July Family Adventure: Stay-cation

This month's adventure was pretty much un-planned, it just sort of happened. Nate had the fourth of July off of work, which was a Friday, conveniently, so we decided to have a weenie roast and camp in the back yard on Thursday night. The weather almost did our plans in, but it turned around at the last minute and we had a great time. Jenna even came up from BYU and graced us with her presence!

To say the kids were excited would be a terrible understatement. They were bouncing off the walls, as evidenced in the video. Luckily the walls outdoors are much further apart than the ones in our house, so it was fun to watch.

They had some fun with the screen in the tent:

And later when it started to get dark, Addison, Bryn and Leah took turns shouting, "This is the best day EVER!" as they jumped on the trampoline in their jammies with Nate and watched all the fireworks from the neighbors. We sat around the fire and took turns telling stories and then headed into the tent.

Everyone was pretty wired, but it was also getting pretty late, and eventually the kids were able to tune out the sounds of exploding fireworks from every house in the ten-block radius and get to sleep. Then the adults snuck out and ate s'more s'mores and grilled Jenna on her love life. It was awesome. Nate slept outside and all three of the big kids made it through the night in the tent! I was surprised.

Nate thought we should document our tent time, but it was dark and his flash was really bright.

The next day, which was the fourth, we went to Willard Bay for the first time. It was actually really fun! The sand was burning hot, and luckily Nate had the forethought to bring our patio table umbrella. Ghetto for sure, but effective. We would've packed up and gone home without it. Jenna chilled with Asa in the shade while the rest of us swam and tried not to notice that people had their dogs swimming in the water too. That's just gross, man.

See that little island like 45 and a half miles away? Nate and I totally swam to it and back while Jenna fed the kids a steady supply of Cheetos and Oreos. We're so cool.

Then we came home, got poor tired Leah in bed, and did our own little fireworks show.

Nate put on an impressive display and the crowd appreciated it.

Then I cozied up with a giant cup full of cracker jacks and an episode of What Not to Wear while Nate and Jenna and Addison and Bryn headed off to the big fireworks. We were all bushed by the time we got to bed.

Saturday we spent most of the day just trying to dig out. Our house was a total catastrophe by that point. That evening we got to head up to Uncle LaMar and Aunt Chris's house for a Johnson/Olsen family cookout. The kids liked the livestock, the pool, the food, and the pet magpie. (Uncle LaMar is a vet.)We really enjoyed catching up with everyone and meeting the folks from farther away on the family tree. And I love the LaMars' house and yard.

The whole group with Aunt Dorothy there in the middle.

We got home after 9:00, got Jenna on the train home and managed to make it to 9:00 church on time the next day!

And we ate this on Sunday. It was a flag cake that got rave reviews from everyone. Just forgot to get the picture before we scarfed.