Summer Bucket List 2013

It’s that time of year again folks! The days are longer and getting hotter. There is 18.5 days left in this school year! Last summer Ethen and I did a Summer Bucket List – see HERE and HERE.

Ethen LOVED marking off activities. Admittedly we didn’t do EVERYTHING that was on our list. So this year, those activities have been added once again and some fun new ones!

We have two trips planned this summer. One back to California for some fun at Lego Land and the other to Idaho for my mother’s wedding. I also desperately want to take Ethen camping and hiking – especially to Bryce Canyon or Zion National Park. My brother had the great idea to get our friends Felicia and Amari together to go rafting down the Colorado River! So fun!!

So in honor of our tradition I have compiled this years list. I present to you…

Summer Bucket List 2013

4th of July Celebration, 51’s Game, Back to School Shopping, Backyard Campout, Bass Pro Shop, Bike rides, Bounce U, Bowling, Breakfast @ park, Build a fort, Camping, Celebrate Father’s Day, Chuck ‘E’ Cheese, Colorado River Rafting, Coloring , Crafts, Dino Museum (in SLC), Dye Hair with Kool-Aid, Feed Ducks, Fishing, Flashlight tag, Fly a kite, Free Movies at Rave, Fun day w/ dad, Fun day w/ mom, Game Night, Get a snow cone/ice cream, Go Ice blocking, Go to a new skate park, Go to the beach in Cali, Hiking, Hoover dam, Inter tubing on the lake, Laser tag, Lego Land, Library Summer Challenge, Lied’s Discovery Museum, Lowe’s kids workshops, Make a gift for Grandma, Make care pkgs for deployed soldiers, Make treat for friend, Messy Painting, Mini Golf, Mini Grand Prix, Movie Marathon, Natural History Museum, Outdoor bingo, Paint a picture, Paint a rock friend, Parade, Pen pal, Photo Scavenger Hunt, Picnic, Plant a garden, Prepare for 1st Grade, Read a book a day, Ride a Horse, Roller Skating, Scavenger Hunt, Send G-ma a hug, Shark reef, Shooting, Sky Zone, Sleepover, Springs Preserve, Star Gazing, Swimming, Take pictures at the temple, Tie Dye Shirt, Train Museum, Trip to Cali, Trip to Idaho, Visit 5 different splash parks, Visit a friend, Visit Bryce Canyon, Visit fire station, Visit Lake Mead, Visit Mt. Charleston, Visit Nana, Visit Red Rock Canyon, Visit Uncle Chuck, Visit Valley of Fire, Watch planes take off/land, Water gun/balloon fight, Wet ‘n’ Wild

Well there you have it 85 fun, wholesome and MOSTLY inexpensive activities for this summer. It’s going to be a GREAT summer vacation… I can just feel it!!!

I seriously can’t believe that there is less than 20 days to prepare for all of this! Yikes… I better get going then!!!

Brandy

San Diego Vacation… Part 2!!!

In case you missed the first part of our trip to San Diego, you can check out the details HERE!!!

After leaving the zoo I wanted to show Ethen where he a few of my favorite areas in San Diego. These included the hospital where he was born (Naval Medical Center, Balboa), the San Diego Temple (where Jonathon and I were married) and seal beach in La Jolla!

We didn’t get to see the hospital because it actually rests at the top of a hill with the gate at the bottom – but I pointed it out to Ethen! We tried to get to seal beach but it was getting late in the day and there was absolutely NO parking available – so we drove by it. I didn’t think it was that big of an issue because the next day we were going to be at the beach anyways. I didn’t think that we would get onto the temple grounds either it being a Sunday – but surprisingly they were open!

I love the San Diego Temple! That place has brought me so much peace and happiness that I cannot express it accurately or adequately! But check out the pictures I got!

Can you see Ethen in the middle?

I was so excited for the next part of this trip! I was going to get to see my best friend, Jenna! I had not seen her since just after Ethen was born; she and her husband, Phill, moved to Texas, and I had never met her beautiful daughter, Ava! Needless to say the 45 minute drive from San Diego to Temecula took seemingly forever!

Once there, Ethen and Ava hit it off instantaneously giving Jenna and I the opportunity to catch up! The next morning we headed out to our traditional lunch at Souplantation – a tradition we started years ago! I was excited to do it again!

