Unplugged Summer: Part 1

We have been doing so many fun things this summer.  I feel like we are tourists in our own town.  One thing that has helped us really get out this summer is a fun program put on by Intermountain Live.  It is called Play Unplugged.  The program gives you a bunch of fun activities to do during the summer that requires you to unplug from technology and electronics and get out and play.  After doing each activity, you go to the sponsoring business in town and collect Brag Badges to put on our lanyards.  The kids have loved collecting these Brag Tags and ask me each day what tag we can earn that day.  We have been collecting about 4 tags a week.  Here are some of the things we have done this last month:  

First, we when on a family bike ride to the park and had a picnic that the kids packed themselves.  We earned the Bike Rider and Picnicker badges for this.  It is always fun to ride our bikes.

Next we took a tour of the Cox Honeyland store to earn the Busy Bee tag.  We got to see a live beehive and we tried to find the Queen Bee.  We also learned how honey was made and processed from the beehives.  Then we got to sample all sorts of flavors of honey.  

We played with our new friend, London, in her little pool to earn the Sprinkler Chaser tag.  The kids love getting wet any time they can and doing it with friends is even more fun.  

Another fun tag to earn was the Mile Master:

To earn this one, we had to run or walk a mile.  Russell had to train for his physical test for work so we all went to the track and helped him practise running the mile and a half.  We did it!  The kids felt really good about this accomplishment because it was kind of hard for those little legs.  Emily did just fine and ran the whole way.

Of course there was the Car Washer tag:

Like I said before, these kids love getting wet and we love getting our cars washed!

The Paper Pilot tag was one the boys loved.  We were able to check out some of the cool airplanes at the Logan Airport.  

We even got to look inside some of them.  After seeing the planes, we got to fly our paper airplanes:

I don't remember who's plane flew the farthest but I guess it doesn't matter.  We just had fun at the airport.

As part of the Volunteer tag, we had to do some service around the house.

The kids thought that helping me grate the cheese was a great service to me.  Since I don't really like grating cheese, it was!

Then to really earn our badge, we attended the Cache Volunteer Center Service Celebration Party at the River Hollow park. 

While there, we wrote letters to soldiers in the army and told them how grateful we were for their service.  The kids all had a great time making their letters and drawing pictures for the military men and women.

We didn't earn a tag for these things but every time we drive up and down the main street in Logan, the kids yell, "Cow!" every time we drive passed one of the decorated Aggie bulls. So we decided that if we are being tourist in our own town, we might as well get a picture of us doing it!

The Book Hunter badge was the one the kids liked the most because they got to meet their heroes at the North Logan Library.  We got to meet Elsa, Anna, Captain America, and Spiderman!

Emily was so excited to meet Elsa and Anna because she absolutely loves the movie Frozen.  As you can tell she is one happy girl.  Elsa and Anna were really nice too.  Logan ran up and hugged Elsa too.  Colby on the other hand did not want to meet them and refused to be in the picture which is why he is crying. 

Then we got to meet Captain America and Spiderman, two of Colby's favorite superheros.  These two guys were really funny with the kids.  You can't tell from the picture but Colby was happier to see these two.  Logan was just mesmerized by Spiderman and kept touching his leg to make sure he was real.  He thought it was the coolest thing ever.  He did not want to leave Spiderman's side.  After meeting our heroes, we played other fun games like Hulk Smash and knocking over Olaf.  This was a fun party the library put on.

We love the Hyrum library too.  Each week there is a "Make and  Take" craft day and we like to go and make the fun craft.  This week we decorated masks and another week we made superhero arm bands.  It is fun.  We earned the Reader badge from the Hyrum Library.

My favorite badge to earn was the Rock Star badge.  To get this badge, we took Ukulele lessons at KSM Music store. 

The boys mostly just played around on the Ukulele but Emily really got into it and was trying her best to learn the chords the teacher was teaching us.  I thought it was really exciting to learn the Ukulele and has me wanting to learn more.  Emily said she wants to learn more too.

