Warm Slough

(Five week old little Evan 😍)

This summer we have spent a lot of time at the river or slough to be more exact. It's a smaller portion of river that feeds into the much bigger Henry's Fork area of the Snake river. It's super kid friendly and the water while chilly, is much warmer than most bodies of water around here. The slough is shallow and the kids are able to freely explore without us having to watch them like a hawk- which is always so relaxing to do haha! The kids favorite part of the slough is finding all of the creatures that live around there- frogs, turtles, minnows and crawdads. They can spend hours searching for and catching them. It reminds me of my childhood a bit, always exploring. 

More pictures of our time spent at the slough:

Rexburg Rapids

Rexburg Rapids is a summer must. We usually only do it once or twice a summer just because it's normally crowded and we prefer adventuring and playing in natural bodies of water- streams, rivers, lakes, you get the idea. This year was a little more difficult because with Evan being a newborn that means no water activities for us, but it's still fun to watch the girls brave the slides and float the lazy river. I think Austin appreciate cooling off a bit too, this summer has been SO hot which isn't well suited for end of pregnancy or post-partum hormones, but oh well. 

A party fit for a (three year old) princess

(Ellie's little princess friends. Hailey was there too, but she darted before the picture was taken haha)

Ellie only had one request for her third birthday; that it be "pink princess" themed. Ellie is so completely different than Maisie in that she likes ALL things stereotypically "girly". If it's pink, purple, sparkles or has a Disney princess on it, Ellie is obsessed. So we thought it would be good fun to throw her a little princess party, so that's exactly what we did. It turned out really cute, the girls ate flower cupcakes, danced to Disney music, kissed a frog prince (a pin the tail on the donkey variation, but with a giant cardboard frog and lipstick for kissing) and played with their tiaras, bracelets and scepters.

Ellie ended up unintentionally falling asleep on the couch before dinner time, so I think its safe to say that she had a great time. :)

Yellowstone June 2016

When my mom was visiting in June, we went to Yellowstone National Park. My mom has talked about wanting to go to Yellowstone since I was a little girl and seeing how we live so close now we made a day trip out of it. We packed our lunches and picnic styled throughout the park. It couldn't have been a better day weather wise- it was beautiful and warm. Yellowstone is notorious for its crazy weather (I.E snow in July). So we packed the car with spare clothes, layers and coats just in case, but didn't end up needing a single thing. It was a pleasant surprise. We focused on the SW area of the park, but we made a huge loop to see other parts of the park as well. We saw countless buffalo, tons of geysers, hot pots, water falls and huge lakes. We ended the day with dinner in West Yellowstone, Montana and then made our way home.

The Summer of Six States, Stranger Things & Sprague Reunions

Summer 2016 was by far the busiest summer so far. We traveled in and through six states (all driving) in our good old Volkswagen, Wolfie.

-We hiked and camped our way through the middle of the Wyoming plains.
-Ten year high school reunion in Oregon (go Sprague Olympians!)
-Austin's mom's side of the family (the Sprague's) reunion in Sacramento, California.
-Day trip to San Francisco and Muir beach
-My mom came to visit for a couple weeks, which included Yellowstone, Gold Bug hot springs,
 Rexburg Rapids, Finding Dory etc.
-My Grandpa's birthday bash in Oregon (thankfully this worked out be be during the week of our  high school reunion so we killed two birds with one stone and saved our car a ton of miles haha).
-While in Oregon we blew through the entire season of "Stranger Things".
-Since my parents were in Oregon the same time for my Grandpa's birthday we had a day trip to  Enchanted Forest.
-Beach day at Neskowin
-East Idaho State Fair
-Tautphaus Zoo

I will make separate posts about some of the items listed above because I have TONS of photos!

Random iPhone photos from our various trips:

Roadtrip diva

Sacramento Reunion

Private bowling room with 75+ people

Maisie feeding her baby in Oregon haha!

Ellie passed out after Enchanted Forest

Cousin snuggles

Lunch in San Francisco at Rainforest Cafe

Entertaining the babe at my Grandpa's birthday

Not an iPhone photo but a professional photo from the family reunion in Sacramento. It was 105+ and beyond muggy in this photo, we were all miserable, but somehow the photo turned out: