Fun Things with Joseph

Two things in June that the hubby and I did together:

1) Refinished a little side table for our living room. My mom brought it out for us to sell at our garage sale and we ended up keeping it and making it work in our home.

2) Date night up Little Cottonwood Canyon. 

We were trying to find a good movie time and something interesting to see when we just headed up the canyon instead and hiked around until it was nearly too dark to see anymore. The wildflowers were on fire up there and it was completely deserted and gorgeous and fresh. I loved every minute of it and felt thankful yet again for the beautiful mountains surrounding us here in Utah. They are intoxicating and beloved to me.

 

 

 

LeBaron Camping Adventure

 6 of 8 LeBaron siblings made it up for a night in the mountains! We booked later than we should have so could only find a group site way up Hobble Creek Canyon — it was such a long drive and then not very cool up there being so far south and not high in the mountain. But you know what? We had a fantastic time (for camping anyway! I am not the biggest camping fan —mostly because it's so much work to just bring all the gear and then the sleeping is nonexistent...but the kiddos love it and get filthy and we soak up dirt and campfires and exploring and cousins so it all balances out :)

 Luke and Anna

 Isabel, Livs and Addy

Early morning view in our tent

Luke was our sleeping buddy most of the night :|

Cutest group of 9 year old girls! Tommy's hammock ended up being the hit of the campout. Every kid loved hanging out in it and we are thoroughly convinced that we'll need at least one on every campout in the future!

 

The cousins! Finn, Addy and Leo were already back to bed for naps and Anders was still asleep. But holy smokes that's a huge crew of kids!

The breakfast crew —bacon, pancakes and fruit never tasted so good!

Off on an adventurous hike. This trail was so overgrown and sketchy that it was kind of scary! But we just kept trudging on hoping to find something at the end...and...we never did! Oops. Kind of a bust but the kids did great and kept together and grew their little hiking leg muscles :)

These faces are the best. 

I seriously love my LeBaron family and how they are always up for family fun!

More Fun with Allens

We tried to fit in a ton of play dates and outings with our cousins who are usually so far away. Olivia and Sadie were already cousin besties but this time together during the summer really sealed the deal for them —too cute!

 

 We happen to be equally fond of Abby and Max too! Cares wishes she could be Abby's permanent babysitter :)

Lagoon!!

We have not done Lagoon since I was pregnant with Luke and even then my bigs went with Joseph and Livs and I stayed home. It was high time we hit it up again and let me just say that it is so much fun having big kids! And especially having a big toddler who is pretty brave and willing to try anything once. We also have the magically perfect sized family for theme parks (if I do say so myself!) 6 works easily on every ride.

 These 3 bolted off together early on to hit the big coasters and I took the littles on the fun kid rides. Cares was such a daredevil and loved every new ride (Colossus, Wicked, and the White Rollercoaster).

Meanwhile I had a party with these two:

 My best buddies on the little rides!

We got to Lagoon right when they opened and made it a long, full day. We even hit Lagoon-A Beach midday when it was too hot to wander around anymore and it felt amazing to play in the cool water. We stayed until about 7 pm when we felt pretty done with all the rides and tired from a long day in the sun. We think this needs to be a summer tradition from now on — it was such a hit for our little family!

We all went on the Log Ride and Rattlesnake Rapids but Luke was done after one time around on each of those so we stayed together and grabbed pics as the others went again:

Bean and I rode the Rocket together and it was my favorite ride of the day! Such an adrenaline rush!

 

Until next year Lagoon...

Musical and the Mountains

This was such a fun summer day! The girls and I got last minute tickets to see The Little Mermaid at Hale Center Theater and we loved it. The whole theater was decorated to fit the theme, even in the lobby. It was Olivia's first time going to a musical and she was totally entranced by it.

My loveliest little dates!

Heidi and Ben moved here for several weeks of the summer in between residency ending and a fellowship starting. This was their first weekend in Utah and we joined them up in the mountains right after the play for dinner and a fire and roaming in the woods (and exploring grandma and grandpa's RV of  course :)