We went bowling at Logan Lanes for Family Home Evening to earn the King Pin badge:

This was such a fun night.  The kids are getting old enough to have fun playing games and they all loved bowling.  I was even surprised that Logan could lift the bowling balls!  We used the bumpers and ramps for the kids which helped a lot.  The boys used the ramp to help them get the ball down the alley.  Russell and I were wishing we could use the bumpers on our turn too...  I had forgotten how much fun bowling is.  

After bowling we went out to eat at Pizza Pie Cafe.  Emily had won gift certificates to this place at school so she was constantly asking us when we could go there.  Luckily there was a Pizza Pie Cafe in Logan so we finally went there.  This was a really good place to eat and we were stuffed by the time we left.

We have been having fun collecting brag badges this month.  It has also been nice getting out and exploring the city and being a tourist.  We still have quite a few badges to collect so we will be doing more fun things the rest of the summer.

Star Spangled Rodeo

So here is a new fun little tradition we will be doing now that we live in Hyrum.  Every year Hyrum puts on the "Star Spangled Rodeo."  It is a big deal and really fun.  We watched the kids parade in the morning and now Emily and Colby have already started planning how they are going to decorate their bikes for next year's parade.  After the parade, the Hyrum fire fighters bring out the fire truck and have a huge water fight with all of the kids in the town.  

As you can tell we all had a blast.  Russell went out to help Logan and all of the kids must and thought he was one of the fire fighters because they all just ganged up on him and started spraying him.  Needless to say, we were all soaked.

That night, we headed to the Rodeo!  We only live about a half mile from the rodeo grounds so we were able to walk to the rodeo.

Of course all the kids had to dress up like cowboys... well kind of.  They all had their cowboy hats, bandannas, and sheriff badges.  They also had boots even if it meant snow boots for Colby!  He is so funny.  

The kids loved the rodeo especially the horses.  Logan was so excited about the cowboys coming out of the shoots.  He yelled and pointed every time.  Colby loved the bull riders and Emily loved the rodeo princesses.  Colby also loved the mutton bustin' and told me that he wanted to ride a sheep next year.  I guess I will have to figure out how to sign him up because he has his heart set on it.  This was a fun rodeo and definitely a new tradition for us.  It was exciting to be part of this fun event.

The River and Cousins

The Stewart's came up to visit us on Monday so we had a fun little Family Home Evening with them.

Here we are having fun with Jen, Rick and their kids at the Hydro Park up in Blacksmith Fork Canyon. Jen had a great idea to spend FHE together up in the mountains where we use to play when we were kids, so that is exactly what we did. It was perfect weather for an outdoor outing. The Hydro Park has the Blacksmith Fork River going right through it so it made a great place to play in the water and get wet. We all had a great time and the water was perfect. We were not there very long and all of the kids were wet, Logan, as you can tell with his shirt off, was the first one to fall in the water. 

Poor Colby had his first experience on how it feels to sink into quick sand. We were all playing when we heard Colby cry, "I'm Sinking!!" and we looked over and noticed that he was waist deep in a mud pit. I grabbed him and sucked him out of it and then he said,  "My shoe!"  I was thinking "Oh great it is gone." But I plunged into the mud pit anyway.  I had a hard time finding the shoe because the mud went clear up to my arm pit, but I finally found it.  You can tell from the picture above that Colby was a happy boy because he got his Captain America shoe back.  Watch out for quicksand!

The kids had so much fun playing in the water.  They splashed, threw rocks and even found worms.  While the kids played so did the adults. Jen and I found some amazing suits for Adam and Eve clothing. These leaves were by the river edge and as you can see they covered exactly what needed to be covered if they were needed. Annalynn is looking at us thinking mom and Uncle Russell what are you doing with those leaves? Wonderful little kids so young and innocent. 

