Camping at Redman

Back in July, we took a camping trip with my family up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Redman, a long-time favorite campground.  It's been a long time since we've all camped together, and it was so much fun! (Even though I had to leave to take Max to sleep at home and come back in the morning. The woes of a nursing mother. ;)  Christine and Sam were in town from Ohio, so we had almost everyone all together.  (we missed you Ben!)  We had lots of fun eating yummy food, playing kick the can, chatting, roasting marshmallows, and all that other good camping stuff.  We decided we definitely need to pick back up the tradition and make this an annual thing! 

These two cousins sure love each other! They held hands the whole car ride up.

Max & Sara.  These two have a special bond. :)

Andy was filthy within five minutes of getting there. 

Grandpa serenading Max with the harmonica.

We loved having Christine and Sam in town!

Breakfast!

June

We  Cameron spent lots of time working in the yard. You should see these planter boxes look now: FULL of delicious veggies!  Turns out Cameron has quite the green thumb.  We grew lots of tomatoes, squash, zucchini, green beans, basil, cilantro, strawberries, and cucumbers.  He also planted two apple trees, a peach tree, a few raspberry bushes, and a blackberry bush.

  

We had a great little overnight camping trip up Big Cottonwood Canyon with the Craguns and the Reicherts.  So much fun!  All the ladies and our babies came home early and didn't spend the night, and all the guys stayed and slept over with the toddlers.  It was Andy's first time camping and he loved every minute of it.  He loved spending time with the other munchkins.  

Visits with great-grandparents.  Here's Andy with "Grandma Great."  

Lots of swimming in our kiddie pool and lots of brotherly bonding.  As Andy says about Max, "He loves me!" 

We have the best splash pad in our neighborhood! We went a couple times in June and Andy was so nervous about it all.  He just wanted to hold my hand or sit on the towel.  Now, he loves it and runs around like a crazy person. 

The dinosaur park at City Creek on a rainy day.

We had a wonderful Father's Day around here.  We went out to dinner at Market Street the day before to celebrate Greg. We had dinner on actual Father's Day with my family to celebrate my dad.   The boys and I got Cameron some new shoes and hopefully made him feel special that day with a yummy breakfast.  

My boys and their dad on Father's Day. They sure love him!

We went to Seven Peaks a lot with my mom and Abby.  (We've tried to go just about every week all summer!) The boys have loved it.  Max is quite the water baby.  And Andy is fearless.  He loves that wave pool and is a newfound lover of the kiddy slides.  

We celebrated my mom's birthday up Mueller Park Canyon with a barbecue. Don't I have a beautiful mother?!

Park City

We just spent the most fabulous week up in Park City with my family.  We stayed at Marriott Mountainside with my immediate family. (+Jordon, Sara's finance, who is soon-to-be immediate family. Yay!) Even Christine and Ben came in town with little Sam.  It was so wonderful to have everyone together!  My parents' were generous enough to get two entire units, so we were all very comfortable.  We took turns making dinner, which worked perfectly.

We went swimming and hot-tubbing lots  (which Andy loved, loved, loved).  And we made s'mores lots of times at the fire pits.

I had some great runs up there!  I want to move to Park City for the trails.  (Amongst other things.)  Cameron and I even got to do a couple runs together, thanks to the generous babysitting of my dad, Sara, and Jordon.  I also had a great run on the treadmill (boo, pouring rain) next to Rachel.

We had the most amazing lip sync contest one night.  We all were teamed up with a partner and prepared a surprise number to perform, Jimmy Fallon style.  Oh my gosh, I loved every minute of this whole thing.  So hilarious.  Ben and Christine did, "You Raise Me Up," by Josh Groban.  Sara and Jordon did Eminem's, "Just Lose It."  Cam and I did Evanescence's, "Wake Me Up."  Rachel and Abby did some ridiculous song about wearing purple.  (Which reminded me that Rachel is likely the most hilarious person I know and needs to try out for Divine Comedy.)  My parents did a techno biking song--they seriously knew every word.  This is definitely going to be a yearly tradition!

We went out to eat a few times: Squatters for breakfast, Cafe Rio, and a pizza place on Main Street.

We walked around the Kimball Arts Festival one night.

We got day passes to do all the summer activities they have at the Park City Resort.  Even though it rained half the day and all the rides closed, we still fit in tons of sun stuff! We did the alpine slide, the alpine coaster many times (everyone's favorite), the zip line, mini golf, the carousel and other little kid rides, the trampoline, etc.  Andy had the best time!  I still can't believe how brave he was on the coaster.  That thing goes fast and he kept asking to go again and again.  A group of us, including Cameron and I, did the zip line, and it was super cool.  We tried to go the day it rained, got up there, got in line, they closed it, and they had to drive us back down.  But it worked out well because they gave us tickets to use another day, so we went on tuesday when they had no line. And then I sweet talked them into giving us an extra ride on the coaster because it had been so rainy the day before.  We LOVE the coaster! :)

Andy road the coaster four times!  With Cameron, with me, with Rachel, and with my dad.  

Sweet Max was so good the whole trip! He slept like a champ in that hotel bathroom. :) 

We went bowling on one of the rainy days.  Andy and Sam loved it! I won't bother saying which team won because it wasn't ours.  We always love bowling with the family.  

  

We played lots and lots of Scum!  We were only mad at each other about half the games, so I consider it a success. ;)  We also played Telestrations, another family fave.

We celebrated Cameron's birthday with a surprise cake!

What's a trip to Park City without a couple trips to the outlets?! Though I always love a good outlet trip, I did miss Max's first crawls.  My dad was babysitting for me.  I came home to find Max starting to crawl! I proceeded to tell everyone, "Look!  He's starting to crawl!" And my dad said, "What do you mean? He's been doing that the whole time you've been gone!"

Andy had the time of his life being around so many people.  He loves people!  Especially people who give him so much attention! :)  He called everyone his "friends" or his "buddies."  If we were getting in the elevator, he'd say, "Wait!  Wait for my buddies!"

Cameron, Ben, and Jordon all ended up needing to go back to work on the same couple days, so we had lots of girl time (plus dad!).  We went on the most beautiful hike/walk.

It was surprisingly cold, so we put this random t-shirt on Max.  He looks cute in everything. :) 

Thanks so much to my parents for the amazing trip!  We had a blast!