Warning: Vacation Pictures Ahead!

This entire post will be about our summer vacation. I know you might be bored to tears, so please take a moment to look around and locate the nearest exit, just in case.

This year, Aleah went to girl's camp with our church for the first time. It was a little weird sending her off for a week without us, but she had a blast! When she got back I asked her if she missed us. She just laughed. A lot!
While Aleah was gone, Josh and Anna took swimming lessons. I'm not entirely sure how helpful it was as far as the learning part goes, but they both had a lot of fun.
Josh especially loves the water, so he had a hard time keeping his head above water long enough to listen to what the teacher had to say. Even when the teacher had them sitting on the side of the pool, Josh still managed to find a way to stick his head in the water (see picture below). Yep, that's my boy!
Seth earned a scholarship to a band camp, so he spent a week playing music with his sax and his friends. The concert they put on for family and friends at the end of the week sounded amazing!
Texas has had record high heat and is in a terrible drought this year. To escape the heat we took off for Utah where it has been unusually cool and wet.

Our first destination was Holden, Utah. I know you've probably never heard of it. It is a little town in central Utah where my mom and dad grew up. Several years ago, my parents bought my great-grandmother's old house and now they go down there regularly to escape city life.

Holden looks like this:
And this:
And this:
It is AWESOME!

We were in Holden for the 4th of July, so we headed 8 miles south to Fillmore for the parade. It was everything a small town parade should be with horses and truck drawn floats and 18 wheelers. They threw candy to the kids, handed out balloons and frisbees, and sprayed small amounts of water on the crowd with the fire truck. (Note the missionaries riding in the back of the red truck below. I'll bet there aren't many parades that can boast that!) We also went to the fireworks show in Fillmore, and I honestly think it was one of the best fireworks displays I have ever seen. Who would have thought Fillmore could pull off a show like that?
We spent a couple days riding my dad's ATV's all over the mountains surrounging Holden. It was FUN, FUN, FUN! The kids did a lot of the driving and we did a lot of holding on for dear life.
Here is Kamakazi Seth riding through a stream at top speed.
My brother, Curt, and his family met us in Holden too. Grandpa and Curt brought their guns and let us practice shooting.
This is the Holden house. We LOVE it! Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us hang out there.
After a few days in Holden we headed north to the Salt Lake area.

We visited Temple Square with my mom and dad and Curt's kids, Cole and Holden.
We went up the canyon to Alta Ski Resort and played in the snow.
Seth and Aleah celebrated their 12th birthday while we were in Utah. Grandma and Grandpa provided ice cream sandwiches with candles so we could have a small birthday celebration before they took us all to Lagoon for the big birthday celebration.
Here are my big 12 year olds! I took this picture right after we got through the gates at Lagoon and that was the last I saw of Seth and Aleah until dinner. They ran all over that place with their cousins and had a great time.
Dalen and I hung out with Josh and Anna. Anna's favorite animal right now is the zebra, so she was pretty excited to find the zebra on the merry-go-round. I think she made Grandma take her back on this a few dozen times.
The Bat and the Colossus were Josh's favorite rides.
We finally met up with the older kids in the evening.
They talked us into going on some scary rides with them .... like this one.
This is my brother Curt and his wife, Holli. It was fun to spend some time with them!
Aleah informed me that she didn't get a birthday cake this year. But I told her funnel cake counts.
After spending a week with my family, we spent another week with Dalen's family.

We spent time visiting with Dalen's mom. It was good to see her!
We had a big family dinner where we got to see a bunch of the family that we don't get to see very often.
My kids' cousins on Dalen's side of the family are all adults, so they mostly ran around with their cousin's kids. They had a blast!
Dalen's sister, Letha, let stay at her house. The first thing Josh did when we got to Letha's was go and get stung on the lip by a wasp. It swelled up pretty big. Poor kid!
We visited BYU.
Dalen's sisters, Kerri and Letha, came with us.
We went to the Bean Life Science Museum.
We went to the Museum of Paleontology.
We also went to the Museum of Art where I snapped this picture before I saw the sign that said NO PHOTOGRAPHY! Whoops. But I thought this gigantic sculpture of thousands of books was the perfect place to take Seth and Aleah's picture since I am convinced it is their goal to read this many books before they die. They are already well on their way.
We spent some time in the mountains, which was wonderful! It was SO beautiful and cool.
We took the kids up American Fork Canyon to Cascade Springs.
Look familiar?
We went to Kennecott Copper Mine with a large crew from Dalen's family.
This is what happens when you have too much fun!
The night before we left Utah we had a picnic with Letha and her daughter Marissa. We roasted hot dogs and marshmellows over a fire. Thanks Letha!
We had such a fun trip! It was kind of hard to leave.

But, be it ever so HOT, there's no place like home.
For the most part, the rest of the summer for the kids consisted of hanging out with friends and enjoying doing nothing much. I guess that's why they call it the lazy days of summer.

Seth and Aleah hung out in what I called "the kid cave". The neighbors across the street opened up their garage and set up a card table where the kids could play games.
Josh and Anna also played with the neighbor kids. I love that our cul-da-sac has kids just the same ages as mine so they all have a buddy.
But when the kid cave is closed, I suppose you can always turn to a book!