June

June and summer are finally here. We are so excited to be out of school, and have warm weather, and just be able to enjoy ourselves.  This has been a busy month full of adventures, baseball, and all things outdoors.

We just got a new park by our house not too long ago so we decided to go check it out.  It is interesting having older kids and little kids at the park.  Brooklyn wants me to follow her around and catch her on the slides and push her on the swings while the older kids don't really seem to care if I am there and just do their own thing.  Charlotte is kind of in the middle.  She still wants me to push her on the swings and things like that but is also happy to follow the big kids around and play their games.  Brooklyn also likes to follow the big kids and is not afraid of anything which is not always the best thing.  This new park is really meant for older kids because it is really tall.  Well Brooklyn doesn't seem to care that the giant slide is four stories up and she could easily fall to her death.  She just wants to go down the slide.  Thankfully there are a ton of railings and the big kids help her out too.

Our first adventure of June was the Little Red Ride.  This year Emily and her friend Hahna wanted to do the bike ride so we did the 17 mile course.

This year the race had a Paris theme so there was an Eiffel Tower and all things French.  For our team name, we were the Cycle Paths.  We made matching jerseys and everything.  This course is so nice and flat and smooth so the ride was pretty easy.  The girls had a blast riding together.  As we came into the finish line, our family and Hahna's family was there to meet us.

Here we are at the finish line showing off our cool jerseys.  After racking our bikes, we explored all of the booths getting free stuff and taking pictures.

To be even cooler, we all got temporary tattoos of the Little Red Logo on our legs.  They were pretty cool and actually lasted quite a while. The girls decided this race needs to be a tradition for them each year.  They already have plans to do the 30 mile course for next year.  It looks like we might be looking into a road bike for Emily soon.

We especially loved the post race food which was really a buffet of deliciousness.  Even our families got to eat.  There was sandwiches, fruits, yogurt, chips and salsa, cake, cookies, ice cream and more.  We were stuffed.  While we all hung out, we played Go Fish with the Pini's giant face cards. It was so much fun that we had to go buy a deck of our own.

You didn't believe me when I said giant cards did you?  They are so awesome that we went back to the store and bought four more decks to give out as Christmas presents to our family.  We are going to add a book of 100 different games to play with cards.  Perfect!

This summer we have been trying to be really active.  Emily and Colby have started Mountain Bike practices and are having a good time.  This is Emily with the girls GRiT team at one of their summer rides:

Russell and I are training for our first ever triathlon.  This has really been an intense training because we are working on biking and running and now we are adding in swimming. I am not the best swimmer. In fact at the beginning of the year I could not even swim one length of the pool and even then it was totally doggy paddle.  I can now actually do the freestyle strokes and swim a few laps but it has taken a while.  The triathlon, though, is an open water swim not a pool swim which is totally different.  We tried out our first open water swim this month at Porcupine Reservoir.  We donned our wet-suits and jumped in.  It was freezing!!! It was so cold that the wet-suits did nothing for me and in my frozen panic I just went straight back to doggy paddle survival swim.  Russell is better at cold than me so he did a little better but we both need some work.  Hopefully the water will be warmer at the end of July when we do the triathlon.

Well as I mentioned earlier, our trailer was totally ruined by all of the snow and water damage during the winter.  The insurance company refused to help repair it at all so we are trying to figure that all out.  We decided to try and fix the roof of the trailer on our own and then have the RV shop repair all of the inside stuff.  It will cost some money but it is less than getting a new trailer.  We still might get a new trailer but not yet.  Any way we decided to not let that stop us from going camping this year so we packed up the tents and things and headed up Logan Canyon for a few days.

We stayed at the Lodge Campground and it was really nice.  There was a lot of shade and near some trails for riding and hiking.

