Bit by a Squirrel

We decided to spend the morning at the Thunder Junction All Abilities Park. There is a lot to do there-lots of playground equipment, a zip line, a splash pad, a train, and right next to it is a walking trail with a path where you can go to feed ducks.

The kids always have a blast. Of course we invited cousins to come along with us.

The first thing we did when we got there was go to feed the ducks. While feeding the ducks they happened upon a little squirrel. He would get really close to the kids when they would through him stuff. Bryce was persistent and patient and before long the squirrel was coming right up and grabbing bread from his hand-however one time he grabbed the bread and bit Bryce's finger in the process. 

HA! poor kid. It didn't draw blood or I might be worried that he caught some disease.

After feeding the animals we headed over to play on the playground and splash pad. The kids had a blast and it was hard to drag them out of there when it started to get hot and we were ready to go home. We had to stop at everything on the way to the car and do it one more time. 

This really is an awesome park! We need to go back more often.

Girls Camp and Youth Conference

In June Chloe had the opportunity to attend both girls camp and youth conference. For both she had to decide if she wanted to go to them or attend a camp or tournament with her sports teams. She decided to attend both instead of the camps. 

For girls camp they went to Park City. They were able to go to the Olympic Park while they were there and do all the fun adventure activities they offer. I think she had a good time.

For youth conference they didn't have to travel to far. They went and stayed at big rock candy mountain. While there they were able to participate in a ropes course, hikes, and white water rafting. They also had a speaker who came and spoke to them. She loved it!! I wish I had pictures ;(

I'm glad she was able to go and I hope by going she got to know the kids in our ward a little bit more. 

Strawberry Jam

Strawberries were on a great sale so I took the opportunity and made some strawberry freezer jam. I invited my sister Tiffanie over to make some with me. We made a couple of batches. YUM!!

Baby Birds

We stayed at Landon's parents for a few days while at the Delta Tournament. While we were there Bryce made a fun and exciting discovery. A nest of hatching baby birds. He would run and check it whenever he had the chance to see how many had hatched.

Delta Tournament-2 Out of the Park!

Over the summer we traveled with Chloe's softball team to a tournament in Delta, Utah. It was a good excuse to visit Landon's parents as well. Chloe's team did really well. They took one tough loss and ended up getting 3rd place, which is unfortunate because they totally should have been in the championship game. It was fun to watch though and Landon's parents and some cousins were able to make it to a few of the games. The best part of it all was that Chloe hit her first home run ever in a game and then followed up by hitting a second one in another game. It was awesome!

#summitsoftball #chloeellison 

Softball tournaments can be long and hard. You gotta catch those naps whenever and wherever you can.

Slip n Slide

Living in St. George means that when it's summer we spend a lot of time playing in the water. One of the kids favorite things to do is the slip and slide. We busted it out and invited over a few cousins and friends and made a party of it. The kids all had fun. 

Movie in the Park

 Some people in the neighborhood put on a movie in the park. They provided the movie as well as popcorn and light up rings for all the kids. It was really a fun little event. Bryce and I made a little date of it since Landon wasn't able to come (it being in the middle of the week and him having to work early the next day) and Chloe and Tanner were both gone that night. We had a fun time just the two of us. 

Jurassic Adventure

There is a dirt road about 30 minutes from our house, that if you drive down, leads to some dinosaur tracks. It is called the Warner Valley Dinosaur Track Site. We had been there years ago when Chloe was about Bryce's age. I thought it would be a fun thing to do. We invited Sandi to come along. We loaded the kids up and headed out. Things seemed to be going pretty good. The dirt road was bumpy and you could tell it hadn't really been maintained but it wasn't horrible. As we got closer to where we thought we should be it got a little worse and then things started to get really bad. The ruts and holes in the road were so bad at times we didn't know if we would make it. We found a spot to turn around after some scary four wheeling in the old explorer and got out our gps and that's when we discovered that we had somehow missed the turn. We went back and got on the correct road and we finally made it.

The kids were happy to get out and explore. The few tracks we were able to see were pretty neat, but you could tell the site hadn't really been kept up over the past few years and you couldn't see as many tracks as you once could and the ones that were there were really weathered down and not preserved well at all. I was a little disappointed but the kids were happy so I guess that's all that mattered. After exploring for a bit we loaded up and headed back home. 

Pine Lake

Chloe always wants to go camping for her birthday, so that's usually what we try to do. This year we weren't able to go right on her actual birthday, but we were able to go the following weekend instead. Between that and the new fishing pole we bought her she was pretty happy. She chose to go to Pine Lake a destination not to far from us that we had never been to before.

We headed out only to discover halfway there that Bryce had no shoes on and in fact had none with us at all. I really don't know how these things happen, but he just doesn't love to wear shoes and sometimes I forget to check. So anyways we tried to stop at a Dollar General-the only place along the way that might possibly have some-we did find some flip flops, but he couldn't tolerate or walk in them. So he pretty much went barefoot or wore Chloe's shoes the entire weekend. Oh Bryce!

Of course a campout isn't a campout without roasting some marshmallows.

The kids had a blast fishing. The fish were biting like crazy. They weren't big at all but they had fun reeling in one right after the other. Even Bryce was able to reel a few in all on his own. 

 They also had fun playing in the lake. Chloe and Beckett went for a little swim and then we all took turns paddling around the lake on the kayak. Even Beckett went out for a bit. One of our favorite things about this trip that as we were kayaking and fishing we could see little otters swimming around. The first time we saw them we weren't sure what they were. We had never seen otters in the wild before. It was pretty awesome. 

We had a lot of fun and will definitely be going back to this lake in the future. 

Happy Birthday Chloe Girl. I hope you always keep your love for adventure and free spirit.