more summer

During the summer we had some close-to-home adventures that the girls loved.  

I love that the mountains are just a short drive away from our home.  One morning we decided to hike the Timpanogos Cave trail.  Lily insisted on wearing a dress and her sparkly gold sandals.  The park rangers did a fantastic job scaring our girls away from the edge of the trail and I think they still have nightmare about the rattle snakes she talked about.  It was beautiful and Halle caught the nature bug.  She is determined that she and I buy tickets to go inside the caves next year.  Lily was mostly neutral.

One of our favorite places to go is a fantastic community pool with a lazy river and loads of kiddie slides.  We love wasting an afternoon here.  We giggle so much.  Halle had a couple of weeks of swim lessons this year and really loved feeling more comfortable in the water and going under the water.  It made me more comfortable with it too.

Wes and I were asked to speak at our ward's girls camp up in the mountains this year.  It was such a fantastic evening with those great girls.  And our love for each other grew as we were able to bear testimony of the things we have learned together about enduring.  What a joy it was to hear those faithful girls' testimonies around the campfire as well.

Some of my favorite days are spent watching the girls play in our own backyard as soon as it starts to cool down until it gets dark.  And then there are special Sundays where we sit in Grandma's backyard and get to unbox old toys that used to belong to their aunts,

Over in the Daybreak community there is a great little lake with ducks and even a sandy beach.  We spent one Saturday riding bikes and scooters all around the lake and then wading in the cool water.  I love getting out with these girls.  The wonder in their eyes is worth all the packing up, driving, and planning.  

Bless these little girls for teaching us to appreciate the little things.