Life's A Beach!

We just returned from a 16 day vacation to visit my parents.  We left SLC and flew into Charlotte and spent the night at my parents' house.  The following morning we woke up and packed up the car to head to their place on Kiawah Island, SC to spend a week at the beach.

We had such a blast jumping waves, riding boogie boards, skim boards, playing in the sand, etc.  The kids took to the water as if they had never left.  I swear Kendall is part fish!  She use to be afraid of the waves when we lived in Florida, but in typical Kendall style, she charged in with NO FEAR at those big waves this year.

Our first night at the beach - had to go check it out after sitting in the car for 5 + hours!

All smiles while riding her boogie board

Catching waves

Asking Pappy to help her "surf" on her boogie board - I see surfing lessons in her future

Waiting for the perfect ride

Daddy came to visit us for a few days!

Jumping waves with Pappy

Trying out her new skim board

Having fun playing in the sand

Life is Good at the beach

After a day of fun in the sun

Happy 4th Birthday Kendall - her birthday was our first full day at the beach which was her request for her birthday present.  Lucky kid got what she wanted!

Making a wish

So happy to OFFICIALLY be a four year old!

Hoping it comes true

Roller skates!  She also got knee & elbow pads, fingerless gloves and a board game for her birthday from my parents

Pappy rented golf clubs for both kids so he took them out for a little lesson.  Riley and Pappy went to the driving range, but it was too "sweaty" for Riley.  Guess he got too use to our dry Utah climate!

Kendall getting her private lesson with her Pappy.  For some reason she wants to hit the ball as a lefty.  That's not going to work well for her if she becomes a field hockey player someday.

Ahhhh!  Love the beach!

We found lots of starfish on our morning walk on the beach

Kendall thought they were pretty cool and was determined to save them by throwing them back into the sea.  Love her heart for God's creations.

Sending another starfish back to the ocean

Chasing the sea gulls was a favorite beach pastime too!

As tradition, whenever we are on Kiawah, we head to The Sanctuary for pictures.  We haven't been there in 2 years, but the kids remembered it - Riley remembered our Thanksgiving dinners there from when we lived in Florida.  If you want to vacation in the lap of luxury, The Sanctuary is the place for you!

My new family favorite picture - you may see this one again in December!

Classic Chunko kid shot at The Sanctuary!

We love sitting on their chairs while looking out to the ocean

Can't keep them away from the beach!

Nanny and Pappy with their oldest and youngest grandkids

The kids had so much fun showing off their belly flops at the Sandcastle pool.  This is an ocean front pool (along with fitness center, grill, playground, etc.) open only to property owners.  

Look at me Mom!

While Andy was in town, we headed in to Charleston for a date!  We had a fabulous dinner at Poogan's Porch.  Isn't this place so adorable!  The food was as good as the atmosphere.

After dinner we walked over to the Pavilion Bar atop of the Market Pavilion Hotel for drinks.  What a view!  Wow!

Isn't this view fantastic?  What a fun night. 

Another family favorite activity at Kiawah is to ride bike.  There are paved bike trails all over the island.  This year we rented a "trail a bike" for Kendall and even though she looks scared in this picture, she really did love it.  She worked hard helping me pedal and it has made me want to get one for her now more than ever!

Our last morning as a family.  We rode our bikes to the River Course where the Kiawah River flows along side the golf course.  We had fun looking for gators and watching the fish jump.

We had a fantastic time at the beach.  I read 2 books while basking in the sun.  What a joy it was to read without interruption!  It was so relaxing to float in the ocean, jump waves, sit in the sand, feel the sea breeze on my face and watch the joy on my kids faces.  My parents have a way of making me feel at home no matter where we are and I was in need of a little "home" this summer.  It was a much needed trip!

Oh What A Night!

Our first trip to Bear Lake was a memorable one for sure.  We had planned a wonderful long weekend with Kevin, Cara and Tristam at Rendezvous Beach in Bear Lake State Park in northern Utah.  Our original plan was to head there on Thursday but both Andy and Kevin were swamped with work so we decided to delay a day.  We all arrived shortly before lunch on Friday.  We got our tents up, trailers unloaded, and headed to the beach.  Thankfully we were a very short walk from our campsite to the beach.  We took sand toys and all of our kayaks with us.

The kids played so nicely together (as they always do) on the beach.  The boys had a blast on the kayaks together - ramming into each other, riding double on the yellow one, etc.  Kendall kayaked by herself for the very first time as well.  She did a great job and with another lesson and she'll have it mastered.

