Two Great Summer Activities

As I have read other people's blogs, they often warn their readers about a "picture overload."  Usually, I am pretty excited to see a lot of pictures, because, let's face it, the pictures are the best part of a blog.  You can obviously tell that is my philosophy when you look at my blog, because, yes, there are a lot of pictures.  My "regular" blog entries typically equal others "picture overload" entries.  Oh well, I like it that way :)  Believe it or not, I have to ALWAYS decide on what pictures to include, because I typically have a bunch more.  So here's my undying warning, for every blog entry I ever write: PICTURE OVERLOAD.

Last Friday was my family's old stake's Lagoon Day.  (It was pretty hard to word that- their old stake, had a Lagoon Day).  My brother and sister wanted to attend with their friends from the old ward, so the kind members of the old ward got my family a bunch of tickets.  Lagoon is a LOT cheaper when you use Stake Lagoon Day tickets, so we thought we'd take advantage.  Believe it or not, it was still $30 dollars for each of us, including Sydney, and would have been about $100 to go.  So we nixed the idea to save some dough-re-me.  However, one of the best things about Stake Lagoon Day, is that you can get an Entrance Pass for free, valued at $42.95.  So with the Entrance Pass, you can enter the park, but can not go on any rides.  As I have become old in age this Entrance Pass thing actually suits me.  I have found that there really are only a few rides that I really enjoy going on, and I'd rather push the stroller around with my babies in it and enjoy the atmosphere :)  So I conceived a brilliant plan:  Brett needed to be dropped off at Lagoon to meet up with the others in the afternoon.  I told my mom that we should drive up there, park, use the FREE ENTRANCE PASS to get in, buy a few tickets for Sydney and let her ride a couple rides, then leave and drive home after an hour or so.  Let me tell you, this plan really was brilliant!  We stayed for about 2 hours, enjoyed the atmosphere, let Sydney ride some rides, and left $14 later.  Sydney absolutely loved it!  She calls it "the fun place" and wants to keep going back.

Cooper was itching to go on every ride, he really likes to play with his big sister!

Yes, Sydney is wearing her "tu-tu", she really wanted to, and who was I to stop her... I think it made Lagoon all that more magical 

Her favorite ride was the swings.  She went on them first and last, and giggled the entire time BOTH times!

Sydney also really liked the boats, and loved having Cooper go on them with her.  I think he was the cutest thing I've ever seen.  I couldn't resist getting the shot with the back of his tiny little head popping out!

Taking a break so Cooper could eat when my mom captured this candid shot...

I have so many memories of Stake Lagoon Day, and for some reason just love it there.  I'm glad I could make it there this summer!  Maybe we'll watch for another Stake Lagoon Day, and be able to go again with Matt, it was a blast!

If Lagoon doesn't say "SUMMER" to me, then Draper Days definitely does.  I think I have made it very clear how much I love summer.  I love that it gives us the opportunity to do fun things outside together, like Lagoon and Draper Days.  We actually haven't been over to Draper Days for a while now, but I have so many memories of it.  I love the fact that I grew up in Draper.  I love that I grew up there while it was still a cowboy town.  My memories of Draper are so different than Draper is now.  Cow/dairy farms, the Buttermilk Gang treehouse, fields, small not-busy roads, walking to friends houses, building our own treehouses, riding bikes, horses, big trees, beautiful mountains, and one of my favorites: Draper Days parade, rodeo, activities, and fireworks.  I love it.  I am glad that we got to take the kids over to the activities.  We met up with the Walch's and took Sydney over to the free games they have for kids.  Sydney had a lot of fun, but we didn't stay too long because it was SO HOT!  So we headed back to Matt's grandparent's house, and did another of my favorite summer activities: Swimming!  Then we hung around for a while, BBQ'd with the whole family, and waited again for the main festivity: Fireworks!  It was fun to be able to have a day packed with activities, and still be able to relax in between them.  Papa made some caramel corn and homemade ice cream, and we watched the fireworks from their back yard.  It was an absolutely perfect day!  I wish I could end every day with fireworks and homemade ice cream! Seriously though.

I love these pictures of Cooper and Papa.  All of a sudden we turned around and there was Cooper helping Papa make homemade ice cream.  I think they both loved it!