Bear Lake

All summer the kids have been wanting to go to the beach. We've been a bit wary of our local swimming pond as swimmers itch frequents there. Turns out we were right to stay out of the water there because indeed really bad cases of swimmers itch broke out on everyone who had been in the water there recently. So a trip to Bear Lake was practically a necessity. 

A walk in the water

 Bella wanted me to build a sand castle with her. Uh where's Bella? Yeah she built a few good towers and got bored. Oh and I insisted hubby take the camera for a bit so that I could prove I was actually there. :)

Olivia was finally getting the freedom to explore that she loves and has been lacking all day.

 There's my Bella

Yeah she ate a little sand. not sure she enjoyed the flavor much.

 Ahhh there's a monster in our moat

 It was not a sunny day at the beach and baby girl started getting cold. On the up side she was much more cuddly this way. Good thing she had a snuggley hoody towel. :) Thanks to Grandma Potter. 

Do you see? Here comes Jaden with his truck! 

 Daddy decided to dig a hole. He dug down to the water table then stepped in a buried himself. That was pretty funny.

One last look at the awesomeness of our sand castle (with a few broken towers due to wild truck driving)

 Everyone was starting to get cold. Must be time to say good bye to the beach. 

Minnetonka Cave

Summer is 2/3 the way through, must be time for another family trip! :)

This time we headed South to Bear Lake, but before lake time we went to look at Minnetonka Cave. I've never been, and Ryan hasn't been since a kid. So a caving we will go!

We watched these little chipmunks while we were waiting. Bella kept saying she wanted to hold one and they'd come up pretty darn close.

This one was just a baby. I wish I had a pic of them together so you could see the size difference. It was darling.

Super blurry, but even the walk down to the cave was lovely.

Waiting for our cave guide

by the way I told Ryan to bring the carry pack for Olivia, but he said he'd just carry her. Sadly I was the one to regret that one.

888 steps through the cave and back.

These stalagmites were pretty much awesome.

Olivia didn't like being held and insisted on being sat down so she could eat rocks any chance she got.

The seven dwarfs

What our cave guide called bacon. :)

Kermit's castle

This room was called the ballroom. It was HUGE. You can't really tell from this pic but really huge. I didn't get too many more pics of it because. . . . 

This is where Olivia started to cry.

and cry.

On our way back up.

Pictures end here because I carried Olivia back the 444 steps out of the cave. She decided she was not pleased with Daddy, but would quiet down in Mommy's arms. Yup, coulda used a carry pack about then.

The cave was a lot bigger than I anticipated. Really neat and fun adventure. The kiddos were freezing by the time we were done. The cave stays a constant 40 degrees no matter the weather.

24th of July

24th of July is a celebration of the day the pioneers came to Salt Lake. As far back as I can remember our stake has had a get together for this day. If this year was any indication my kids will start anticipating it like I always did as a kid.

What could be better than food off the floor? For some reason Olivia refused to eat her food and kept going after Bella's, of course making Bella very upset. 

Ya know until she saw I had the camera a could strike a silly pose.

To save Bella Daddy held Olivia and gave her one piece of food at a time. She seemed okay with this as long as she had a good grip on Daddy.

The main reason I loved this day as a kid was getting to see my school friends that I hadn't seen all summer. Jaden got to experience this and was off playing with Brady and Kira from his kindergarten class. In fact we got to see his kindergarten teacher too!

Pinata!

They had one for each age group.

 Jaden was actually the one that broke the 5 year old pinata see some candy on the ground just before the whole thing got torn asunder.

I thought while we were all outside and the kids looking cute why not get a good picture?

Yeah, or not.

 Well there's a good smile from the wee one.

Wait were are you going? (by the way, Bella is sad because she didn't get to hold Olivia for the picture).

PHOTO BOMB!

"Don't worry mom, I'll get she." (yes Bella always uses "she" instead of "her")

We had a great time. And the kids came home with LOTS of candy.