Another summer over
Summer of 2017 was SO busy! A few days after school ended, on June 3rd, we went up to Payson to try a new
swiming hole called Water Wheel. It was about a 1.5mi hike, which Daisy
whined most of the way through. It was hot but we quickly forgot our
hot misery when we made it to the water, which was so cold! The hike
back up was so much easier after we were all cooled off. Adaira wasn't with us because she was finishing up a week up at Grandma Jo's with her cousin Addie.
June 7th, we took the kids down to Tucson for the temple open house. It was a long and hot day, but always such a blessing to be able to take our children through the temple. Aunt Leza and cousins joined us, as did Sister Infanger and two of her kids, Ainsley and August. Adaira rode to and from Tucson in Ainsley's car and just loved it.
On June 8th Brighton boarded a plane in the wee hours of the morning to fly by himself to Salt Lake City. He was picked up by Justin's cousin Hayley Cottle. She took him a short drive to a meeting spot for the shuttle to take him to summer camp at Birch Creek Service Ranch in Spring City, UT. This was a camp I had heard about for years through another friend who had sent her boys. She raved about what an amazing effect it had on her boys and how they learned to appreciate serving others. This was a character quality we wanted Brighton to learn. As our oldest child he is such a great example in many ways. He really has a spirit that is so sensitive to what is good and bad. He always strives to choose the right path to righteousness. His attitude toward helping out around the house and treatment of his siblings needed some work (as it does for most 13yr old boys) and being the example that he is to the younger siblings we thought this camp would be worth the money. Brighton cried the first time I brought up going to camp. He absolutely did NOT want to go when he heard they had to do work every day. As I kept bringing it up he just assumed I was forcing him to go (I wasn't going to) and slowly came around to it. It was 22 days long. Every morning they woke up early and performed 4hrs of either work on the ranch or service in town. After lunch they got to sign up for activities planned by the various camp counselors. Every Wednesday was lake day and everyone looked forward to that. Every weekend they went on overnight hikes and camped in the open (a lot of boys slept in their hammocks, including Brighton). By the end of camp, as expected, Brighton was sad to leave and can't wait to go back next year. He didn't even get homesick!
We suprised the kids by taking advantage of a cheap one way RV rental deal and we drove up to pick up Brighton from camp on June 30th. Another surprise was that instead of coming home from there and camping at Zions for a few nights like we had planned, we continued north/northeast on a 7 day road trip ending in Seattle Washington! We hit a watering hole called Mona Rope Swing the day we were to meet Brighton. We weren't supposed to arrive until later in the day so we needed something to fill our time and Justin had decided that he wanted to hit as many watering holes as he could find this summer.
Polly's body language while throwing a fit was just too cute not to post.
After picking Brighton up we headed to our friends the Cotter's in Lehi. We parked the RV for the night in front of their house and hung out with them for the evening. It was great to see them, catchup, and use their showers. The next morning we left after breakfast and headed to North Ogden to visit Brent Taylor and his family. On the way we stopped in Salt Lake for a few hours to tour temple square with the kids. It was rushed but I'm so glad we took the time to stop and show them a little bit of church history.
The RV had a funky beeping alarm issue that started about a 30 minutes before we arrived at Brent's house and we didn't want to head to the boondocks without getting it checked out, so we ended up staying for several hours while we talked to the rental company about the issues and waited to hear back from them. The beeping finally stopped and they didn't have any answers for us, so we headed on our way for a long drive to Jackson Hole WY. We camped just outside of Jackson Hole in Alpine, WY at a great little spot and just enjoyed the beauty and the weather for an evening. We weren't all that prepared and the owners were great, giving us firewood and matches, and loaning us bug spray. I don't think they were used to families like ours at their campground. Brighton and Adaira planned to sleep outside that evening but after a quick Google search to see if bears were common in the area (and they were), Mom had a change of heart and asked them to sleep inside the RV.
The next morning we drove to Jackson Hole for the first thing on our list, White Water Rafting! We hired a babysitter from a service there to come to a park where we parked our RV and she babysat the younger three for us while we took Brighton and Adaira. In hindsight we wished we would've brought Dale as well, but he was nervous about the cold water and it was an expensive activity so we decided not to take him if he wasn't sure he wanted to go, plus we knew Daisy would be more comfortable if he stayed with her (sorry buddy!). It was such a fun activity and we got plenty wet with freezing water! We stayed on our raft though and didn't have any real danger. After that activity we went to a park at the base of a ski resort in Jackson and enjoyed playing and spending too much money on some rides. We started our drive to the Tetons and made a quick stop at "Mormon Row" where Mormon settlers built a row of structures 100yrs ago. We took a quick picture (it was freezing!) in front of the T.A. Moulton barn that is famous photography spot of the barn with the Grand Tetons in the background. The Tetons are just breathtaking, just driving along them was amazing. We ended our evening at Colter Bay RV resort in Jackson. There are lots of bear warnings in Colter Bay and lots of bears randomly around, so it was scary for me to go even on the existing trails exploring. We listened to most of a Ranger talk and then explored a little along the bay.
