Bear Lake in 1 Day

We ran up to Bear Lake for a day, and we crammed in as much fun as possible!

We started out with the human Cabbage Patch Kid! There's this hilarious little wig up there and Mike put it on Molly. She looks an awful lot like my old Cabbage Patch doll...chubby cheeks, yellow yarn hair...she's got it all! Hmm, with bangs or without?


I hung out on the beach with the kids while Mike went for an hour-long open water swim. Sam dug in the sand almost the whole time.

Will spent a solid 10 minutes trying to hit the golf ball with the tennis racket. The water is really high this year, so there was hardly any beach, but enough to have some fun!

Next we met up with Mike's sister and a bunch of her friends to go on one of our favorite hikes. Bloomington Canyon is probably one of the best kept secrets at Bear Lake. It's kind of a long drive up the canyon, but then it's a short hike to this:

After playing on the rope swing, Mike and Jane went to the other side of the lake to cliff jump. If you look closely at the picture above, you can see Mike diving into the lake. My camera was zoomed in all the way. The picture above that is the same shot not zoomed.

Can you see why we love this place? It's like this perfect little mountain oasis that you can hike to wearing flip flops and holding a sleeping baby.
This was Molly all the way back to the car. We weren't planning on going to Bloomington until an hour before we went, so I didn't have a sun hat for her. I did have my nursing cover though (which is my very favorite thing!), so I used it to keep the sun off her face.

We stopped by Sweetwater on our way home and Molly met some cousins for the first time! She hadn't seen Grandma Tigger since her blessing, so it was fun to show her how big Molly is getting. Kaitlyn instantly loved Molly and just wanted to hold her and love her the whole time we were there. It was the cutest thing, she was such a cute little mom!

I can't wait to get back, we love Bear Lake!

*I know it's called Ideal Beach, but it will always be Sweetwater. I don't actually know anyone that calls it by the right name.

My New Title...

PHASE 10 CHAMPION OF THE WORLD!
As seen here:
We did a quick overnight "camping" trip up at the Lambs Canyon cabin. All the fun of camping, but you get to sleep inside on bed. Plus you can't beat having a bathroom! We took the Fishers up with us and we had a blast! After the kids went upstairs to bed I worked a little Phase 10 magic. Poor Katie...I think she was stuck on phase 1 for about 5 rounds. We'd been playing for a while and something caught my eye. I looked up and saw Sam's feet hanging down over the ladder stairs. He was sleeping right next to it, and he had a hard time settling down and getting to sleep.

Will just makes me laugh. Fish goggles under a hat under a hood. Dan helped out in the style department with the rolled sleeves.

We had cupcakes to celebrate Ryan's birthday! This is still Will, but he's covered in frosting from said cupcakes. Ryan is 11 months younger than Sam, but they'll be in the same grade. They get to go to preschool together soon!

Sam is king of goofy faces for the camera.

Lately Sam comes up to me at random just to give me a hug and kiss. It makes me happy!

Lambs Canyon has a soft spot in my heart, Mike and I had a couple of awesome dates at the cabin while we were dating (that's where I fell in love with grilled cheese and tomato soup), and we also got engaged while snowshoeing in Lambs Canyon (I believe on March 7, 2002). We don't get up there as much as we'd like, but we always have lots of fun when we do!

Classic Will

Explanation: He wore the fish goggles for two days after he found them. Molly's towel was the closest within reach. Every boy needs a squirt gun.

If nothing else, it's pretty entertaining to just watch Will. He is such a funny kid!

Solids!

We finally started Molly on rice cereal. I started both of the boys at 5 months (Sam needed to get used to the spoon (at the pediatrician's recommendation), and Will just needed more calories), but I didn't really think about starting Molly until 6 months because she's such a good nurser and is gaining weight like a champ. My amazing friend Scheryl from WGC made this awesome full-body bib for Molly. Don't you love it? It even has velcro ankle straps!

She loved her first taste of solid food! Well, semi-solid food. More like runny baby cereal. She took the spoon out of Mike's hand and started sucking on it trying to get more. I love this baby!

We love the first feeding, it's always so funny!

What a cute face! I wish I looked that cute while eating!

Sometimes when I change Molly's diapers I squeeze her thighs because they're just so...so squeezable. The boys saw me doing it, and when I got up to get something they each took a thigh and started saying, "Squeezey, squeezey!"

Jumping in the Rain

It rained pretty much all of June (our grass looked awesome!). At the end of one of the storms Will found the nearest shoes (mine) and ran out to the deck to jump in the water. He's such a silly kid.

Monkey

Will had unsupervised access to Molly for about 5 seconds. He really loves his sister, but sometimes the challenge is keeping her safe from his love. That's his very favorite hat that he wears everywhere, and he's obsessed with balls, so it makes me happy that he would share his favorite things. It will be fun when she's big enough to play with her brothers!

Dinosaur Museum!

I thought I took a lot more pictures than I actually did. We went down to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum with some of our friends (and it's half price if you're a guest of a member!). We had three Sams in our group, but there was very little confusion because my Sam went by Monster Man, another went by Sam, and the other by Samuel. Easy! It was so fun, there was so much for the kids to do!
Will made a mask (there were extra activities that day because they were celebrating the museum's birthday). He refused to take it off, and Mike and I think it's pretty creepy. I love it though. We were in this room for at least 30 minutes and I still had to drag him out kicking and screaming. The boy loves dirt...of any kind.

I hope I never need a scale this big to weigh myself.

I think we spent at least 45 minutes at this one. Once again, I dragged him out kicking and crying. I love that he has a great attention span, but sometimes it creates other challenges!

I really want to go back again, there was just a ton of fun stuff for kids of all ages. I'm a fan.