A Narrow Vacation

We have spent the last week hiking around Southern Utah.  We have probably logged about 25 miles over the week as we explored Zions National Park, Calf Creek, Bryce Canyon, and Capitol Reef National Park.  Our favorite by far was the Narrows in Zions. When Maddie was a baby, Jeff and I hiked down the Narrows.  We started at the top and hiked down the 16 miles in a day.

We loved the experience, and really wanted to come back with our children someday, but recognized that 16 miles in a day was not really going to happen again!  Luckily, things seemed to align, and we were able to go this year with our children.  We hiked from the bottom up this time, around 9 miles round trip.  It was a fabulous day.    

We started out quickly submerging into waist high water.  We spent the next 8 hours hiking up and down the river, mostly in the river, and sometimes swimming in a canyon that was only 15 feet wide and 1500 feet tall.  It was amazing.  The kids had a great time jumping off of rocks, and floating down with the current.  It was everything that Jeff and I had hoped to do 16 years ago.

Camping

We ran away camping for the weekend with our best friends, the Buscos. 

 We just went to a local camping ground, but it was great just to get away from the house and relax, and spend the entire day and night with friends. 

 Everyone had a great time playing in the creek, climbing trees, catching frogs and sitting around the campfire.

4th of July

We had a great week.  Mostly we just did a few things here and there, not too much except for the holiday interruption in the middle of the week. 

Our 4th of July was fairly stress free, we did some things around the house.  Jayd went on a very long run.  We ate corn from our garden, and went to the church to watch the fireworks with the rest of the stake.  We made red white and blue ice cream for dessert.  It was vanilla ice cream with strawberries, blueberries and white chocolate chips on top.  Yummy!  We even signed the "Declaration of Independence".  The fireworks were fabulous, we loved seeing some of our favorites, popcorn, buzzing bees, smiley faces, waterfalls, and shimmery and glittery as well as naming a few new ones, dandelion, lilies and starfish.

Day Camp for the Family

We went to Cub Scout Day Camp as a family again this year.  This will be our fifth year at Cub Scout Day Camp.  I led a bear den this year.  Gabe was in my den along with all of my bears (sometimes they get split up).  In addition, I had 5 other amazingly sweet boys.  It was the best den ever!  They were a really great bunch of kids, obedient, excited and happy.  Allie spent the week in the sibling den.  They did a lot with the tiger den and she found herself shepherding several of the little tigers during their activities.  Maddie and Jayd were "red shirts", teenage helpers, although helper is sometimes a loose term in this case.  They helped cut fruit, harnass rock climbers, make survival bracelets, and were all around.  There was plenty of fraternizing to keep them satisfied.  It was another exhausting, yet fun week.