Swimming and Baseball in Utah

Anthony flew in to join us for the 4th of July in Utah. The kids and I with my dad drove down to Utah, June 28th staying until July 6th. The kids had tons, tons, tons, of fun being with cousins and swimming at the neighborhood pool. Desi, my sister, has the best kind of pool that gradually gets deep just like the beach. Myles just like the other 2 kids, has to be in the water as soon as he sees it. Anthony had some fun with water fights and all the cousins.

 

On the 5th of July everyone headed to the baseball field in Salt Lake for a Bee's game against the Rainier's from Seattle. First professional baseball game the kids have been too. It was great weather and we sat in the homerun grass area which was nice for Myles. After awhile the kids got rowdy and we moved to the benches. We moved also because there were rain clouds coming with thunder and some lightening.

Cachet and Anthony

Rhett hugging Anthony's arm

Anthony entertaining Myles

 Best part of the game was when there was a break and 3 people dressed as a hot dog, a pizza, and an ice cream cone had a race around the field. Kids loved it especially when one would fall over or trip over each other. After the game there were fireworks that shot of very close. You could see some of the flames landing in the grassy outfield. We even got hit with some debris. It was a beautiful, loud show.

 One last picture of Anthony, me, and Myles before we started driving back- 13 hour drive. We stopped in Ontario, Oregon. The kids loved sleeping on the hide-a-bed and swimming yet again. In Idaho we saw some dust devil- they look like tiny tornados. Glad we made it back safe.

 

Mount Timpanogos Caves, Utah

While we were in Utah visiting my family. We did a fun family hike up to Mt Timpanogos Caves. Chanel, my sister, lives walking distance from the Mt Timpanogos temple. You can see the temple from her backyard. The drive to the hiking area was only 10-15 minutes. We got up there early at 7am which was great, we hiked in the shade and it was only hot a little at the end.

There were great rocks to look at- they were "Lightening McQueen rocks". You walk through a fun small tunnel that Lightening McQueen would totally drive through. Having Myles on my back did make me walk slow and want to sit down frequency. Rhett was happy to go slow and did have some complaints about when were we going to finally make it, he was the youngest one walking.

Marc, my brother in law, was leading the way with Bentley, Olivia, Caramel, and Lyla (on his back). I didn't hear any complaints about the 1.5 mile hike up from Caramel, she was most concerned about keeping up with the cousins. Once at the caves there were great formation descriptions and a map of the caves the kids looked at. We found some awesome things called Caramel Falls. 

Of course, at the start of the cave tour, Rhett had to go to the bathroom. So I hiked back down, a short distance, to the bathrooms. Seeing the toilets, he decided he didn't have to go, but I made him sit anyways and we went. Myles wasn't too happy to join the cave tours. It was clearly nap time and he cried until he fell asleep. The cave tour was cool with interesting areas and some tight squeezes. Myles stayed asleep for awhile which was great for him. The hike down went super fast. Bentley, Olivia, and Caramel did a workbook to become Junior Rangers.

Love enjoy nature and seeing the sights.

Myles Walking

Myles started taking 3 shuffles than a plop to the floor at the beginning of July. By the 4th of July he would do 10 to 15 steps but still bear crawling mostly. His best practice was if there was a ball or helmet in front of him he could kick around. By the 10th he was walking everywhere. Still, he loves to kick the ball around and walk straight into any kind of water, sprinklers- a favorite. 

 

Caramel and Rhett didn't walk until after 1 year, about 13 months. So I was surprised with Myles walking before them.

In the pictures, we are at Tiffany Park Elementary with Myles kicking Rhett's helmet around.

First Weeks of Summer

 

To help get the summer rolling, we worked on mapping out the Cedar River Trail from Ron Regis Park to the Senior Center. The summer goes easier if there are events on the calendar. There was some interesting humid weather with scattered rain showers.

 

One ride I even got to ride my bike with Myles in the trailer, not his favourite way to ride. That same day it down poured just after arriving to the park, good thing there was a sheltered area. We waited out the storm.

Nice and exhausted

Church Talent Show

Caramel and her friend choreographed and performed a little dance. They danced to a song called, "I'll Follow Him in Faith." We even went to the store and picked out the matching shirts.

Anthony and Rhett had plans to do a robot dance. Two days before Caramel decide she wanted to join. Here is the end result.

How does the garden grow?

The garden is growing nicely. Lots of peas, flowers, lettuce, carrots, and even a watermelon (we will see about that one). We had eaten several strawberries this year. I am great at letting plants dry up and die. But we are trying harder this year. We have two wonderful garden boxes Anthony made. Spring projects were at a high with changing the garden area, reworking the retaining wall, painting new picnic table, installing garage door, building an awning, fixing a basically useless awning, dealing with a bug problem, and plunging the kitchen sink. Yes, the beauties of home ownership.

With all the projects Caramel has a club house now. There is a little pathway made from extra treated wood and a table on concrete blocks. She found on box, hung it on the bush and called it a mail box. The tall tree like rhododendrons even act like a roof keeping out the rain. She even planted a pea seed that was growing quite well until there were too many club house parties and it got smashed.

Love the beautiful plants at the front door right now. Lilies from my visiting teacher that keeping coming back each year. Strawberries hanging out of children reach (no more bird house for bees to occupy) and fun simple sunflower decoration.

 

Caramel's Writing and Fish Update

After being gone for a sleep over at a friends and playing at the mall, we finally arrived back home. Caramel went up stairs and wrote this lovely note. Love how she used a hyphen before love to emphasize the important part like I explained to her once. Great note especially because she was being a little grumpy girl from too much fun.

"I am so happy I am home I - love family and snail and fish."

 

Caramel returned home finding out that we had purchased 4 more fish and a car decoration. Rhett's fish Cooca died. So sad. He wasn't eating and finally was too small to survive. When I told Rhett he just said, "Oh." I said Daddy would take him to the store to pick out another fish. Later he looked at the tank and asked me if I was joking about Cooca. He thought he was maybe hiding in the fish castle. Rhett also believes Cooca died because Caramel added some small rocks to the tank she had collected. The new fish names are Penny, Denny, Lenny, and Den.