July Trips

July was absolutely crazy for our family! We were gone literally half of the month on family vacations! While it is so fun to be busy, it is so nice to be back in the calm and peace of your own home too. We are now back from all of our trips for the time being, so I finally have time to blog about all of the adventures we've had lately. This is going to be super long since we've done so much stuff, so just know - you've been warned! 

VERNAL. Every year on the weekend closest to the 4th of July, my family goes to Vernal. Both of my parents are from Vernal, and my mom's family does a HUGE family reunion out there every year. Usually we camp in the nearby mountains, but it rains on us every. single. year. We decided we were so tired of that, so we camped at my grandma's family farm in Vernal, and just drove up the mountain to the big reunion the day it was held. 

Vernal usually does a pretty good parade on the 4th, but this year it was SOOO lame. Lydia was doing what the rest of us felt like doing. The only cool thing in the parade was a fracking truck. Only in Vernal would you see one of those parading down the street!

We decided to take a few family pictures at grandma's farm where everyone was camped out.

I feel like this is a barn that would be used in one of those dramatic, artsy wedding photo shoots where neither the bride or the groom looks happy to be getting married. You know which ones I mean? 

This is Lydia's favorite place to be. Every time she gets up on Dave's shoulders, she just screams with excitement and starts pulling out all his hair and pounding on his head. It is so funny!

While Mom watched Lydia, Dave and I went to the dinosaur museum. I can't believe that I've been to Vernal every year for pretty much my whole life and I'd never been to the dinosaur museum before. The dinos on the outside of the museum were pretty cool, but the inside was kind of lame. The Natural History Museum at the U of U has a way better dinosaur exhibit.

The next day, we drove up the mountain to the big reunion. We pulled the rhino up with us and so we got to go on some fun rides. Dave and I went on a ride by ourselves, but I got a little scared when we got stuck so I made Dave drive us back. Then we went out again with my Dad and he drove. With my Dad driving, I am never, ever scared. He took us on a great ride! We saw some pretty sights up there that I'd never seen before. 

Ashley Gorge. Way pretty, huh??

While we were out having fun on the rhino, Lydia was back at camp snoozing. She fell asleep like this! How!? 

The big reunion was fun. There was breakfast, the country store, kids crafts, the raffle, the program, and a pot luck lunch - everything to make the reunion complete! And guess what?? It rained. Big surprise! But I was really grateful that we weren't camping up there. How can it rain on us every year!?

Here is Kevin, rocking out the kid sunglasses and enjoying the reunion. Haha. We love him!

We took Lydia on her first ride on the rhino and she LOVED it. She was just letting the breeze blow in her face and she didn't mind one bit! She was so cute.

On the way back down the mountain, we saw smoke and as we got closer and closer to Vernal, the smoke got bigger and blacker. It turns out it was a fire by Steinaker reservoir, just outside of Vernal, and it was a pretty bad one. I'd never seen a fire so close before. We saw helicopters getting water from the reservoir for the fire, but they didn't get it contained for a few days. It was kinda scary!

It was so fun to see the family we don't get to see very often. We had a great time being together!

BEAR LAKE. After we got back from Vernal, we had a few days and then we went to Bear Lake, which is the traditional family trip on Dave's side. We look forward to it every year. It is so fun to have everyone together and to be in such a pretty place. I swear Bear Lake has the bluest water ever. Even though it is freezing cold.

****Thanks to Lauren for taking these great pictures!!***

Here's Lydia, all packed up and ready to go! :)

The first day at Bear Lake was FREEZING. Seriously, so cold. I had to go put my regular clothes on and get my sweatshirt because I was so cold. It was overcast, cloudy, and rainy all day so none of us thought to put sunscreen on. We all got burned, but Dave got FRIED. It's so weird that it can be freezing cold outside and you can still get burned. 

Dave didn't believe me when I told him that his lips were purple. He was crazy and went out on the boat. Lydia and I weren't even stepping near that boat. We stayed on the beach and didn't even get wet at all and I was still freezing. 

