to put sunscreen on his back. He got fried and I felt terrible about it. I felt so bad I cried. He wasn't in too much pain though and just wore a swim shirt the whole time at St. George and everything is all better now.

We headed down to St. George for a vacation and also for Tyler's soccer tournament in Cedar City. It was super hot down there! Luckily Cedar was a few degrees cooler.

Matching old navy flip flops for the girls.

Love love love going down to St. George as a family and enjoying being together down there. Swimming is our absolute favorite thing and we really don't need much else other than that.

Kallie wanted to do face masks together down there so we did.

Traveled to Cedar City for three days in a row to watch Tyler play soccer. He did so great and it was so fun watching him! They battled and got second place I think. We of course hit up Doughnutsville while we were there.

Tyler had a really rough year of soccer last year and sat the bench a lot and wanted to quit. He didn't want to go to this tournament but we made him. And he got all the playing time he could ever want because we almost had no subs and it was soooo hot! The boys were dying. Fun to watch though!

We had some time to kill in between games in Cedar so we went to the store and bought popsicles and found a park with a little stream running through it to chill at. The cold water felt so good. Have I mentioned that it was super hot?!!

Can't get enough pool time.

We stayed in 407 this time because Poolside was being used by someone else. Can't say enough how glad I am that we bought these units. We have made so many great memories down there!!

Mckinley made a goal after running track in the spring that she wanted to run 50 miles in the summer. So she ran on the treadmill while we were there and one day she and I went on a run around the pond at Grandpa's Pond and it was so hot. We went in the middle of the day and I felt like my legs were getting burned from the heat radiating from the asphalt. It was crazy. But good memories!

Brandon has always noticed these really pretty mountains off to the side of the freeway near Cedar City so we finally went and explored. It's called Kolob Canyon and it's technically a part of Zions National Park. We redeemed Kallie's free National Parks pass from like a year prior ha ha and got in for free. We just drove to the lookout and took a picture. Way too hot to hike anywhere. But I'm so glad we went because it was absolutely gorgeous.

Brandon wasn't technically supposed to swim, from his surgery, so he didn't ever go under the water. And just made sure he wore his sunglasses all the time outside.

Tyler with his soccer team. Tournaments really are so fun!

More pool time of course.

Jackson is getting better and better at swimming each time we go.

Love love love night swimming.

Since it was mine and Brandon's 18th wedding anniversary we decided to splurge and go to Pica Rica BBQ. It actually wasn't near as good as the first time we went. And now I don't know that we'll go back. It's super pricy.

Did a drive by of the temple, which I believe was still under construction with the renovation.

We wanted to do something fun and different with the kids for our anniversary so we went to this fun center and rode bumper boats and did mini golf. It was sooooo hot! Like I thought my bum was going to get burned from sitting in the hot seat. Spraying each other felt so good!

You can see the red faces of the kids. The heat was intense!

Went for an evening walk around the pond at Grandpa's Pond. We really love that park.

We saw the most incredible cloud rainbow on our drive in to St. George one day. None of us had ever seen anything like it. It was spectacular!

Seriously so grateful for this amazing family and for the opportunity we have to go make memories together in Hurricane. This was such a fun trip!!