The next morning we headed to our grand destination, Yellowstone Park. Unfortunately for me, I shouldn't have had such grand expectations of all the wildlife we would see there. We drove around for several hours and while we did see Old Faithful and all the really cool geysers around it, we saw very little wildlife. It was hugely disappointing!
We found a stream in Yellowstone so of course we had to stop and take a dip!
We went to our RV park just outside the West entrance in West Yellowstone, determined to see more the following day. Justin read online that most of the wildlife is out right at dawn in a certain area of the park. Turns out that area takes 90 minutes to get to, so he was up (and me as well since it's impossible for me to sleep while he is driving) at 3:30am to we could be to our spot by 5am when the sun began to rise. We did see more wildlife, but we still never got a good look at any bears or moose. Boo. Yellowstone left we wishing we had spent more time in the Tetons. It was the 4th of July that day so we went to the 4th of July parade in West Yellowstone. It was great! Nobody lined up until right before it started, except for us because we didn't know what to expect, so we were sitting out there by ourselves on the street for a good 1.5hrs before it started. The parade was only about 20 minutes long but was a fantastic candy haul for the kids for the short parade that it was. We went back to our RV for the night ready to start the long Western haul to Seattle the next day.
On our way west, we stopped for a quick dip in a river (for picture's sake) at the Clark Fork river outside of Missoula MT, then stayed a little longer at Lake Couer d'alane, ID. From there we continued on until we stopped and played in the water again at Moses Lake, WA.
Clark Fork River
That evening I stayed up lake and drove until just past midnight to get us closer to Seattle. We stayed the night just outside of Seattle and turned our RV in the next morning after picking up a truck rental. That day we just hung out in the Seattle area. We hit another lake park in Renton, WA, called Gene Coulon Memorial Park.
Early bedtime so we could be up at 4am to make a 6:20am flight home the next day. What a trip! We were so exhausted and tired of our cramped RV quarters by the time we were done but the memories were so amazing. Our kids watched Beauty and the Beast over and over on the trip (it had only come out a little while earlier and we bought it on Amazon and Adaira downloaded it to the Kindle and was so excited for Brighton to get to watch it when we picked him up). The sound track to that movie just takes us back to that trip and the memories of driving through so much beautiful country. We are so blessed to have been able to have the money, the time off, and the wonderful family of ours to create these memories with. We hope at least our older kids remember it forever. The trip really sold Justin on RVs too and he would like to get one some day.
June 7th, we took the kids down to Tucson for the temple open house. It was a long and hot day, but always such a blessing to be able to take our children through the temple. Aunt Leza and cousins joined us, as did Sister Infanger and two of her kids, Ainsley and August. Adaira rode to and from Tucson in Ainsley's car and just loved it.
On June 8th Brighton boarded a plane in the wee hours of the morning to fly by himself to Salt Lake City. He was picked up by Justin's cousin Hayley Cottle. She took him a short drive to a meeting spot for the shuttle to take him to summer camp at Birch Creek Service Ranch in Spring City, UT. This was a camp I had heard about for years through another friend who had sent her boys. She raved about what an amazing effect it had on her boys and how they learned to appreciate serving others. This was a character quality we wanted Brighton to learn. As our oldest child he is such a great example in many ways. He really has a spirit that is so sensitive to what is good and bad. He always strives to choose the right path to righteousness. His attitude toward helping out around the house and treatment of his siblings needed some work (as it does for most 13yr old boys) and being the example that he is to the younger siblings we thought this camp would be worth the money. Brighton cried the first time I brought up going to camp. He absolutely did NOT want to go when he heard they had to do work every day. As I kept bringing it up he just assumed I was forcing him to go (I wasn't going to) and slowly came around to it. It was 22 days long. Every morning they woke up early and performed 4hrs of either work on the ranch or service in town. After lunch they got to sign up for activities planned by the various camp counselors. Every Wednesday was lake day and everyone looked forward to that. Every weekend they went on overnight hikes and camped in the open (a lot of boys slept in their hammocks, including Brighton). By the end of camp, as expected, Brighton was sad to leave and can't wait to go back next year. He didn't even get homesick!
We suprised the kids by taking advantage of a cheap one way RV rental deal and we drove up to pick up Brighton from camp on June 30th. Another surprise was that instead of coming home from there and camping at Zions for a few nights like we had planned, we continued north/northeast on a 7 day road trip ending in Seattle Washington! We hit a watering hole called Mona Rope Swing the day we were to meet Brighton. We weren't supposed to arrive until later in the day so we needed something to fill our time and Justin had decided that he wanted to hit as many watering holes as he could find this summer.
