Family camping trip

We have been wanting to take the boys camping for a long time and finally took a little overnight camping trip this past weekend. We went up American Fork Canyon and camped at Mutual Dell. We love it there. It is so nice because the camp sites are well taken care of and free! Each spot has a nice fire pit and picnic table and there are bathrooms with running water nearby :)

Getting the fire going for dinner

Hot dogs for the boys, tinfoil dinners for the old folks.

Dinner was followed by roasted marshmallows and a little walk down to the field for some star gazing. Bode kept pointing to the sky saying, "Wow!"

To our relief, both boys slept like rocks. They were SO excited to be in the tent. I woke up sort of cold at one point, and Sean had Bode wiggling around him, but we figure we can handle most anything for one night. Sean revealed to me in the morning that I did not have my outer shell zipped up on my sleeping bag-- oops. We all laughed when Bode woke up because when he realized he was still in the tent, he started jumping up and down and was grinning ear to ear.

The sunrise was beautiful, and I loved this little tree in our camp spot. 

After breakfast over the fire, we packed up camp and took a little nature walk. The colors were gorgeous!

As we were walking we heard some shuffling, grunting, and saw bushes and trees moving. We froze and were surprised when this guy walked out right behind us:

While I was very glad it was not a bear, I was still pretty concerned because I know moose will charge and this one was huge. Luckily, he just grumbled along and we got around him just fine.

Jackson is already asking when we can go again, so we're chalking this trip up as a success!

Chokecherries and Labor Day weekend

Over Labor Day weekend, the boys and I headed up to Island Park with my parents. Sean was out of town for work, and I didn't want to spend the weekend alone!

We spent most of Saturday afternoon picking chokecherries. I had actually never been chokecherry picking-- I just knew I LOVE the syrup. When I found out they were "on," I asked my parents if they were interested in trying to find some. With the help of my aunt and uncle, we were successful in finding several chokecherry bushes.

Some of the last ones we found were LOADED with chokecherries. My mom and dad (who have been picking before) couldn't believe how many there were.

Jackson loved helping and didn't complain even though we were picking for a few hours!

We ended up picking about 6 gallons of chokecherries. We split them up and both my mom and I made chokecherry syrup.

I am very excited for pancakes!

A few other pictures from the weekend:

 

Jackson's first day of preschool

The big day finally arrived and Jackson was up and ready to go at 7am (school starts at 10am)! He has been so excited to start preschool and picked out a new Spiderman backpack last week. He was slightly concerned when I told him he couldn't pack it full of toys to take to school, but luckily he got over it pretty quickly when I told him there would be toys there. 

Naturally, I made him let me take a few pictures of his big first day!

 

His first day went off without a hitch and I am really proud of him. It was a little bittersweet dropping him off, but I held it together pretty well :) He's already singing new songs he's learned and bringing home all sorts of cool stuff he's made. So excited for him and looking forward to a good year!

San Diego girl trip

My good friend Taryn and her husband moved from Kentucky to San Diego a few months ago. I have been wanting to visit her for a long time, and we finally decided it was the perfect time to go! Sean was awesome enough to take care of the boys solo for a few days.

One of the first things we did was stop at this place in downtown San Diego:

It is called Extraordinary Desserts and I have been wanting to go ever since Taryn posted a picture of the first dessert she tried there.

There are several huge display cases like this FULL of all sorts of sinful things.  Pretty much anything you can imagine. Everything was so beautiful and it was really hard to choose!

These are the two we picked:

The Viking chocolate cake and raspberry creme brûlée tart. They did not disappoint and tasted just as amazing as they looked! 

One of the perks of visiting Taryn and Grant is that they literally live on the beach. This is the view from their balcony-- amazing!!

We got in some good shopping time. Since I make it to a mall probably twice a year at this point, shopping without kids is a dream come true. It was a successful day and I found a few things I am pretty excited about. We were laughing when we figured out we had both bought the same dress at the Banana outlet a few weeks ago. Sidenote: we tried 'Which Wich' for lunch and it rocked. Apparently there is one in Orem now, so I will be returning!

Another perk to where they live is that you can walk or ride your bike to a lot of really cool places. We rode bikes down to the harbor one night and ate at the Rockin' Baja Cantina.

We shared a massive plate of nachos and they were SO good.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was taking walks in the morning. It was so fun catching up and talking about good times. There was a lot of amazing scenery to take in.

 View from the pier

The harbor

Lunch on the beach

On Saturday, Grant went deep sea fishing with one of his friends. Taryn and Grant had planned a barbecue with their neighbors for that night, and they were in charge of bringing fish, so Grant had a little bit of pressure to deliver! 

He sent Taryn this picture on his way home, so we knew he had been successful and had not been kidnapped by Mexican pirates! ;)

The proud fisherman with his mahi-mahi

Taryn made this yummy caprese bread salad for the barbecue and I wanted to eat the entire bowl myself.

 

Also on the menu: macadamia nut crusted mahi- mahi, grilled mahi-mahi with pineapple mango salsa, bacon wrapped filet mignon, and heirloom tomatoes with a caper and bacon salad. It was AMAZING. One of the best meals I have ever had, and I take food pretty seriously (if you can't tell)!

We had the barbecue on the balcony, and what made it even more amazing was the sunset.

Thank you Taryn and Grant for letting me come visit! And thank you Sean for being so cool and encouraging me to go. I've already planned out our next visit with the whole family!