Date time in Utah

Tom couldn't spend long with us in Utah, but we did take advantage of the couple days he had to sneak in some dates:

Payson Temple

We also hiked the Y. Can I mention that it's a great place for Pokemon hunting? (o:

I love this handsome man!

The Narrows in Zion's National Park

We hiked part of the Narrows last summer and wanted a repeat of that experience this year! We had a blast and hiked a lot further in this year than last, partly because we were far more prepared with the gear we needed! (Tom and I hiked about 8 miles) Walking sticks are quite helpful when walking over rocks in a river! We met up with the Bundy family and splashed our way though the canyon. For the most part, the kids loved it, but turned around a couple hours earlier than Tom and me. We were glad to have friends that were willing to go back with them!

Tricia and her family moved back to Idaho this summer and I am soooo sad that I no longer have a hiking buddy. )o: She was always the one I could count on to explore new trails with me. I'm not sure what I'm going to do without her!

Andrew, Madeline, Carter, Bundy cousins,  Rebecca

This is all the kiddos that hiked with us

I loved all the rock art throughout the river. It put a smile on my face!

I can't wait to go a little further next year. I have a feeling it's going to be hard to get my kids to go again though unless we find someone really awesome to come with us again!

Beach Day # 924

I heard this rumor that my two blog followers really wanted to see even more beach photos and I am happy to provide. What's the point to living in SoCal if you don't go to the beach as much as possible? It was a perfect day at Salt Creek Beach today!

Clark, Praia, and Madeline

Clark and Andrew ready to hit the waves. 

The waves were bringing them all together. They ended up on top of each other more than once. HAHA!

My awesome friends-Betsy, Tricia and Jen

Madeline, Praia and Kayleigh looking super enthused. 

It's a new type of "wave riding" they are trying. 

Betsy, Tricia, and me. This was Betsy's first time ever boogie boarding!

After our awesome beach day, we hit up krispy kreme for some freshly fried donuts. Yum!

We ❤ Summer: Family Edition

We've had a whole lot of visitors this summer and it's been AWESOME!

My mom came out right as school ended. She's such a super helper. She always mates my socks. HA! It means that for at least a few weeks after my mom leaves, we all have properly mated socks. It feels miraculous! (o; She pretty much helps with anything and everything when she comes. She always manages to reorganize my towel cupboard too. Don't worry, we play too when she's here. We had a beach day of total relaxation:

Our second set of visitors for the summer were Ellie and Cami. They arrived together after a 27 hour traumatic ordeal of getting here, which included an emergency landing in South Dakota after running out of fuel, hanging out in that closed airport for 8 hours with only food from a vending machine, then finally making it to Denver after that airport closed too. United refused to accommodate them with a hotel room for the night and wouldn't even provide blankets for them to sleep with on the Denver airport floor. Needless to say, United sucks and they are on MY do not fly list after the ordeal they put my nieces through. Grr.... Thankfully, Cami and Ellie eventually made it here in one piece and in high spirits despite their flying ordeal.

We went to the beach shortly after their arrival. We were NOT intending to get in the water, but alas that plan always fails. HAHA!

Ellie

Ellie, Madeline, and Andrew

Cami, Ellie, and Madeline

Cami and I

Ellie

Ellie and Madeline

Cami

Cami and Ellie

Ellie, Cami and crazy Andrew

Ellie and Cami

Ellie and Andrew-he acts normal when he doesn't know I'm taking a photo

And their time of relative dryness quickly came to an end:

Madeline finally finished her book and joined them in the water.

I love this tree above the beach in Laguna Beach!

After Spencer arrived Saturday night, we headed to San Diego for two days. We hit Coronado beach, one of my favorites:

Madeline, Cami, and Ellie

Ellie and Madeline decided to become sand monsters:

Spencer thought the waves were way too wimpy for his boogie boarding, but he hit the waves anyways.

Ellie checking out the sea lions in La Jolla cove.

Spencer saw a palm tree and informed us he needed to climb it because it looked so climbable!

After our San Diego tour, we came back to Orange county and went whale watching. We had thoroughly worn out Ellie at this point, but she was still as pleasant and positive as she always is:

Check out the awesome blue whale in the background. The boat captain said he thought it was about 75 feet long!

We also saw a pod of dolphins!

We hit the beach as much as possible with family here, This time we went to Newport Beach. When we were done playing at the beach, we took the ferry to Balboa Island to enjoy my favorite little Mexican restaurant and eat a Balboa bar! It was delightful!

Madeline and Ellie didn't want to carry all their things back to the car, so they found a more efficient way of bringing their stuff back. Of course, I'm not sure the boogie boards enjoyed their rides over the concrete too much! Hope they aren't destroyed!

I love this photo of Cami and I. It's such a great compliment to me when people tell us we look alike. We even had someone ask if we were sisters!! I wanted to hug the stranger! HAHA!

We absolutely loved having Cami, Spencer and Ellie here. It was such a delight to spend time with them and to get to know them better!! I hope they all come and visit again soon!

Our final visitors were my cousins, Scott and Amanda with four of their children (Maddie, Jacob, Joseph, and Ben). I managed to only get one picture though when they were here:

Maddie and Ellie

It's been such a fun summer, but now I need a nap!