summer odds and ends

Before we get through September, I want to finish off a few loose ends from the summer.

Back in July, we took a little family vacation up to the cabin and a few other spots thereabout.  Our kids had really looked forward to be up at the cabin, and although it confused them a bit not to have Grammie and Boba, Grams, Papa, cousins, etc. filling up the space up there, we had a great time with just our family.

Dressup fun in the "Wardrobe"

We decided to take advantage of a few Utah activities that we otherwise wouldn't try.

We rode the Heber Valley Railroad down Provo canyon one day.  It was maybe a little less fantastic than we had anticipated.  But it was a beautiful ride and we enjoyed some yummy milkshakes from Granny's in Heber afterwards.

Timpanogos behind me

On another day, we went up to the Utah Olympic Park and had fun on the alpine slide.  We could have used a few grandparents or other helpers at this one.  As it turned out, CAC was too young to ride and the others were each too young to ride solo, so TEC and I would trade off taking one of the kids up to ride the slide while the other stayed with the rest of the crew.  It took three rides each for TEC and I to give the kids each two times down the slide.  And the lines were quite long.  Oh well, none of the kids complained--not even CAC, who had the most reason to.  We also enjoyed watching some of the ski jumpers practice their jumps   and land in a large swimming pool.

On Sunday, we went to "cabin church" at the chapel in Oakley.  The kids got a taste of Primary in a different ward and I was proud of them for being so brave (They experienced Primary away again the following Sunday--at "Idaho church" when we went up to visit my Grandma for the 24th of July--so it was two weeks in a row for them).  We also took a drive up to the reservoir at Smith and Moorehouse and practiced skipping rocks (I wish I could remember what TLC kept calling it ).  We had to tear our kids away from the rocky banks, they enjoyed it so much.  Isn't that funny--with all the planning and running around we do, sometimes the simple things we don't plan out end up being the most fun.

We ended up going back up to Smith and Moorehouse the next day to swim.  The water was super cold;  amazingly, we all got in, though we didn't last long .  Even Beatrice swam around a bit.

I'm grateful for time with my family.  It's times like now, as schedules are filling up with school and work and appointments and other busyness, that I realize just how precious it is.  It sure sounds nice to be back on simple pile of rocks with nothing pressing on our time, watching my kids contentedly play.