Luckily, the next day was all sunshine. It was a Saturday, so it was pretty crowded, but we were just so grateful it was sunny that we hardly even cared. We didn't have the boat rental until later that afternoon, so we had time in the morning to do a family yoga session, led by Dave. Everyone was staring at us like we were crazy, but we didn't mind. We had a fun time.

My little beach buddy. 

We spent all day at the beach! We both got some good reading in, Dave got some good wakeboarding in, Lydia got some good napping in, and all three of us rode the tube together! A family tube ride. :) It was a great day! We all had a lot of fun!

She was kind of squirmy and fussy before we put her in her lifejacket, but as soon as she was in it, she was calm as could be. She couldn't move her head, which helped, but she got so mellow and snuggly. I had a great time snuggling with her in the boat.

She liked riding in the tube as you can clearly see! Haha! But she really did like it. :)

In the evenings, after we have hauled all of our stuff up from the beach, we always play ultimate frisbee. Lydia and I didn't participate this year, but we cheered them on from the sidelines. It's always fun to see everyone come out and play.

She's got her game face on. :)

As you can tell, she was really interested in the frisbee game.

This is my favorite face of hers. I love it when she scrunches up her nose like that! 

My two favorite people, heading in after a good game of frisbee.

Since we were in Bear Lake on Sunday this year, we all went to church in Garden City. The church was absolutely packed with people. We had to sit in an overflow with a projector showing the sacrament meeting room. I was so surprised at how many people there were! It was crazy! But a fun cultural experience.

The Bear Lake crew. 

Lydia spent lots of time getting to know her grandpa Scottie. She loved him by the time the trip was over!

We heard a rumor that next year Bear Lake is going to be a whole week long! We are hoping for that. We had so much fun up there this year, and Lydia especially loved her first Bear Lake trip. 

VAIL. After Bear Lake, we had another few days to do laundry and such, and then we were off again to Vail, Colorado. My dad had a work conference out there and so he offered to take us along for the ride. How can you say no to a free trip?? We had a great time and here are some pictures to prove it. :)

The view from our deck.

This video is kind of long, but so funny. Dave is the best commentator. :) We had rented a little condo, and my mom got a message a few weeks earlier that said the owners of the condo were actually going to be in Vail that week, so they were sending us to a different condo across the street that was bigger. We had no problems with that, of course. We didn't have any idea how fancy our new place would be though! Dave and I had never stayed at such a fancy place in our whole lives, and had so much fun just walking around the place feeling like an important rich person for a weekend. Haha! In this video, Dave will give you a tour of the place. There is also a little serenade from him in it too. :)

It felt like we were in a cute little European city. 

They had a fun pool, and we went swimming the next morning after we got there. The water was pretty cold, so mom and I didn't get in, but Steph and Dave did. They're so much more adventurous than me and my mom.

I can't even handle her little squishy nose smile! It melts my heart every time.

So, I was sitting right by Lydia in these pictures, but I didn't want my hand to be in the picture. She is really good at sitting up by herself now, and so I thought for the 1 second it takes to snap a picture, she would be fine. Turns out that's not true. I let go of her for literally 1 second, and she lurched forward and fell face first into the pool. My heart stopped. I grabbed her as quickly as I could, but she was all the way submerged before I got her. I'm sure she was only in the water for less than 3 seconds, but it felt like an eternity to me! She was coughing when she came up, but she was totally fine. After coughing and sneezing and clearing all the water out of her nose and eyes, she was a happy little camper again. Good thing babies are so resilient, huh!? That was my biggest mom fail yet. Needless to say, I kept my hand in all the pictures from there on out.

This picture was taken JUST before she fell in. Poor little thing. 

That afternoon, we went to eat at this restaurant called The Little Diner. And it was just that. A little diner. It probably could only fit 20 people or less. The kitchen was in the center of the seats, and you would watch the chefs cook your meal right in front of you. It was SO tasty, and such a fun experience. They even gave Lydia this great little seat to hook onto the table. It was so fun!

That night, we explored the little area our condo was in. There were some cute little shops, and we went on a little walk.

My parents. Aren't they cuties??

I love Dave's cheesy arm pose in this picture. Don't worry - I teased him all night. :)

They had this big trampoline we decided to go on. Stephanie was the most successful. She did tons of backflips and wasn't scared at all. 

