Lava Hot Springs, Tubes Included

  We made our annual trip up to Lava Hot Springs in Idaho, which I learned us Utahns pronounce Lahva, and Idahoans pronounce it Laava. Interesting.

 

We rented enough tubes so that all of us could go down the river.

We made it down no less than eight times. What a blast.

 

Kimberly fell out once, but after a few rock scrapings, she made it back in.

 

 

 Um, sliding down the grassy hill on a tube?

 

We went with our friends, the Oylers, and enjoyed a new campground a few miles north of town in a beautiful mountain canyon.

 

 

The only problem we ran into was on the way out, the railroad was under construction and impassable. They neglected to tell us campers it would be closed all day long.

 

 

I think they finally felt bad for us while we waited, so they created a narrow path of rocks for us to cross over the tracks a few hours later. 

We Had a Problem.

The largest portion of our sectional couch needed to get from here, sitting in our back craft room that leads out to the backyard through French doors, to here:

 

 

Our newly finished family room.

 

Many attempts to get it through our narrow hallways from the backroom to the family room failed, so the only option was tearing a hole into the storage room wall, as seen here:

 

 

 Once the wall was opened up and all of our storage room stuff and shelves moved out, we were able to maneuver the couch through the storage room seen below...

 

 

...and Wa-La! It is firmly in place now, never to be moved again. 

We can now watch movies as a family with a section of couch for everyone without half the family being relegated to the floor. 

 

and now the wall awaits patching :)



Meldrum Reunion

During the Meldrum Reunion, we hiked up to Timpanogos Caves with several of my extended Meldrum cousins:

 

We had a blast, even if it was a difficult hike up.

 

 

We had so much fun visiting and getting to know one another better.

Megan was a real trooper, surviving only because she knew another bench would be just around another corner. 

 

 

Here's some other random pictures from the hike:

(All of the pictures are thanks to my cousin Martha, because we accidently left our camera back at the cabin we were staying at)

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 Back at the reunion, it was a fun-filled several days with all of these guys:

 

 

I love the Meldrums, and am so glad we have started doing these reunions every few years.

 

We did lots of visiting and catching up.

 



Me and my cousin Martha.

 

 Natalie playing Stratego, getting good strategy advice from one of her cousins.

 

 My brother, Brice, and brother-in-law Mike during our skit.

They were Hil-ar-i-ous.

 

It was rainy and thunder stormy one of the nights, but the kids still liked riding their scooters around.

Best thing I packed in the car to keep the kids busy.

 

I am already looking forward to the next reunion scheduled in three years.

July is Halfway Gone?

I can't believe how fast this summer is going, and truly it is because we have been having a blast, hence a lack of blog postings.

 

Here are a few things we have been up to:

 

Proof my two older girls are getting along some of the time this summer: 

 

here they are working on sewing projects together, and then below, Alicia is doing Kimberly's hair for her.

 

We went to the air show at Hill Air Force Base.

 

 saw lots of cool planes

 

 Grandpa and our cousins joined us

 

 grandpa brought some cool earphones for the jet noise

 

 saw an F-35 up close for the first time (well, as close as they would allow us, which wasn't any closer than this picture)

 

 Met some thunderbird pilots

 

and for one of my stories, I got to ride up with the army parachuting team, the Golden Knights in this fun plane:

 

I am pleased to say I didn't get sick, or need extra oxygen like some of the other media on flight :)

 

This last weekend we went to the Meldrum Reunion up at the Wasatch State Park in Midway:

 

 There was a fun dress up booth the kids enjoyed

 

 We were the green clan

 

 cousin fun

 

I will post more pictures of the big Meldrum Family Reunion later when time allows.

National Youth Leadership Training

John has been a leader with our local National Youth Leadership Training Program (NYLT) for several years now, and for the first time ever in the State of Utah, at John's suggestion, they allowed 14-year-old girls who are registered with a Venturing crew (at least I think that's what it was) to attend.

All of the camps John has attended over the years with scouts, it was fun to finally be able to send one of our girls. They had a blast.

 

John went up early to get set up, and we joined up with him right before the camp started.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 After we dropped Kim off, we came home and the girls made a fort to watch a movie. So cute.