Octoberfest at Snowbird

Snowbird knows how to celebrate. They host Octoberfest up there each year for several weekends. We had to partake and of course enjoyed ourselves there again. We tasted the tastes of Octoberfest and followed that up with a walk on the mountain. It was cook because it was really fall colliding with winter. 

Homestead Crater

We visited Homestead Crater, a hot spring out in Midway, Utah. It is the only warm scuba diving location in the US. You can scuba, snorkel, or swim. It was pretty neat to swim in this crater and we all had a nice time floating around in this hot spring. Despite Kyle's fear of Yellowstone with all of its geothermal features, he was able to deal swim here though we didn't quite tell him the full explanation of how it was heated until afterwards. 

Just living

Just scenes from our life here in Utah.

Biking around town. We missed that in Raleigh.

Aaron soccer game

Biking to school

Coloring before school

Carousel at the zoo

Sleepers

Some more sleeping kid pictures.

Aaron taking up a king size bed.

Kyle not taking up a bed at all. This boy just doesn't stay in one place when he sleeps. 

Aaron totally ready for his soccer game... 

Yellowstone

Jeff's entire family met up in Yellowstone to celebrate family and Papa's 70th birthday. We 'glamped' and it was loads of fun. The time with family was incredible and seeing Yellowstone was something else. Kyle did not like seeing Yellowstone because he was too spooked by it being over a super volcano. I carried him kicking and screaming through Grand Prismatic. But he otherwise had a great time with his cousins and camping. We stopped through Jackson Hole on the way home since it wasn't too far out of the way and Jeff and I remembered our fun trip there many years ago to ski. Jeff and the kids stayed there overnight with Adam's family and Jon to further explore Jackson Hole. They had a great time going up to the top of a mountain, having waffles, and eating a delicious dinner. 

Blackberry ice cream stop in Idaho

Glamping

We went to a rodeo. Because why not. When in Montana... The kids got to go out and chase a baby cow in the rodeo ring. 

Walking around Yellowstone

At a general store soda fountain having a cherry milkshake

Old Faithful or Grand Prismatic. Likely the latter since Kyle is not in the picture. He would not pose there. It was too much for him. 

Old Faithful eruption

Driving south out of Yellowstone through Teton National Park

Quick stop. 

Jackson Hole

First day of school

The kids started their 4th elementary school today (started K in Madison, then through 2nd grade in San Diego, Raleigh 3rd - 5th and now Utah for 6th). Aaron starts Kindergarten next week because apparently it's a think for K to start a week later. The first day also coincided with the eclipse. We were about 90% totality here so it didn't get quite as dark as we thought it would but was neat to witness solar / lunar history. 

Olympic Training Center Park City

The kids and I went up to Park City to see the Olympic Training Center. It was amazing! The kids had a blast there checking out the museum. We then watched the ski jumpers practice into water. That is quite the site. We then got some ice cream before hiking up to the top to check out their ropes / challenge course which was like a little Ninja Warrior course. 

Warped wall

Pirate Bear

The warped wall is much harder than it looks. Eventually Kyle, Emily, and I made it. Emily made it through the entire course. She got creative going on top of some of the really difficult ones, but she did it. Go Emily!

Kyle & Emily's 11th birthday Bell's Canyon hike

For Kyle and Emily's birthday, we had a brilliant idea of going for a hike. We heard Bell's Canyon was a good, reasonably easy hike... while it was nice to get out with the family for a hike, we were very ill-prepared for this one. We thought an easy hike we would accomplish in an hour or so. So in the morning, we had a light breakfast, set out with our water packs and a bar with the intention of going to brunch / lunch afterward. Not quite how it turned out. It was 11am when we started, it was a million degrees out, we only had 1 bar and those 4 miles seemed like 14. About 4.5 hours later we were back at the car. The steep terrain, winding paths, extreme heat, lack of food and not eating enough for breakfast and making sure to conserve water, it was a challenge to say the least. It taught us a very valuable lesson though to make sure we bring more food than we think we will need and always enough water. And to avoid the heat and have proper covering from the sun in the heat. 

Nonetheless, we powered through and saw the first waterfall at Bell's Canyon. About 1/2 mile from the falls, we divided and conquered because Aaron was just done. So Emily and I went first, came back to our meeting point, and then Jeff & Kyle went to the top. The hike got much harder at that point too so it was a good choice even if it took more time when we were all hungry and exhausted. 

Snowbird

Snowbird has summer concerts on the weekend. We went to a few this summer. After the concert, we went for a short walk. It did not disappoint. Emily picked a nice bouquet of wildflowers and we saw a family of deer. Pretty awesome if you ask me.