I, on the other hand, was kinda scared and only did one backflip. It was so scary that I couldn't bring myself to do another one. Those tramps don't look scary at all, but at least for me, they were.

Dave was the least successful of all. Let's just say that the harnesses weren't really built for adult men. :) He only lasted a few minutes before it was too painful and he had to get off. He did do one backflip though. 

The backflip

The next morning Dad, Steph, and Dave rented mountain bikes to ride down the mountain. We all rode the gondola up to the top and then we did a quick zipline, ate lunch, and then the three of them rode down the mountain while mom, Lydia and I rode the gondola back down. 

Me and Dave and Steph all went at the same time.

I love how Dave looks like a corpse in this picture. Haha! The people up top told him that if he did that he would go fast. But apparently not. Steph and I totally beat him and we didn't even have to look corpsey.

Mom and Dad

My cute mom. I love her.

My Dad used to be a coal miner, and how he practices Natural Resource Law, which involves a lot of mining. So, mining is kind of a big deal to him. So, that afternoon we went to a town called Leadville, that is home to the National Mining Museum, a must-see attraction for someone like my dad. The museum was actually pretty neat, and had lots of cool rock specimens to see. It was fun to see my dad in his mecca. 

Just outside the town is a mine called the Matchless Mine, and is the mine that used to belong to Baby Doe Tabor. To make a long story short, she was a poor young lady who came to Leadville and met Horace Tabor, a mining millionaire and owner of the Matchless Mine. They were married, and were rich for a long, long time until the mine stopped producing so much silver, and then they were poor again. Horace died early, but Baby Doe long outlived him. Horace is rumored to have said on his deathbed, "Hold on to the Matchless!" So, Baby Doe lived in a cabin just outside the mine for the rest of her life in hopes that one day the mine would boom again. It never did, but she never left. She died in her little cabin at the age of 81. We got to go see a little bit of the mine and her cabin as well.

One of the mine shafts

Lydia was being kind of naughty during the tour, so Dave kept telling her he was going to throw her in the mine. She was completely thrilled with this idea. Haha. 

Inside Baby Doe's cabin.

The outside of her cabin

After the tour, we explored downtown Leadville for a bit and saw some of the old buildings that were funded and built by the Tabors. The best one was the Tabor Opera House. It is still really pretty to this day.

The Delaware hotel

The other famous person from Leadville is Molly Brown, known as the Unsinkable Molly Brown (from the Titanic). She and her husband were married in this church.

Aren't those colorful buildings fun??

Lydia loved exploring Leadville!

After a fun filled afternoon in Leadville, we headed back to Vail and rode the gondola up to the top one more time, since our pass was good for all day. We watched the sunset up there and went on a fun walk up at the top.

Don't mind Lydia's Dracula hair in this picture. It was kinda windy, and her hair is out of control anyway.

Lydia was having so much fun in the gondola watching out the window. She would bang her hands on the window, laugh at her reflection, and then kick her little leg. It was so cute!

She was SUCH a good baby the whole trip - she is an awesome traveler and we had so much fun with her!

We drove home from Vail the next morning and made a lunch stop in Green River, an old town off of the freeway. It used to be a booming town when the highway ran through it, but when the interstate was built, it was built just a few miles outside of town, and after that, the town just died. I couldn't help thinking it was just like Radiator Springs (I'm a Disney nut, I know)! We stopped and bought a watermelon from a stand (I guess Green River is famous for its melons). We also ate at pretty much the only place in town, Ray's Tavern. They had SUPER good burgers! If you're ever driving through the area, make sure to stop at Ray's Tavern. It was delicious.

Look at the flypaper to the left of me. I don't think I've actually ever seen an actual fly on flypaper! And there were like 50 flies. It was sick. Lydia kept trying to grab it. Also, that box by my feet said free squash. So, mom took some and she said they were way yummy. Thanks Green River!

We had so much fun on all of our trips in July. Even though they kind of wore us out, we felt so lucky that we were able to go and do so many fun things with family. We sure love to travel, and July provided us with lots of fun opportunities. Thanks to our families for the fun trips!