Herriman Reservoir

To finish off summer before school starts again, the kids talked me into going to Herriman reservoir. I'm not always excited to go because of the prep work, food, towels, toys, sunscreen, time.

But by the time we get there and I'm sitting under my tent, I'm glad we came. And it was a relaxing way to say goodbye to summer!

I'm Ready ...

Seems like this was the constant state of my kitchen all summer long.

I'm ready for school to start so I can reclaim my kitchen!

August stuff

Some of our events during August.

We went to the Sandy amphitheater and saw "The Little Mermaid." They always put on a great show and the sky always puts on a beautiful sunset. I love amphitheater shows, being outside, singing, theater, children, blankets and jackets. Bring it on.

Parker often rides his unicycle to church. I love seeing him pedal away, with his tie loosened up. Such a handsome man.

Its not every day you see a helicopter being hauled down the freeway. And it was from Sterling's home state - AZ!

Bryce is starting to lose his teeth. See that gap tooth grin? Its exciting for him but it makes me a little sad. Once those permanent teeth come in, it changes a child's whole look. And all of a sudden they move from a child to a kid. Which are totally different things. 

I'm losing my baby. I tell him all the time, "Please stop growing up!" and he looks at me with those sparkly eyes and gap tooth grin and says, "I'm trying, Mom."

Camille's ballet class was in the local newspaper. Unfortunately, she wasn't in the picture but we were pretty proud that her class was recognized for all their hard work in the Royal Academy of Ballet course.

For Stake Conference, he were lucky to have Elder Lawrence and his wife join us. They were fun to get to know and this may have been their first selfie-stick selfie at a stake conference. :)

Lagoon

The kids had been waiting all summer long for a trip to Lagoon. I cancelled our plans in June and then pushed it back to August. Unfortunately, my timing was bad and Syd was committed to high school volleyball practices and couldn't come. We were all so sad. Especially since we'd been looking forward to this trip all summer. After tears and hugs and more tears, we left her at home, to go to practice and the rest of us went to Lagoon. 

And we had a good time.

We got SOAKED! on Rattlesnake Rapids.

For our first time ever at Lagoon, we packed in as much as we could.

And even with all the fun of rides and games, my favorite part was having dinner on a blanket under a tree and just talking together.

Parker and Camille joined me on Cannibal and Wicked. They were awesome!

They could not get me to ride Samurai. You can see Parker in the green shirt and Camille next to him in blue. They were brave!

We had a fantastic time but we missed Sydney and Sterling like crazy. And not only was it really fun to ride all the rides, but it was also very nostalgic for me. I loved living 20 short minutes away from Lagoon when I was young and going every summer. 

Stake pavilions, OJ mixed with grape juice, Dad meeting us after work, the magic when the lights come on at dark, the haunted house. And even the fun house, which was only open for a couple of years, that I remember. Also Pioneer Village. 

Ohhh, the memories.

Colorado Trip - Rocky Mt National Park

I must confess, I had a little love affair while I was in Colorado. I cheated on my Wasatch Mountains and had a weekend fling with the Colorado Rockies. They are breath-taking! I seriously could not get over their beauty!

On the way out of Colorado, we drove through the Rocky Mountain National Park. It was gorgeous.

At one point, Sydney got in a little snowball fight. Someone landed a big ball on snow right on the back of her neck. She ran after that someone to get revenge and slid on the rocks. Unfortunately, she lost the snowball fight and the fight with the ground. Its a good thing I decided to pack along baby wipes and a first aid kit. She was a trooper though and kept a good attitude about it the rest of the day, even though she had to walk hunched over like a little old grandma because her knees hurt so bad.

(you may not be able to tell in the picture, but her knees are loaded with little bits of gravel. so painful!)

There were so many places to stop and look at the beautiful vistas. I seriously could not get enough!

At one stop, there were lots of little squirrels running around. We grabbed some peanuts from the car and fed them. They were adorable.

Look at the size of these snowplow blades!

The further we drove, the higher we climbed into the mountains and the colder it got.

 

The snowplows had to be big enough to plow through snow like this! Wow!

