Smoking, High Altitude Camp, Pioneer Day, 36" Inseam, Lagoon

Here's our catch-up of our family happenings of the last 10 days.  I know we keep saying Josh is tall, but he really is.  I picked him some school pants in his regular size of 32x34, but was shocked to see they were high waters when he tried them on--DOH!!  I had to return them and order some more online that were size 32x36.  Josh is such a weird size that I will have to order his pants online now since no store carries such a weird/tall size.  Aaron isn't even a 36' inseam.  Josh is all leg!!  Anyway, we measured Josh against Aaron Sunday and Josh is significantly taller than Aaron now.  Aaron is almost 6'1" so Josh is definitely taller than that by at least a few inches.  What 14 year old wears a 36" inseam pant size?!  It's crazy!

 Aaron loves his new found hobby of smoking meats.  Last week he tried his hand at making bacon wrapped pork tenderloin.  It turned out pretty tasty and looked good, too.

 As someone who doesn't like a whole lot of meat, I am coming around slowly, but surely--haha!

Poor Josh has been really busy this past few weeks.  He had Camp Neuro Revolution two weeks ago, High Adventure last week and came home Saturday long enough to wash clothes and leave again early Monday morning for High Altitude Camp with the Cross Country team.  I was really nervous for him to go since he is only a Freshman, there were over 35 high school students going, they were going to be running A LOT, there was no cell phone service, everyone was sleeping in tents, and it was supposed to rain every day that week.  Josh was excited to go so I tried not to let him see me worry, but I was still pretty nervous when I dropped him off that morning.  I was glad to see a bunch of chaperone parents there and I hoped that one of the moms would look out for Josh....

As for the rest of us since Monday July 24th was a state holiday (Pioneer Day) that meant Matthew didn't have his summer program so we decided to go have some fun.  Unfortunately, Aaron still had to work so it was just me and the four kids since Josh was at High Altitude Camp.  It happened to be a FREE day for the community at Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake so that's where I decided to take the kids.  I really love that place.  It is so beautiful and even better when it's free--wahoo!  When we got there we looked around the children's garden area and had fun playing in the fountains and other exhibits in the area.

 Daniel loves reading and learning about animals, reptiles, birds, etc. so he made me take a picture of everyone sitting in the Gila Monster:

 We got a picture in front of the moose topiary:

 They had a fragrance garden where all the plants in that area smelled awesome.

 We did sign up to go on a golf cart tour around the gardens so while we waited for our turn the kids rolled down the grassy hill.

 It was all fun and games until Sarah broke out with an itchy rash all over her body where it touched the grass.  The poor girl is really allergic to grass and it only took one roll down the hill before she was itching all over.

Oh well what can you do?!  Good thing we didn't have to wait too long until it was our turn on the golf cart tour.  Our guide was a really nice and patient lady.  She had to be when she was talking about all the plants around us and kept getting interrupted by my kids crazy questions that were not even relating to what she was talking about.  They asked her things like, "How fast can this golf cart go?"  "Can this golf cart go off the road?" "Can we stop by the water fountain?" "Have you ever hit anybody in the cart?" Good thing she was patient and willing to go with the flow.  Despite the crazy off topic questions from my kids we still did learn a few things about each garden area we drove through.  Sarah and Daniel got to sit in the front right next to the guide.

 Matthew, Noah and I got to sit behind them.

 It was a fun golf cart tour.  Afterward we walked up to the new Conservation Garden which had an amazing lookout across the Salt Lake valley.  Here's the kids checking out the view:

 After we walked through the medicinal garden where each plant in the garden was used to help some malady.  It was interesting to see how people use different plants as medicine.  They also had a cool swing you could sit on in the middle of the garden which my kids HAD to try out.  If you were wondering you could swing pretty high while sitting in it, too.  My kids can be pretty crazy sometimes....

 They had a bronze moose statue the kids HAD to get a picture of as well.

 We then stopped by the pond area to watch the goldfish swim.

 We stayed here for a bit since it was shady.  My kids made themselves comfy and kicked off their flip flops, too.

