Red Fish Lake

I love Red Fish Lake! We have camped here 4 out of the 5 years that we have lived in Idaho. It is breathtakingly gorgeous! It is one of the few places where I will camp despite the cold, and yes the nights were cold this year they hovered around the mid 30's. The days were beautiful! The weather was in the mid 80's, perfect weather to enjoy all the outdoor activities available at Red Fish. This year all of my siblings and my parents joined us for the camping trip which made it extra fun! We did our annual trip to the fish hatchery at Red Fish. The boys each caught 3 fish. And Carson caught a fish on a cast he did all by himself, which he was extra proud of. Lily was obsessed with the fish and was constantly harassing my mom to show them to her. By the end of the fishing Lily was brave enough to hold the fish, and much to my disgust poke its eyeball over and over again (so gross)! We also hung out at the beach for a couple hours. The water was cold as usual, but the boys were initially excited to go out in the water with Nate. Their excitement changed to tears after a kayaker ran over Carson with her boat and after Lincoln didn't jump far enough away of the rock and ended up stubbing his toe. Both boys ended their swim in the lake with tears and injuries. Lily spent most of her time at the beach trying to steal other peoples flotation devices. Lily's favorite activity of the trip was probably sitting on the ground and throwing dirt on herself. I think the boys enjoyed fishing the most, but roasting marshmallows for smores was probably a close second. The trip overall was a big success. However there were a couple hiccups on the trip. One being that Lily didn't sleep well and I had to share a sleeping bag with her for a couple hours both nights, the other was that my nephew Fin tripped and his hand landed on some coals in the fire (thankfully he is okay, but did suffer some 2nd and 3rd degree burns on his hand). Despite, all of that it was a great trip and I can't wait to go back next year!

Sage Hen

We managed to squeeze in one last trip in July. We went on a quick family camping trip to Sage Hen reservoir. We did our usual camping activities like fishing and hiking. We had the best camping spot! It was right next to a small stream and the boys had a great time walking over this log to go play by the stream. Nate helped them build a little boat out of sticks and they had a great time watching it go down the stream. While we were there Lincoln found a blue ball that he played with constantly and named squishy. Lily was always in hot pursuit of the ball and managed to steal it from Lincoln a fair number of times. The kids had a great time playing with the worms we brought for fishing. Lincoln tried to get Lily to touch the worms she would get close but would never touch one. Fishing was interesting this trip Lincoln caught 2 fish and Carson caught none, which led Carson to declare that "it the worst day ever". Luckily, Carson declares a day "the worst ever" a couple times a week so I knew he would recover quickly. Lily took a lot of interest in the fish we caught and even got brave enough to touch one! It was only a quick trip, and it was a LOT of work, but we had a great time !

Bear lake

In July we spent about 4 days in Paris Idaho near Bear Lake with the Snow side of the family. We had a great time hanging out with family, going to the lake, boating, and visiting Lava Hot Springs. The kids had a great time at the lake even though our day there started out with bad weather. We spent probably the first 20 minutes at the beach huddled under our canopy waiting for the rain to pass, but after that the weather cleared up and we had a beautiful day boating and playing at the beach. Lily seemed interested in everything going on at the beach, but I wouldn't say she was way into it. She honestly seemed to tolerate the beach. I think if she hadn't been teething she would have played a lot more. The boys had a great time at the beach! Carson and Lincoln both enjoyed playing in the sand. Carson got a big kick out of squirting his aunt Rashell and her friend with the squirt gun. Lincoln loved to kick the little waves that would come on shore. Carson was not a hug fan of being pulled on the tube, but Lincoln loved both the boat and the tube ride and was relaxed enough on the tube to put his hands up in the air. We all had a great family trip and enjoyed the time we got to spend with family.

Salt Lake trip

A few weeks ago on our way to Bear Lake we stopped in Salt Lake to have fun and visit with Nate's mom. Nate's mom was nice enough to come with us on all our little day trips with the kids, and was a big help! We started out the weekend by going to the aquarium in Sandy, which was much cooler than I expected. Carson loved petting the rays and seeing the tarantula. Lincoln liked the frogs. And Lily was very entertained by the fish and was pointing at them most of the time. Next we went to the Hill Aerospace museum. Carson was WAY into all the planes, missiles, and helicopters they had on display. However, while Lincoln liked the planes he began to loose interest in the museum way before Carson was ready to go. That combined with Lily getting tired of her stroller caused us to cut the visit to the museum a little short. So Carson was a very disappointed that we didn't get to see the whole museum, but since the museum is free and very close to Nate's parents house I am sure we will go back. Our last little excursion was to the Hogle Zoo. The kids had a great time they loved the animals especially the elephants, which we don't have at our local zoo. Also while we were there the zoo was having a special dinosaur exhibit, which the boys loved probably as much as the animals. While at the zoo Lincoln was so cute he would pull out his little map of the zoo and tell us how to get to different parts of the zoo and point to where he thought we were on the map. The map was one of his favorite parts of the zoo. Lily got restless in her stroller so we had to take her out quite a bit, which got a little bit exhausting at the end, but overall the kids really enjoyed themselves. We had a great time visiting Nat es mom and playing in Salt Lake.