9/10/16

July

Trip to the creek.  We could see the fish nibbling on the bate, but they would never bite it.  :)  Poor kids.  One day he WILL catch a fish.
Playing at the creek while Noah fishes.
Noah learned how to mow the lawns this summer.  At first he was all over the place.  He couldn't mow a straight line to save his life, but he's gotten a little better. 
A bad attempt at a family picture on for 4th of July Sunday. 
Craft day - decorating bikes for the parade.

 
4th of July was busy.  We started at the ward breakfast, then had a little swim party with some friends after lunch and then had a BBQ with some other friends for dinner.  Instead of doing our own fireworks this year, we drove to the city fireworks.  We were all exhausted from swimming ALL day, so we only lasted about half way thru.
Ward 4th of July breakfast.  The kids decorate their bikes and do a little parade.

Nerd.  Grant always wears his goggles so tight it pulls his nose back and his eyes have rings around them for a long time.
One of our park days. 
Craft/Art day.  The boys were in to tracing pictures on the backs of pictures. They would trace a few and then have contests to see who traced them the best.
Grant has quite the attitude lately.  As punishment for fighting with his sister, they have to sit on the stairs and hold hands until they can do it for 5 minutes without fighting.  They hate it at first, but usually emerge happy.
Invaded one of the mutual activities.  Giant slippin' slide at one of the church buildings.
Took some friends on one of our park days.
The kids really wanted to go ride this baby train at the Fountains for one of our outings.  We waited in line for like 30 minutes and ride a baby train (seriously, for toddlers).  Once we boarded and they realized how lame it was. :)
Noah's cello teacher got him a CD player from Goodwill so he would practice with a CD.  The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever.  Noah loved that he could listen to the radio whenever he wanted.  Ha!!  It seriously made me laugh every time I saw them circled around this 90's CD player.
EVERY spare moment, and EVERY weekend this summer we have been working on the cabin.  It's been a TON of work, but the end is in sight.  This is how we showered up there.  A hole in an old hose tied to the upper deck.
Another try at fishing.  No fish.


Noah found this waterfall and stream and wanted to give Grant and I a tour.   He's quite the explorer.



Daddy and Ava waiting for us.  Ava really wanted to go on the 'tour', but she didn't bring shoes so she couldn't get past the rocks.  A lesson she doesn't seem to be learning very quickly.  Just today, on our way to school, we had to turn around because Ava forgot her shoes!! 
Found a fun place to go rock jumping.  This was Noah's first time rock jumping. He was nervous, but jumped right off. 
The cave next to the jumping spot.


The boys love to go crazy on the tube, but Ava prefers to stay in the boat.



Cute little curly haired peach eater.
 
One of our adventure days we went to Upper Clementine.  Fun spot with really clear water and for the most part it's shallow except for the middle where it gets deep enough to jump off the rocks.  Lots of huge tadpoles for the kids to imprison (and accidentally kill).




This boy rarely has his face above water.


Hike day - daddy took them to see the old goat shed at the cabin and then took them to find the creek (at the bottom).  It's really steep and rigorous (and they got lost), but they finally emerged.   I made them wear long pants and shirts too because of all the poison oak.
One of the cabin trips I took the kids up a couple days earlier than Adam.  We went exploring and found some awesome places.
We were trying to get to the river so we could play, but couldn't quite get close enough.  Finally saw an exit with a fishing sign on it and knew that would get us close enough.  Glad we took that exit.  We found this beautiful spot to play for awhile. Mt. Shasta in the background.

Picked blackberries


Watched a train go by.
The kids told me it was the best day of their lives. :)  I love when they can have fun enjoying nature. 
Our friends came up with Adam that weekend and the kids got super dirty (Noah must have looked thru a dirty pipe) and had lots of fun.
Another adventure day.  Took some friends with us to the American river to play in the water.
Water was lower this time, so the rapids and current were much slower. 
 
Nala trying to get to the chips. :)
Back to the cabin.  This time we took Adam to show him the spot we found the weekend before.  We took a little trail that takes you around the campground to different spots along the river.
It is beautiful there!!



Giant leaves make great hats.
As were about to leave a local told us about some swimming holes.  On our way to the swimming holes a nice man told us to follow him and he would show us an even better swimming hole.  It was pretty great.  Great place for cliff jumping.
We didn't stay too long because there were a bunch of teenagers smoking and drinking and swearing up a storm.  Why do they have to be so loud and obnoxious?! 

Such an incredible area though.  We'll definitely be exploring it some more.


6 comments:

Mary said...

Wow! It looks like you spent the entire summer outdoors. My kind of girl! And unrelated, Grant looks almost as tall as Noah! When did he shoot up? We miss you guys.

Erika Ellis said...

Your pictures are good, but I feel like I need to see those cool places myself! We want to come out and visit!

Summer said...

He has gotten tall, but the pictures are misleading. Grant is standing on a rock in the picture where he looks as tall as noah.

Summer said...

Yes! We'll take visitors anytime!

Erika Ellis said...

Your pictures are good, but I feel like I need to see those cool places myself! We want to come out and visit!

Erika Ellis said...
This comment has been removed by the author.