 It was a fun day at the gardens, but hot, too.  It was over 100 degrees so after a few hours everyone was ready to go home.  When we got home Aaron was home from work so for Family Home Evening we went over to Hokulia Shaved Ice stand and shared some shaved ice treats.  Yum!!  Here we are waiting for our orders to be made:

 Friday afternoon I was glad to hear Josh's voice when he called to let me know it was time to pick him up from High Altitude Camp.  He looked filthy and exhausted, but still in one piece.  Throughout the week the team ran a lot averaging at least 6-12 miles a day.  One day they even did a 25 mile hike/trail run, too, in which Josh made it the whole way on that day which was pretty awesome!!  Although it did rain every day, it didn't deter Josh.  Josh said he had a lot of fun despite being exhausted and sore.  As I was loading up his stuff into the car a chaperone mom came over to talk to me about Josh.  She said Josh did really well and was quite the gentleman, too.  I guess during the long hike Josh kept going back and forth across the stream to make sure everyone got across safely.  That made me feel good.  You just never know how your kids behave when you're not around so it was nice to hear that he was a good kid.  That made me happy.

As soon as Josh got home he went for the shower which was good because he was FILTHY!!  Afterward he changed into his new Cross Country shirt which he truly earned that week:

 The back said, "I survived Titans Cross Country High Altitude Camp 2017".

He did show me his HUGE blisters all over his feet.  The biggest was on the inside of his pinky toes.  He had matching blisters on both pinky toes that were about the size of a dime--OUCH!  This picture was taken a few days after he got home so they had gone down a little bit from when he first showed me.  No that is not a toe nail, but a nasty blister:

Despite running all week long at High Altitude Camp he still was supposed to do an 8 mile run on Saturday.  He left Saturday morning to go running while Aaron and I were out running errands.  It just so happened that we had to go to the library that morning.  As we pulled into the parking lot we saw Josh was walking by the library on his run at that exact same time.  The poor kid was so tired that he was taking a walking break for a few minutes.  Being the teasing parents we are, I snuck up on Josh and pinched his bum to surprise him.  As soon as I pinched he jumped 10 feet because he hadn't seen us and was not expecting that AT ALL.  Hahaha!  Aaron videoed me running up to Josh and pinching his bum.  Watching this it still makes me laugh--haha!

Also Saturday morning Sarah had dance team try outs.  Last year she really didn't understand what try outs were so she just went and thought it was fun.  This year, however, she really understood what try outs meant and was pretty nervous.  Parents couldn't stay so I just had to drop her off and hope for the best.  We don't find out results until Friday, but Sarah said she did okay.  She was just glad it was over because she was so nervous.

Saturday afternoon we went to Lagoon.  We rode the train while we were there:

 We also got our 'Old Time' family picture taken.  All the boys wanted a gun to hold in the picture and Sarah decided she wanted a gun, too.  Who needs any frilly fans or parasols when you can hold a pistol?!  That's my girl--haha!

This past Friday and Saturday our local butcher shop was celebrating their 8th anniversary with a meat sale.  Since Aaron is Mr. Smoker he couldn't pass up a sale on meats.  He decided to try his hand at Vegas steaks which are bacon wrapped beef tenderloins.  Here they are on the smoker:

 After being smoked Aaron put them on the grill to sear the outsides:

 The steaks were delicious and HUGE.  Amazingly enough we actually had leftovers since the steaks were so big.  Each steak was over 16 ounces.  We cut them in quarters before serving them.  They were really yummy despite not being well done.  I used to need my meat well done, but Aaron has shown me that it tastes better when it's not charred to death.  Here is the melt in your mouth medium steak:

 We also had baked potatoes to go along with the steak so dinner was all around yummy.  Good thing the butcher shop doesn't have too many sales or we would be broke--haha!

Camp Neuro Revolution, Bicycle Parasite, Bicycle Rollover, Family Day, Timpanogos Cave, Alpine Loop

What a crazy week!  The last week Josh was able to attend Camp Neuro Revolution which is a special camp for kids aged 10-18 that have epilepsy.  Josh attended this camp two years ago and loved it.  He wasn't able to go last year, but was excited when things worked out where he could go this year.  After dropping him off Wednesday their Facebook page would occasionally post pictures of all the activities they were doing which I loved.  Here's a few pictures I got off their Facebook page:

Here's the whole group of kids with their leaders:

Here's the participants:

They got to go swimming and, of course, Josh went off the high dive a few times that they got pictures of:

They did some archery:

I have no idea what he's doing here, but I am sure it was fun:

They got to go on a high ropes course.  Here's Josh getting strapped into his harness:

Here's Josh doing the ropes course which is about 60 feet in the air:

They also had a zipline, too:

They had a paint night.  Here's Mr. Picasso himself--haha!