While we were playing on the beach, Andy took his dirt bike out for a ride.  When he returned we realized how late it was and decided we needed to clean up for dinner.  Kendall and I got our showers and headed into our tent when this storm blew in and literally trapped us in our tent.  Poles went flying (and actually broke), water was pouring in, pop up canopies went flying - Kevin's went into Bear Lake and another family's flew into Kev's tent and bent their poles.  I've heard the term "microburst" thrown around a lot here in Utah, but that's exactly what we experienced.  The winds had to easily be 60-70 mph.  Nothing felt "micro" about it!  There was a tree about 50 feet behind our tent that came crashing to the ground.  Thankfully there wasn't anyone in the direction that it fell.  Not only was there crazy, wicked wind, we also dealt with thunder and lightening.  That made for a rather scared little girl.  She survived the first part, but when the rain and wind kicked up a second time, she couldn't keep it together anymore.

When it was all said and done, WHAT A MESS!  Trees down, tents down, canopies down, everything was SOAKED!  Our tent had filled with water while it was collapsed.  Sleeping bags, clothes, pillows, towels, everything, completely drenched!  With all of our stuff completely soaked, darkness beginning to set in and the threat of more storms that night and the next day, we decided to pack it in.  We were all envisioning another storm like that hitting us at 3 am in the dark - that was enough to motivate us to pack up!

We did our best to pack up without grumbling, but Andy was anything but happy.  He said it's a sign that we are no longer meant to camp in a tent...He was right because we pitched the old girl in the parking lot dumpster that night.  Lots of memories with that tent - we had it before we had our kids, when we would go camping just the two of us.  Both of our kids fell in love with camping in that tent...It was bittersweet, but much easier to do with poles broken and it dirty and wet.

We packed our truck and Kevin packed theirs and we headed out shortly before 9 pm after arriving just before noon that same day.  We stopped to grab a bite to eat around 10 pm in Evanston on the way home.  The kids were all tired and a bit loopy and the adults were just plain worn out from all of the days events and emotions.

By the time we arrived back here at home it was after midnight.  We parked the trailer in the garage, locked up the truck and everyone headed right in to bed.  Today we are going to unpack and hose everything down and let it dry.  I'm not looking forward to cleaning up everything but I am anxious to have it all behind us.

To continue our camping themed weekend, Kevin, Cara and Tristam are coming over for dinner tonight.  The kids were bummed to miss out on raspberry shakes, fishing, jet skiing, etc this weekend.  So we decided to make our hobo meals on the fire in our pit as well as our campfire cones for dessert.  It will at least "feel" like camping.  Kendall was heartbroken that we weren't camping so I told her I'd set up her play tent in her bedroom for her to sleep in so she could still "camp" this weekend.

Ironically, Andy and I had talked at length this past week about the possibility  (hopefully reality now) of purchasing a camper next spring.  If we have solid walls then rain and "microbursts" will be less of an issue than in a tent.  Guess we're all going camper shopping next spring!  Our camping days are over for the remainder of this year.  Bummer!

Here's a little of video of Sissy during her first kayak adventure:

Gotta end this post on a positive note, right?  This video makes me smile watching her strive to be a "big kid" like the boys.

Paddling Around

Since Riley got his new kayak this week, we wanted to try it out before our big trip to Bear Lake next weekend.  After church today we headed into American Fork Canyon (which I have to say is one of the most beautiful places here in Utah) to Tibble Fork Reservoir with both kayaks, and a fishing rod.

Riley was so excited to get in it and try it out for real instead of sitting on it in the foyer practicing his paddling.  It was a small lake so it was a great place for him to practice and gain confidence.  He needed little to no coaching.  I guess he's been paddling with me since he was a toddler so he had it figured out - backwards, turns, launching, landing, etc.

He had a great time.  Kendall got to go out with Andy and with me.  She was determined to paddle for me when I took her.  She tried hard and desperately wants to be able to do what her big brother does.

Riley and Andy paddled over to the far side of the reservoir so they could practice casting with Riley's fishing rod.  It's been a number of years since Riley's been fishing.  I think Andy forgot how much fun he had fishing as a kid and it all came flooding back to him as he dug out his tackle box and worked on fixing Riley's rod.  We're going to take him fishing at Bear Lake too next weekend.  I think he's gonna have a great time with his new kayak and his fishing rod!

 

What a great way to spend a hot Sunday afternoon!  It was at least 10 degrees cooler there than at our house.  Hope we get Andy home more often during the week and weekends to come this summer!

A Very Hot Independence Day

It's been incredibly hot and dry here in Utah.  We are finally getting rain today after 38 days of low humidity and no recordable rain!  Wildfires are breaking out all over the state - one as close as the other side of South Mountain!

Yesterday was no exception.  It was blazing hot by the time our annual neighborhood parade and cook out started.  What an event it has become!  Each year it gets bigger and bigger.  The kids decorate their bikes, scooters, power wheels vehicles, wagons, strollers, and even a real 4 wheeler this year!  There are balloons that line the street for the start of the parade.

