July, in a very large nutshell

I'm putting pretty much the whole month of July in this post, so it's going to be a long one. I do have girls camp the 26th-30th, my cousin's wedding, and the Garrett reunion, all coming up before the month is over, so I'll be blogging more about all of that later!

On Friday, July 2, we went boating at Pineview with some friends.....




I like to wakeboard, but this was the first time I've ever tried knee-boarding. It was tough to get up, but once you're up it's easy. Even Bailee can do it!




Then on Saturday, July 3, we had a BBQ at our house for the holiday. We had a few friends come over, we ate yummy food, and lit some fireworks. This is the first time we've actually been HOME over the 4th of July weekend for years.



I love to hike, and I want my kids to learn to love it. So I made a goal to take them hiking once a week until they go back to school in mid-August. The first hike I took them on was the Grandeur Peak trail up Milcreek Canyon. The kids did surprisingly well! I didn't think they'd get nearly as far as they did. They had to take breaks every so often, and got a few bumps and bruises from the trip down, but overall they said they enjoyed it. We ended up going about 2 miles up to the saddle that overlooks the SL valley. Every hiker we passed up there gave the girls HUGE compliments for making it that far! (I was carrying Ryker most of the time)



Mount Olympus is in the background. I wanted to get far enough to be able to see it, and we did!



For Girls Night on July 8th, we went to dinner, then went to my friend Jesica's house, who just had a baby. His name is Daxton, and he's the cutest! We had some yummy chocolate cake & ice cream and just talked for hours.



My sister Season moved from Utah to Declo, Idaho over a year ago. I hadn't ever been to her new place, and I was itching to get up there and visit. Kevin couldn't take the time off work, so I just took the kids over the weekend of July 9-11. It was so fun to be out in the farmland with so much open space! Her family lives in a cute little old farm house. When we first got there, the kids played in the water. We made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner!


My nephew Easton is quite the dare-devil. Ryker loved playing with all the toys. (Season has 3 boys). And she has a nice garden, with lots of yummy food!


Friday evening the kids watched a movie. Then Saturday morning we headed to town for the Declo days parade and carnival.



Bailee caught a goldfish at the carnival. We hauled it all the way home to Utah, and it's still alive.

I didn't get any pictures of the rest of the weekend, but Saturday night we took the kids to Tyrel's sister's house so her niece could babysit them, and I went to see Eclipse with Season & Tyrel. On Sunday, I went to Sacrament Meeting with them, then we had a yummy lunch of turkey, potatoes, corn, & rolls. It was dee-lish. After lunch I drove home, just in time to make it to family dinner at my parents house. I took a few pics of us hanging out in the front yard after dinner.


Hike #2 was in Butterfield canyon. I always knew there was a canyon that connected over to Tooele, but had never been there, so that's where we decided to go on July 12. This time my sister Brianne came with her 3 kids. We ate lunch at the top, then found a little trail and hiked in a ways, but didn't know where it headed, so we just came back after the kids got tired.

Here are some of the views from the top of the canyon of Mt. Timpanogos and Lone Peak....


On July 14, I decided to take the kids to Cabela's since I'd never been there. It was a cool store, and we spent 2 1/2 hours there! We had lunch in their cafeteria, looked at all the "animals", and saw the awesome huge aquarium. I even bought a new pair of hiking shoes. :)



I wanted to go camping with the family over the weekend of July 16-17. We tried to go spur-of-the-moment, but that didn't work out too well. (For the record, I did go online and try to see in there was anything available, but I couldn't reserve same day reservations online, and the only remaining campsites were first come, first served.) We first drove up Little Cottonwood to Tanners Flat, but the campground was full. The guy informed me all the camp sites in Big and Little Cottonwood canyons were completely full. (What a waste of gas!) But I was determined to go, since it took ALL day to get ready! We tried American Fork canyon next. The entrance booth also said all camsites were full. So I asked the guy if there was ANYTHING in the entire canyon, and he showed us some spots on the map that have no bathrooms or water, but might be available. So we drove to each and every one. They were all full, except the very last one, which was also the furthest. It was right by Cascade Springs. We saw this bull moose on the way there. He dunked his whole head, up to his eyeballs, in the water to eat the moss off of the bottom. It was worth the drive! It ONLY took us 2.5 hours to find a spot.


So since we were so close to Cascade Springs, we decided to go there before we drove home on Saturday morning.





Hike #3 on July 19th, was to Secret Lake up at the top of Little Cottonwood. I did this hike once with my dad a few years ago, and it was just the right length for kids. It's about 3/4 mile each way, and you have a beautiful lake for your destination! We took some of our neighbor friends this time, and they loved it. We saw another bull moose!




The moose is in the center of this pic....

And on July 20, I took the kids to the Southtowne Expo center, since they display the Pioneer Day floats! It was a fun, free activity. Trinidee loves pigs, so she had to get a picture by the pig float!

Here's to the rest of summer!!