While the kids found the play ground across the park, Rick and I started to get the dinner ready. We had hot dogs, chips, and watermelon. Everyone had a great time relaxing and having fun. Before we left, the kids wanted to skip rocks in the river, so we gathered up as many flat rocks as possible and had a contest on who could skip the farthest. Even Emily started to learn how to skip rock for the first time. She was so surprised with herself when she skipped her first rock. The whole night was way fun and very needed.  Thank you Jen, Rick and kiddos for a great FHE night. 

Father's Day at Bear Lake.

Happy Father's Day!  The kids and I had a great time putting together Father's Day gifts for our dad and grandpas.  For our grandpas, the kids made their own cards so that we could mail them to St. George.  Then we also made fun gifts for Russell.  Here is our funny dad and his funny fish faced kids:

We spent Father's Day on a fun road trip to Bear Lake.  Bear Lake is only about 40-50 miles from our house so it was nice day trip.  The lake was so beautiful.

These pictures were taken at the scenic overlook and visitor's center.  It was the perfect view of the lake.  

Before heading down to the Lake to play in the water, we continued our road trip up to Idaho.  We were going to explore the Minnetonka Cave.  

While we waited for the cave guide, the kids had fun climbing the rocks around the entrance of the cave.  

And here we go into the cave!  Before heading in, we saw a little bat sleeping on the side of the rock wall.  This cave is the home to the Townsend Big Eared bats.  For that reason, the door to the cave has slats so that the bats can fly in and out when the cave is closed. 

This cave was really amazing!  There were a ton of stalactites and stalagmites through out the cave.   There is a group of seven stalagmites that they call the seven dwarfs  because they look like the faces of the seven dwarfs.  This largest stalagmites are located in this cave too.  There are also many other cave formations including straws, cave popcorn, and cave bacon.  The cave bacon was really cool looking.  Like a ribbon going down the side of the cave.  Logan's favorite rock formation was the one that looked like a train engine.  

After leaving the cave, we found a little campground and picnic area and ate lunch.  This mountainous area was so beautiful.  After eating, we decided to continue our road trip up to Montpelier, ID and then back to Bear Lake.  On our way we passed through Paris!

OK, Paris, ID.  There we saw the old Paris Tabernacle.  Next time we will actually go through the Tabernacle.  

We continued to Montpelier where Emily came face to face with a bear at the National Oregon/California Trail Center.  This museum shows all about the travellers of the Oregon trail.  Unfortunately by the time we got there, the Center was closed so we will have to go back and take the full tour.

Then it was time to head back to Bear Lake.  The map we got from the visitor center said there was a road that lead right to the back side of  Bear Lake from Montpelier.  So we followed the map and after a while I thought we should have turned by now.  Well yes we should have turned because a few miles later, we were in Wyoming!  So we turned around and headed back to Montpelier looking everywhere for this road on the map.  We thought we found it when we turned and drove through the little town of Dingle, ID but then the road turned to dirt so we decided this was the wrong road. (Come to find out, this was the right road after all.)  Then we turned around again and drove passed the airport in the middle of these fields.  Finally, we followed this guy with Idaho plates and it took us back to Paris.  Finally we knew where we were!  We decided we had been on enough wild goose chases so we drove back the same way we came.  We drove around the lake and finally found a little beach area to play in the water and eat dinner.

The kids had a blast in the cold water.  We told them to just wade and not get soaking wet.  Well Emily and Colby seemed to understand that but Logan on the other hand took five steps into the water and then jumped (or fell) right in.  Yeah he was soaking wet.  But it sure was fun.  We ate hot dogs and enjoyed the scenery for a few hours.  Then is was time to go home.  We were told that there were deer, elk, and even moose up here on this mountain so we were excited to see them.  We were sure we had planned it right for the perfect time to seem wildlife on our way home but for some reason, we only saw two deer the whole trip.  I was disappointed in that but over all it was a great trip (even the getting lost part!)

Happy Father's Day.