Summer Vacation #2: Fishing

A long time summer tradition is the "Guy's fishing trip". Bryce joined Dave, Grandpa, Uncle Wayne and Uncle Kelly for the first time last year. Ty went along this year. They usually go to Yellowstone or Colorado. This year was Colorado. It seems like 1/2 of the stuff we pack is camping gear for this trip. Dave caught a huge rainbow trout. He always seems to catch the biggest fish!

Ty reeled in a couple and enjoyed his first fishing trip.

Bryce is becoming an old hand at the backpacking, hiking and fishing.

What a great father and son experience.

Summer Vacation #2: Dinos and Rhinos

We spent time at the Museum of Ancient Life and The Bean Museum. Brett didn't really remember the last time we went to the dinosaur musuem, so we thought that would be a fun thing to do, for those of us that did not go fishing. Brett is not into dinosaurs at all like his brothers were at the same age, but he still enjoyed digging in the sand, pushing buttons and seeing the dinosaurs. Paige bought "Larvae Snacks" at the gift shop. No one wanted to share with her.

She tried to look scared of the shark, without success.

Brett under the Brachiosaurus with the Supersaurus in the background, they were huge, but Brett thought that most of the dinosaurs would be bigger than they were.

The kids and their cousins enjoyed all of the animals at the Bean Museum. They have everything from a huge elephant and rhino, to tiny birds and bugs. The boys seemed to enjoy the big wild cats. Brett was better at looking scared than Paige was!

Summer Vacation #2: Rockets and Reptiles

Bryce and Ty bought this cool, inflatable, model rocket and were dying to launch it. It went about 300 ft in the air and was very easy to recover. It was as Ty says "ridiculous" but fun. Paige caught a great picture of it launching. We laughed every time they launched it!Dave's rocket, on the other hand, goes about 3000 feet in the air. He has had this rocket for a while but, could never find anywhere open enough to launch it. So, we drove out to Elberta, Ut (AKA the middle of nowhere) to try it out. He got it launched twice and surprisingly, recovered it both times. We had to drive down to pick him up after the second time because it landed so far away. Paige was the photographer who caught it launching!

We went to a Reptile show at the Bean Museum at BYU. They had cool tortoises, lizards and snakes. After the demonstration we were looking at exhibits and ran in to the girl who did the show. She kindly, brought out several other snakes and lizards for us to see!

Summer Vacation #2: Rides and Slides

Brett was so excited that he was tall enough for the big rides at Lagoon. He rode Colossus, The Spider, Wild Mouse, the wooden rollercoaster, and Wicked. All of these rides had a 46" minimum which is exactly how tall he is and he LOVED them all!

Brittany and Caitlin came with us. We all had a lot of fun. Here we are waiting for Rattlesnake Rapids, where we got soaked! Ty and Brittany rode the Rock-o-Plane about 6 times. We spent hardly anytime in "kiddieland". They are getting too big!

We also had a great time with almost all of the cousins at 7 peaks. Brett again was excited to ride the slides alone. The big kids loved the rope swing. Below is Bryce swinging. Bryce, Ty and Paige spent the day with cousins and It felt like I hardly saw them all day. Brett and I spent lots of time in the wave pool where he swam and pretended to drown!

Brett quote of the day

Two quick vacation quotes from Brett.
While playing with cousins,"I have a weapon, and I don't know how to use it!"
And repeatedly while at Lagoon,"What is the biggest ride that I can go on by myself?"
More to come about how brave he was and other vacation adventures.

FamilyFun

We have been subscribers to FamilyFun magazine for many years. I love it. It is always full of fun ideas for all kinds of family activities. We have made halloween costumes and Christmas cards and t-shirts all from FamilyFun ideas.

The kids (ok Paige) will sometimes look through the magazine on her own looking for something to do, as she did this week. She and Brett found everything they needed to make bubble snakes.

I love it when they entertain themselves on a summer day!

Pyromaniacs

Brett lighting his first firework.

Ty with the remains of something.

Bryce ready for take off.

Paige with a sparkler.

We mostly took it easy this 4th of July. We went to a BBQ at church afterwhich we swam a little and did some fireworks in the front yard.

Sidenote: The sparklers here really stink. I love the pretty sparkly ones in Utah. I know they have a metal stick that can be dangerous, but these just dissolve into burning embers that fall and burn little toes (he did have shoes on in case he stepped on anything, didn't expect hot ash to fall from his sparkler like that).

(Paige last year with a "Utah" sparkler.)