Utah Summer 2012

Here's the truth. I am writing about our summer 2012 trip to utah at the end of summer 2013. 

Yes, I am indeed behind one whole year on the blogging front. Sad. 

But, I am doing it. And that's gotta count for something. 

So, if you can imagine, my 29, wait... 28 year old brain doesn't function at it's best these days and I can't remember details from a trip that was over a year ago. Can't even remember what month it was. Sad.

So, I am here to announce I am posting pictures. Enjoy. Make up your own stories to go along with each picture. Have a hay-day with it. And I'll tell you what. If I remember what's going on, I'll stick a little caption under it. Fair enough?

My Grandma and Grandpa Johnson try to get a picture with the great grandkids every year. Every visit actually.

The annual Father's Day Campout with the Irwins at Lion's Lodge.

Pool Day.

Teaching my mom how to play the guitar a little bit. Annie's Song, I think?

Trying my darndest to get a good picture of the 4 kids together. Unsuccessful. *Cough* Darcy.

Turns out my memory isn't as bad as I though. Though my details are vague. If you didn't notice.

Josh's Week Off - Wednesday

I loved day three of our stay-cacation. 

We headed down to a lovely little gem called Green Lakes State Park.

It is called Green Lakes because of the color of the water. 

You guessed it, green.

It is a 'Meromictic' body of water which means the layers of water don't intermix, as a result it is this fabulous greenish color. Stunning, really.

Have I mentioned how much I love it here? 

I really, really do. 

(My mom might be worried that we are going to stay here forever. And if my whole family moved up here, I surely would.)

We had a nice picnic lunch. Sandwiches, Abbott's apples, string cheese.

Played in the water and on the beach. 

 Brinkley became a  mermaid. A sand mermaid. Darcy joined in, but not for long. 

Josh and I were super white in our swimming suits. Oh well.
After all that fun in the sun we went for a nice long walk around the lake. It was nice and cool in the shade and OH! The view.

I should mention that I didn't even edit these pictures. So the color you see is the color it was. Amazing! Love it. Love it. Love it.

Josh's Week Off - Tuesday

Day two of vacation. 

1. The girls bought a trampoline. With their own money. We paid the tax and that's about it. They  had so much birthday money saved in their little piggy banks and we desperately needed something fun to do in the backyard. Our neighbors in Pittsburgh had this trampoline in their backyard, and we have been missing it. (We have also been missing the neighbors that came with that trampoline...)

So, while Darcy napped, Josh and Brinkley set up the trampoline. She was quite the little helper! She held all the tiny pieces for Daddy and grabbed various parts for him when he needed them. We were so proud of her for being so careful and responsible. I have yet to get pictures of the kids jumping in the trampoline, but they love it.

2. Brinkley really wanted to take Daddy to our favorite place here... Abbott's Farm! We picked apples, played on the bridge, showed daddy all the animals, looked at the fish in the pond, jumped in the bounce house, and ate ice cream.

Day two: Success. 

Josh's Week Off - Monday

My husband gets 4 weeks off each year, and it just so happened that last week was one of those! I'm glad. (Duh) Not only because having work off is AWESOME, but we also have this massive Syracuse bucket list going on and we needed to start checking things off!

Might I recommend to those who are not spontaneous or are bad at coming up with stuff to do off the top of your head... like us... make a bucket list. A big one, preferably in a place you see everyday.... like we did. (I'll post pictures of it later, promise).

It has worked wonders with us. We are no longer lame. 

All we needed was a chalkboard. Go figure. 

Anyway. So, Josh's week off...

Let's begin with Monday. 

Josh and I had an actual real live date. Got a babysitter and everything. 

Not another mom from the ward who we have to swap with... No, no. Our landlord's daughter! Paid her and did the whole shebang. We are grown ups aren't we? With a real paying job.

She was great by the way. She is only twelve but has taken a babysitting class. She was a bit nervous about babysitting a 2 year old (who can blame her, Darcy is nuts) so she brought a little friend with her and they brought markers and other activities. They cleaned up the playroom and sent us text updates on how our girls were doing. It was so awesome.

For our date we doubled with Rosie and Brian from our ward. He gets tickets from his work that are RIGHT BEHIND HOME PLATE! I kid you not. We were three rows up from the field. 

Granted, the Chiefs are only AAA (whatever that means) and there were a TON of empty seats. And even though we got our tickets for free, if we wanted to do it again, they would only be $20 bucks. But, free is better than that any day. Not only did we have great seats, but we got a waitress. She took our order and brought us food. Pretty great. 

P.S. Don't mind my horrible bangs. I took the scissors to them and have hated myself since. Though they are finally growing out, kind of, thank goodness!

 A really fabulous picture of us. Having a blast.

 Our waitress(es). We had the one with the dark hair. The blond one kept sneaking glances at the cute boy sitting by me. But Josh forbade me from telling the cute boy that the waitress was dreamily looking at him. I should have told him anyway. 

I don't get embarrassed. Apparently Josh does... by me. 

Ha. Ha.

This shows how close we were. Cool huh? Except the net that prevented us from catching foul balls.

Whoopie Cushion

Brinkley just discovered the childhood joys of a Whoopie Cushion.

Dress Up

My Fancy Gals: