Timpanogos Cave Hike



 

We made it back to American Fork canyon on Sunday this week for our planned hike to Timpanogos Cave. Caleb was just little the last time we braved that hike, so we decided it was time to try it again and take the twins to see it.

 

We set off for an early morning time slot with our friends, the Jensen's, and we were off. The kids did great considering how far and how steep the trail is. Most of the complaining and frequent water stops came from me. I was reminded from the get-go how out of shape I really am. But we persevered and made it to the top in plenty of time for our tour slot.

 

 

We hung out at the top and had a little snack and waited patiently for our time. Then it was go time. Zaric and Caleb went right in without incident but Zaden was scared to death and immediately kept asking to go back out. Some nice people in our tour group gave him a little fake candle to hold and that seemed to help a lot. Poor kid. But we made it through and took lots of pictures of the cool stuff inside.

 

The hike down was awesome and Faith even fell asleep in the carrier on Dad's back. Zaric had a butterfly land on his hat and we all were relieved and proud of ourselves for making it. We then took the kids for a nice brunch to Village Inn then headed home to relax and stay out of the heat some more. 

 

 

Beat the Heat- A Summer Saturday

There's been a huge heat wave here in the SL valley and Saturday was one of the worst. It got up to 104 degrees. I know, it could be worse, but I seriously hate the heat. I told the kids Friday night if they were good, we would go to a secret location on Saturday after football registration for Caleb. Well they were good and we set off to get out of the heat and use our Pass of all Passes once again. We hit up Seven Peaks water park in Salt Lake.

We got there for early entry and it was already packed. Apparently everyone else had the same idea. But that's ok. We managed to find a small piece of shade to drop our towels and set off for some fun. Caleb got to go on a few slides. The twins loved the kid area and we all spent one go around in the Tidal Wave pool with our tubes. We went around the lazy river a couple times and the kids loved playing in the splash pad area. Then it was back to the kid area for a little longer.

By noon the heat was really picking up, so we decided to call it an early out and head home. I didn't take the camera (for obvious reasons) and the cell phones were in a locker so sorry,  no pics.

We planned to make a stop at McDonald's or somewhere on the way home for some lunch but they were all so worn out, by the time we got close to any they were all asleep in the car, so we just continued home to have some lunch here.

After some play time and relaxing, we red-boxed a couple movies and watched Oz The Great and Powerful together until they drifted off to sleep on the couches where we let them slumber for the night. A great end to a hot Saturday.

Monsters University

After we got home from camping and got mostly unloaded and showers done, we decided to add onto the fun family weekend and take the kids to see a matinee of Monsters University. The boys all loved it. I loved the buttered popcorn and Faithy loved the nap she took on Mom through most of it. All in All a pretty successful outing.

A Camping We Will Go!

This weekend we finally broke out the camp trailer and went on our annual camping trip up American Fork Canyon with our friends, the Jensen's. Mike decided to work from home Friday morning so he could help get us ready and boy did it help. It helped so much, we were up there a few hours sooner than we normally are. It was rush, rush, rush but once we got there and got set up it turned to a total calmness. Mike even told me (though he won't admit it), "Thanks for bringing us up here."  We set up camp, then went for a walk then we met up with our friends for some play time and later again to roast marshmallow's and visit.
Saturday morning, the Jensen's ran home and picked up their Rhino UTV and we all went up to Silver Lake and had a picnic lunch, looked at the lake and went for a couple short rides. The boys loved it. Then it was back to camp for more playing, visiting and of course more marshmallows! Caleb and I even stayed up and caught a glimpse of the Super moon. It was a really good time, even if the battery went dead on the trailer so we froze at night with no heater. But we are tough and can handle it.
This morning we packed up and headed down right after sunrise so we could get everything put away and start all the chores we weren't here to do over the weekend. I always love camping, but I think I love that first shower after camping even more.

Here are a few pics of the fun and the beautiful Utah area.

Father's Day at the Falls

Father's Day was another success. Yesterday morning Mike woke up to me making homemade donuts, some pictures and notes from Caleb and a gift bag full of some of his favorite things.

After we ate and got ready for the day, we went to meet my fam at Bridal Veil Falls. We had a nice BBQ lunch, the kids played, we walked up to the falls and played in the water for a few minutes and then got to take some pics with Papa.

Father's Day 2013 - slideshows

It was a fun day and the kids couldn't get enough of Papa and playing with the kids. Too bad it was too busy for many pics at the falls, but we still got some cute ones anyway. Looks like meeting them for lunch and pics might become a new Father's Day tradition.

Chalk Art Festival 2013

Straight after soccer today, we went for our annual Father's Day weekend outing to the Chalk Art Festival at the Gateway. We were famished after soccer so we went straight for some lunch at Applebee's.Then it was off to look at the fun art. I have to say we were slightly disappointed at the art this year. It didn't seem like many people bothered to follow the "Western" theme. Some did, but many did not and there weren't any that really blew us away. That being said, there were still some good ones and we still enjoyed seeing them. Here's some I snapped some pics of. 

 

 

After checking them out, of course we had to let the kids run through the fountains.

Then after a quick stop at Sur Le Tab, we were on our way home with 4 exhausted kiddo's napping all the way.