the Cabin

We were able to go up to Tyler's Aunt Cheryl's cabin July 23-27th! It was SUCH a blast! Seriously. The girls were ready to move right in! Cheryl and Stan's Cabin is up in the La Sal Mountains above Moab. It's in the middle of no where, and is just awesome. There's no cell service, no electricity, etc... Everything is done on the wood burning stove, and gas lanterns. It is so nice to get away from everything for a while! We hadn't been since Clara was like 3 months old, so we were so excited to get to come! You can see our last trip, HERE and our first trip before we had any kids HERE.  

We were able to ride up with Grandma Bonnie, and seriously missed having Tyler there with us! Poor Uncle Luke played Dad to seven kids all week! Cheryl had her two grandsons, John and Joe, then Blake, Callie, and Logan, and my two! Sheesh! We had so much fun fishing at Blue Lake, riding 4 wheelers, riding their bikes, playing in the dirt, playing with fish heads- yes, fish heads, climbing 'Rosco Mountain', playing in the fort, etc... etc... It was a blast! And how here is a major photo dump because the pictures are half from my phone, and half from my camera, so enjoy!

 Luke had made a little BMX trail for the kids last year, so they all had a blast riding it all week!

 Callie and Clara are just hilarious together. And really- they're only one month apart, they could totally be twins! They were pretty cute trying to move all of these huge logs to help 'build' the fort!

 Lots of fishing, thanks to Uncle Luke!

 I sure love these cute girls of mine!

 This picture of Blake is probably my most favorite one of her ever! They had so much fun in all of the wild flowers!

 We are REALLY going to miss these girls when we head back to North Dakota in a couple of weeks. This summer has all been worth it when you get to see the sweet relationships formed with all of their cute cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents!

 Jeff's new side by side was so much fun! I love that cute Logan could just sleep in his car seat and we could all go for a ride! We did have a SLIGHT incident though... Friday, Amy, Luke, and I went out for a ride around the 'loop' and we somehow popped one of the tires. It was probably me, but we really have no idea. One of the tires just died! And it went through the rim! It had to of been a really long, sharp something! Poor Jeff was in Moab and went back to meet Jessi to get a new tire, then when he finally got there Friday night, him and Bonnie went back down to Moab Saturday morning to get the old tire fixed. Ugh! Such is life! We still had such a fun time driving it, and really only missed out driving it Friday night!

We took the kids over to the salamander pond! Unfortunately all the salamanders stayed right in the middle of the pond where we couldn't reach them, but we still caught a bunch of giant freakish moths, and little slugs and tad poles.

Now onto the phone pics... A little target practice with the sling shot.

 The beautiful cabin! It's really a main kitchen/living/bathroom/small bedroom on the main floor, then upstairs there's about 6 full beds. The girls did OK sleeping... but I was exhausted! The first night they were just up like all night--- not being naughty, or loud, just not sleeping. It was so weird. And they just weren't sleeping great. The beds were not the greatest, and usually that doesn't  bother me at all, but I was dying for some reason. We had been to Bozeman the weekend before and got home Sunday night, then we did Lagoon all day Monday, Cherry Hill all day Tuesday, a big Family dinner Tuesday night, and left for the cabin early Wednesday morning. I think I was just totally worn out because I was DYING. It was still so much fun, but I was so so exhausted.

 Playing in the fort!

The walk to Blue Lake...

 They had seen a few bears, and had a black bear right outside their door that knocked over the grill the night before we got there, so we were on the look out the whole trip! Fortunately, and a little unfortunately we never saw one!

 Each night before sunset we take an 'animal run'. A slower ride to go out and see as many animals as we can! We saw a bunch of deer and a couple elk, as well as Lucy's favorite- squirrels. ;-)

 These girls had SO much fun fishing, and by the last day Luke had helped every kid catch a fish! Best day ever!

 Lucy also learned to drive the 4-wheeler all by her self! She still needs someone to ride on the back with her, but she's getting it down pretty well!

 Putting our Lake Powell shirts to good use!

 Exploring 'Elephant Rock'

 Callie- who fell asleep on the tube every time at lake powell totally fell asleep on the 4-wheeler too. She's the greatest!

 and who could forget Angel baby Logan!?

Saturday all 5 kids were able to catch a fish! And Lucy's was HUGE! She was SO excited!

 Lots of fish, meant 5 fish heads! The kids LOVED playing with them. It was so hilarious, and so disgusting! Haha. Lucy's face kills me!

cute Callie and our favorite Grandma Cheryl!

Clara and I decided to leave on Saturday night. I was just exhausted, and the thought of putting the girls to sleep by myself one more night made me want to die.... We've all been there right? Haha. Anyway. Lucy was able to stay with Grandma and Papa and was seriously on Cloud 9! Clara gets pretty car sick, so I gave her some dramamine like she usually has on car rides, but for whatever reason she was out cold! She usually will sleep for a couple hours, and is more tired than normal, but this time she seriously slept from the cabin until we got home to Kaysville and went straight to bed. She must have been just as worn out as I was! And it was the biggest blessing ever that she slept the whole way, I was so worn out, so I'm glad I didn't have to worry about her in the car! 

Lucy got home Sunday night and had so much fun having Papa and Grandma all to herself! I think it was pretty fun not having to share the attention with Clara! Haha. Clara was the same way! All day Sunday she was such a ham and was loving all of the attention from everyone. It was a good reminder to spent some one on one time with my girlies.

Overall we had such a blast. It was such a good experience for my kids. I love getting away from technology and just every day life. They loved exploring in the outdoors, and it was definitely one of their favorite vacations ever! I hope we can manage to be in town to come next year! A huge thanks to Grandma Bonnie and Papa for letting us come, and of course Grandma Cheryl! We love you guys!