Summer Vacation!!!!

So we just returned from our summer vacation and boy are we all tired! First, we went to Utah to visit Mike, Melissa and the kids. We stopped in St. George and saw the Brigham Young Winter home and let the kids play at a park. There was a really nice park with some amazing water features that the kids were able to cool off in.



The kids were so excited to see their cousins! While we were there we went to the park and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire pit. There was a beautiful little creek where the kids, Mason and Mike went wading. Mason says that the water was really cold and his feet were numb almost instantly!



We also visited the ice caves near Paris, Idaho. On our way there it got really cloudy and started pouring rain. We were traveling along the mountain roads and we hit a hard BUMP! We looked at each other and the van seemed to be doing OK, so we continued on our way. Well, about 30 minutes later, our tire started shredding! So needless to say Mason and Mike had to go change the tire in the pouring rain. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of that. We did end up at the ice caves, though.




Of course, we also spent a day in Salt Lake to visit Temple Square:

After Utah, we headed for Northern California. We stayed at our timeshare resort in Angel's Camp. It's a little mining town from the 1850's and it's super cute. Their claim to fame is a story by Mark Twain called "The Jumping Frog of Calveras County." Apparently, he used to love this area and stayed here often. That inspired a book, which in turn inspired an annual jumping frog contest! We were a couple of weeks late for the contest, but all the frog memorabilia around the city is really cute.

We also visited Big Trees State Park which was amazing! We were able to take a 1.3 mile hike along an accessible trail. The kids were exhausted, but we had fun and took some really cool pictures that I'm going to hang (someday when I get around to it).

The last day we went to Murphy's (about 10 minutes from where we were staying). It's another cute mining town with a lot of history. We did a self-guided walking tour and met the town burro named Clarissa - too funny! Afterwards, we went to the cutest ice-cream shop called The Peppermint Stick and had ice cream for lunch. Brayden thought that was the greatest thing and he's still talking about it: "Mom, remember when you let us have ice cream for lunch?"

Anyway, now onto the fall - school, work and hopefully some cooler weather soon!