Here's some of the masterpieces:

It was fun to see what fun things they were doing when they would post pictures!

Saturday morning Sarah was able to be in the parade as part of her dance team.  She was a trooper and walked/danced quite a bit of the 2 mile route despite the hot temperature and beating sun.  It was fun to see my cute girl walk by us:

 Sarah thought it was fun to be in a parade!

 Aaron picked Sarah up at the end of the parade and brought her back to where we were sitting so we could clean up and leave a bit early because we had to pick up Josh from Camp Neuro.  While we are picking up some Hawaiian fire dancers stopped and performed right in front of us.  It was pretty cool to watch!

 We made the drive up to Park City to pick up Josh.  Camp Neuro hosted a family day as part of their program.  Unfortunately, since Sarah was in the parade we couldn't get there on time so we missed the first two family activities while we drove up--the ropes course and archery.  Thankfully, we did make it in time for the cycling activity.  Here's Josh, Daniel and Sarah on their bikes:

 Matthew and Noah:

 Aaron and I even got in on the action on a tandem bike, too:

 After riding around the course a few times they decided to take everyone on a bike ride around the facility.  Noah was my riding buddy--more like a parasite--haha! His legs weren't long enough to reach the pedals so he got to have a free ride.  I did great until we hit the final super steep hill.  Although I was extremely slow we made it up the hill.  However, the whole time I was trying to make it up the hill Noah kept telling me that I wasn't pedaling fast enough.  Grrrrr....that's not what I wanted to hear from my bicycle parasite--haha!  Lucky for him we made it back to the facility.

Here's Noah and me at the last of the group as we started our bike ride:

Matthew, Josh and Daniel came along on the bike ride as well as a bunch of other kids and adults, too.

Mr. Bicycle Parasite is all smiles because he just got a free ride--haha!

 While we were on our bike ride Aaron stayed back with Sarah at the course because she didn't want to go on the bike ride with everyone else.  Aaron kept things exciting back at the course, though.  While everyone was on the bike ride Sarah and Aaron were riding around the original course on two recumbent bicycles.  Aaron got pedaling pretty fast and took a corner too fast which caused him to roll the bicycle.  The staff member came running over and made sure everything was okay and then told Aaron that he had never seen anyone roll a recumbent bicycle before.  Aaron with some severe pride damage just laughed and hobbled away to wait for us to return from our bike ride.  He didn't have much of a choice anyway because the staff member took the bike away from Aaron to put away right after it happened.  I wish I could've seen the rollover...but I am glad Aaron is okay (minus the pride damage)--haha!

After the cycling activity it was time for the awards ceremony and lunch.  They fed us pizza which the kids LOVED.

 They told a little bit about why each participant received each award.  They said Josh was hilarious and kept them laughing the whole camp.  It first started when he got in line for something with his Studio C shirt on.  He then mimicked a clip from a Studio C skit about the Super Heroes where Thor really shows off his hair and his abs--so Josh got the 'Hair and Abs' award for keeping everyone entertained.

 The camp director was actually an awesome lady.  The poor thing is undergoing cancer treatments which no one save a few people knew about.  The poor lady had to get up at 5:45 am every morning and head down to get radiation treatments in Salt Lake and be back up to Park City in time to lead the camp activities all throughout the day.  That was a pretty awesome thing for her to do and I am glad she was willing to do that!!  The camp director is the lady in the middle of the picture:

 At the end of the awards ceremony they brought out a special cake they got made with everyones name on it:

 While they were cutting up the cake they turned on some music which my kids started grooving to:

 Unfortunately, Matthew was having a hard day and started having a tantrum during the awards ceremony.  It got bad enough Aaron had to take him out of the situation and take him on a drive to calm him down.  By the time the ceremony was getting over he was calm enough to rejoin us.  I was glad Aaron was there to help handle him because as he gets bigger he gets harder to handle sometimes.

