Dripping Rock

We tried to see a couple of new places in Utah this summer so we took a trip to dripping rock at the end of June.  It is a creek basically in Spanish Fork right off the golf course where these little cave are hollowed out and some of the water from about drips off.  It was a really neat little place that was super nice to let the kids play and get wet without a ton of people around.  Plus it was just kind of neat to be behind the dripping water.  Because it was in Spanish Fork we invited Jason's family to come with us so Sam and Jason joined us.  

Look at those faces, haha

We should have put Gracie in her swimming suit too because she loved the water and was pretty much soaking wet by the time we got done.

I think it is safe to say the kids had a good time and we will probably go back again next year.

Bridal Veil Falls

We took a walk up the path to Bridal Veil Falls in Provo to get out of the house one day.  This is a really great place for kids because they can play in the water and even feed some fish.  I am not sure how Gracie got her hair to look like this, but it is crazy enough that it needed to be documented.

 Alden and Cass looking a the little fish pond.  You can't play in this area because they stock it with trout for you to feed of just look at.  Alden thought this was amazing to see so many fish.

Trying to get the family with the waterfall in the back.  You can see both so we are going to count it as a success.

Climbing up the waterfall.  I didn't let him go to far because flip flops are not the best shoe choice for climbing wet rocks, but he still had fun.

June 2016

Here are some fun pictures from June 2016 that again don't have a story long enough to create an entire blog post.  

Alden found this old swim mask at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  It became one of his favorite spy accessories for a few weeks.  The binoculars are a must as well.  Here he is on 2 different occasions modeling the outfit.

Gracie loves to swing! I mean she will stay in the swing for over half an hour, she love to swing.  The top picture is at Grandma and Grandpa's house. and because she likes it so much there we bought one for our swing, which is where the second picture is taken.

Just playing on a Sunday afternoon.  Gracie pushed Alden all over the house in this dump truck.  I am glad she was willing to do it because bending over like that makes my back hurt.

Aunt Shawna sent us some Elephant and Piggie books and we love them. Alden asks to read them almost every night before bed.  This particular night he was feeling extra cool and needed his sunglasses to read.  He is such a funny kid.

And finally Alden loves anything orange.  He saw this orange Powerade in the store and had to have it.  He was so excited it when we bought it it even went to bed with him.

A quick trip

On the actual Memorial Day I took Alden and headed to Wendover to meet my mom and Jamie for the afternoon.  My mom wasn't able to come to Hyrum this year and she had some things from her trip to Toronto she wanted the kids to have so drove the couple of hours to meet up with them.  It was a great afternoon if you skip over the part where I got a ticket for running a stop sign just a block from the McDonalds where we were meeting :(  

Anyway, we picked up some lunch and took it to the local park for a picnic and some playing before everyone had to get back in their cars and go home.  The kids loved this slide and so did Jamie Here she is just getting off with Benjamin.

This swing thing they have is awesome. It is a post with a swing on either side, but they bar at the top can go in a circle so you swing out in a circle if that makes sense.  We had a good time trying this out with everyone to see who made up the best combination.  Sorry the picture is so far away mom was sitting at the picnic table watching one of the boys when she took it.

Later that day when Alden and I got home we hung out with Gracie and Cass in the backyard.  These two have so much fun together and this picture shows so much of their personalities.  

We also were lucky enough to have a few birds call our yard home this spring.  The bird house on the fence became home for all of these Chickadee babies and the apple tree had robins build a nest there (we couldn't get a good picture of that one mom or dad bird was always home and didn't like company).  Neither of them stayed too long after the babies were born, but we spent several days watching the moms and dads fly away to get food for all the baby birds.  Alden loved this and can't wait to see if more birds call our yard home next year.

Yuba Lake

While we were in Hyrum Cass' parents headed to Yuba Lake for the long weekend.  We didn't want to camp the entire time this year so we just went down to meet them for Sunday dinner because Jason and Sam along with Treygann were there too.  It was an overcast not too warm of a day and we were just going for the afternoon so I didn't take swimming suits or anything with us. The first thing we did when we got there was walk down to the lake and Alden managed to get himself soaking wet.  I did have an extra pair of underwear in the diaper bag so while we waited and hoped for his clothes to dry he looked like this.  Good thing he is four so he wasn't too embarrassed.

Looking at this picture he might not have been embarrassed at all :)

Love this sweet boy of ours.

Memorial Day in Hyrum

Following in tradition we went to Hyrum to celebrate Memorial Day.  This is one of my favorite days of the year.  We get to spend time with aunts and uncles and hear the same stories about my ancestors (that I will hopefully remember one of these times) and just enjoy the quiet, peaceful moments as a family.  

With two young kids though I do have to find some way to entertain them in order to be able to visit with everyone as much as we like so this year we brought bubbles with us.  They seemed to work pretty well as keeping the kids entertained.

Alden loved being able to help put flowers out.  He also helped put water on the plants.

The Peterson family at the gravesite of my Grandpa and Grandma Jones. 

And just being silly while we waited for everyone to get ready to head to lunch. 

Primary Children's Hospital

Some of our good friends have a daughter about 4 months younger than Gracie.  In April she they took her to the doctor because things didn't feel right and they ended up at Primary Children's Hospital with the possible diagnosis of cancer, but really none of the doctors are sure what is wrong with their daughter.  There is talk of her being a case study because her symptoms have never been seen in an infant before.  This has been a hard time for their family so one day when we asked what we could do to help they invited us to the hospital to play with their two older children and just visit.  This was our first time past the lobby at Primary Children's and we discovered they have an awesome playroom.  

Here we are posing as different super heroes.

Alden and his friend Nixon being Ninja Turtles.

Not sure what happened to Gracie's shoes, but she had fun in the toy room as well.

In addition to toys they also have simple crafts you can make.  Alden, Jersey, and Nixon spent quite a bit of time at this table making several different crafts to take home.  

Although we had a lot of fun this morning it was a very real reminder of how fragile life is and that we can't always protect our kids from everything. I am grateful to know that no matter what happens on this earth we will always be an eternal family. I am also grateful for wonderful people that the Lord places in our lives to help us learn charity and gratitude from.  The Catmull's are some of the best examples of enduring through trials with hope and faith that I have ever met and I am trying harder everyday to be more like them.