After picking Brighton up we headed to our friends the Cotter's in Lehi. We parked the RV for the night in front of their house and hung out with them for the evening. It was great to see them, catchup, and use their showers. The next morning we left after breakfast and headed to North Ogden to visit Brent Taylor and his family. On the way we stopped in Salt Lake for a few hours to tour temple square with the kids. It was rushed but I'm so glad we took the time to stop and show them a little bit of church history.
The RV had a funky beeping alarm issue that started about a 30 minutes before we arrived at Brent's house and we didn't want to head to the boondocks without getting it checked out, so we ended up staying for several hours while we talked to the rental company about the issues and waited to hear back from them. The beeping finally stopped and they didn't have any answers for us, so we headed on our way for a long drive to Jackson Hole WY. We camped just outside of Jackson Hole in Alpine, WY at a great little spot and just enjoyed the beauty and the weather for an evening. We weren't all that prepared and the owners were great, giving us firewood and matches, and loaning us bug spray. I don't think they were used to families like ours at their campground. Brighton and Adaira planned to sleep outside that evening but after a quick Google search to see if bears were common in the area (and they were), Mom had a change of heart and asked them to sleep inside the RV.
The next morning we drove to Jackson Hole for the first thing on our list, White Water Rafting! We hired a babysitter from a service there to come to a park where we parked our RV and she babysat the younger three for us while we took Brighton and Adaira. In hindsight we wished we would've brought Dale as well, but he was nervous about the cold water and it was an expensive activity so we decided not to take him if he wasn't sure he wanted to go, plus we knew Daisy would be more comfortable if he stayed with her (sorry buddy!). It was such a fun activity and we got plenty wet with freezing water! We stayed on our raft though and didn't have any real danger. After that activity we went to a park at the base of a ski resort in Jackson and enjoyed playing and spending too much money on some rides. We started our drive to the Tetons and made a quick stop at "Mormon Row" where Mormon settlers built a row of structures 100yrs ago. We took a quick picture (it was freezing!) in front of the T.A. Moulton barn that is famous photography spot of the barn with the Grand Tetons in the background. The Tetons are just breathtaking, just driving along them was amazing. We ended our evening at Colter Bay RV resort in Jackson. There are lots of bear warnings in Colter Bay and lots of bears randomly around, so it was scary for me to go even on the existing trails exploring. We listened to most of a Ranger talk and then explored a little along the bay.
The next morning we headed to our grand destination, Yellowstone Park. Unfortunately for me, I shouldn't have had such grand expectations of all the wildlife we would see there. We drove around for several hours and while we did see Old Faithful and all the really cool geysers around it, we saw very little wildlife. It was hugely disappointing!
We found a stream in Yellowstone so of course we had to stop and take a dip!
We went to our RV park just outside the West entrance in West Yellowstone, determined to see more the following day. Justin read online that most of the wildlife is out right at dawn in a certain area of the park. Turns out that area takes 90 minutes to get to, so he was up (and me as well since it's impossible for me to sleep while he is driving) at 3:30am to we could be to our spot by 5am when the sun began to rise. We did see more wildlife, but we still never got a good look at any bears or moose. Boo. Yellowstone left we wishing we had spent more time in the Tetons. It was the 4th of July that day so we went to the 4th of July parade in West Yellowstone. It was great! Nobody lined up until right before it started, except for us because we didn't know what to expect, so we were sitting out there by ourselves on the street for a good 1.5hrs before it started. The parade was only about 20 minutes long but was a fantastic candy haul for the kids for the short parade that it was. We went back to our RV for the night ready to start the long Western haul to Seattle the next day.
On our way west, we stopped for a quick dip in a river (for picture's sake) at the Clark Fork river outside of Missoula MT, then stayed a little longer at Lake Couer d'alane, ID. From there we continued on until we stopped and played in the water again at Moses Lake, WA.
Clark Fork River
That evening I stayed up lake and drove until just past midnight to get us closer to Seattle. We stayed the night just outside of Seattle and turned our RV in the next morning after picking up a truck rental. That day we just hung out in the Seattle area. We hit another lake park in Renton, WA, called Gene Coulon Memorial Park.
Early bedtime so we could be up at 4am to make a 6:20am flight home the next day. What a trip! We were so exhausted and tired of our cramped RV quarters by the time we were done but the memories were so amazing. Our kids watched Beauty and the Beast over and over on the trip (it had only come out a little while earlier and we bought it on Amazon and Adaira downloaded it to the Kindle and was so excited for Brighton to get to watch it when we picked him up). The sound track to that movie just takes us back to that trip and the memories of driving through so much beautiful country. We are so blessed to have been able to have the money, the time off, and the wonderful family of ours to create these memories with. We hope at least our older kids remember it forever. The trip really sold Justin on RVs too and he would like to get one some day.
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