The three great things about summer...

So I was thinking the other day about how much I enjoy summer.  I love the warm weather, the low key schedule (sleeping in once in a while!), and the backyard afternoons full of watermelons and popsicles.  But what I get most excited about when summer comes is really three other things.

One is definitely family that we get to see more of!  My sister and some of her family (minus the missionary and summer college student)  stopped in for a couple of days on their way to and from the front range for soccer tournaments.  We hiked Coke Ovens and Devils Kitchen on the monument went out for ice cream, and took an awesome bike ride down by the Colorado river.

Coke Ovens: (back) Dallin, Erika, Tonya, Erik, Nikki, Amanda, Jacob, Natalie, (front) Maren & Spencer

Maren, Nikki, Amanda

 Look carefully can you see the lizard on this rock?

Dave's brother and family also stopped in on their road trip this summer for a quick visit.  Andrew and Dave were able to get in an early morning bike ride, and Miranda and I took the kids down town for some ice cream and splash pad play.  Once again my boys were obsessed with the baby.  This time it was baby Bailey who is four months old, and not quite so fragile as Anna was at 6 weeks.  The cousins had a great time hanging out together and all the kids loved this giant bike they are all posing on, as well as the bicycle bell concert they made in front of the local bike shop.  We had a good time just playing around at home in the backyard and catching up...wish we lived a little closer!

Amanda, Spencer, Noah, Ethan, Jessica, & Maren

Jacob and Bailey

Number two of my summer fav's is definitely having my kids around a little more.  Maren made these awesome chocolate covered  banana's just for the fun of it one afternoon (using her leftover Easter chocolate bunny none the less).

 I also love watching my kids learn new things.  While I am a "send my kid to school" kind of mom, I do miss that light bulb going on in their head moment when they learn something new or something they have worked hard at finally clicks.  I try to remedy that with some summer activities, including lots of reading, some writing, and other fun stuff I come up with.  This summer we are doing some typing and lots of little things like calendering and money practice.  And of course there is swimming lessons.  The kids all progressed some in their lessons... 

Spencer is now willing to go under water when his teacher helps him. 

 Amanda took a springboard diving class and rocks it on her back dive.

 And Maren rocks it on all her strokes constantly beating everyone else in her class to the side of the pool.  I signed them up for one more lesson session in a few weeks, I can't wait to see what they do then!

And my third favorite thing about summer... is random adventures we like to take.  This first is to Monticello for our stake temple day.  The kids got to do lots of fun activities while I got to do a session and stay for baptisms with the youth.  They all made graham cracker temples and ate them on the drive home.  It is long drive for one day, but well worth the adventure.

 We love random park days.  I try to squeeze them in after swimming lessons, before story time at the library, or whenever we can.  This is often my set up with the boys when we bike to a park.  The boys love it and I have to laugh at all the stares I get, even for a bike town.  It is surprisingly easy to tow, just hard to maneuver  when I need to turn it around.

 And we actually took this next adventure back before school got out, but oh well, it is still a random adventure I suppose.  This is called Hanging lake.  It is near Glenwood Springs, CO on I-70, and it has to be one of my favorite hikes of all time.  It is so beautiful.  The hike is fairly rigorous, and about 3 miles long one way.  But both Spencer and Maren made it both ways on their own.  The only bummer is how crowded it can be.  But still a great hike none the less. 

Hanging Lake

And this water fall behind the lake is incredible...it is literally coming out of a hole in the rock, super cool.  Love that Maren loved this place as much as I did. 



Amanda had a swim meet before we ventured to the hike,  it had to have been one of her best meets.  And between events she was playing on the climbing wall.  She tried the hike, but was super tired.  I was bummed She, Dave and Jacob didn't get to see lake and water fall with us, but then it occurred to me that gave me the perfect excuse to come back again=)  That is not a problem at all.  More summer adventures is never a problem in my book!