Pyromaniac Training

Lincoln definitely has my taste buds. He quickly learned the word popsicle and loves to take a hit whenever he can. 

Lincoln and I spent the first week in the house playing cat and mouse with a bag of chocolate chips. No matter how many times I hid the bag of chocolate chips, he still kept emerging with chocolate chips in his hands! I then found he had been rat-holing a stash of chocolate in one of the air vents. I was glad I found his stash before it was time to turn the heat on. 

Klarissa safely arrived to Utah after her travels. Wynne and Lincoln enjoyed getting to know each other. 

Reality soon set in that my parents were gone after we found ourselves trying to keep up with the 4th of July firework festivities without them. We grilled up a meal and then had an hours-long discussion on how to correctly shuffle everyone up to the golf course without my dad chauffeuring us. 

We eventually figured it out and got everyone in place and ready for the show. 

Abe, Klarissa, Me and my boys wanted to go on a hike. We went to Silver Lake, intending to just stroll around the bottom lake, but once we got going, we decided to push it on the more strenuous hike up to the second lake. We had 4 kids, the summer heat, and only one, half-full (I'll be optimistic) water bottle, since we weren't really planning to do the longer hike. I had high hopes my boys could conquer the mountain with good attitudes and boundless energy. I overestimated our ability to exert ourselves without water or snacks to keep us going. 

My boys whined literally every step of the way, but I was too proud to call it quits, so I forced us to trudge on. I was sure they'd love the upper lake once we got there because last time we had done the hike, they loved the lake once we got there. This time it was different. We got to the top. They said cool. We turned around, left and whined the whole way down. We need a Twin Lakes redemption hike with the help of some water bottles. 

We got a little bit of a redemption hike when we tried out Donut Falls. The issue with this hike was we went on 4th of July day so we were there with the rest of Utah. Other than the crowds, we enjoyed the hike. 

Water + snacks are the key to a good hike. Now we know. 

The evening of the 4th of July we went to a parking lot to do a few little fireworks. 

The boys loved them. I saw the pyromania developing right before my eyes.