During one day we took the truck up the mountain for a drive.  We knew wanted to look for some fun four wheeling trails and other possible campsites for future plans.  As we drove, we decided to go see Old Ephraim's grave.  Having lived in Cache Valley now for 8 years, it was time to see this famous landmark. When we got to the last road to the landmark, it was totally mudded out and washed away from all of the winter runoff.  We would have been totally stuck if we took the truck down there.  We knew it wasn't much further based on the GPS so we decided to hike down instead.  Well a little further turned out to be about a two mile hike one way.  We did decide that leaving the truck was a smart idea though because the road was terrible. Just look at the ruts:

The ruts were so big and deep that Colby could jump in them and it was over his head.  There were some Razors and four wheelers that tried to make it through and some did find ways.  While we were there, though, there were 3 or 4 side by sides that got completely stuck and had to be wenched out.  One crashed right down on his axles and totally broke them, another almost rolled, and more just were stuck to their gills in mud.  We were glad we walked even though it was long. 

We finally made it to the grave monument and hung out there for a while talking to other people and their "getting stuck" adventures.  Then we started the hike back up to the truck.  We were dumb and didn't bring any water because we didn't expect it to be so far but thankfully some nice riders gave us a couple water bottles for the trek back up.  When we were almost to the truck, a hummer and a truck passed us going down. We flagged them down and told them how bad the roads were and that they should turn around.  They didn't seem to care what we said and kept going.  I hope they were all right.

The rest of the camping trip was a lot of fun.  Even sleeping in the tent wasn't all bad.  We put all of the kids in one tent and then Russell and I had our own so we could actually get some sleep. There was lots of lounging in hammocks and playing card games. And of course cooking s'mores and hot dogs on the fire:

I found these cool marshmallows that changed colors when they got cooked.  We laughed that they would probably just turn from white to brown and we got scammed but they legit changed colors! Some were red/orange and some were green/blue.  They were pretty cool.  With a cookies & cream candy bar in the middle they looked like a patriotic red, white, and blue s'more.  I kind of like these simple camping trips with nothing to worry about.

I have been working at the American West Heritage Center a few days a week this summer.  Here is Mr. Simon the Peacock strutting his stuff around the place: 

Here I am being a train engineer. Most of the time though, I have been working in the Farmhouse and cooking lunch for the staff on the wood stove.  This has definitely been a learning experience.  First of all, getting the fire going in the stove is the hardest part.  Once that is done though, it takes some figuring out to regulate the heat and time how long things need to cook.  It has been interesting to learn.  I think I prefer cooking with dutch ovens on the fire.  

Grandma and Grandpa Farnsworth came up to visit the Stewart's for a couple of days for Paul's birthday.  While they were there we all got together in Ogden to visit the Union Pacific Train Station and Museum.  Exploring all of the trains was pretty fun.  I could not believe how huge they were close up.  I never though about how big they must be but standing next to them really put you in awe.

All of the grandkids climbed all around the trains outside and we were even able to snap this picture.  Then a museum worker came out and told us to get off the trains and we were not supposed to climb on them... Oops! 

Well instead we walked along the tracks and looked at a bunch of other trains on display.  (This time from the ground ha ha!)  Brooklyn refused to be held or even hold a hand because she wants to do everything herself.  She is a very independent, wild soul.

These are some of the cool trains we were able to see at the station.  As you can see the wheels alone were bigger than we are.  Like I said, these things were huge!  If you got hit by one of these trains, there would be no saving you.  I really liked the huge snow plow train engine the kids are standing in front of.  It would be so cool to see this engine in action.

Inside the museum was a ton of interactive train items including this train car.  We could also go inside passenger train car replicas to see what it would be like to travel by train.  There was even an little village throughout the museum with a model train running throughout it.  Watching the little train was so fun and we kept trying to figure out where the train would come from next when it went through the walls to get to the next village.

The museum also housed a really awesome collection of vintage vehicles.  These two were my favorite but there were a lot more to see.  It kept the boys busy for a while.  Then upstairs in the museum was a Browning Gun museum.  The guys really like this as well.  To me it was just a bunch of guns but the guys were fascinated.  This was a fun little site seeing activity with the family. 

June is none other than Baseball Season!  All four kids were involved this year and they all did great.

Emily played softball for the Stingers again this year.  She really likes softball and does a great job playing first base.

