Backpacking and Fun with Cousins

Jason and Andrew went on their annual backpacking trip in July and the rest of the kids had a fun week with their cousins.  My niece, Danielle was here from Louisiana and we loved having her along for several outings.  She even got me to go to the first rodeo in my life.  It's not my thing but she loves that kind of stuff!  It was actually a lot of fun and the kids loved it and were all asking if we can go again next year.  We spent a hot afternoon cooling off at Classic Water Park with Brian and Brooklyn.

We went to the new aquarium that opened in Salt Lake.  Skyler loved looking at all the fish and the kids loved the new underwater viewing exhibit for the sharks and the rope bridge.

We spent an afternoon at a splash pad for a picnic and had a barbecue for the holiday.  The kids watched movies, had fun lighting sparklers and played lots of video games.  I think after a week of sleepovers and fun they were all exhausted!

Meanwhile the older boys had a great time in the mountains.  When they got home and started showing me pictures I remembered one from five years ago and had to pull it out to compare.

Andrew has grown a bit since then.  He doesn't have any problems keeping up on the long hikes anymore.  In fact, it probably won't be long until the older guys have a hard time keeping up with him!  They caught lots of fish and enjoyed getting away from the heat and all the people in one of the most remote areas in the Uinta mountains.

Andrew spent the week before the backpacking trip in Yellowstone with his scout troop on a high adventure trip.  They canoed into the back country on Shoshone and Lewis Lakes into the Shoshone Geyser Basin.  By the time he left for the camp his scout leader had me worried about bears and drowning on white caps on the lake.  I was relieved to finally get this picture text to me when they were on their way home and know that he had survived.  Here he is with a huge lake trout he caught.  It was fun to catch although the lake trout have to be killed because they are non-native fish that are destroying the native fish.

The week after backpacking Andrew went with our ward to youth conference in Jackson, Wyoming.  They got rained on quite a bit but had a lot of fun white water rafting on the snake river.  He got home just in time to take his pack over to the stake center for the stake high adventure.  He got one night in bed and then was off to the City of Rocks in Idaho for a few days of rock climbing, rappelling, mountain biking, and skeet shooting.  That's right, three straight weeks of camping.  I missed him a lot.  Having him gone that long made me realized how much he really helps me at home!  He was exhausted when he was finally home.  He slept for about 13 hours that night.  I had to wake him up to get ready for 1:00 church the next day!