Anyway, here is Josh showing off his 'Hair and Abs, Baby!' award:

 After the camp was over we headed over to the outlets to pick up a few school clothes for the kids.  We passed by the Samsonite store and Aaron couldn't help himself.  It reminded him of the movie quote from Dumb and Dumber where he says, "Samsonite....I was way off!"  Haha!

Since we were so close to Dairy Keen in Heber we stopped by for dinner.  The kids and Aaron LOVED it.  Matthew loved watching the train while he ate dinner.

We missed Josh and were glad to have him back home!

Monday morning it was time for Matthew to go his 3rd week of Camp K this summer.  As we were waiting to check in another girl wanted to take a picture by the Camp K sign.  Matthew ran over so he could be in her picture, too.  He didn't even ask he just grabbed her hand and stepped right into her picture whether they wanted a picture of him or not.  Luckily, they were good natured and just laughed along with me at Matthew's antics.

 Matthew was excited to see his counselor, Fosters, again and made sure I got a picture of him.

While Matthew was having fun at camp we decided to have some fun, too.  We met up with the Einzingers to do some bowling.  The kids had fun talking and playing with their friends in between their turns:

 Noah and I loved playing with baby Drew.

Monday night we went to Lagoon for Family Home Evening.  Here's Noah and Sarah riding the car ride:

 Daniel was a bit too tall to ride, but walked in line and hunched over.  The ride operator just looked at Daniel like he was crazy,  but he still let him ride the ride anyway:

 When we got home from Lagoon I sat down and immediately Noah, Daniel and Sophie hopped in my lap.   I guess my lap was the happening place to be--haha!

Wednesday morning I dropped Josh off for Scout Camp/High Adventure.  It was weird being down to only three kids!  Since we were down to only three kids that evening we took the kids to the park and had a picnic:

 Thursday morning Aaron took the day off and we had a fun family day minus Josh and Matthew since they were both at their different camps.  We headed down to Provo to see the Monte Bean Museum at BYU.  Here's some of the pictures we got while walking through the museum ( I don't think my kids can take a serious picture):

 They got to touch a bear head:

 After the museum we headed over to Bridal Veil Falls up Provo Canyon.  It was pretty:

 We drove the Alpine Loop drive.  It was so pretty:

 There was still some snow in places:

 We stopped by Cascade Springs and walked around.

 After Cascade Springs we headed over to look at Tibblefork Reservior.  They have really changed the area up and it looks so pretty.  Too bad we didn't have our kayaks with us because it looked like an awesome place to do some kayaking!

 Our next stop was Timpanogos Cave.  The cave has gotten pretty popular so in order to guarantee a cave tour you need to make your reservations online.  When we decided we wanted to hike it Aaron went to make the reservations and the only time they had open was 3:15 pm so that's when we made the reservation.  We stopped and had everyone potty and filled out water bottles and then started the hike.

 The hike is pretty steep and is about 1.5 miles long increasing in altitude of about 1500 feet which makes it quite the incline on the way up.

 We made it up the trail to the entrance of the cave.  The kids did a lot better than we thought they would which was pretty awesome.

 While we were waiting for our turn Sarah was reading all about the cave and coming over to tell us about what she read.

 It was nice to sit on a bench in the shade after that hike and wait for our turn.

 The cave was 45 degrees inside so we put on our jackets and listened to our tour guide.  Timpanogos Cave is still my favorite cave.  Here's the 'heart' of the cave:

 The tour was great and we were glad we were able to go.  We were also glad that they way down was a lot easier than the way up--haha!  Here's a view of American Fork City and valley from the top of the cave exit:

We had a fun family day, but we did miss Josh and Matthew.  Let me just say my legs and hips are feeling that steep hike from yesterday--ouch!  Over 105 floors--like I said my legs are feeling it today!!

Sarah's piano teacher let her take home a white board this week to play with.  Sarah has been having fun drawing whatever she thinks of.  Here's her version of Squidward from SpongeBob.  She's a funny girl!

Matthew got home from Camp K today and is exhausted.  He had lunch and the curled up with Sophie for a dual nap.  

I am glad to have him back home.  I will be glad to have Josh back home tomorrow.  This summer has been fast and crazy, but fun.