Lagoon

I've wanted to take our boys to Lagoon since we moved down here. I knew however, that we would spend most of the time in KiddieLand, so of course we couldn't justify $130+ (that's probably with a discount) going. My sister and her husband both have Lagoon days, and I was so so excited when she said she had extra tickets for our family to go.
I think it would be an understatement to say that the boys were in heaven. I'd worked (of course) the night before, so we didn't get down there until 2. It was really hot and weirdly humid. I was surprised at how patient Rowan was to wait in line. He had his moments of course, but he did really well for the most part.


Chan was tall enough to ride a few of the roller coasters, and loved going on The Bat. I'm surprised at the fact that he has absolutely no fear, and would have ridden some of the big coasters if he could. Our tickets included a nice lunch and so we sat with with my sister and her husband to have lunch.



Later in the evening, Avry and Justin took the boys so that we could go on some bigger roller coasters. It was fun, but I'm much more into seeing that the boys have fun. My brother, sister in law and their two girls were there as well, so a bunch of us adults went on some of the rides. I did about 5 rides and was done. (Can you say dizzy/puke? ;) ) We were able to validate our passes and are probably going to be bouncing back for $10 a ticket this week, which I'm excited about. Thanks Justin and Avry for the tickets, we really appreciate it!!

Lewis Family Reunion

One family reunion that we try to attend every year is my grandma's. (My dad's mom.) Although she's passed on, we still go to the reunion, and this year my aunt's family was in charge of it. It was in Lava Hot Springs, ID. It's normally all weekend, but we just went for Saturday. It was close to a 3 hour drive for us. We got up there just after lunch. We had planned on going swimming, but after seeing like 500 people at the pool, we decided we weren't going to do that. Floating the river is something that a lot of people like to do, and my mom said she would watch our boys, so we walked up to one of the tube rental places. On the way, we saw a cousin that had broken her toe. Then a few minutes later, we saw my dad and brother Geoff. They were all beat up and had some pretty good cuts up their arms, legs, on their sides, etc. I guess my dad had fallen off, and they both got cut up trying to get him back on. It sounds like they dragged down the river for about a minute.


I was a little bit apprehensive after this, but we finally decided that if we got a 4 person tube, it would be less likely for us to tip. Marshall, Geoff and I ended up going down the river 3 times and it was actually really fun, with no tipping of tubes or falling off.

The family reunion had a Harry Potter theme, so when we got back, we were separated into our houses and played quidditch. (I'm sure I spelled that wrong.) Then it was dinner and the auction which is of course fun every year.

Picture of mom, Avry & me, with brother Geoff in true Nielson style. HA!

It was another late arrival home as we didn't get in until 1, but once again I'm glad we went. In 2 weeks we are headed to Bear Lake for 4 days for another reunion which I am super excited about. Love summer!

Idaho 4th of July

If there's anything I've missed since we moved to Utah 3 years ago, it's been the 4th of July in Idaho. We always had big celebrations with barbecues, parades, and of course the biggest firework celebration this side of the Mississippi. Don't believe me...just get up to Idaho Falls for the 4th. They have the most incredible show. The only hard thing is splitting time between our families since our parents live a mere 5 minutes apart. It's something that constantly stresses me out, but we had a good time anyway.

Sunday night, we barbecued with my parents and cousins. We set up the big shark slide that we brought up and it was a hit with all of the kids.


Before everyone got to my parents for the barbecue, Chan spent time playing Boggle with my dad on his ipad. Love moments like this, I wish I could freeze them.


One comedic part of the evening - We all sat down to eat and suddenly there are goats wandering around in my parent's back yard. It was funny trying to watch everyone chase them off and get the back through the fence because they would just come back over. A neighbor finally came and got them back home.


I made some pretty delicious strawberry lemonade cupcakes that night, and the boys kept going back for more. I posted the recipe here. I finally had to put the brakes on after each of them had had 3.


The next morning we went to the Rexburg parade. Below is my mother in law Jana, and my sister in law Ashley.


It was pretty warm and the parade was like 2 hours long?! The boys were pretty good sports. We had ice cream, and tons of candy. I should have put a halt on the candy because Rowan threw up right as the parade was ending. It happened again in the car which warranted pulling the car seat out, and cleaning out everything. He felt better later that afternoon, so I'm pretty sure he had too many sweets. I always tell the boys that too much candy is going to make them sick, and then they sing the Yo Gabba Gabba song back to me about candy making them sick. I think it might have clicked with Chandler when he saw how too much candy did make Rowan sick, lol.



That afternoon, we did the slip and slide at grandma and grandpa Snedaker's, jumped on the trampoline, and had another barbecue.



Next it was off to the Idaho Falls Fireworks with my parents and my brother and his wife, Geoff and Cheryl. We found a nice spot right by a hotel, and about 30 minutes later a lady tried to kick us off. She ended up letting us stay which was good. It was fun to see all of the people and have the anticipation of the fireworks!




The fireworks didn't disappoint and they were even more spectacular than I remember.



We had to drive home that night since I had clinic and Marsh had work the next day. We ended up getting home at like 3:30 am, but it was so worth it.

4th of July Peek

I have about a million pictures to go through from our weekend in Idaho for the 4th of July. However, I found this one of Rowan and totally loved it. We were waiting at the greenbelt for the fireworks here. So so cute. This one is straight from my camera, unedited. I love the colors. 4th of July to be continued....

Blogging Is My Favorite (Running Too!)

It's no secret that I love to blog. Family blog, product review blog, and I've recently started a new blog. Well, it's well over a month old. I know I'm totally nuts for doing it, but I wanted a place to be able to track my running and share experiences, journal, etc. I actually just registered for the Layton Half Marathon in October, and I'm going to be keeping track of all of my workouts, sharing about gear, and doing recipes. Should be fun. Since I've run a couple half marathons just to run them, I'm going to set a time goal for myself this time around. I'm hoping to finish in under 2 hours and 10 minutes which is under a 10 minute mile. I generally run comfortably around a 10:30-10:40 mile, so I will be pushing myself more, but I totally believe I can do it!
Anyways, if you are interested in checking out my running blog it's here: See Tiff Run