Lava Hot Springs

We have wanted to go to Lava Hot Springs for years.  It's 1.5 hours away so we just haven't made the trip yet.  We usually go to Ross Park with the cousins but decided to do Lava this year.  It's worth the drive!!  It's so fun!  A small area for the younger kids, small slides, big slides, small diving boards, big diving platforms!  All the kids had a blast.

Dylan is a fun kid.  He cracks me up.  I love how he can't stop smiling when he comes up out of the water and swims to the edge.

 Love how much fun he is having!

 I told him to keep himself straight as a board so it wouldn't hurt.  And he tried, but he doesn't really know how to point his toes, lol.

 Sadie surprised me here.  She had been in Swim Club during the summer, but before that she was very hesitant in the water.  She just hadn't had enough time of really swimming to get comfortable.  A week of lessons only do so much.  But she learned a ton in Swim Club because she totally went off the diving board and swam by herself.  I kind of freaked out when I heard she was doing this because I was with another kid and she was being supervised by one of the other adults.  But she did great!  Phew!  She's not dumb enough to do it if she wasn't confident she could swim.  But I would've been very skeptical if I had been there.  I'm so happy she's doing so well.  Three down, one more child to go.  I'm on my way to being free to read a book at the pool while my kids play!

 Kaden had a blast and didn't want to leave.  This little slide was perfect for him and Jason, and just a bit thrilling too.  It was super fun until Kaden pooped.  Doesn't matter what kind of diaper you have, poop mixed with water makes a mess.  So they had to clear the pool to clean things up.  Whoops.

 Dylan and Justin went off the second platform.  There are no pictures, but Kylee and I went up to the top.  I heard it's like 33 feet.  That doesn't sound like that high, but it sure looked high!  Kylee is funny.  She is cautious but brave.  She is like me.  We decided to do it, and we didn't consider changing our minds at all.  Even though she was kind of freaked out.  And we started to jump, but I saw someone below us and got worried so I stopped, and Kylee grabbed to edge and stopped herself. Her heart was racing and she thought she was going to fall.  But then we jumped anyway and everything was fine.  Though it was a bit painful and we didn't really want to go again.

July 24th

Every year we go to Newton for the parade and the Pioneer Day celebration.  This year was different because my dad passed away a few weeks before the celebration.  We all decided to keep up the tradition.  Jeff's family and ours met at Bear Lake, the same as the last few years.  We all kind of decided we need to do something different next time, though.  It's just hot and crowded and not as fun if you don't have a boat or jet ski or even a paddle board.  I'm thinking we should do Bloomington Lake next time.  Anyway, the kids had some fun.

 The parade is a favorite of my kids.  It's small and cheesy but they throw candy and the crowd is not crazy so it's perfect for us.  It was definitely weird without my dad.

Karlee invited Kaden over to her house, her dad's farm, so Kaden could get a ride on a tractor.  Her dad definitely has a lot of equipment.  They had fun.  The horn was blaring the whole drive around the block.  We assumed it was Kaden.  I even thought that Dylan was probably getting super annoyed with him because Dylan doesn't have much patience for obnoxious noises and such.  Well, turns out it was the 9-year-old, not the 2-year-old, which makes it much more embarrassing and not cute at all.

Kaden had a lot of fun, and so did the rest of them.  Kylee didn't care about the machines at all, though.