Our Summer Adventures at Home

Isn't it interesting how many different things "home" can mean? Right now, I am sitting in my home. It is my home in more sense than the house we lived in in Virginia or in California before, because we are buying and not renting this home. When Sammy was sick this Saturday and wanted to go home, this house is what she meant. The kids and I spent most of July in Utah this summer. We moved out of our house in Virginia in late June and then after the 4th of July had nothing to do but stay in a hotel or fly to Utah and visit family as we weren't closing on our new home until the 24th and wouldn't be moving in until early August. The choice was easy. We had not been "home" in 2 years. Our only regret is that Trent could not accompany us. We hope that it will be all of us next time. I have not lived in Utah in 6 years and yet, it will always be home. Anyhow, since I have not shared any of these as we went along, this is destined to be a long post. I will try and keep it as short and edited as possible. Here is a bit of a glimpse at our very busy month of July at home.

There was lots of playing with cousins:

































and sleepovers with cousins:

and riding the Front Runner train the the Gateway to play in the fountains (with cousins of course.) :)

Periodically, music would come on, and the fountains would burst and such along to the music. Jon thought he could conduct the fountains during these times as you can see above.

We visited the Dinosaur Park. (Thanks so much to Grandma 'Ora for coming along and making it extra fun. We would have never discovered the learning center without her.)

We made sure Grandma Linda had her first EVER (crazy I know) s'more.

We had another wonderful Warner family camp out. This one was up Logan Canyon. There were, of course, more cousins.







































What is a camp out up Logan Canyon without a day trip to Bear Lake?





























Ashley, due entirely to the efforts of Grandma Linda and Grandpa Norman, learned to ride a bike without training wheels. We are still so proud of Ashley.



We made the trip with my brother, super cute sister-in-law and their boys to Pagosa Springs for a 3 day weekend to see Grandpa Dude (my dad) and Grammy Muriel. All trips to Pagosa Springs are wonderful and all are inevitably to short. No shopping or hiking this time around. Still, I finally had the opportunity to participate in some of the really fun local events that always go on there. The Friday night we arrived, Tony kindly took all of the kids for the night, and Shea, Muriel and I trekked over to the tacky dance. It was a lot of fun. The DJ was amazing, and we were, without a doubt, the tackiest family present, though there were a lot of very funny and tacky outfits there. The bulk of pictures weren't taken on my camera. If you want to see more tacky dance pictures, venture over to M&M's Cool Blog.


The next day was the annual cruise-a-thong, which is a triathlon style race for the average Joe. The point is not to win the race but to come in with the most average time. There are also a lot of costumes etc. The head bands all have random numbers on them. My favorite was 8375309. I didn't see one with NCwhatever numbers the enterprise is, though I did look for it. The race involves a 2 mile(ish) bike cruise, a hundred yard dash in flip flops to the San Juan River, which the contestants then tube down. I took video this year, which is also available at M&M's Cool Blog. The kids played in the river, and we had a lot of fun watching the very average happenings.






I got to share the cabin with my kids. Jon didn't want to leave.


We spent our last night in Utah riding Tink the horse out at my step brother's house.
















There were, of course, many things I didn't get pictures of such as a fun day at Cherry Hill etc., but we were very very busy. I never got to the box of crafts I mailed myself. Guess I will have to get to those when I am finished getting our new house together.


We had a most wonderful month at home. 2 years was a long time. Hopefully, it won't be that long before we return again.