Out & About

We used Dalanie's birthday as an excuse to go on a little day trip.  Since the kids have never been to Mesa Falls, we made that the object of our outing.

It was a pretty popular place that day.

I sure love these guys.

We had also planned to hit Squealers for a little go carting/amusement park kind of fun.  The kids love it!  There are virtually no lines and they feel like they own the place.  Delsie hung out with me since she was too short to ride most of the rides.

Bumper boats are always a favorite to cool down.

Delsie, perfecting her sommersault on the pavement.

Hudson loved the go carts.  As soon as his ride was finished, he hustled back into line for the next go round.

Ruby and Dalanie really enjoyed the little paddle boats.  They got pretty good at going around in circles.

The girls managed a little rock climbing even after our time was up.

It was a beautiful summer day to enjoy being together.

Lemonade Stand

Dalanie had a lemonade stand on her bucket list.  (And honestly, I had as much fun as she did getting ready for it.)  With a little paper and markers, we transformed our little stand into a lemonade storefront.

Earlier in the day, she set out her chalkboard advertising a lemonade stand later that day. We chose to do it on a Tuesday night when we have the most traffic for all those going to scouts and mutual.

And then about 2 hours before it started, she decided that she had better make some phone calls to let her friends know about it.  "Hi, this is Dalanie.  Ruby and I are having a lemonade stand and we just wanted to invite you to come to it.  It's from 5-8 tonight."

Her advertising paid off.  It was a steady stream of customers.

She also sold cupcakes.  So you could get a glass of lemonade and cupcake for $1.

It turned out to be a really fun evening, visiting with friends.

But by 8 o'clock she had had it.  She was tired and hungry and ready to be finished selling lemonade.  She got after me, "Aren't you even going to help me clean this stuff up?"

After the dust settled and she paid her expenses and repaid the money she started out with for change, she made $37.  Not bad!

Bear Lake

As we were driving toward the lake, it was apparent that we weren't the only ones with the same idea.  It was SUPER crowded, but once you made a spot for yourself you didn't recognize the crowd.

Finding a place to put the jet skis in the water was a bit of an adventure.  We finally found a break in the crowds and pushed a way through.  It was a tight squeeze, the neighbors were quite concerned at how close we were and considered moving their vehicle.  The problem with Bear Lake is that we back out several yards, but it never dropped off enough to get them in the water.

Floating was their favorite thing to do.

Stephens met us for a day at the beach.

It's always funner with cousins.

Roasting marshmallows.

Our attempt at a nice group shot.

Every time Brent went out to sail, the wind would die down.

Hooray for the Red, White, & Blue

The kids and I decided to ride our bikes down the the Community Breakfast in Firth.  I still remember riding bikes with my family out to Gerrard's for their breakfast on the 4th.  (Plus we could log some miles for our Summer Challenge.)  And since we were on a tight schedule, Brent volunteered to drive to bring us home.

The kids and I had a lot of fun decorating them.

My baby that's rounding that corner and not looking much like a baby anymore.

The whole gang

After the breakfast we bee-lined it for Idaho Falls to watch the parade by the Jensen's.

I love festive dressed kids.  They are so cute.

After the parade we had a picnic at Jensen's with a water fight following.  There were more squeals of delight and surprise.

The kids had a blast, but only an adult or two joined in the fun.  All the others sat in the shade scowling- don't get me wet!

After a busy day of festivities, we opted to go over to Grandma and Grandpa Hillman's to watch Christensen's fireworks and light off our own.  The kids thought it was awesome and we didn't have to haul tired kids and fight the traffic up in Idaho Falls.