Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve

Vance and Tanner went to the Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve with the Cub Scouts in May and Vance has really wanting us to take them back so we decided to take a little time yesterday to do that.  It was nice to walk around and enjoy how quiet it was and be in nature on the Sabbath day.  It was pretty neat.  Poor Stephen's allergies were acting up pretty bad, but I think he enjoyed it despite that. 

We talked about how in the scriptures when prophets wanted to talk to God they would find a quiet place usually in nature to do so.  We also talked about how Joseph Smith went to a grove to pray when the First Vision occurred. 

 

Here are some pictures I took while we were walking around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salt Lake City

We went to Salt Lake City on Saturday and enjoyed walking around.  I hope that even though my children see it frequently that they are still able to realize what an amazing sight temple square is.

 

 We hadn't taken them over to the Brigham Young Historical Park before and we did that this time.  There were some really cool dragonflies over there and of course, it is a cute little park.

 We may have caught a few Pokémon while we were out.  Yes, we have jumped on the band wagon with 6 million other people who have the game, but I keep a tight grip on my phone and the rules that go with it.  It has been a fun little thing for us to get out and do though.

7-11

Each year for many years now we've had the tradition of going to 7-11 and getting a free slupree on July 11th.  Vance made sure we did not forget this year.  We live real close to one so it's fun to walk down there and get one as a family.  Stephen's picture doesn't have a sun spot in it so I'll have to swap them out sometime.

 We decided to see what the craze was about Pokémon Go.  You download the app on your phone (it's free) then you can go around trying to "catch" Pokémon.  There are different stops where you pick up extras so you can catch Pokémon and get other stuff.  The boys and I spent a couple of hours walking around near our houses going to the various stops and seeing if we could get any Pokémon.  It was a nice day and something new and different to do.  I think for the most part they had a good time even though there were some complaints about how much walking we were doing from the younger two.

Splash Pad Fun

We decided to visit a splash pad this morning while Stephen studied at home.  We got there shortly after 9 and there was just one lady there with her two very young kids.  The kids had a great time playing with just them before Holly and her kid joined us.  By the time we left after 11 there was a large crowd there, but it was nice to practically be the only ones for a little while.

 

Fun times!  It's good to get out of the house sometimes and enjoy the outdoors before it gets too hot.

Fourth of July Weekend

This Summer the kids have been wanting to get on this blog and look at old posts on a regular basis.  It makes me feel a little guilty ever time that I haven't been more faithful about keeping up on what we are doing like I used to.  I would like to do better if for no other reason, for them to be able to look back and enjoy these little posts.  I feel quite behind so I am going to just start with our holiday weekend and hopefully work back a little on some of the bigger highlights.

I took pictures of the boys before our 4th of July parade.

 Waiting for the parade to start.  We have enjoyed going to the city parade.  It is walking distance from our place and they have a doughnut shop that always passes out free doughnuts.  :)

 This year Holly's family join us as well as Stephen's parents, and his sister, Kimberly.

Waving and waiting for candy!

 This guy gave the kids a quarter each.

 A picture of our family after the parade.

 Before the fireworks show that the city puts on they have a concert and this year it was Alex Boye.  I'm not sure how they snagged him, especially with it being free, but we went early enough to see a little of his concert and enjoyed it despite the large crowds of people everywhere.

Here are some pictures I took during the firework show.  

They do the fireworks and concert at a park that is only about a ten minute walk (or less) for us so afterwards we walked home.  It works out nicely.