The Best Summer Ever!

I started a post this summer, but I never posted it.  That time is now even though it’s not done.

Doing the potpourri posts is Rebecca’s thing, but since this blog is so dead that I’m one step away from deleting it, I’ll add do one more post and see if another one follows.

Starting last spring before school ended.  Madison was in the school play.  She was our cute little Newsie.

Madison has also been taking dance classes and she had a performance.

Brooke’s favorite band came to town and Rebecca decided to join Brooke in going to the concert.  Brooke was in heaven!

Spencer graduated from elementary school.  He’s a middle schooler now.

We had a day of fun with the Thomas family.  We did an escape room and trampoline parks.

This summer was our stake’s youth trek.  Here’s Caroline and Madison modeling Caroline’s trek clothes.

Oops. I forgot to post this…five months ago…

Anyway, let’s wrap up our Disneyland trip! Our last park day was California Adventure one more time. Once again we got up bright and early to eat our hotel breakfast. Unfortunately, this time breakfast did not agree with Dallas and…he barfed. After a short cat nap, he rallied, and we all walked to the park.

Luckily Dallas recovered pretty quickly. He sat out on most of the higher-intensity rides, but he didn’t barf again and held up well as the day progressed. No one else got sick, so I don’t know what was up with him.

Our first stop of the day was Radiator Springs Racers.

Then Monsters Inc.

Madison had money to spend and was eyeing the cotton candy all week. Today she finally indulged:

I took the big kids to Guardians of the Galaxy while Dallas took Madison to a dance party and to talk to Crush:

The Guardians of the Galaxy line was really long. Spencer’s favorite thing to do was carefully balance the chain links so that one of them was oriented perpendicular to the rest. Then we’d see if any of his perpendicular links survived as we snaked back around. Whatever it takes to pass the time!

We had to make time to draw Stitch:

Spencer needed a break from wearing his glasses and found a good spot for them on the Ferris wheel:

We loved drawing so much we had to draw Groot:

We ended our day in a really long Soarin’ line. Long lines make us do weird things:

On our last day we decided to walk through Downtown Disney. On our way we passed A Mart. We had passed A Mart everyday on our walk to the parks and today was the day we finally went inside. Caroline bought a giraffe for Spencer. Such a nice sister:

After our morning stroll through Downtown Disney, the weather had warmed up enough to brave the beach.

All too soon our week of fun was over.

We had such a fun trip and are so glad we were able to enjoy the week together.

For Spring Break we knew we wanted to work in our annual trip to Goblin Valley. Dallas was able to get the day off so our day of fun was on!

When we went to Zion, we were grateful for the cacti that captivated Brooke’s attention and helped her have fun. We hoped she would find something in Goblin Valley to similarly keep her engaged with the hiking during the day.

Luckily, we didn’t have to wait long. Brooke found a scurrying lizard and very easily caught it. I’m still impressed she was able to grab it because those things are fast!

Before long, Brooke had completely tamed the lizard and it didn’t even try to escape.

Meet Elizard, the lizard:

Brooke found the lizard probably in the first thirty minutes of our day. She kept the lizard for the next 4-5 hours as we hiked. Somehow she was able to scale all the rocks and climb up and down all the hills and mounds one-handed. An impressive feat, to be sure.

I had the great idea to climb straight up one of the rock walls. Halfway up we realized we would probably not be able to make it down the same way we came up. Thankfully, after a few treacherous moments, we all made it to the top.

We had a great view of everything down below. The kids were not able to enjoy the view because they were stressing about how we were going to get down.

After a few failed attempts at descending, we finally found a safe way down.

We also finally found some shade and had to rest for a bit.

Once again, I must thank Elizard for keeping Brooke happy and occupied.

Who am I kidding? The lizard kept everyone entranced:

All right. I’ll hold Elizard, too:

Spencer got some sticks…

And Brooke built a play pen for Elizard.

After spending the day with us, we returned Elizard to a spot close to where we found him. Thank you, Elizard for allowing yourself to be the object of a family’s affection for an afternoon. We may not have been able to have a successful day without you.

Goblin Valley keeps its spot in my heart as one of my favorite places ever.