July 25, 2015

4th of July, Moon Lake, Bell Canyon, Stewart Falls and Pioneer day

Combining a few sets of pics into one post here. This summer is FLYING by. It kind of makes me sad...
This very well could be our last summer in this house. I have mixed feelings about that. This house, the structure itself, makes me crazy. It is old and falling apart and outdated and parts of it are just plain ugly. However, it has also been a good home for us for the past almost 4 years. I am trying, really really trying to just take deep breaths and have faith that everything will work out and that we will be able to find a great home to call our own and put down some roots in...without having to leave this wonderful area, awesome school and all the great friends we have made here. Blogging about the fun things we do distracts me from the home buying stress. So this might be a long one...

For the 4th of July we had a fun filled weekend with friends. We continued with our yearly tradition of gathering at Olympic Park with the Clark family and watching fireworks. This year, the Espinoza's also joined us. It was a super fun and chill evening. The kids are old enough to entertain themselves now so it was nice to just sit around and talk, eat and play games. The older I get, the more I seem to hate being in crowds so I am glad that we have this fun tradition-it sure beats watching the fireworks at the Riverton or Sugarhouse park and dealing with all the traffic and people.








We went to Moon Lake last weekend. Last time we were there was when we lived in our old house and Easton was not even 2 yet. I don't know why it took us so long to get back up there. I love Moon Lake. It is probably my second favorite place to camp. Unfortunately, our beach day was overcast and chilly so I didn't get to lay in the sand for 8 hours like I had planned. But we did rent a small boat and enjoyed an afternoon of exploring the lake in it. I decided that I need to buy my husband a boat. Just a small one for him and the boys to go fishing in-because they were in HEAVEN! It was an awesome weekend and we all had a good time enjoying yummy dutch oven meals, playing fun games and taking pretty nature walks. I am glad we have the opportunity to go camping each summer!


































When the kids were still in school, Tiana and I hiked Bell Canyon a few times. It took us about an hour and a half, maybe two hours to get to the waterfall and back. We took the kids to do it the day after we got back from Moon Lake and with them it took us more than 3 1/2 hours. I might have underestimated how steep of a climb that hike really is. But each of the kids made it to the waterfall and I could tell they were proud of themselves even if they were dog tired at the end. I am grateful for beautiful hikes that are just a 5 minute drive from our house. Hiking is probably one of my favorite parts of summer.












Last week we were finally able to hike Stewart Falls. I have been wanting to do this hike since I saw someone post on Instagram about it a year ago. It was way prettier than I imagined it would be. It is probably our family's new favorite hike. I can't wait to do it again, at least once, before the summer is over.






For Pioneer Day my dad got us all Bees tickets so we could see the AMAZING firework show after the game-because let's be honest, the Bees stink this year! We didn't go for the baseball. At least I didn't. I went for the food and fireworks. I tried my first ever garlic fries and I am sad to say I didn't love them. I thought I would because I LOVE garlic but they just didn't do it for me. I did however, LOVE watching our kids enjoy their huge ice cream cones. Money well spent right there. The fireworks at Smith's Ballpark keep getting better and better each year and I always leave Bees game firework shows feeling very patriotic and grateful. We might have spent a small fortune on food, but the kids had a blast and we definitely all came home with FULL bellies. The pictures are all out of order because they are coming from 3 different phones.