We also took a moment to stop at the Continental Divide. The turning point between the Atlantic ocean and Pacific ocean.

Dear Colorado Rockies, I had a wonderful weekend. You are magnificent. But I have to admit, when I drove home through the Heber valley, I realized the Wasatch mountains are my first true love. I'm home!

And look at these cute kids. I love them so much. Traveling with them is worth every fight over the front seat and bickering over ridiculous things. Dear kids, you are my true love, forever and always, every day, all day long! Thanks for a great family vacation!

Colorado Trip - Golden

Can you see that sign in the background? It is says, Welcome to Golden. We finally made it to Golden, Colorado. We dropped Ster off at his meetings, dropped our bags off in the hotel room and immediately got to work exploring the city.

Now let me just say this. Golden was one of the most busy cities for me to drive around in. Even studying the map, I was lost almost all the time. Frustrating, yes, but Sydney was a great navigator, thanks to google maps.

We went on a hike to North Table mountain. And as per my travel experience in Golden thus far, I picked a path and was sure we were following it, until we ended up somewhere else. North Table is a beautiful mesa and once we were on top and compared the map to what we saw, I realized we had gone a different way than what I had planned on. It still turned out great though. 

I think this was my first time hiking on top of a mesa. It was flat and beautiful. 

Another first was taking the kids on the Alpine Slide. I knew we'd have to go on it twice, because the first time is always a warm up, so I handed my credit card over and smiled the whole way up the mountain. Both times.

It was worth every penny. The kids loved it. I rode with Hash and the whole way he was yelling "faster! faster!" 

The Alpine Slide was part of a park called Heritage Square, a group of amusement venues. We bought a day pass and tried out the rides. The kids loved the water bubbles. It was so funny to see my children contained in bubbles.

Then they bounded into the water. 

The kids also spent time on the rock climbing wall. Hashbrown would not give up. Luckily, he is such a light-weight he couldn't trigger the rope mechanism to lower him down, so he just stayed at the top and tried and tried until he hit the buzzer at the top.

The other activities were fun but the kids mostly loved the high-ropes course. We had a bit of a scare though. I was up on the course, following Hashbrown around and helping him. He was nervous, being so small he could hardly stretch his legs to reach some of the pieces. At one point, I got in front of him. He called for me and when I turned back to him, I saw his harness down around his knees. He was up there, 30 feet?, above the ground, completely unprotected. I grabbed for his arms and pulled him to me. His grasp on the anchor rope was the only thing keeping him from falling. My heart was beating fast but I honestly didn't even truly recognize the danger in the heat of the moment. My only focus was pulling him to me and making sure he was safe. I'm shaking just thinking about it now though. I called a worker over to readjust his strap and we got off the course as quickly as we could and just pushed it all to the back of my mind. My baby was safe and that was all that mattered. I left without saying anything. 

I was so glad he was safe, I didn't say much. I was just relieved. But that night, I couldn't get it out of my head. After more distance from the event, the more the gravity of the situation sunk in. My child almost died. I couldn't sleep. I kept replaying it over in my head. I saw him standing on a plank, unstable and small, then falling. Over and over.

The next day, we were going to return to the park and do it all again. I was nervous. What if, what if, what if? I didn't really want to go but we went anyway and I spoke to several of the workers and finally a manager. It felt good to let someone know there was a problem and that they need to be extra careful. They were really good about it and assured me everyone would be retrained. Then they gave me all day passes to use on my next visit, which would be when? Never, because I don't live in Colorado. 

Anyway, it was super scary and I made my kids keep checking their harnesses the next day. They were all fine and had the time of their lives, but Hash and I sat this one out.

One more crazy story. While Hash and I were waiting for the kids to finish the ropes course, I decided to buy him a little treat. I reached in my backpack for my wallet and didn't find it. I searched it twice and then went out to check in my car. Not there either. So I called the McDonald's where we had lunch and sure enough, I left it there and they still had it. Sweet relief. By the time the kids came off the ropes course, I was more than ready to pick up my wallet and head back to the hotel.

Hash's hair was a good indication of how my nerves felt at the end of the day!