July 24th!

On the 24th of July we decided to go to the zoo.  We figured we would take a chance of it not being crowded hoping that more people would be at all of the other festivities that might be going on around the state.  We were in luck too because we practically had the zoo to ourselves.  It was so much fun and the weather was perfect.  It was quite a bit cooler than it had been the past few weeks.  This has been an extremely hot and miserable summer!

It's hard to tell in the picture, but the rhino was right up against the window.  We had great luck with all of the animals being out and about while we were there.

The polar bear was eating breakfast so the girls got a good view of it.  Brooke especially liked it.

I took this picture of Justin and me and the polar bear looked up and posed.  We were laughing when we looked at it to see if it worked.

The baby giraffe is about a year old now.

Of course we went on the carousel too.  I think it is the highlight of the trip for the Lydia.  The train is currently closed because they are redoing part of the zoo so we didn't get to go on that.

The girls were having a lot of fun and posing really well for pictures.

After the zoo we spent some time doing yard work and later that evening we did some fireworks with the neighbors, the Wangbergs.

Brooke was fun to watch try to stomp on the snaps.  She would put them on the ground and then stomp them.

Brooke thought the sparklers were cool.  Lydia didn't want to do them because she was burned by one on the 4th of July.

Brooke stole Ellie's chair and was completely relaxed.

It was a fun a day and I think we successfully wore the girls out.

Porcupine Dam

While we were in Cache Valley we spent some time at Porcupine Dam.  The water was extremely low so we didn't have the same "beach" area that we were hoping for.  It was still a lot of fun though.  We took our little raft and so did the Laraways.  It is the perfect area for just paddling around.  We also took the fishing poles for the girls to practice their casts.  Lydia is actually really good at casting a fishing pole.

 

 We were able to just swim around and hang out in the tubes too.

 

 

 

 Here we all are in our raft.  We took Justin over to the rocks on the other side of the reservoir and he did some cliff jumping.

The girls loved being able to play in the water all day.  Lydia especially loves being in the water.  She gets that from Justin.

Stream at the Fairground

My parents discovered how much fun it is to take kids to the fairgrounds and let them tube down the river.  Brooke wanted to be as big as the other kids and carry the tube by herself.  She is so independent and so cute!

 Lydia is just as independent and just as cute!

 

 

 There was a little tunnel area that the kids would go through part way down the stream.

 Brooke is pretty much expressionless when she is focused and having fun. 

 She liked riding the rocket tube just as much as the bigger open ones.

 Lydia liked the rocket ship one a little bit better.  She mostly just wanted to stand in the stream and play though.

 

It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it!!!

Mendon Days

We went to Cache Valley for Mendon Days.  It is a fun little town days celebration that my parents' town does every year around the 24th of July.  We started the festivities off watching Jillian at the half way point of a 10K she was racing in.  The girls and Nathan were then able to participate in their own race where they won medals!  Lydia took the race a little more serious than Brooke.  Brooke stopped and started playing in the dirt.  Lydia took second place in her age group.  She is a fast runner and has good endurance.

 Brooke needed a little rest after the run.

 Someone had brought a miniature cow over to the animal races that the girls were able to go and pet.

 The next festivity of the day was the animal races.  They kids were able to chase after chickens and rabbits.

 

 It is crazy madness when all the kids take off running.  They divide them into groups by ages.  Lydia caught a bunny when she was out there.

 Justin and Lydia posing with the bunny.

 Brooke didn't want to hold the bunny.  Luckily for us, they get to turn the bunny back in and then they get a ticket to buy a treat at the snack shop.

 The next festivity was a parade.  It is a short little parade where tons and tons of candy is thrown.  Brooke went and got a piece of candy for each hand and stayed sitting in her chair the rest of the time, but Lydia and Nathan (and my mom) were having more fun chasing after the candy.

 Justin was trying to stay cool.  (Dan seems to be photo bombing all of the parade pictures).  The umbrella came in handy for Justin because there are firetrucks at the end of the parade that spray people as they go through.

 Once they parade is over they do a Fireman's Squirt Off at the park.  The firemen take their trucks and spray water all over the place.  It is fun to watch everyone running around getting soaked.

 My dad took Brooke out for me so I could just sit this one out.  I didn't think it was a great idea to get hit with water while being pregnant.  Justin took Lydia.  I think my dad and Justin had just as much fun as the girls.  The firemen also spray foam which was even more fun to play in!

 

  Justin and the girls were drenched!

 My dad attempted to dry the girls off for us.

 

 After the fireman's hose off thing they opened up bounce houses and little carnival type activities for the kids.  Brooke cried and cried because she wanted to keep going down this big water slide.  She loved it!

 

 Mendon Days ends with a firework show at the park.  It is a fun day and the kids absolutely love getting to do everything.