August Fun

We like to play. We spent quite a bit of time down in Salt Lake because my brother Jeff returned home from his mission. (Sorry Jeff, I didn't get any pictures on my phone or camera.) We went down to see him at the airport. Then that week we went down to the Aquarium. (The pics are a little funny shaped because they were taken with a phone.)

We crossed a bridge.

And rode a whale.

 Hugged a penguin. Well Sammi anyway. Ellie wouldn't.

Sammi really enjoyed the penguins.

Although Ellie did want to touch a star fish.

I think Sammi hugged every stuffed animal in the gift shop.

Oh, he's so cute. 

 The aquarium is pretty cool. There were so many things to see. Of course some favorites were the otters, penguins, sharks, and rays.  It is hard to pick favorites when me and my kids love seeing animals. We really liked it. One of the workers said that in the future, they plan on bringing more birds into the tropical forest area to continue with breeding programs. Its just a little too busy and the birds aren't quite used to all the extra people yet.

After we drove to Grandpa's work to get cookies and ice cream. Outside, Ellie and Sammi had to climb on the pillars. Ellie successfully made it to the top.

The next day, an old neighbor was having a birthday party for her daughter right by my parents house. She invited us over to play for a bit. They splashed and played until their lips were blue and they were shaking (cold hose water). 

Of course, at night once the kids were down to sleep, we made Jeff stay up way late and watch movies he missed seeing while he was gone.

We spent a lot of time traveling down to Salt Lake in August and although there aren't pictures of most of it, here's the list of reason's we made the drive: Jeff coming home, his homecoming, dropping the kids off while we went to Tahoe (for a Tough Mudder), bridal shower for my sister Stef, farewell for Jake's nephew, and probably more I can't remember now. It may have been busy but it was fun. We love family.

Neighborhood Bear Lake

For quite a few years now, my parents neighborhood has been getting together and planning a trip to Bear Lake. It is always a blast. We love going when we can make it. Since we live a little closer, we just made it a day trip this year. 

The girls loved playing in the water and building sand castles. Sammi liked being Godzilla even more. It took several tries to build more than 3 towers without Sammi stomping on them and knocking them over. It upset Ellie, but they finally were able to get some put up. 

While the girls stayed at the beach, played with Grandma, and went for a boat ride, another group of us went to Bloomington Lake. This is one of Jake's favorite little places. Now I finally have a video of me going off the rope swing (normally this doesn't happen when you are the photographer.)

Thanks to the neighborhood for letting us come hang out at the lake. It is so nice to have neighbors that close.

Aggie Ice Cream Tour

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! We went up to the Aggie Creamery to learn about how they make the famous Aggie Ice Cream. Did you know it takes 4 days to make a batch of ice cream? That's one of the reasons homemade isn't as creamy. The time and the cold.

Waiting in the classroom

Just so everyone can hear, they meet in a classroom first and talk about making ice cream and then show a video about it. Aggie ice cream uses milk they get from local dairy farms, generally those also associated with the school.

Are we ready yet?

Sammi did not like going into the sub-zero freezer where the ice cream is stored. Negative temps were just a little too much for her to handle. She wanted back out before everyone came in. Ellie wanted to see how long she could stay in there. Luckily she has daddy for that.

At the end of the tour, you can either pick a small cup serving of ice cream or a single scoop cone. Ice cream is ice cream to Sammi so she just wanted one without the wait. She had cookies and cream. I had cookie dough (super solid as they had to grab it from the sub zero freezer). Jake had True Aggie Night, which is my new favorite flavor (raspberries and cream ice cream with dark chocolate covered raspberries mixed in). Ellie had orange sherbet.

We love ice cream. Yum.

So good, it surprised Ellie.

Cheese, I mean ice cream face.

After we drove up the canyon a bit (since we figured no one was super hungry for dinner yet). There is a fun little hike around second dam, I think that's where we stopped. There were people fishing and swimming. We just walked around the pond.

Such a fun day. We live in a great place.