Next stop – Carlsbad Beach! This is the beach that we would always go to! It was cloudy and a bit chilly but Ethen totally had a blast!

Setting up for some FUN!!!

At first Ethen was so timid to get in the water – but he warmed up to it! 

My beautiful bestie and sweet Ava!

Me and Lil’man

Jenna took this picture and I just loved it so I wanted to share it with you guys!

You’ve heard of snow angels –well- now there are SAND angels!

Ethen was acting like he was surfing – pretty good form!

The tide started coming in and fast too!

Ethen and Ava!!!

We even had the privilege to see a pod of dolphins swim by! I didn’t get to my camera fast enough though!

This weekend trip was so amazing and I’m so grateful that I had to opportunity to go! One last picture of all of us together! Of course we promised not to make it another 5 years before we see each other again, a promise I’m sure we will keep!

By the way – Jenna is expecting her second child and the following Saturday she learned that she will be having a… BOY!!! I am so excited for her! Boys are fun!!!

San Diego Vacation… Part 1

So on June 2nd Ethen and I hit the road to some fun in the sun, in sunny San Diego, California! I was so excited to get back to see some friends, hit the beach and even the

WORLD FAMOUS SAN DIEGO ZOO!!!

It was a whirlwind trip and completely spontaneous (which isn’t really in my character!), but we loaded up the car and headed south!

On the way down Ethen got to be in control of the music. Just call him DJ AWEOME!!!

We finally arrived at my good friend, Brandy Smallwood’s, at about 3 in the afternoon. It was absolutely GORGEOUS there! A balmy 70 degrees and so sunny with a cool ocean breeze! AHHHH It was like being in heaven! I had almost forgotten what it was like to be there. Not much as changed but the things that had, I definitely noticed! It was very nostalgic!

Here is Ethen doing summer saults in Brand’s front yard!

Here is Hunter teaching Ethen how to play Lacrosse.

We stayed at Brandy’s the first night and man did Ethen have a reaction to her dog!!! I had brought his breathing treatments because I knew he would be exposed to them, but I was NOT prepared for this!

We were getting ready for bed and Ethen decided it would be nice for his eye to meet a dining room chair! BAM! So we put some ice on it and headed to bed. Then he started to complain that his eye hurt (well no kidding I thought). I told him that it was probably because he just hit it and that it was late and he was tired. I offered to see if Brandy had any Tylenol for the pain. Well when I came back up to Ethen, I turned on the light and saw Ethen’s eyes (yes BOTH eyes)  were so swollen and RED. Think of the movie HITCH and you’ll get the idea! I said “WHOA!!! Well that’s not from hitting your eye!” Thankfully Brandy had some Benadryl. Thankfully that helped and he seemed to do fine the rest of the trip – even if he was drugged up!

The next morning we woke up and headed to the World Famous San Diego Zoo! Let me tell ya that it was a trip getting down there! The ONLY way I knew how to get to the zoo was off of highway 163! HOWEVER – Thanks to the Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon THAT morning the 163 was CLOSED! It didn’t help that the GPS on my phone kept trying to get me onto that particular piece of road – even when I asked for an alternate route! Stupid GPS! So we drove around for about 20 minutes and finally found it was open again! That’s probably one of the bad things about San Diego – you can’t get ANYWHERE without using a freeway! The surface streets don’t go from one area to the next! DUMB – What if there’s a need to evacuate the city (hey, it could happen)?

ANYWAYS! On to the zoo! Ethen was so excited to go and he got to be the leader – map and all!

We had a blast looking at all the animals! Check it out some of our favorites!

Riding on the King of the Jungle!Meerkat Manor!!!This was a pretty cool sculpture outside the elephants!

This guy was DEFINITELY Ethen’s favorite! The Elephant!

This bird was HUGE – was practically as tall as Ethen and looked at him like he was a snack! King of the jungle – fast asleep!Ethen playing outside the North Pole exhibit! Peek-A-Boo!One of Ethen’s favorites – the Polar Bear! Ethen was excited to see where Santa’s Reindeer vacation at!With the grizzly bear statue!

The grizzlies! These guys were huge!My personal favorite – the Pandas!Of course we couldn’t get out of there without seeing the giraffe!

We had so much fun! Part 2 of our San Diego Vacation (Jenna’s and Carlsbad beach) coming soon!!!