A Weekend with the Wihongis

We had the great privilege of hosting Heather and her boys for the weekend of June 7-10.  It was so fun to have Kage and Dray running around and telling us the time every fifteen minutes and beating us at Uno and giving us the excuse to finally swim in our complex's pool.  And we got to try out some of the awesome playgrounds in our area.  This one was at Nottingham Park in Avon that we visited on Friday:

There's a lake at this park and I think Dray figured that it needed a few more rocks thrown in it.  He was happy to oblige.

He sure did love the splashes!

Kage found a swarm of tadpoles near the shore.

"That mommy duck sure is hungry"
Dray and Kage helped her out by tossing her
some graham cracker pieces.

After the park we spent the rest of the afternoon splashing in the pool.  Dray was thrilled that there was a pool just his size, and Heather and I were thrilled that it was just the right temperature - not too hot and not too cold.  Kage splashed and swam between the big, cool pool, the small, hot tub, and the medium warm pool.  (I felt like we were in Goldilocks and the Three Bears.)

Tired boys.  (And momma.)

After dinner at Larkburger, we strolled along the Riverwalk and took a drive up Lake Creek, where we found ourselves at the trailhead and the boys were begging to get out and hike.  You don't have to ask me twice!

Colorado Columbine in the wild!

Lovely evening.

Mr. Cheese.  Ha!

Lovely golden light.

They were awesome hikers - next year we'll
have to go a lot further since the little jaunt
up the hill didn't seem to quite satisfy Kage.

On Saturday we packed up a lunch and headed to Vail.  Our first stop was Ford Park, which had an awesome Tarzan's Treehouse-esque playground for the kids (and their mom and aunt and uncle).

Kage and the summer Ptarmigan - red to blend
in with the rocks and mountains.  (There's also
a white statue in the park representing the
winter version of plumage.)

Happy family at the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens

Next, we checked out the skiing facilities.  Of course there was a lift chair photo op.  And a little indoctrination by Uncle Gregg on the marvels of snowmaking.

After a lovely picnic lunch by the river, Dray and Kage made good use of the nearby rocks and practiced their baseball throws into the creek.

Last stop was playground #4 (though only three were photographed and documented here) for the trip: Pirate Park!  Built to look like a pirate ship, this playground had the works: the helm, the crow's nest, a life boat, and even a plank (though Gregg says it's not actually the plank - what do I know about pirate ships?).

After wearing out the boys (alright, alright, it was the adults who were most tired) at the playgrounds, and a little shirt shopping in the village (hoodies for $15?  Yes!), we headed back to Edwards where the boys and Heather splashed about in the pool, Gregg prepared his lesson for church the next day, and I took a nap and made pizza for dinner.  Fun, fun weekend!  Let's do it again!  (And now we need to figure out how to get the nieces and their parents out here for a visit!)  As Dray said just about everywhere* we stopped, "I love this place!"

*I remember specifically hearing him say this on our walk by the river next to our apartment their first night here, at Nottingham Park, and inside the parking garage at Vail.  :)

Elwood Family Shenanigans

We had a little family reunion of sorts in Logan (and surrounding areas) in conjunction with Ky's graduation from Logan High.  Unfortunately Nate and Shelly weren't able to be there since they just barely moved to Parachute, CO (just down the road from us about an hour and a half!) for the summer and couldn't get away so soon after starting their new weed spraying jobs.  We made the most of our days back home, cramming in as much excitement as we could.  Below you'll see photos from bits and pieces of the trip - we didn't have the camera out all the time because we were just having too much fun!

