July Stuff

 It seems like it gets harder every year to hit all the water parks and fun things in the summer.  This time Sadie was at Pine Basin, but it was nice weather so I took the kids to Rexburg Rapids with Brooke and Tyson. Kylee hung out with Kaden most the time like a sweet sister.

I was able to meet my high school friends for dinner at Maddox on my way to Utah for the Spartan, which worked out really great.  It's always really fun to catch up with them!

Sadie really loves soccer now.  One of her coaches decided to run this shooting camp in the summer which was great because she can use all the practice, and she loves hanging out with her friends and playing soccer.

My garden is going crazy this year.  It was so hot all June and July that my squash and cucumbers exploded.  The tomatoes didn't do as well, but everything else was awesome.

We made it to Lava Hot Springs with the whole family, which is kind of a miracle actually.  I let Dylan bring Mitchell for a birthday thing.  He doesn't whine about leaving when he has a friend to hang out with.  The group had the most fun playing basketball this time!

Kaden was brave and jumped off the platform! Twice! Then he said he had done enough and wasn't interested in doing anymore, lol.

I got my mom out on a trail while she was here, which was super fun.

The boys had a sleepover at Grandma's house and they decided to do an escape room as their activity.  The moms all came too, and we had fun but the escape room needed two hours to finish, it was pretty complicated.  We failed pretty bad.

Craters of the Moon

While trying to decide what to do with my mom when she was in town, I thought about Craters of the Moon.  My mom thought that sounded great.  I've heard of it a lot, I've driven past it, seen pictures of other people's trip, but never been.  So we decided to go even though my mom had to fly out that night.  I was getting pretty exhausted (July is a busy month! I had Spudman a couple days later and camping with the family the day after that).  But we are happy we went.  I had to go get Sadie some shoes last minute because her shoes were worn in the wind caves and they don't allow you to wear anything that's been in any other caves because of the bat virus.  I knew I hadn't worn my shoes, but Sadie definitely had.  No biggie, we found some and I told her to be super careful not to get them dirty!

The park was cool, but I would be more excited to go if it were closer or if we drove past on our way anywhere.  Instead, it's in the middle of nowhere.  The drive is kind of interesting because you see the INL site, or at least some of it.  And there are some mountains.  But mostly it's just nothing.  So I doubt we will be going back often, but we did enjoy it.

 

After stopping at some of the other sites, we made it to the path to the caves.  It really wasn't very long but it was hot and the kids were getting a little hangry by the end.  Kaden really loved the caves though! It was his idea to go see the last two.

Lava rock is pretty unique.  There were four caves total but the Indian Cave was the coolest.  It had holes in the ceiling to let the light in and it was long enough to hike through and come out the other side.  Kaden really liked the caves once he got past his hesitation.  We learned it's much easier climbing up and out than down and in.  But nobody got hurt, other than a scrap maybe.  We had hiking pills (skittles) and I gave Kaden a piggy back ride for the last stretch.  We weren't there for very long and we saw what we wanted to see so we got back in the car and drove the almost two hours home.

Pioneer Day in Utah

We usually go to Bear Lake the Friday of Pioneer Day weekend, but my brother couldn't get off work very early so we decided not to go.  We were okay with that, since the kids are getting older and it's not as fun to hang out in the heat on the crowded beaches.

We decided to go to Logan and hang out.  We met my mom at the bottom of Old Main Hill and made the kids climb the steps.  Then we decided to walk across campus to go get Aggie ice cream.  It was fun all the memories that popped in my head just looking at different buildings on campus.

 

This art piece is knew since we've been there.  Kind of weird though.

Finally! After a long line, we got our ice cream!  It's really yummy.  I never really had it much living in Logan all those years.

My mom and I decided to run the Dam Run 5K in Newton that morning.  We also visited with Brian at his house the night before.  The run is downhill and I thought maybe I could get a good time. But I had run a fast downhill 5 miles the Tuesday before (part of the Lost Souls challenge, and I was with my fast friends who were in a hurry so we ran it at a 7:49 pace) and my legs were SO sore!  It was crazy!  I guess my legs had to work hard even if my lungs didn't work as hard.  I thought I had recovered but as soon as I took off fast for the 5K, my legs started hurting again.  Really badly!  But I kept going and got a decent time 23:40 or so.  Then we had to run back up the hill to get the car and I wasn't sure I would make it with my quads dying!  But I popped some ibuprofen and I went slow and I made it.

The family came out in time for the parade.

Then the kids played at the park for awhile and bought treats and hung out with cousins.  The adults were getting a little bored and Amanda mentioned Pickleball.  Lynn and Darlene were right by us so I said he would probably let us play.  He thought that was a great idea.  

It was my very first time playing Pickleball, and it was fun but I don't know the rules very well.  It was fun that Kaden could play around too.  It was fun to visit with everyone.