Before literally everyone in the 'hood arrived

This year there was a guy playing the electric guitar to start the event.  He played the national anthem Jimi Hendrix style.  The kids took off around the block with a police and ambulance escort.  There were 3 police cars, one motorcycle and one ambulance.  There were even two guys playing the bagpipes!

The starting line kept creeping forward.  They were easily 50 feet deep of kids!

Riley getting ready to take off

Kendall and her neighborhood buddy Ava

After the bike parade, there was a HUGE spread of food.  If your house number was even, you brought a side dish, if it was odd you brought a dessert. Our neighbors next door who host, do the hotdogs and hamburgers as well as drinks.  It was nice to reconnect with some kdg moms I haven't seen in a while as well as catch up with some others we haven't talked to recently.  What a fun time for all the kids.  

Kendall and Ava decided to continue their celebrating long into the afternoon.  I finally made her come home around 4:30 and she immediately crashed on the sofa.  It took her a while to wake up and get her wits about her.  Even seeing Uncle Kevin didn't work it's usual magic because she was so exhausted.

We were able to cook out with Kevin and Cara later on in the evening and watch a fantastic fireworks show from our back patio.  It seems everyone in Draper prefers to set off their own fireworks rather than driving to see a professional one which suited us just fine.  Sadly as we were watching the fireworks we also noticed the Alpine/Quail fire nearing the ridge in Corner Canyon last night.  We got out the binoculars and kept waiting for it to crest over to the Draper side but thankfully never did.  For about 30 minutes or so it looked like Corner Canyon was going to catch and go up in smoke, but thankfully the wind must have blown the flames back down the other side.  It was pretty scary though and poor Riley was a nervous mess worrying about it.

With the rain today we are taking it easy and trying to catch up.  We've been on the go a lot this summer and are in need of rest day to clean, read, do laundry, blog, etc.

Family Camp with SMCC Scouts

Last weekend we spent Fri-Sun with Riley's scout pack.  SMCC does a "Family Camp" that included cub scouts, boy scouts, girl scouts and all of their family members.  This year we were at a park in Lehi so it was nice and close, which worked out well since we didn't have a dog sitter.  We were able to zip home twice on Saturday to feed her and let her out.

Friday night was basically a time to set up camp and there was a movie with popcorn and sno cones.  The kids got to watch Bedtime Stories on the big screen while hanging out with their buddies.

Kendall and Kaitlyn were inseparable the entire weekend!

On Saturday the boy scouts cooked us a delicious breakfast then afterwards we had a family activity.  The families built catapults from kits and then there was a contest to see who's catapult could shoot a marshmallow the furthest and which dad could get a marshmallow into his son's mouth.  The kids had a blast with it.

Trying out the catapult

Riley was so happy to have us all together.  He had so much fun at camp.

Afterwards we had a service project to do at the camp.   I scooted home to take care of the dog while Andy took Riley to help paint a fence with the rest of the pack.  It's great that our kids are learning about giving back outside of just our family and school.

We had lunch on our own, which I brought back from the house with me.  I had sandwiches for us so we didn't need to pack ANY cooking items whatsoever!  What a great relief!  No coolers, no stoves, no pots & pans!

After lunch we had medieval type games for the kids to play.  They jousted each other, learned to throw knives, got stuck in the stockade and had water soaked sponges thrown at them, and then made first aid kits.  It was a blast!

Riley and his friend Bradley jousting 

Warren, Timothy, Riley and Bradley - 4 of the 5 Bears who went to Family Camp this year

Warren and Riley learning to throw knives and tomahawks

They had so much fun trying it!

Family Camp was a little too much fun for our little one!

Scoutmaster Brian teaching the boys how to properly soak a sponge before throwing it at someone!

Bradley was the first target!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Riley was a great sport.  It was so hot out, all the boys wanted to get wet!

He mostly got hit in the stomach which you can see by hot wet his shirt was!

Timothy was a good sport too - he got nailed in the face a few times but never flinched!

After the games we had some more downtime and then dinner was served by the scout leaders.  After dinner we had a campfire ceremony.  This included games, skits, songs and at the conclusion, a flag retirement ceremony.  I remember the one they did last year and it was just as powerful and meaningful as the first one I was a part of.  Such a great chance to help the kids understand that freedom isn't "free."

The next morning was breakfast served by anyone willing to help out and then a church service and break down of camp...What a great weekend.  The best part is that we were able to hang out with the Thomas and Major families who we adore.  Kendall had two of her little girl friends with her and she was in HEAVEN!  It was the first time we've camped with friends of hers too!  Usually she's the youngest and the only girl in camp.

Kaitlyn, Kendall and Gracie AKA: The Three Musketeers