First, we left Colorado on Tuesday (29 May) evening after Gregg finished work and made it all the way to Red Canyon Campground at Flaming Gorge where we spent a lovely night in the cool mountain air (with smells of a campfire drifting our way from the campground host's site).  The next morning (30 May) we woke up to this:

And this was our delightful breakfast (bacon in the mountains, can't get any better than that!):

As we were leaving the area, we spotted seven big horned sheep just hanging out by the side of the road.  They were sitting so still we thought they were fake.  But why would they have decoy sheep on the side of the road?  So we flipped a uey and found out that they were, in fact, real, live sheep.  We got some great shots, but I'll only include one so you don't get bored:

We hurried to Sandy where we met up with Gregg's parents for lunch at Sweet Tomatoes, turning it into a little hour-long b-day bash complete with gifts (a grill and accessories and a framed snowmaker nozzle from the early days) in the parking lot.  Then we hurried to Temple Square where we picked up Heather on the side of the road (she had flown in from San Diego the night before and was dropped off at temple square a few hours before we could get her).  And then we hurried a little more to get up to Logan in time for the main event - Ky's graduation:

Mugs was playing in the orchestra, but we could only see
her forehead from where we were sitting.

After the ceremony at the spectrum, we headed down the hill to home where we met up with a bunch of friends and relations and neighbors for a little side-and-front-yard (that's where the shade was) picnic to celebrate, visit, eat, and laugh:

Oh, and watch a little US Men's National Team soccer.

Ky and Hay have been best friends since middle school.

The Merritts - Ky's second family.  (Not really sure why I don't
have a pic of her first family, but whatev.)

Talking to Nate on the phone - I told him to
smile, too.

On Thursday (31 May) we spent the morning running around town.  Gregg dropped me off on campus so I could visit with my professor and labmates for a bit, as well as get a tour of the new building they're in now.  While I was there, he took a much anticipated ride up Smithfield Canyon.  Then we met up at a new restaurant in town, Herm's Inn, for lunch with Heather and a couple of lab friends, Marcy and Ben.  Gregg took off from there to meet Swaze for some lunchtime frisbee and Heather and I had a nice stroll home from campus.  When we all gathered back at the house that afternoon, we then packed up and headed a few miles up Logan Canyon to the Fullmer Family cabin where we enjoyed delicious dutch oven food, games on the deck, smores, and campfire songs by Mugs and Gregg:

On Friday (1 June) morning, after breakfast, we hopped in the car and drove to Fossil Butte National Monument near Kemmerer, Wyoming.  We spent a little while in the visitors center learning about the fossils and the geology of the area.  Then we had a picnic and took a hike on the Chicken Creek Nature Trail to where the research quarry is.  (It was supposed to be open for visitors like us to check out and even help at, but apparently the website and the actual people in charge are not super coordinated.)  But the hike was nice anyway:

That's the quarry behind the fence.

This is how she really feels about hiking.

We drove into Kemmerer and checked out their museum which was housed in an old church (it looked just like you'd imagine a museum in a church to look - kind of homemade and low budget and history fair-esque, but there were some interesting things to learn there).  Then we headed back to the cabin for more Dutch oven food, games and campfire fun.  On Saturday (2 June) morning we had a lovely pancake breakfast and Gregg opened some more b-day gifts (an air compressor tire chuck, All the President's Men on dvd, and Frosty Lemon cookies).  Then he headed back to Logan to meet up with his friends Brian and Lynn for another ride in Smithfield Canyon.  The rest of us cleaned up, played some games, and then took a little excursion to Tony Grove.  We all met up back at home in Logan for showers and then scurried off to Logan Lanes for a little birthday bowling with the fam and friends (Brian, Lynn, Becky, Swaze, and Jenny).  For dinner we decided to get some Lion Pups (homemade corn dogs) at the Smithfield Blue Sox baseball game (which we did stay for 5 innings and saw 16 runs by the home team!)  Back home we went for some cookie dough ice cream cake courtesy of some Coldstone Creamery gift cards we got for our wedding.  And Gregg opened yet another gift from my fam - a Men's National Team jersey.

We ended the day with a game of UMG (Ultimate Mini Golf) with Swaze and Jenny on campus and then crashed in bed.  Sunday (3 June) was filled with church and driving and we finally made it home about 10:00 pm, totally exhausted and completely happy.  Fun week!