Another summer week in the books. We tried some new activities as a family--some went terribly (Ashton Gardens Imaginaria....wayyyy too much walking for a toddler who refuses to ride in a stroller). Some went very well (a morning at Splash Summit water park--Jack is old enough to enjoy riding the slides, so Jared and I traded off getting quality time on the slides with Jack and wading around the wave pool with a delighted Alice).
Jared and I had a wonderful date to one of our favorite towns, Woodland Hills, where we walked a few stunning Parade Homes and ran into my cousin Nate.
Summer is rolling along and we are looking forward to a family reunion at Lava Hot Springs next week. Most likely Alice will sleep terribly the whole time, but also just as likely, Jack is old enough now that he'll do just fine. We will take the improvement of *probably* one good sleeper on a family trip!
Now that we're reaching really high summer temperatures, Jared and I are boiling alive in our south-facing top-floor bedroom. The air conditioning units in our rental aren't sufficient for the size of our home, and the insulation is apparently insufficient as well. Instead of moping about it, we're grateful that this is prompting us to learn a lot about air conditioners and HVAC systems in preparation for advocating for our air conditioning needs when our next home begins construction (hopefully soon, no updates yet).
Now for some pictures from our week:
^^Imaginaria at Ashton Gardens. Very cool. Very magic. Very very large. Very hot. Will not attempt again until next year.
^^Highland Glen park. This was a good time until my children decided they wanted to play Hide and Seek and get lost in the woods.
^^One of my favorite Woodland Hills parade home features--this accordion-style kitchen window opening onto an outdoor countertop. Our next home will (likely) have a big window above the kitchen sink, looking out onto the patio like this. The moment I saw it I knew I'd love to convert it into an awning-style window that could swing up and open for a more indoor-outdoor dining experience. This accordion style application is fun as well.
^^Splash Summit! (Will always be Seven Peaks to me.) Jared had a free morning and we had a free entry to Splash Summit, so we loaded the kids up and headed down. Expectations were low--last time we tried a water park, Jack was 4 and wasn't old enough to enjoy any slides. This time went great! We all had a blast and finished our outing with delicious gelato at Pingino's Gelato. Next time it would be fun to go with cousins, but this time it was magic to have quality family time just the four of us.
^^On Saturday Jared ran the Timpanogos half marathon down AF canyon. Considering how little he trained for it, he did great! He ran 8 minute miles, which was awesome except that I was expecting more like 10 minute miles, and so we arrived just barely in time for Jack to see him cross the finish line. Jared has said that next time he'll probably do a 10k instead (same), but we are all proud of him.
^^Saturday we watched the Strawberry Days Parade right on Chris and Caitlin's front lawn after having some spectacular sourdough pancakes they made. Another time to appreciate kids getting bigger, this is the first parade Alice has attended where she really understood what was going on and LOVED it. She loved dancing to the music, waving to the "queens" on the floats, and dashing into the road to catch candy being flung our way. 10/10, excited to do this again next year.
