Mason and Bri go back to school

The first day of school came way too fast this year! I was not prepared. We still need so many more swimming days and time to hang out together!

Neither of them wanted summer to end, but they were kind of excited to start school again. They both got up bright and early and checked off everything on their To-Do list. And they both came home from school so happy and excited. So far they have been in school for a week and so far, so good. They like their teachers and they've been having a lot of fun at recess. I am not a fan of having them both gone for so long each day, and neither is Bus, but I'm sure we'll all get used to it.

Mike and Delpha's 50th

Saturday evening after got home from Island Park we went to the Livingston's for Tim's parents' 50th wedding anniversary celebration. Angie did a great job putting it on. They had the family pictures printed out on display, a cute video with pictures of Mike and Delpha, and had them cut a cake. The kids had fun playing with their cousins all night. Mike and Delpha are a funny couple sometimes, but they have really committed to each other, and they raised a great family together. We love them so much!

Island Park Trip

Nana and Pop always try to plan a family trip for everyone to take together in the summer. We did Bear Lake pretty regularly for a few years, and last year we were in St. George for Kelson and Lexi's wedding. This year Nana wanted to go somewhere new and got a big cabin on a beautiful island on the reservoir in Island Park.

We weren't really sure what to expect, and the people at Tim's work told him it was kind of lame. I was excited, but it was going to be a long drive, and it wasn't going to be Bear Lake.

It was so fun.

The drive up there was really long, but about an hour before Island Park, Tim noticed some signs for Bear World, and after a little googling we impulsively decided to stop. We spent two hours driving through the park looking at what seemed like hundreds of bears. We had Bus and Ava in the front and everyone was whipping their heads around staring out the windows, amazed. They were everywhere! It was so cool.

Then we went to the little amusement park. Mason was so excited and told us several times that this was way better than Lagoon or Disneyland. They got to ride all the little rides and the place was pretty dead, so we didn't even have to wait in any lines. We went through the petting zoo and saw the animals close up. My favorite part was the baby bears hanging around and playing right in front of us. They were so adorable. The kids really loved it and it was a nice break from the drive.

We went to Yellowstone our first full day there and I think everyone was a little let down. It is beautiful, and there were a lot of things that would probably be fun with older kids or teenagers, but it was a little to dangerous to try to wrangle 4 kids around waterfalls and hot pots.

The next day we rented a wave-runner and two two-person kayaks. We spent the day relaxing and cruising around on the water. Mason, Brielle, and Ava were pretty fearless on the wave-runner. They wanted to go again and again, and liked driving it as fast as they could. It was so fun going out with them. We also got to play on a water trampoline that had a big launching bag attached to it. They were not as big of fans of that. 

In between those things we did some fishing, had a campfire, and just hung out with everyone. The drive home was much faster. It was a great trip.