{Disneyland: day 1}

 This is all of us, so excited to get inside the gates... we got there early enough so that we could run in line to see the Frozen princesses 1st thing.  (If not, it was a 3-4hr wait, we were not willing to do).  We got probably 4th in line and only waited 20 minutes. It was awesome, my kids loved it, especially Ella.

 Then we went on Dumbo...

 The Jungle Cruise and 
Indiana Jones (my personal fav)

 The train ride...

 Then Cole really wanted to do the Jedi Master Training... he was picked to be one of the trainees!!

 He helped fight off Darth Vador with his light saber.

 Grandma treated him with one of his very own.  He was elated with this whole experience, loved it.

 While Brock slept...

 We took Ella to her appointment at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.

 She got the royal crown treatment with her hair, make-up and nails painted.

 Introducing Princess Ella!

 Then we went to meet a bunch of princesses at the Royal Hall. 

(Small line, hardly anybody knew about that place)

 Then we grabbed some refreshing pineapple Dole Whips and sat down for the afternoon parade.

 One of the last things we did was Small World. It was Brock's favorite ride, he kept turning around at us and saying "This is awsome!!"

Great 1st day at the park!

It's Summertime!

It's summertime around here, and we liked to start the summer by having a good ol' fashioned whip cream fight to celebrate the last day of school... oh yeah!
 

 We've been going to lots of splash parks...

 Swimming Lessons started the very next day after school was out, every day for two weeks.  Brock was a trooper cheerleader while Ella and Cole took turns for their lessons. Next year, dude, it's your turn.

 We spent a super fun day at Eagle Island with tons of friends from our ward. Sadly, I only got two pics!

 The kids were invited to a party with a splash jump slide... AMAZING!

 

 We've gone swimming at friend's pools...

This week we were so lucky to have my sister and her adorable baby come visit us. We went to a park, the kids climbed up the climbing rock, and took turns jumping to daddy.

Ella adored her baby cousin. She was such a great babysitter-in-training!

What family fun night would be complete without a stop at the best local ice cream shoppe? So yummy, salted caramel, and Scott's lemon meringue... INCREDIBLE. Now we are so sad Mel had to leave.

Memorial Weekend: Stanley, ID

 We planned the most spontaneous memorial weekend trip to Stanley, ID. Literally decided to go on Wednesday, planned and booked it on Thursday, left on Friday.  I was lucky to find a place with availabilities, and it was a RUSTIC cabin. No T.V., very basic with a small kitchen and bathroom with shower. It was basically camping under a roof, I felt. 

We got there late Friday night and to our amazement walked out of our cabin, and THIS was our view: 

I think I heard angels singing as we first gazed upon it. Marvelous!

 There was a bench swing which the kids enjoyed,

 as well as climbing the tree right next to it.

 Here was our sleeping arrangements: Ella on the couch (most nights), Cole on the floor, Brock in his pack 'n play, us on the HARD bed. Not comfy, not great sleep at all.

 The first day we went to Red Fish Lake and rented a paddle boat for an hour and explored the lake. It was beautiful, and great exercise!

We drove around and went "swimming" more like "sitting" in a couple natural hot springs all over the river.
 That night we made s'mores over our gas stove.

Every day we hiked a long mighty hike, either at Red Fish Lake, Stanley Lake, or Alturas Lake. One day we took a small soft cooler and packed our lunch to eat in the middle of a dewy meadow with the gigantic white tip mountains as our view. Breath taking for sure.

 We were so high up we came across TONS of BIG snow patches, and had ourselves a little snow fight in the 70 degree weather.

We saw lots of wild deer, elk, antelope, and more.

The last day of our trip, on Monday, we took the charter boat across the entire Red Fish Lake and were dropped off there to hike around for a couple hours. Great times.

On Sunday we found the local branch that met at the Sawtooth Valley Meditation Chapel. It was a log cabin with stained glass windows along all the sides, and right smack in the front were these large windows so we could view God's beautiful creations during our meetings. BY FAR the most spiritual sacrament meeting... EVER.

After church we took a drive to Alturas Lake to walk around a bit and watch the sunset on the beach.

On Monday after our boat ride, we came back to Red Fish Lodge and grabbed lunch and ice cream cones!

Then we played around in the sand before we left to drive back home.

Great memories made here in Stanley, we will be back soon!