Summer Utah Trip

 It's becoming a tradition to go out to Utah during the summer. I would love to be going out more, but if we get out for a decent amount of time each summer I am happy with that. We packed so much in while we were there! It makes looking back on these pictures so fun.

Meg and Alan moved to their new house at the beginning of the summer so we thought it would be a good idea to stay with them since they are a ways out. But, in terms of driving into town it could not be more perfect. A hour and half closer to your peeps--sign me up!

We went skate boarding, boating, celebrated Emma and Brynn's birthday all in the first few days of being there. Boating was an awesome time. We were so thankful that Alan's parents were nice enough to invite us out. The boys had never done anything like that before, and I was so impressed with how much they were willing to try. Kaj is so much braver than I was. (For some reason I tend to think that because we share similar qualities and that he is also supposed to be as scared) Kaj tries everything. And he would try everything again and again if we let him. They loved the swim breaks, and being out on the boat. I had forgotten how fun it was myself. I realized it had been about 12 year since I have gone boating. That is a helluva a long time, right!? Right. Not that I am a big boater 😂 So perhaps that language was a little over the top . The crazy thing is that night...Jonah was full on having hallucinations! We believe it was the combo of being in the sun all day and not drinking enough water 😳 I mean I just wasn't aware of how much he was drinking there was a lot going on. But, yes, that night he did not sleep due to the fact that he was scared of the bugs and looking at the butterflies. It was so scary. Luckily, he was fine the next day. But, I was so worried that night that he was going to be a mad man.

 Another very fun part of the trip was the fact that it was the first time a lot of family members had even met Little Lily bears. So, those were sweet moments for the cousins, aunts, and uncles to meet her.

meeting cousin Noel for the first time

 After the first few days at Meg's house we went to Midway to stay with Mor Mor and Pappy/Boppy/Granpy. Midway really is so beautiful and my parents house it so nice. Their view from their backyard I don't think I could ever get sick of it. It is so lovely.

We did a lot of swimming when we were there due to the very extreme heat. I felt slightly snobbish wish the heat because it was really quite astonishing. I guess I really have gotten acclimated to Oregon. It is about 10 degrees hotter in Utah and it just so happen that the week we were in town the heat spiked. It was about 102 degrees almost every day we were there. So, yes, a lot of swimming, and lot of sunscreen o'er here! And, a lot of swim shirts. 😂 I laugh but Sam wouldn't think it's funny.

One day when my mom and I were driving down to take the kids to the pool we questioned if the air was working. I kept saying, "is this not working?" Even though the temperature was very obviously not changing and the fan was only blowing it at one speed. I guess I thought it must be in my head or something, but as we drove on and we had beads of sweat on our faces finally convinced the air conditioner in the car had gone out. So, we did have a slight unexpected car repair while we were there. No matter. The trip went on.

I also had the chance to go to a free pound class the Caitlin was teaching at the City Creek Mall right by the fountain. Another day that it was 103 degrees 😂 but we were in the shade so it wasn't that bad, and that class is so much fun. It may be my most fun workout class I have done. I really enjoy it. And lucky for me, someone snapped a pictures of the class there, and I got to a chance to see what a hooligan I look like. But, ya know what! I was having fun.
 So, in a nutshell, we swam, we saw llamas, we saw fireworks, Uncle Sam's dog Baxter almost gotten eaten by another dog, and we were sweaty. 😂

 No, much more than that we loved being with the family we loved having the kids play with their cousins. I love just spending time. For me, there doesn't have to be much planned I really just want to be with everyone. So, it will always be a successful trip because of that.

my all time favorite picture of these two

Maybe this one. They could not look more like a happy couple 

going to see the llamas

meeting Aunt Whit

cool cousin Addi

the temple made from Legos

my friend Terri commented that this looked like their souls were  talking. For some reason I just loved that

Brace Face

 There. I said it. That was the only title that seemed right. Let the record show I have not called Kaj this.

He looked so handsome with his braces, actually! 😍 Just me?

