Summer vacation 2012–week 6

Our original plan was to stay in Idaho for about 7 weeks.  But with Derk’s broken ankle it really made things difficult, and we decided to head home a week early.  I didn’t get many pictures this week because I was really busy taking care of Derk and the kids.  We got some last minute fun in, though, and do have a few pictures to share. 

We took another trip to Silverwood with Grandma and Grandpa (Derk came, too, but had to be in a wheelchair).  Asher and Grandpa went on lots of water slides together!

We spent a nice day at Farragut with my dad, siblings, and nephews.  This was neat for me because I came here as a little girl and got to think about the fun times my family had here all those years ago.  I love taking my kids to places I went as a child and watching them do the same things I once did.  The cousins had a blast blowing bubbles, digging in the sand, hiking around the lake, and playing in the water with Uncle James.  We also had a nice picnic.  It was a nice day, especially since Derk came with us.  He had to just sit in a chair and read/relax the whole time, but it was nice to spend time together outside.

And we had a last family get together at my mom’s.  The kids swam away in Nana’s pool with Uncle James, and the rest of the adults sat around enjoying the weather and chatting (and if you’re Derk, glaring at your wife for daring to take your picture…).

Cambria has been practicing her swimming all summer and was doing awesome this last time in the pool!

And here are a couple of pics from our trip back home.  I am normally SO sad to leave, but with Derk being hurt it was just really hard and crazy.  We all needed to be HOME.  Packing up the car was really tricky because Derk obviously couldn’t help me load up much.  His mom helped me quite a bit, but even so it took me until 2:30am to get most everything packed up.  Luckily Derk was able to do some driving that first day, but I had to drive a lot more than usual (actually, he normally drives the entire trip).  Once we decided we were taking off a week early, I had to check the Cache Valley cheese factory’s website to make sure we would pass through when they were open!  Yes, the cheese really is THAT worth it!  We ended up leaving a day later than we wanted to JUST so we could stop and get some “squeaky cheese” as we call it.  The kids were so good that Derk promised them they could pick whatever they wanted as a treat when we first stopped for gas.  Next time we’ll make sure to choose our words a little more carefully because Asher + a huge can of Mt.  Dew = HYPER!!!!!!  And lots of bathroom stops.    As we drove the thermometer in the van started slowly creeping up, and once it hit 100* we knew we must be getting close to home. 

It was definitely the most eventful summer vacation we’ve ever had!  We’ll never forget all our memories from this year.    It’s sad that our summer is almost over now.  Derk has about 2 more weeks until he goes back to work, and then the kids are back in school shortly after.  I love having everyone home with me all summer long.  But with such a crazy summer, it’ll do us good to get home and back into a routine!  Thanks to all our family for such wonderful memories from this summer!  We love you all!

Summer vacation 2012–week 5

While we are all here together, Rebecca had the idea to do an annual cousin camp that would be 2 days of fun activities for all the cousins to do together.  She put all the original plans together, even making up a spreadsheet to outline which adult would be helping her with which activities.  And she designed shirts for all the kids to wear!  They sure had a wonderful time!!  There were relay races, lots of craft projects, a service project for Grandma and Grandpa, memory books, even a fun skit at the end that Rebecca asked Kyrie to write (which Kyrie LOVED!).  What a fun idea and such wonderful memories for all the kids.  You’re awesome, Rebecca!  There are literally hundreds of pictures of cousin camp between all of our cameras, so here are “a few" of my favorites!

 

Kyrie, Asher, and Cambria.

Abigail, Lauren, and Dallin.

Zariah, Maleah, Anoni, and Quinten.

All the cousins in their cousin camp shirts, minus Quinten.

LOVE this picture of Asher and Dallin.  They are so handsome and sweet!!

While everyone was together, we also took some family pictures.  Here’s the WHOLE Stephens clan!  And to think…all this started with just Scott and Jean – crazy!

 

Here’s Grandma and Grandpa with all 10 of their grandbabies.

And here’s our little family.  There were 2 different cameras going at the same time, so we’re looking different directions.  But at least we’re all smiling! 

 

This week was quite an exciting week for the Stephens clan!  Aside from being busy with cousin camp and everything else going on, we also had a whole slew of injuries!  Many were minor (scrapes and bumps from playing), but there were 3 major ones – Dallin tripped on my laptop cord and had to get stitches in his forehead, Abbie was jumping on the bed and ended up falling off and severely breaking her arm in several places, and Derk broke his ankle on a water slide at Silverwood!  The x-ray is of Abbie’s arm - you can see the fracture on the bone on the left, and the bone on the right is supposed to be connected up there at the top but was completely displaced.  Poor thing has to have surgery and be in a cast.  Dallin was a trooper getting his stitches, and I cuddled him as much as I could once he got home – I felt TERRIBLE that it was my stupid computer that he got hurt on!  And poor Derk fractured his ankle and will have to be in a walking boot for at least the next 6 weeks.  He couldn’t walk at all, and I was really grateful to Kevan and Eric for helping me get him to the urgent care.

