More Summer Silliness

Summer is in full swing and we are trying our best to eat it all up and then lick the bowl clean. We got brave a couple weeks ago and tried the camping thing again. This time we did Little Deer Creek campground. It was actually pretty far up the mountain on a dirt road from Deer Creek , but it was in a really pretty, remote location and it met my requirements (i.e. flush toilets). We drove up on a Friday night and got going on the smores as soon as possible:

We had fun exploring the forest nearby, but we were up so high in the mountains that as soon as the fire got low we retreated to our nice, warm sleeping bags and told more scary-ish stories.

The kids did better going to sleep this time. It was cold enough that Cora wanted to stay in her sleeping bag...after I convinced her that I was NOT going to let her sleep in my sleeping bag with me again. She still talked for a while after everyone else had quieted down, but after a few repeated requests she took it down a notch and just whispered. Everyone else quickly dropped off to sleep, but I was right next to Cora so we had a long whispered conversation in which Cora talked about all sorts of things and I asked her a few dozen times to please stop talking. She eventually obeyed and contented herself with zipping the zipper on her sleeping bag up and down (and up and down and up and down...) until she drifted off to sleep herself. It was all good until Preston started snoring from the other side of the tent. Luckily he didn't keep anyone except me awake. He was too far away to kick like I usually do when he snores.

The next day we drove part way back down the mountain to Cascade Springs. I had never been there before, and it was BEAUTIFUL! There were lots of little waterfalls, crystal clear streams, flowers and butterflies. There was even a wedding or two going on up there while we were hiking around. Here is Dax, pulling his "I am so cute" pose in front of one of the little waterfalls:

After our hike, we went back to the campsite for lunch and some more exploring. We then packed up and headed down into Midway, where we did another short hike (the LONGEST one-mile hike ev-er. All three kids wanted us to carry them. Last summer that was nearly doable, but now they are just too big for that). Dax doesn't usually want to get carried, but he wasn't feeling very well, which he later demonstrated by barfing on his shoes outside of a fast food place in Heber. We decided to head home after that.

I have been trying to take the kids to some fun places about once a week this summer. We have been to the zoo a couple of times, to Wheeler Farm, to the new splash park down the hill, and this last week we went to the airplane museum at Hill Air Force Base. (see the kids down by the tire?) The kids loved it. I cannot tell you how long they stood there and spun the wheel of this airplane. SO exciting:

It was fun to watch them looking at the airplanes, and it was fun for me to see some of the planes that were mentioned in a book that I had read for book club a few months ago (Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand). One of the nice volunteers that work there even let the kids go inside of one of the big helicopters, and they were so excited to sit inside there and pretend they were really flying.

Another thing we do in the summer is go to the park once a week with our friends from the neighborhood. It is also a tradition to come home and cool off with a Popsicle afterwards. Dax MUST have green. Silly kids:

This week Arden and I had a pretty bad summertime cold, so we spend most of the first part of the week at home in the house. Dax and Cora had to remember how to entertain themselves in the playroom. They played "pirate" a lot, taking turns (okay, fighting endlessly over whose turn it was) wearing the pirate hat. Here is Cora taking her turn:

ARRRRR MATEY! is her favorite pirate thing to say. We are all feeling better now and looking forward to another fun summertime weekend.