Wasatch Mountains State Park

Everybody went camping at Wasatch Mountain State Park. The Wans made the reservation, the Faucheuxes made delicious Sanpete County chicken, the Preeces made broccoli salad, the Bible-Hopewells made pancakes, and the Burrows made banana bread. We drove from Big Cottonwood Canyon over Guardsman Road toward Midway and it was really pretty. Popa entertained the kids with a very animated story about David and Goliath.

The kids built (what else?) a railroad track in the campground. They were dirty almost as soon as we got there and they stayed that way.

I think this was the first campout for Miles and Sylvie, and Grandma threatened that it was her last, but I think she'll go again.

 The next morning, Todd and the kids went fishing while I cringed in a corner as far away from the worms as possible.

We ate lunch at Cafe Galleria in Midway which was a cute restaurant with good food. It was really fun and we'd go again in a heartbeat, two nights next time!

Ikey and the Legends

We had a great time at Marsha's birthday party and we just love her and her family so much. Ikey wanted to talk basketball with a couple of guys on the porch.

Have you ever considered...more bubble guns?

Ikey with the Hall of Fame NBA Coach Jerry Sloan.

 Ikey with the legendary NBA Coach Frank Layden. They were both telling jokes!

Jackson, Wyoming

The weather was great, the kids were crazy. We stopped at the Willow Park Zoo in Logan which was really cool. I'd recommend it to anyone, especially if you haven't seen a coyote or a baby emu. The kids were in rare form avoiding photographs.

Any photo like this with a calm-looking and smiling Isaac has almost certainly been bribed out of him.

This is a cool place that closed before we got there...we'll try again some day. No one would pose with me for this photo.

It's a long drive to Jackson from our house. Jovie yelled, "The sun is in my eyes!" every time it was. I told her to look out Ikey's window and she'd always ask if she could. He said no one time, so she fell apart until I gave her my glasses. Isn't she a cool kid?

The kids talk non-stop in the car and sometimes it's funny. Ikey said, "I noticed my bed was missing in my room." Jovie said, "Is it under the sheets?" Ikey laughed and said, "Oh yeah, it is!"

I told TB that we should do one of those old-timey family photographs as are so popular in Western resort towns. He said, "What, so the three-year-old can hold a rifle and dress up like a bank robber and the two-year-old can look like a saloon girl?" So instead, they just wore costumes at the history museum. 

 I told Jovie that this was a "trapper" costume. The next day, she said she wanted to "dress like a catcher again".

 

We went to the National Park and took my required photo at the sign.

We rode the Jenny Lake boat and it was Jovie's first boat ride, besides canoes and rowboats, and she loved it. It threatened to rain, and it did just a little.

 We hiked to Hidden Falls and Jovie threw several "logs" and rocks in.

We hiked up to Inspiration Point to see the whole Jenny Lake.

 The kids lugged around some moose antlers in the visitor's center.

Ikey flashed a gang sign at the antler arch in Town Square.

Cecret Lake

The whole family joined the crowd hiking up to Cecret Lake in Albion Basin above Alta.

Dad came on this hike, even though I know he doesn't like to do the same thing that hundreds of other people are doing at the same time. He "cecretly" liked it though...

We were one week early for the Wasatch Wildflower Festival, but Jovie still found some beautiful flowers.

There were four big moose on the trail and we marched right past them like we weren't afraid, but I was.

Cecret Lake was really pretty, but the kids wouldn't smile at the camera because sometimes they won't.

Floats and Albion Basin

We checked out the awesome floats at the parade preview party. Of course the train floats were the most popular with our crowd.

We hiked in Albion Basin to Catherine's Pass. The kids said hello to everyone we passed. Ikey would start conversations like this: Are you having a good hike? We started hiking way down there. I'm obsessed with trains. They call people obsessed with trains "railfans".

Jovie told a few hikers, "I've got granite. It's igneous." She was right too!

Jovie said, "We're hiking to Silver Lake Lodge." She wishes!

We camped out in the back yard last night. When the fireworks started, Ikey said, "Does someone have poor judgement?" I guess we've expressed our opinion about fireworks to him enough. I was very brave about camping with the kiddos by myself until I was awakened by a cat fight in our yard. It was so scary - It sounded like babies crying! The kids slept through that one.

City of Rocks

Our next one-day vacation was to City of Rocks in Idaho. TB even joined us on this one! And this is the last photo you'll ever see from this camera because after balancing it on the hood of the car for this group shot, we forgot to pick it up before we took off down the dirt road, remembering just after it flew off and broke the lens. So now it's just iPhone pictures until/unless we buy another camera... or break the iPhone.

It is a long drive, but the kids are good at entertaining themselves with music and drawing. Ikey pretty much only draws trains, and he told us from the back seat that this train says "OOOP". He handed the "IkeyPad" up and we found that he had written his first word. He didn't even ask how to spell it (today) and now he can write OOOP any time he wants. He said that he couldn't write CHOO or ISAAC, although he knows how to spells those words, so OOOP is it for a while.

The visitor center in Almo had cool wagons that we climbed on to check out the ride. Ikey pretended his was on a train of course.

We hiked around Camp Rock/Register Rock and Jovie learned the word "signature" and has used it constantly since then.

 TB did some non-technical climbing to look at the "tubs" on the top of the rock and get a great photo of the view. He took a little time out to text Hank that he was on "one of Aimee's crazy adventures". I thought that was nice.

We hiked to Creekside Towers and to Parking Lot Rock too. The kids were great hikers and didn't need a lift.

Jovie took a chance jumping down the steps on the trail. She was pushing the weeds out of the way and said, "These plants are KILLING me."

We posed in Window Arch just like every non-climbing tourist that has ever been to City of Rocks.

 We had a pretty good steak at Almo Creek Outpost Steakhouse, and then a nice long drive home ignoring the GPS's instructions to take every private dirt road between there and here.

Jovie grew it!

Jovie chose and planted a tomato plant and has been diligently watering it. Now she harvests each tiny yellow tomato and eats them herself too.