Fantastic Family Vacation Fun!!

This last weekend we had a chance to get away with my family for four days. It was such a blast! We had a day at Seven Peaks Water Park (no pictures, my small camera ended up having dead batteries). Of our own little family, Devon was the only one who had been there before. The boys had never been to a water park before, but they LOVED it! They loved the water slides, but of course the wave pool had a certain kind of draw, and it might have been the favorite.

Funny, odd, but true story: We took butterflies with us to Seven Peaks. We had dropped all our stuff at the cabin (where we all lodged for 3 nights) before going to Seven Peaks, and somehow the butterflies got overlooked. Dylan "earned" these butterflies for giving up his beloved Blue - a stuffed animal/blanket. The butterflies were in one of those mesh houses you see on TV that you send in a postcard and they mail you caterpillars. Back to the story, our only options seemed to be to leave the butterflies in the car to die in the heat, or bring them in with us. So, we carefully placed the house in the bottom of the stroller, and set some things around it so we didn't look too odd. It actually turned out to be no problem. No one noticed, and the butterflies survived. But I bet we are the first family to bring butterflies to a water park.

After a fun day, we all headed to the cabin. Many of us got some nice sunburns, as you will notice in the pictures.
The next day was a ride on the Heber Valley Railroad. I wasn't sure whether Ethan would be good for a 1 1/2 hour ride, but he loved it. He stayed on Devon's lap for pretty much the whole time, with the few exceptions he stood on the bench next to him, or let me hold him for a few minutes. All the kids had a blast watching everything go by. It was such a pretty ride, going past Deer Creek Reservoir, and following the river through the canyon.

The fun at the cabin included all sorts of good stuff, like cousins playing whatever games they thought of, playing Rock Band, card games, board games, and computer games (Age of Empires was the favorite this weekend).

The next day we were off to Deer Creek for a fabulous day of boating and jet skiing. All the boys had their chance on the jet skis and also on the tube behind the boat. Jayden seems to be our wild, adventurous boy, and he craved it all. He was the first one out on the jet skis, and also on the tube. He was always ready to do it again, constantly asking to go, and loving it all. Dylan did a good job at being adventurous as well, and loved it. He also loved being on the beach, throwing rocks, and playing in the sand. Ethan had to be pushed a little, but once he got going, he loved it all too. When I took him on the jet ski, I swear he fell asleep. I think it was too windy for him or something, and he closed his eyes and took a short nap. Maybe he was awake with his eyes closed, but it was for a while, and his body got really relaxed. The picture of Jayden swimming in the water is him swimming to shore from the boat. He saw the dads jumping out as we got closer to shore so they could guide the boat the rest of the way in, and keep it from getting too shallow. Jayden wanted to jump in and swim to shore, so I told him to go for it. So over the side he went, and he swam the rest of the way in.

At the end of the day the toddlers found the water spigot, and they had a lot of fun splashing and getting wet. The bottom picture makes me laugh. Ethan went the whole day without a nap, while playing in the sun and the water. He is shivering because he is soaked, and standing in a little bit of shade. Also, at this point in the day it was around 7 pm, and he usually goes to bed around 7:30, so he was exhausted. If you can tell by looking at his eyes, he is thoroughly exhausted, but he did such a good job at being happy - right up until the two minutes before he got into the car, and tripped and fell. He was asleep about 3 minutes after driving in the car.

It really was an awesome vacation. So much fun. So many good memories.