This Summer has been especially busy. We started off the summer with camping just in the mountains near our home, which was really fun. It was the first time we had been camping as a family on our own. Now that the girls are about 2 and 4, they seem like they are old enough now to handle camping so it's been really nice to be able to do that.
We had to see Old Faithful of course.
Upper and lower falls were really neat. It was cool to hike down and be right on the edge of the lower falls. It was totally mesmerizing watching the water fall down the falls.
We got to see some buffalo up close which was neat and also a bit scary. One was crossing the road right in front of where we were driving. We saw loads of them on the sides of the road too and some near one of the picnic areas we stopped for lunch.
We saw mammoth hot springs.
I liked the the small paint pots. They were a lot like grand prismatic spring but just on a smaller scale making them easier to see the colors better. I loved the bright oranges and beautiful blues, teals, and greens.
We saw the mud volcano area too. It was so so stinky. We had to bribe Tessa with unlimited cookies to get her out of the car. It really was bad though. By they time we had walked through the length of it, I was feeling nauseous - it was that stinky. David is in front of dragon's mouth in this picture. Every so often the dragon would "belch" and you'd get an extra strong wave of sulfurous stench blow right at you.
The grand canyon of yellowstone was really, really beautiful. We did the hike near the viewpoint and it was nice to get away from the crowds temporarily.
This picture reminds me of the sound of music.
The wildflowers near the lake were so beautiful.
Then at home we've kept busy enjoying the nice weather spending a lot time outdoors. Here we are at the zoo.
I love it when it is warm enough for splash pads and just stripping down to the diaper when your clothes get too wet or if you forgot to bring a swimsuit.
The girls love the fairytale festival and princess party that are put on in Lehi every summer too. It's been nice to just be able to take them to these events instead of having to do a much more expensive Disneyland trip.
Jenny especially loved the mascots that were at the princess party.
Then I love all the little summer city carnivals like American Fork's Strawberry Days.
Then I also took the kids to Topaz Museum and Topaz internment camp historic site a few hours south over a 2 day trip with a stopover at grandma and grandpa's house. The museum was really good. It was about Japanese and Japanese American interment in Utah at Camp Topaz during WWII. The museum included a lot of artifacts from people who lived at the camp. For it not being a children's museum there was really a lot there that kept the kid's engaged. Tessa was especially interested in the children's toys on display there; we talked about how when the families were forced to leave their homes, they were only able to bring what they could carry and talked about what one toy she would choose to bring with her if she could only bring one like those children likely only could.
She was also really liked the Valentine's Day cards on display. She had just had a Valentine's Day party in her classroom so it was neat to be able to see her relate to the kids at the schools at the camp. It was nice to be able to talk to her about how the people there were not really any different from her and it wasn't right to force them from their homes in California and force them to come to camp Topaz.
They also had this diary replica that a class kept which even included pictures the children drew. There was also a replica outside of what the recreation areas were like at Camp Topaz.
The kids also enjoyed looking at this little map and we learned about how to read legends, which was neat.
Then getting to spend time with grandma and grandpa was fun. Jenny especially loves seeing extended family. Here she is with her grandma's help, riding the original scooter her dad rode at 3 years old.
Then near the end of the summer we visited my Grandma Hein, the girl's great grandma in California. It was great to spend some time with my grandma. It had been more than a decade since I had been to her home in California, but I had fond memories of visiting her home many times over the summers throughout my childhood so it was great to revisit those happy memories and introduce my girls to them.
I was wanting to visit the Redwoods while we were in California so we visited Big Basin Redwoods State Park.
The trees have burn proof bark to help them survive forest fires so we saw a few there that were totally burned and hollowed out with only their bark still remaining.
We also visited San Francisco. Our first stop in San Francisco was seeing the seals at Pier 39.
We also visited Grace Cathedral. The girls loved stopping at the playground directly across the street from it as well as running the labyrinth inside. The stain glass windows and other architectural features were just beautiful.
We enjoyed checking out Chinatown. The food was yummy and inexpensive and we got to try some fun, unique fruit.
Then we also stopped at the cable car museum in San Francisco and that was interesting.
We had quite the busy Summer but it was great! We had so much fun! And with living in Utah, you learn to really take advantage of Summer weather getting out as much as possible as soon as the weather gets warm enough and before it gets cold again.
