Hyrum Dam

My sister & her kids came up to visit us last week and while Jeff was at work (boo, work) we took all the kids to Hyrum Dam. It's the greatest. They have a small beach where you can lay out in the sun or shade, and then play in the water. I decided to video it instead of taking pictures, because I wanted to capture all of the emotion! The water looks totally murky because of all the sand being kicked up, but it actually looks like this. Regardless, enjoy the video at the bottom! We had a blast, and I hope if you ever find yourself in Cache Valley that you'll give this place a try :)

Bear Lake

We've ultimately decided not to go on any fancy vacations this year, so we're counting on about a million trips up to Bear Lake since it's relatively close and inexpensive since we just stay in the family home up there. For Father's Day weekend, we decided to go and enjoy some much needed relaxation and tanning. Because seriously, we look like ghosts. We all slept in so late (read: 8:45 AM) due to blinds, curtains, shade, and a lack of alarm clocks. It was incredibly glorious and angels sang, probably. While Paige took her morning nap, Jeff & I played Fluxx nonstop, which is an awesome card game that you should buy. After that, we packed up our stuff and headed to the beach! If you ever go to Bear Lake, don't waste your time going to South Beach which is not good at all and go to North Beach. It's less crowded and the sand there is actually sand and not just sand mixed with weeds and trash. Don't worry- we did indulge ourselves in dole whip and raspberry shakes ;) We just ate them too quickly for pictures!

I cannot describe how much Paige loves the beach. Her favorite thing was walking up to it and just pointing and laughing at all the waves and boats as they went by. She just happily sat in the shallow end with us, eating sand and pointing at every person she saw. We love this little girl and being able to watch her experience new things is the greatest thing in the world!

From My iPhone

"Ooh mom that looks good, gimme that"

"Nope, that's cold. Watch me while I dump your snow cone on the ground"

Just in general, few things are better than doughnuts on a rainy Saturday morning.

Paige has started walking (!!!!) but will only go more than 5 steps if we hold her hand. We're not mad about it, because it's the sweetest and cutest thing in the whole world.

She was so terrified at first, and would only be in the water if we held her really close to us and if she could dig her fingernails into our arms, but by the end, she was happy with us just holding her up by her diaper.

I'm trying to eat healthier breakfasts, or something, because I'm trying to get rid of these last 3 pounds of baby weight, and also because it's a bad idea to bike 7 miles on an empty stomach.

She totally pulled her hat down to block her face from the sun and fell asleep like this. I can't look at this without laughing haha!

Murray's Hill Hike

On Memorial Day, we decided to explore Cache Valley a bit more and tackled a hike that we had never even thought to do before! We were just going to hike the MC on the mountain, but we'd heard that someone put up a "no trespassing" sign up on the part of the land that they own and often yell at people trying to hike it, so we decided to play it safe and hike Murray's Hill. Jeff's brother was in town visiting, so we dragged him along with us ;)

The weather had said that it was supposed to be slightly cloudy with no rain (hallelujah!), but that was not the case. When we were driving to the trailhead, there was a huge flash thunderstorm. Luckily, it passed before we got out of the car and continued with our hike. We got about 1/3 of the way before the clouds came back and started really pouring and hailing on us! We thought about turning around, but waited out the storm beneath some trees instead. 

When we got to the top, we were able to see over all of Cache Valley and it was so cool and beautiful. These pictures honestly don't do it justice! Of course, it started raining really hard on us at the very top, it was freezing, and Paige got really, really tired. We headed back down and the sun came out immediately. It was a whole "WHY MOTHER NATURE, WHY!?" situation, but it was still really fun and I would do it again in a heart beat. (Minus the excruciating pain in my hips and knees from carrying Paige the whole way. Let me repeat that. I carried her the whole way.) But enough about that! Here's some pictures of our fun day!

(To see better quality pictures, please click on the picture and then scroll through the rest. Blogger is unfortunately messing with the quality, but I'll get it fixed as soon as I can)