Justin's week off

So Justin is required to take a week off of work each year.  He always takes it when a family vacation is planned or something like that.  We didn't have any long vacations that needed a lot of time off so we were able to do exactly what we wanted.  We spent the first three days in Idaho at a little place called Lava Hot Springs.  My family used to go all the time growing up but Justin had never been so I talked it up and convinced him we needed to go. We rented a tube and floated the river the first day.  It was just right for our kids-some rapids made it exciting but they weren't too big or scary for them.

We spent the rest of the next day at the pool, probably what Lava is most known for.  Molly brushed up on everything she learned in July at swim lessons.  She would jump off the side and then see how far she could swim.  She also liked the slides.

Stockton is less enthusiastic about swimming (he gets cold fast) but he had a good time with Grandma and Grandpa.  Brynn likes the water and I imagine she'll turn out more like her sister than her brother.

Justin jumped off the highest platform-about 3 stories high I think.  Funny, he is the one afraid of heights. You can see him in the red shorts about halfway down.

 

All the grown-ups loved the speed slides.  It was nice to be there on a Tuesday afternoon because it wasn't too crowded.  Here's my mom and dad on the slides:

  

There was a rope swing near our camp.  Justin found it first and tried it out.  Molly didn't want to at first...then I think she was more scared of missing out on something fun than she was of the swing...so she tried it with Justin first, decided it was really fun, then did it on her own.

 

Stockton tried once with Justin but hated it.  No big surprise there.

The rest of the time was spent at the campsite, walking around the one-street town, and getting ice cream cones.  We were happy to have my mom and dad on the trip with us!  Some extra hands to entertain kids is always nice, plus they're pretty good company.

I took Molly school shopping on Thursday.

All summer long Molly had been wanting to hike the Y with Justin and I and leave the others with a babysitter.  So we finally got around to doing that.  Stockton and Brynn stayed with a friend while we went off to tackle the mountain.  I had heard it was not easy but that children could handle it okay.  There were 12 or 13 fairly steep switchbacks and it was challenging.  Or maybe I'm just way out of shape.  But we made it.  The Y is huge, of course, and the views were pretty spectacular.

 

  

Molly was so proud of herself.

 

I told her that after doing that she could do anything hard if she put her mind to it. :)

That night Justin made pizza and we got a family-friendly movie to watch.  We pulled the mattress downstairs once again and set up camp for the rest of the night.  (We turned it sideways for Molly, Stockton and myself.  Justin slept on the couch.  Brynn slept upstairs in her crib.)

 

We went to the America First summer party on Saturday night.  It was at the Real Salt Lake game.  We were able to get whatever we wanted for food there and had pretty good seats for the game.  They lost the game but it was really so fun!  I'm hoping America First has more events there.

  

(Both Molly and Stockton got tattoos on their cheeks for the game.  They fell asleep on the way home and we put them right in bed.  In the rush of Sunday morning...with 9:00 church...we didn't notice that they still had them on until we pulled into the church parking lot.  Justin was able to scrub Molly's mostly off {she was left with a red cheek} but not Stockton's.  So he kept his on during church.  Oops.)  

We've already decided that the hike to the Y and the sleep-out downstairs will be a yearly tradition that we do right before school starts.  You can never have too many traditions, right?