That Time We Went to Tony Grove

     I love everything about this photo. 

Lydia is having a lot of fun with the cross country program. She had her first race and took a minute off her time! So proud of her. 

Years from now, I can imagine my family sitting around a campfire asking, "Do you remember that time we went to Tony Grove?" Everyone would know exactly what we were talking about. Nate, Cam and Mary's family, Em and Tyson's family, Brayden, my parents and our family decided to drive to Tony Grove last Saturday. We thought if we left by 9 or 9:30 we should be able to beat the crowds. So we packed up our lunches, life jackets, swim suits, kayaks and chairs and headed up the canyon. After a beautiful forty minute drive, we made it to the parking lot. I couldn't believe what I saw. The parking lot was completely jam packed with cars. The ranger told us it had filled up before 8 am and if we wanted to stay we had to park a mile down the road. We couldn't imagine carrying all our stuff plus the kids uphill for a mile so we decided to unpack everything and Cam and Loren would drive down to the other parking place and check it out. My parents and Em hadn't arrived yet but when they did we realized there was no way we could carry everyone's stuff and we weren't even sure where we would carry it to. We thought we would just have to head home. So we threw everything in my dad's truck, squished all the kids inside and drove to find Loren and Cam. Mary caught this cute pic before we left.

We found Cam and Loren running halfway up the road. We picked them up and drove to where they parked. We turned onto a side road that had cars parked bumper to bumper all the way up and out of sight around a bend. We turned around the bend and found more parking close to a trailhead. We decided to take our lunches up the trail and explore a bit. We had no idea how far a walk it was to the lake but figured at least a mile. On our way, we ran into some friends who were just returning from a horse ride and they let the kids ride them for a bit. They were in heaven!  

The trail was so green and full of wildflowers. 

After hiking about a mile on the trail, we made it to the lake! The kids really wanted to get in and swim. Cam and Nate ran all the way back to grab the lifejackets, towels, chairs and the kayak. Cam's watch said he ran/walked about six miles total by the end of the day. We definitely got our exercise in. 

     There were so many flies! Cam had the right idea.

Jace is a water baby! He absolutely loves the beach and pool. 

After a few hours we packed up all our stuff and headed back to the car. The day didn't end up going how I imagined but we still had a great time. Though in the future, we will never come on a Saturday in the summer again. 

Mary and her kids stayed until the next Wednesday. We had SO much summer fun with cousins. Em, Mary and I started singing and then Addy and Hudson joined in too. It was so funny as they belted their little voices out. 

Mary gave Allie a bunch of pony beads and string for her birthday. She showed her how to make a gecko and now we have geckos coming out of our ears. Its been so much fun!

My mom took the older kids up the canyon. They played, talked about the different names of Jesus and had fun together. 

We went to the Aquatic Center and I was a little worried about Jace hating it but he ended up loving the water. It was so fun to watch him splash around. Lydia, Greyson and Allie spent most the time going down the slides, Lydia even went down the straight one with a little convincing from her Uncle Tyson. Everyone had a great time. The next day was Greyson's birthday! We celebrated by going to The Jump Zone and Jace, again, surprised me with how much he loved it. After everyone had wore themselves out, we stopped at McDonalds for lunch. Then it was sprinklers and playing at Grandma's followed by a delicious salmon dinner made by Mary with chocolate raspberry cupcakes to end the day. We were so happy to celebrate Greyson's birthday with him. It was a fabulous day!

A couple days later was the Swan Family reunion. We started at Hyrum Dam and had fun in kayaks and the big floating slide. It was really fun to have Rachel, Jon and Lindsay there. We sure miss them when they're gone. 

After a few hours we went back to the house to change and pack up. Then I sent Loren and the kids to Bear Lake to sleep over at the party house. It was huge!

The pool was by far the main attraction. The kids swam and swam and swam. I wouldn't mind having CPR done by that hot lifeguard. We had fun relaxing and playing with family. Thanks to Grandma Swan for a great trip. 

I want to remember Hudson like this forever.

I walked around the house and found this. It was the first time I felt sentimental about Lydia's grasshoppers. 

I can sense a change in the air. Fall is coming and school will be starting in a couple weeks. I'm not ready for it this year. I'll really miss the girls. But I guess life keeps on going whether we want it to or not. We'll just have to enjoy these last couple weeks while we have them.