We went on a day trip to the City of Rocks in Idaho a few years ago and planned a camping trip this year. The campground is fun because it’s pretty spread out and beautiful views and fun places to explore right by the campground. (But the bathroom and water situation is pretty primitive FYI.)

The kids loved climbing. There are tons of rock climbers around, but there are also a lot of fun trails and easier climbs up the rocks that don’t require any gear or knowledge. Joe, Peter, and Curtis all made it to the top of Practice Rock, and Bath Rock, even when Peter was pretty scared of heights.

Climbing practice rock:

Window Arch:

By the campsite: 

Climbing Bath Rock:

Hiking at the nearby Castle Rock State Park: 

I bring band-aids everywhere I go, and I buy them in bulk. For good reason. This is the second time in the same day this little dude feel down and scraped up his legs. 

Every summer we do swim lesson, and I make sure and take pictures of the kids with their certificates so I know what level to sign them up for next year. They all passed off their classes and are becoming great swimmers. The two older kids were doing flips off the diving board.

I bought a slip and slide again after our other one gave up the ghost last year. It is something I remember doing a lot in the summer growing up. The kids love it, and all four were injured in some minor way the first time we brought it out. It attracted a lot of friends too, which is always fun.

Short hikes have been a big hit this year. For once, Peter actually asked to go on a hike, instead of reluctantly tagging along when I plan one out. We went back up to the little waterfall near our home. It’s slowed to a trickle but is still pretty and a fun morning hike.

It was a free day at the Dinosaur Park in Ogden, so I dragged everyone down there. We usually like it, but at the end of an already full day, it was underwhelming for the kids. You can tell by their enthusiastic expressions.

I’ve felt like during the summer so far, I’ve been busy but I’ve got nothing done. It’s been fun to mostly be focusing on the children and playing with them.

We’ve been to the beach and out on the canoe.

We went on a bike ride where I discover that it’s a bit hard to breathe biking seven months pregnant. This is a selfie at the end of a short ride.

We went on a short hike in Ogden to a tiny pond that was a lot of fun. The kids and I are great fans of decent destination hikes that are under a mile, and this fit the bill.

The kids were very into a road-side lemonade stand for a few days. They went on a corner by a friends house and had decent success. The first day was lemonade, and the next was upgraded to cookies and Koolaid. Then they spent the money they earned on Gatorade and donuts.

It was all fun, except…a half-gallon of red Koolaid spilled all over my fridge and floor. It took a while to clean up, and the floor is still a little sticky even after mopping multiple times now. The fridge did get really clean at least, and it kind of needed it.

 

This pond took a lot of work. You can see the bottom now and actually see the fish. I haven’t cleaned it out in over a year, and it was very dirty. I still don’t know how to take care of a pond: I’ve killed a ton of plants, and it usually is pretty murky. It’s on my list of things to learn!

We decided to go and hike Timpanogos Cave. I volunteered there as a teenager and felt my children were old enough to enjoy it. We made it up the long hike, and everyone had fun in the cave, except for a few bonked heads!

Our celebration started off with the mile race in Joe’s hometown.

Henry and I relaxed with the other boys raced.

Curtis and Joe both did great.

Peter started off in a dead sprint….

He quickly used up his energy and finished dead last.  He loves to win, so it was very disappointing for him. We’ll have to practice some pacing!

We did fireworks at home, and also went and enjoyed the city fireworks.

This is the fourth time I’ve hiked this trail. According to previous accounts (see here, here, and here), we often make bad turns and end up in treacherous situations. We didn’t make a wrong turn this time, but we were in some treacherous situations.

The hike started off easy enough. Within a hundred feet of starting, we forged the stream. It was swift but not too bad, and most everyone was wearing sandals. Next were some steep trails that weren’t too bad with the cold weather we were having. Henry hiked right up without a complaint.

Soon, the nice hike turned hazardous. The first hazard were two nearby water crossings. The first bridge was a sketchy, handmaid V that was still pretty stable and not too bad. The second was a wet slippery board and a few branches over a raging stream. We only made it across thanks to the steady help of Joe. Soon after that was poison ivy. And then was a very rocky, steep scramble up to a top of a cliff. We were a bit worried to encounter more hazards or get stuck. Luckily, it all ended in a lovely viewpoint of two waterfalls.

Back down three people scraped their legs up on the boulder field we climbed up. Henry had a scary time crossing the slippery bridge and would have fallen in if his dad wasn’t tightly holding on to him. Our difficulty rating for the hike was a 10. Any harder and we wouldn’t have made it. But we did make it, and that is why I love hiking. I also realized why we hadn’t been on that hike for four years even though it was 10 minutes away from our home, and promised the kids we wouldn’t go back for a few more years.

The poppies are in bloom. It’s fun to live ten minutes away from this beautiful display. I went up there with my sisters and mom for some fun.

Peter had basketball camp, so the other two boys and I had time to kill in Logan. We went to first and second dam and the Zoo. Our favorite animal at the zoo was a sheep. A boring animal, but it had just been sheared and was so soft and fluffy.

 

The road trip seemed fun, but also a little insane. Las Vegas, Sequoia, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, all in one big loop in just six days. (It’s over 30 hours of driving.) I wanted a good mix of fun, nature, new places and places I wanted to return to.

We went. There were some downsides. An expensive speeding ticket, taking the wrong shuttle and having to wait around for 20 minutes, and throwing up in the car a couple of times. But overall, the kids didn’t mind driving so much, and everyone loved about everywhere we went. (Except amusement parks are really boring when you are pregnant.)

The first day, we stopped at St. George. It was hot, so after spending a small amount of time at Thunder Junction, we went to the Temple visitors center and watched a movie. The next day in Vegas, we mostly went to Circus Circus where we rode rides, swam, and spent too much on food.

We made a side trip to the dunes in the Mojave desert. It sounded fun, and in reality, it was hot and a bit boring….that whole day was pretty boring.

But the next day was amazing. We went and hiked around the sequoias. Peter ranked the hikes we did a 10/10, which was a first. I remember going here as a little girl, and it was one of the most memorable places I’ve been to.

More camping, and then we visited the waterfalls at Yosemite. The kids might have liked riding the shuttle as much as anything else.

Our final stop was Lake Tahoe, where we did laundry, slept, and did spend an hour or so at the beach during sunset. (It was also rather cold that night.)

I hear a lot of mom’s talk about how they are glad that their children go to school. They need a break. It’s hard to be with your children all the time. I’ve said very similar things.

And then one day I met a mom at the library, talking about how sad she was to send her kids to school, and that she was very excited that they would be home for summer. She liked being with her children and sent them to school because she knew it was necessary for them, not because she wanted a break.

It was this totally different viewpoint that I’ve never forgotten and always wanted to achieve. I’m not there yet. It’s hard to be with my children all the time. Just today I snapped a bit at one of them for talking, and talking, and talking to me about Digimon (or Pokemon, I’m not sure which). Now that school is out and my children will be with me 24/7, I do want to be able to treasure and enjoy my time with them. They are great children and it’s a privilege to be able to see them grow up.

Last Day of School:

Visiting the splash pad the day it opened: 

I’m not sure who drew this or what it is, but I like it:

Curtis’s performance for school: