Before I lost half of my brainpower to motherhood, I used to come up with (what I considered to be) really clever, witty, and punny titles for my thoughtful, well-written, essay-style blog posts. My titles (and posts) have since deteriorated into phrases you could find on a Mad Gab card, which actually fits this phase of life I'm in. The only way I communicate with the people around me is by spewing strings of words into the air, and then certain boys within earshot take those words and make up their own meaning to what I say. Either that, or they just say, "You talkin' to me?" after I've asked them to put down their book 500 times at the dinner table.
Since we were already halfway (not really, but a girl's gotta rationalize) to Salt Lake after our trip to Lake Powell, we figured we were morally obligated to stop to see our kin and practically kin. What's that? Was I worried about potentially spreading Coronavirus to all the people I love most? To that I say, "You talkin' to me?"
I have been super paranoid about Corona. Mostly because I'm certain if it hits my mom she's in for a rough go. So yeah, I was worried whenever I left my parents' house that I'd bring something home to my mom. We stuck to strictly outdoor activities and mostly hung out only with family, with a little bit of our Bess Friends sprinkled in. It was risky, but we did try to be cautious. It's such a weird time of balancing being safe and responsible with having realistic expectations while maintaining sanity. Thankfully I think we kept my parents safe now that we're a week out and everyone is still well, but it definitely made me nervous whenever I found myself with a minute to worry myself about spreading the virus.
We did our traditional yearly cookout with the Besses.
This is the only picture the kids willingly posed for. Pose was completely their idea.
We also hiked Deuel Creek at an impressive pace of 1 mile per hour.
We kept the kids going with a promise of a swing at the end. When we got to the end, the swing was broken. Waaa waaaaaaaaaa. Worked well enough for a picture though!
We took the cousins to a park to play while the grown-ups played disc golf.
We also hiked from Silver Lake up to Twin Lake, one of my favorite hikes in Utah.
I always say I much prefer destination hikes over loop hikes, and man does this one offer a destination!
Lincoln pretended to be a street sweeper the entire way down. He hikes best in imagination mode.
On the Fourth of July we went up to Mueller Park for an afternoon cookout. Another one of my most favorite Utah locations. It's a kid's paradise with calm, running water, trees to climb, and bottomless marshmallows.
It's a Grandpa's paradise with comfy folding chairs, gleeful grandkids, and bottomless potato chips on demand. My dad just had foot surgery, so we were willing to wait on him hand and booted foot if it meant he'd dare to endure a little extra discomfort to join us on an outing.
My Mom got a new calling on Sunday, singing time leader! Okay, maybe I'm the one who "called" her and maybe she was more subbing in for me for the day. As we were making church preparations, it donned on me that my Mom still has all of her old singing time props from when she used to be a leader. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to give some of them new life.
Family joined us for dinner, and the cousins got right to work playing!
Eli learned how to mow the lawn! I was impressed with how quickly he was able to pick it up. It made me wish we had a lawn for him to practice on! He did a great job.
Grandma gave me a few minutes of quiet by showing the boys pictures from her blog.
We spent a day at Becky's house because my boys had been begging to visit. Brooke made a cool video the cousins enjoyed watching on repeat.
Eli is starting to feel a little too old for most toys. He's entering the gaming phase of life and enjoyed learning how to play some from the Golden's stash.
Either me or Becky half-jokingly threw out the idea of going to Bear Lake while we were there. It didn't take much convincing to make it a reality. We had all of our lake stuff already, so it was easy planning! One long drive later and we made it to another one of my most favorite places in Utah...er...Idaho.
Seagulls like Sour Patch Kids. In case you didn't know.
Eli may be too old for toys, but he's just the right age for skipping rocks. He spent at least two hours flinging rocks at the water's surface, counting every jump.
That wraps up our Utah trip. We're not only missing our Utah company, but we're also missing the Utah air. My favorite game to play the whole time we were there was, "Are you hot?" It includes me standing outside with my sister and asking her, "Are you hot?" Many times she was roasting and I was feeling just right. It was funny to feel acclimated to the desert environment and it was funny to be shocked every time a cool, mountain breeze rushed in. As Jeff explains Vegas, it feels like being in an oven with a hot blow dryer hitting your face. Now that we're enduring a full Vegas summer (It welcomed us home with a week of 114 degree days), it makes the Utah summer heat enviable!
