The rest of July....

It seems like every summer we put off our blogging for a while. I think we just need time to recover. July is always busy for us and this year was no exception, but we're not complaining. We had a blast with family at Bear Lake (thanks Becky & Neil!!). We were there for 4 days this year. Each day Neil started out with the traditional Circle Valley bike ride. It has to be one of the most scenic rides in Utah. Circle Valley is a collection of some great ranches at the foothills of the Cache National Forest. We always see sandhill cranes, ducks, geese, yaks, fallow deer, and white peacocks. There is a farmer/ rancher that has quite a few of these animals. After the bike rides it's pretty much down at the beach. It's amazing that after 4 days, the kids still loved going to the beach. The boys are quasi amphibious. I half expected some of them (A and Maggie) to grow gills. They were in the water more than out. All the kiddies had a great time though. Nate and Jodi saved all our bacon with their shades. Rach and Doug brought lunch down to us at the beach and it was almost like being on a cruise. We missed Jess, Lindy and Finnegan. Jess had to play doctor and Lindy is preggo. I'll let the pics do the rest of the talking......

This is how it started and ended, at the beach

Ava in her birthday glasses, cute as a button

N and his green bucket

A and Maggie out to sea

Building somthing fantastic

Fisher man flying the kite

The Painted Ava

N would freeze because he has no insulation, and loved the warm sand and towel

Nate and Jodi's canoe with the kiddies

Gma and T, just hanging around....

Leg wrestling: Doug is the man, but I held my own, especially vs. Teeny

Tye-dye'd family pic. Thanks Beck for the great shirts!

Neil brought up the Honda 90's and we took A on a trip around Circle Valley. Lots of bugs, but you can't beat the scenery.

Our 24th of July:

We had to get out of the heat and a couple of years ago we went hiking with Neil up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Lake Mary at the top of Brighton. Anywhoo we thought we'd try the same hike with the boys since we had such a great time the last time we went. I can't tell you how excited it was to watch the temp drop from 95, 90, 85, 80, 75....all the way down to 70 degrees at the top! It was perfect. After a short picnic we hit the trail. The fellas were awesome hikers and had a great time. There were tons of flowers out and lots of potguts too. A tried to catch them all.

Hittin' the trail

The Fellas

Teeny took this pic of some of the foliage

Takin' a breather, we took quite a few.

Finally, Lake Mary, what a beauty (the lake too)

Teeny and little man on the rock

These guys just couldn't help climbing around

After the hike; What great hikers we have!

Another thing that we've done a lot of this summer is swim at the Orem pool. In the current economy, the city had to cut back on some things and instead treated all the employees to a bunch of passes to the pool. It's nice to work for such a great city.

A has become quite the swimmer

Mondays at Thanksgiving Point...

So every Monday Thanksgiving Point does a family night activity. We've only hit a couple, but figured it was time to head back. We didn't even look before what activities they would have, but when we got there and saw the '100 foot Slip and Slide' we were bummed that we didn't have our swimming stuff on. Nevertheless, we had a great time. Who needs swimming suits??

The Kiddie Car Wash

T with his shirt off

For some reason taking their shirts off made the experience even more fun....

A slippin'

N slidin'

T hitting the plastic

I thought I'd go alot further, but was barely able to pass T.

I love the muscles! These poor guys have their dads burly physique.