Kaj got his braces on the day before we left for our trip to Utah. I was ready for the flood gates for complaining and whining to begin but there was none of that. He asked for Tylenol when he needed it, and even when it was quite time yet he was patient and did not make a big deal of it. We had prepped him in advance and I think that helped. But, yeah, he is in phase 2 of his early orthodontic treatment and I am so happy we got him moving a long with this early. It is amazing the changes they have made in this department since I had braces in just their approach to it. It is crazy to have kids this young starting with braces but it also seems like such a smart move- in my professional opinion 😏 instead of waiting for all the teeth to come in and to see what disaster they need to fix to actually be proactive and make changes early so down the road it will go a lot smoother. I mean, yeah, Kaj will have braces on twice 🤪 but he will not have to have braces on for years and years and years.

I loved his crooked tooth smile before, I love his current braced smile, and I know I will love it after.

Cultus Lake

 We were invited to Cultus Lake this summer (had it not been for friends it would have been too overwhelming to go) and we had an amazing time. It was a beautiful lake. The water stays shallow for a long ways out so it is not that worrisome for the littles, and my boys had so much fun. We stayed for a good chunk of the day. Lily was shaded most of time, ate, and even fell asleep while the boys took their tubes out. The older boys took turns taking the littles out but they also had a great time just playing in the sand. I will sometimes watch Jonah and Rowan together and feel so much gratitude for Jonah. Of course, he is needed in our family for so many reasons, but one of those reasons has got to be for Rowan.
Rowan may actually never recognize how lucky he is to have him as his brother.

The Day Family Visits

This is year it was so nice to have Meg and Alan's family come to Bend for a visit. I am always trying to convince family to come out to see us. (I know it's not always easy we get it, but we miss everyone so it's worth a shot) When I was talking with Megan I planted the seed of coming out to Bend for their family trip for the summer. Our family was going to be going out to Utah later in July but I told Meg there is really nothing wrong with seeing each other multiple times over the summer, and to that point she agreed, and that same day she got back to me to say that they would be visiting! I was so excited! It was just a couple weeks out when she they decided so I was able to to tell the boys right away and they continued to count down the days till they arrived.
They came over the 4th of July. We are often not with family on holidays and so this was a really special occasion because we were. We definitely packed in a lot of things over the time we had. We went to the Pet Parade on the 4th, we to Sisters, we went swimming at Juniper, and did fireworks-and that was one day! I love fireworks and I really have started to love watching fireworks with my kids. This year Rowan was so fun to watch fireworks with-it was like a rollercoaster ride he was so excited. Of course, this holiday is not ideal when you have small kids/babies. I usually want to make an announcement that once the main event is over than everyone should cease to do any more.  It wasn't too bad- it got quiet around midnight.

The next day we went to the river to let the kids play in the water and the sand. They had a lot of fun, and were so messy! Messy in a good way..the kind of messy kids should be sometimes. It's always nice having an extra pair of hands to hold Lily, because obviously she at a harder stage that she isn't not able to really enjoy such a scene and I spend most of the time trying to protect her from the sun. I also made the mistake of thinking Jonah would not be going into the water much and that was not accurate hence the most water logged diaper EVER! 😂

Saturday we got Ocean Rolls in the morning and then went to the RockRidge park so the kids could ride around on the trails and then go to the park that is also there. I even got to ride a little bit on the trails too. I have to admit there is nothing quite like riding a bike that makes you feel like a kid again that and probably rollerblading, but it is so much fun, and I really hope that I can do it more often.

I am still totally in baby land --I mean Lily is just 6 months old, but I am starting to the clouds depart and that some day I will be able to do things much easier, and even, dare I even say, enjoy my time with the kids better. Right now I am still feeding Lily, trying to get her to stop crying while intermittently trying to put the house back together as well as I can..which might I add, is not that well.

Ahem. That was an unexpected tangent. Anyways, the trip with the Days was a success. It was a lot of busy, fun with the kids and enjoyable evenings with the adults which is how it should be. I do express my thanks when we have visitors but I hope they realize how much I really mean it, and how much it means to our family, as well. I need and want my kids relationships with the family and cousins to be strong despite living away. I believe it is important. I just hope that the family wants this as well because it's not just up to me. It is just my hope. I also always hope and believe that everyone does always have fun together. I know it is meaningful time for my boys. They count down the days and always want it to be a longer visit.

Thanks Day family. It drop another hint next year and hope it can happen again. 😉

this little 2/3 year old girl looking like she is getting ticketed 😂

we had primo seats at the parade