Summit mini cheer camp

For a week before school started McKinley participated in the Summit mini cheer camp.  She learned a few cheers and shared her tumbling skills with a half time show at the Blue and Gold football scrimmage.  It was fun to see McKinley try something new and maybe start her time as a cheer leader?   We shall see.  Go Summit!!

First Day of school 2017-2018 year

Another year of school starting already.  Evan starting 11th grade and McKinley in 8th.  I pray that they will both have great years, full of learning and growing.  I pray they have good friends and teachers and they learn what amazing young people they are!

Bear Lake 2017...another blissful trip.

Summer would not be complete without our annual trip to Bear Lake.  This year was the best I can remember.  Except for the people that were missing everything was perfect.  The water was super high and right near the campsite, and it was warm!  The weather each day was sunny and warm.  We ate, we slept, we played, we visited, we swam, we bonded, and we relaxed.  It was a perfect summer camping trip with our big Smith family.

This year the crafts were tie died shoes, blue gel glue t-shirts, and nerf swords.  They were all new crafts and the kids seemed to really enjoy them.  They mostly turned out great!

This year we also added a movie night.  Lindsey and George brought up a screen and projector and we viewed "Swiss Family Robinson".  It was a fun thing to add.  Next year we'll have to come up with a better sound option, but it was still a fun new thing that we all enjoyed!

All in all, Bear Lake 2017 was a huge success.  Many hands made for light work and a lot of fun!!  We are so blessed to enjoy this vacation!

Provo MTC expansion open house tour

We were able to go tour the new Provo MTC and expansion.  It was really fun to be able to go inside and walk around and see the new spaces.  It is such a beautiful place with such a beautiful Spirit.  It was fun to walk around the buildings and see the cafeteria and dorm rooms as well.  The new buildings are beautifully designed.  There is a lot of natural light and quiet areas for study.  They artwork was breathtaking as well.  There were huge murals on all the big walls with different scenes from the Saviors life.  They were amazing.  Evan, McKinley, Kim and I enjoyed our tour a lot!

Mama Mia it's hot at Tuacahn!

After our hike and a rest we headed out to Tuacahn to see Mama Mia!  It is one of our favorite movies with all of the wonderful Abba music.  And it was excellent at Tuacahn...they did a great job.  It was 101 degrees at 9pm, but without the sun it wasn't too bad.  I guess that's why they start the show so late!

The next day we went to church, checked out of our hotel and spent the day at the park before dropping McKinley and Sunny at gymnastics camp for the week.  A fun, quick trip!

Kanarraville Falls hike

Since we were headed south to drop off McKinley at SUU gymnastics camp we decided to go a little earlier than usual and make a little trip out of it.  So we left Saturday morning and made our way to Kannaraville Falls for a fun water hike.  It was a really fun hike and we enjoyed all the water and beautiful scenery.

The hike started on a dirt road and took us into a canyon, hiking along and in the creek bed.  Then it came to a slot canyon that was created by the creek we were hiking in.  It was nice to have the water to help keep us cool and the shade from the slot canyon helped as well.

There were fun ladders to climb up the canyon and areas with natural waterslides as well.  We explored and loved all of it!

After our hike we headed to St. George to check into our hotel and rest up for our evening activity of attending a play at the beautiful outdoor amphitheater, Tuacahn.

Kennedy Space Center

Our flight home wasn't until the evening, so on our last day we checked out of our condo and decided we could spend the day at Kennedy Space Center.  It had been years since I'd been there and the kids had never been there so it was fun to show them a glimpse into our space program.  It was a really rainy day, so we were glad most of the exploring was done inside.

We learned all about the Apollo program, the shuttle program, and the new Journey to Mars initiative that we have now.  Lots of learning and fun was had before we headed to the airport and flew home.  Phew...what an amazing trip!