We celebrated the 4th of July.

We ended the week by spending lots of extra time with my sister, Katie and her family.  They ended up having to leave for her husband’s business, so we won’t see them any more this summer.  We made the best of our last days together and spent as much time as we could hanging out.  We went to Starbucks, shopped, and hit Silverwood one last time together.

 

This week was by far the busiest we’ve had, but we sure had lots of fun!

Summer vacation 2012–Salt Lake City, Utah

We  made it to Salt Lake City and decided to visit Timpanogos cave while we are here.  I am so glad we did because it was INCREDIBLE!  The hike was long but beautiful.  Here are some pictures of the beautiful scenery along the way.

 

The kids did really well on the hike for the most part.  There were a couple sections along the trail where there was a very steep drop-off with no fence on the right hand side, so that made me extremely nervous!  Then Kyrie started spazzing out because she thought she saw a bee and went WAY too close to the edge, which very nearly gave me a heart attack!  We had a nice, long talk about how they had to be extra careful and safe (and how dying is far worse than enduring a possible bee sting!!!), and thankfully we had no further scares. 

It took us a couple hours to get up to the top - it’s 1.5 miles long and gains nearly 1,100 feet in elevation along the way.  We had to make quite a few stops to let the kids (and ourselves!) rest a bit, but we made it just in time for the tour of the caves. 

 

I was so glad we brought sweatshirts with us because it was very cold once we got inside the cave!  But it was absolutely spectacular.  The pictures don’t even do it justice.  We saw the most incredible stalactites and stalagmites that were absolutely huge (5-10 feet in length, maybe even more).  The water in the cave was beautiful, and learning about how each of the features was created was amazing.  Unfortunately most of the tour prohibited flash photography, so I don’t have a ton of pictures of the inside.  It was so impressive, though.  One of the coolest parts of the tour was when we entered this very large cavern, and the tour guide shut all the flashlights off to show us just how dark it really was.  We had never experienced true darkness like that – it was really cool!! 

 

We took it a lot slower on the hike back down and stopped to enjoy more of the scenery and read the signs along the way. 

After our long hike we treated ourselves to Café Rio for dinner!  Then it was back to Grandma’s house where the kids CRASHED hard the second their heads hit the pillows. 

It was a wonderful day full of exploring the wonderful world we live in!

Telegraph Pass

Today we took the kids for a hike up Telegraph Pass.  Derk has been a few times before with some friends, but we’ve never gone as a family.  I didn’t realize just how tough it would be!  It’s a 4.5 mile hike that gains 1,230 feet in elevation.  Combine that with 80+ degree temperatures, and we definitely struggled a bit.  It starts off pretty flat at first, but as soon as the incline started both girls were whining almost non-stop.  Derk and I traded off carrying Cambria a couple of times, which was to be expected (not many hiking places around here, so our kids aren’t very used to it).  Both girls got a burst of energy and ended up doing really well!  Asher was a total champ – he didn’t whine a single time and only asked to sit down once the whole way up!  It took us about 1.5 hours, but we made it to the top!

Here are the kiddos at the beginning of the trail.

Each time we rested, I snapped some pictures of the scenery.  There’s a very different kind of beauty to the desert.

 

Finally at the top!!  There’s a mailbox looking thing that holds a guest book for all the hikers to sign, and the kids had a great time signing their names!  I forgot to get a picture of the page we all signed, but I’ll do it next time.  Cambria signed her name, too, but I didn’t get a picture of her.  She was so excited that she got to sign, though – she’s still thrilled with the whole concept of being able to write words now (although,  thankfully, she has stopped autographing everything in sight…*knock on wood*). 

 

The view of the mountains from the top.

 

Asher threw a rock over the edge to see how far down it was.  (Just after I snapped this picture, he got WAY too close for my comfort and scared me to death!!  It took me a good 10 minutes to bring my heart rate back down!)

 

Relaxing on the bench at the top before making our way back down.  (Is Kyrie the spitting image of her dad, or what?!?!)

Me and my honey.

 

On our way back down!

We definitely learned a few things along the way.  Next time I will bring protein bars for Derk and I and some granola bars for the kiddos because it really does take a lot of energy in this heat!  We also bought an extra camel pack for the next time.  This time we only had one, so we ended up bringing that as well as a couple water bottles – and it was super annoying carrying water bottles around.  Lastly, I will NOT forget to sunblock everyone before going next time.  Derk and I ended up with some nice sunburns after that (luckily the kids were all totally fine!).  We still had a good time exploring and hiking the day away, and it was so fun to see how excited the kids were that we completed such a big (for them!) accomplishment!  We were all very wasted after that, though, and ended up spending the rest of the day laying on the couch watching movies.