Timpanogos Cave

As I mentioned earlier, we tried to pack as much fun stuff into August as we could. We decided to go to Timpanogos Cave, which it had been years since Sheldon had been there and I have never been there even though I have spent most of life in Utah! It was a really pretty hike and not too hot since we went in the morning.

Tucker did pretty good in the backpack as long as we let him get out and walk for a little bit. Of course he got very distracted by all the rocks. Hiking with kids definitely teaches you patience.

Geology lesson for the day: Those curly looking rocks are called helictites and scientists haven't figured out what makes them curly like that. Timpanogos Cave has one of the largest collections of helictites in the world, FYI ;)

Tucker did pretty good in the caves, especially considering the tour is about an hour long. He held onto his little flashlight and only got a little crazy towards the end when he was ready to be able to run around.

It's been a while since Tucker fell asleep in his backpack, but he was so exhausted he fell asleep and his poor little head was bouncing around so much Sheldon had to flip the backpack around to hold his head.

Next up, Sheldon's trip to Cali!

August Awesomeness

August was such fun month. We realized that summer was quickly coming to a close so we packed as many fun activities into August as we could. We had a lot of fun going to Thanksgiving Point on Two Buck Tuesdays, which is a great deal since their stuff usually costs 10 bucks. I had never been to the gardens before and they were pretty amazing. My favorite part was the Fragrance Garden, you walked in and could automatically smell all the plants. Definitely going to think about how plants smell when I plan my garden someday.

Tucker loved feeding the fish, they would jump over each other to get at the food.

And of course the amphitheater with its big hill was a huge hit with Tucker. It was such a big hill he was tired of walking up it after about 3 times.

Farm country at Thanksgiving Point was also pretty fun. Tucker loved seeing all the animals that he has been reading about in his books.

This was my favorite animal just because I loved its awesome haircut, he looks like he belongs in the eighties. I think it was an alpaca.

We tried to get Tucker to feed the animals and hold his hand out, but he was a little nervous. He really liked just throwing the food at the animals, but of course the animals weren't big fans of that and would quickly leave.

I also liked these mini baby goats, so cute!

I couldn't tell whether Tucker loved the horse ride. I think it was fun for him, but he was bored after a little bit. I guess sitting still and just going in circles isn't the most exciting thing in the world.

We topped it all off with some ice cream! They had perfect kids size ice cream cones.

Tucker's Birthday Party

I admit it, Tucker's birthday party wasn't really much of a party. It had been a busy weekend , and since he's 2 and doesn't really care, Sheldon and I just celebrated his birthday. I'll make his party next year extra cool to make up for it. Tucker liked his cake much more than last year, although he still didn't like getting messy. He eventually resorted to just leaving the cupcake on his tray and trying to lick frosting off.

Duck Creek 2010

My family reunion on my Dad's side of the family was definitely the highlight of the summer. We stayed at Duck Creek, which is up in the mountains by Cedar City, for the last week of July. It couldn't have been any more fun, we loved every minute of it! In a nutshell we ATV'd, fished, played games, ate lots, canoed, shot guns, and tried to survive the rain. There was a ton of rain, which made it so we couldn't hike the Narrows, but it actually was better for the ATV's. Lots of puddles to splash through and I would much rather have mud than dust when riding ATVs. We took tons of pictures and got pictures from other family there, so these are just a few of my favorites.

Tucker had a blast while we were there, lots of people to play with and lots of time outdoors. He was especially great when we went fishing a few times. He would walk around, throw rocks, and entertain us when we weren't catching any fish.

We had a lot of fun shooting my cousin's guns. Sheldon now definitely wants to own some guns. I had so much fun he may be able to convince us to buy one, but it will probably take a few years to convince me :) Sheldon kept aiming for this one target far away and was always so close. I think he was hitting hit the whole time and just didn't know it.

Sheldon looks cool when he shoots, I definitely wouldn't mess with him.

And then there's me, totally afraid of the gun and the kickback after you fire. Yeah, I need to work on my shooting skills.

Ohhh, family pictures. Isn't Tucker cute?

We had a lot of fun riding in the Rhino, a two person ATV.

I think this was called Mammoth springs? It was really pretty and we had a fun time hiking around and exploring.

Sheldon had lots of fun driving through all the big mud puddles. The boys would have contests to see who could get the muddiest on their rides.

Tucker having fun fishing with my Dad. He always wanted to eat our fishing bait since it was such bright colors. It's not only fish bait, but kid bait as well.

This fish was definitely bigger than it looks in this picture. Once we figured out the right bait to use we caught fish nonstop. I would throw my pole in and have a bite in less than 5 minutes. Now that's my kind of fishing, none of this waiting around for hours.

We caught a lot of fish between all of my family. Luckily it's a man's job to gut and clean the fish. They had a little too much fun while cleaning the fish, yes those are fish heads all lined up. Kind of funny/gross.

It was fun having the Ranger ATV which 6 people could ride on, including little kids. Tucker had fun, but eventually fell asleep even though I think it qualifies as the bumpiest car ride he's ever had.

We had fun climbing through Mammoth Cave. It's not a very big cave, but it's still fun to climb around in and get muddy.

This is the fish that I dehooked myself. Yes, I am trying to hold it as far away from me as possible. Fish are so darn flippy you never know when they are going to flip something onto you.

The whole Olsen Fam, minus 2 who are on missions.

Thanks for such a great reunion Grandma Olsen! Can't wait til the next one!

Fireworks and 13.1 miles

4th of July we had a fun BBQ with friends in our ward. Tucker and Avery had fun running around and chowing down on watermelon. Tucker even got to have some ice cream, I really don't mind when he has a cone because he takes the smallest bites ever. I think he ends up eating an eighth of a cup. He hasn't quite figured out how to lick it or take big bites.

I scream for Ice Cream!

The whole group minus one couple who had to leave earlier.

We then got to have our own little fireworks show, our friends had some pretty awesome bottle rockets. Tucker liked the fireworks but was also a little scared at the same time. He had this funny nervous laugh, like he was trying to be cool but was actually scared. He was a little better when we started covering up his ears. For the next few weeks every morning he would get up and ask for fireworks.

Sheldon and I also ran the Hobbler Half Marathon on July 10th. It was a really pretty run through Hobble Creek Canyon, except for the last 3 miles when you were out of the canyon and running in the heat. Sheldon and our neighbors were speedy and finished in under 2 hours (Oops, important edit: I meant to say they finshed under 2 hours, even I finished under 3 hours, hehe). I was definitely slower, but happy to have finished! We celebrated that night with a dinner at Texas Roadhouse Grill, nothing like running 13 miles so you can eat whatever you want to celebrate!