Overdue Summer post!

Disclaimer: This is a long post for family history purposes...so enjoy the pics and read on if you want!

Finally I have enough pics for a decent post! Mostly because we finally did something out of the ordinary! We decided as a family to have a "stay-cation" of sorts since California is all booked up as far as time shares go, and WAY too expensive when you consider gas prices and hotel costs. Plus the pregnant in me just did NOT want to travel far. So....we enjoyed the splendor of Southern Utah! We were supposed to take a boat we rented out on Monday but the previous renters broke some things, so we changed our plans and went camping Monday night July 11th at Duck Creek. It was a LOT of work for a short amount of time! We always forget how much goes into camping, whether you go one night or 4. And to keep with tradition our air mattress went flat. Before we even slept in it. Before we even LAID on it! So I slept in the back seat of the honda, and Ben slept on the twin mattress that also went flat. We are cursed...what can I say? Connor slept nice and comfy and warm in his pack and play and I seriously considered crawling in there with him! He was in LOVE with the 4-wheeler which he calls a bike, because everything with wheels is called a bike. Or as he said it until today, "bite" ha ha. He wouldn't eat his dinner unless he was sitting on the 4-wheeler. And he ate so much since he was so preoccupied with pretending to ride it. Such a stud!!! He just keeps everyone busy and entertained 24-7!

We ate at Sue's Diner in Duck Creek and had some amazing burgers, fries, mashed potatoes and Connor even tried and devoured the scrambled eggs. It was rainy when we drove up but stayed clear until the next day when we were packing up to leave. We were nice and close to a bathroom, and had fun cooking dinner including dutch oven potatoes, chicken and peach cobbler. We even had a little room for S'mores later on that we enjoyed after Connor went to bed. It was a nice time out of the heat, but HONESTLY I'm not camping again unless I have a reliable bed in some sort of camper. It was horrid sleeping in a car!

The next day everyone did a little 4-wheeling and found an ice cave, but it was too cold to explore so given our exhaustion we headed home. I wondered why Connor was so quiet in the backseat...til i realized he had my makeup. I thought I got it all away from him but after another 10 minutes of silence I turned around to see this:

The pic on the left that is...

He's watched his mama do it enough times that he knows something goes on his lips, they were thoroughly glazed and powdered! :-) Love my kid....he's the best!

So after getting home and cleaning up THAT mess we went to Olive Garden to celebrate my dad's birthday which was that day! We all had a nice dinner and towards the end received a call that the boat was still not fixed...so we gave up on that plan. But at home Desi found another person renting their boat and it happened to be available. So we made last minute arrangements and headed out to Sand Hollow the next morning!

It turned out to be a lot nicer of a boat and we had a blast. The wind picked up after 4 hours so we decided to head out. It took a long time to get the boat in with the big waves, and we all had a nice laugh watching my mom try to back up the boat trailer and eventually ask a stranger to help her. Ha ha...we also got sunburned just sitting out on the boat which wasn't fun but Connor had a nice nap while the boat rocked back and forth!

Before all of this Connor and everyone had fun on the tube. I rode with Connor since it was a nice slow ride, and thought I could just die of happiness watching my little boy act so brave and studly riding that tube in the lake. He felt so cool and was so excited to get a turn! LOVE him!

Even Ben rode the tube and caught some great air..ha ha.

Of course Connor wanted nothing more than to drive the boat with his grandpa. He loved sitting there with him and did a great job driving! :-)

We tried our luck a couple hours later at Gunlock and were glad we did. The water was a lot calmer and we were able to spend a lot more time tubing and swimming. It was honestly SO fun and I wish owning a boat wasn't such a money pit! The guy we rented from really liked my dad and wants to rent to us again at a cheaper rate whenever we want! I hope it's soon!
It was such a fun stay cation and we didn't get too exhausted to get back to real life. We all got along and Connor had the time of his life. Thanks mom and dad for our fun summer memories!