She is always read to get the ball and get the out.  She was also able to hit a few good balls this year too.  During one game she even took a few hits.  As she was playing first base, she had her foot on the base and reached to catch the ball.  She caught it and got the girl out but there was no stopping the girl running to first base and she totally plowed Emily over.  The out was still counted because Emily stayed but her glasses went flying.  Sadly they also broke when they went flying so she had to wear taped glasses the rest of the game.  Luckily no one was hurt but it was a good plow and she had a bruise afterward.  Other than that, it was a good season.  This was Emily's last season playing city ball so she was happy to play.

 Colby played for the Braves this season.  He does really well in baseball and was the team's main pitcher.

This was a hard season for his team though.  I think they only won a couple of games.  It always seemed like the kids they played against were way more advanced than the kids on his team.  Oh well it was still a good season and the boys learned a lot.  Colby improved a lot as a pitcher as well even though he says he doesn't like that position because of all of the pressure.  He did well.

They Braves played one tournament game before being eliminated.  They had a great final game though and the coaches praised every one of them for their hard work.

Logan played for the Hyrum Astros.  He loves playing Catcher and does a great job at it.  Not many kids like this position because of all the the gear and constant pressure to watch the pitcher and plays but Logan loves it.

Logan was so happy to hit a few balls during the games this year because he said last year he always struck out.  He did hit some good balls this time and got to run the bases.  His team was pretty good and it seemed like the teams in this age group were more evenly distributed based on skill.  

Logan's team played a couple of tournament games before getting eliminated.  They all had a great time and Logan made a lot of new friends with his teammates.

Charlotte played T-ball again this year and she absolutely loved it.  A couple of kids from her Kindergarten class were on her team which made it even more fun.

Her team was the Sidewinders.  Charlotte is still learning the ropes and coordination of baseball but that's okay because her main focus was having a good time with her friends.  She didn't really care if they won or lost as long as she got to bat, run, and throw the ball every once in a while.  She did like being catcher because she got to throw the ball more often.

The kids summer Pops piano recital was this month as well.

I feel like a failure because I didn't get a picture of Colby playing his song but I did get a video of all three of them.  Emily played her rendition of "Eye of the Tiger."  Colby played a cool ragtime piece "The Entertainer." Logan played "Good Time."  They just keep getting better and better at the piano.

Of course we cannot forget our trips to Lagoon this month.  We tried to go about once a week this month and tried to hit every ride in the park.  Our goal is to ride every ride by the time the season is over. We have just about completed that.

Brooklyn and Charlotte have tried every kid ride and they love it.  Each time we go we have to ride the fire truck ride, baby boats, and Puff the dragon.

I hate Ferris Wheels but the kids convinced me to ride the giant Ferris Wheel at Lagoon because we had to check it off our list.  So we did it ... once.  

This thing is so high up and there are no seat belts to hold you in so if you fall out, you die.  We survived though and even the kids said that they didn't want to do that one again.

We also tried out the Lagoona Beach water park.  Neither Russell or I had ever been to the water park portion of Lagoon before so it was fun to try out.

The kids loved it and could swim all day.  There was a lazy river, a kiddie area, deeper pool, and 5-6 big water slides.  It was nice to go and relax there a couple of times we went.  One time we went and hung out with our friends, the Checketts.  They also have season passes so they were more than happy to just lounge around at the water park.  The best part was when all of us, probably on 10 tubes, linked arms and made a giant train around the lazy river.  We loved it and blocked the whole river.  I don't know if the other people on the lazy river thought it was very cool but oh well we laughed the whole way.  The water slides were not as fun as I hoped.  Unless I don't know how to go down them correctly, I kept getting stuck and had to basically push myself down the slides.  I wasn't the only one that said that though.  Charlotte and Logan seemed to go down just fine so maybe I was too big.  I don't know.  The best water slide was the tube slide.  This one you really had to hold on to your tube and pay attention to where you were going because if not you were flying off the tube.  This made it fun until you fell off and couldn't get back on.  Luckily I only fell off once so it wasn't bad.  We all had a good time at the water park but were totally sunburned afterward.

We that's it for June.  The fun and busyness will continue in July.