Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Lego Camp, Playing in the Water, Life Isn't Fair, and Backpacking

Mason got to do a Brix Camp, which is an unlicensed Lego camp where every day they had challenges for things they needed to build and nearly unlimited Lego pieces


Mason had SO MUCH FUN


He also won a couple different prizes


When Kim was working one evening I took the kids to see Bad Guys 2 to celebrate another 30 days straight of family scripture reading


Mason showing off some builds from his second day


The kids have enjoyed this inflatable at the river


Kim and I went night sailing with another couple from our ward


The sunset was beautiful


The next evening we went to our friends' cabin and Nixon did some wakeboarding




The little boys got to knee board





Kim took the boys to Tubbs Hill to do some cliff jumping with friends



Henry even jumped!



After that they had some famous Hudsons Hamburgers. Hudsons has been selling burgers in CDA since 1907.


The burgers are good but not worth the hype or inconvenience (usually the lines are long and it is cash only)



The boys helped Kim make a fruit pizza



We did some landscaping in our front flower bed




Here is a picture of Mason when I picked him up from his Brix Camp


Believe it or not, Lyza finds pine nuts in our yard, shells them, and then feeds them to the ants. Wow!


On that Saturday we bought some mulch and finished up the front bed as well as a section on the side of the house where I removed the grass earlier in the summer


That evening Lyza spoke at an FSY recap activity and shared her experience going to FSY. She did really well.


The next Sunday I bumped into Adam Prince at church. His parents were in the Knottwood Ward with us. His dad was in the bishopric (I think with my dad) and he was also one of our youth leaders. Adam was just visiting the area with his family.


Nixon made us some blueberry scones


Kim and the kids got some final blueberry picking in for the summer




Then they went to the fair


This archery event is always so fun for them



Fair food


Apparently this juggler was really impressive. Mason even got to help with his act.


Nixon had a thing at his new school where he got all checked in and got an ID card


He got to see one of his friends there


Lyza and Mason both had dentist appointments and apparently found some games to play to pass the time


Kim took the boys on a bike ride to the park and they stopped by the soda truck


Then they played at the playground



This picture looks like summer


On Friday the boys and I left for an overnight backpacking trip to Roman Nose Lakes


Lyza snapped a picture of us before we started the 2.5 hour drive



The last hour/20 miles of the drive is horrible. The road is unpaved and very bumpy. The only good part is this area full of wild flowers.


We made it to the trailhead though


Here we are about half way in


Such a beautiful hike



Henry tripped on a tree root and hit his head and got pretty banged up so I carried his pack for the last stretch of the hike


We made it to the lake and just had to keep going to the other end to get the best spot


And we made it! We actually didn't really take any breaks because there was a family that started the hike about 10 minutes before us and we wanted to get ahead of them so we could get this particular site. The kids were all on board with that plan and hiked really hard so that we could pass them and we did!


When we got to the site we had lunch together


We were right next to the lake




The boys also loved exploring and climbing on all the boulders



We set up our tent right next to a stream


Enjoying the view


Then it was time for some swimming and cliff jumping


The water was cold but it felt refreshing on a hot day



The cliff jumping is really fun


Henry was such a good helper filtering our water


We had to have some Eatmores



The boys also worked hard finding wood and cutting it down so we could have a fire



Here is a view of our camp site looking from the lake


I found some pretty wild flowers


Here is a picture I got of the four of us with the drone


Here is one for comparison from last year when we were at the same lake (and Nixon was wearing the same shirt ;)


View of our camp site from the air


Check out those views


The boys had hot dogs for dinner


I had to get some photos of the boys with some nice evening lighting



While we were eating hot dogs in the back country Kim and Lyza were on a date a Cafe Rio. They watched a movie together that evening and enjoyed some girl time.


After dinner we made a fire



And roasted some marshmallows




Look at that perfect roast


Nixon made a s'more with a mint Oreo


He was very happy with how it turned out


One thing I usually struggle with backpacking is getting the food hung up well and high in a tree. This time I got the rope in the perfect spot on the first throw!


Before bed we played some cards in the tent


We made it through the night and were all out of bed by 5:30. Henry slept really well and the rest of us survived. The lake looked amazing in the first light of the morning.





Mason and Henry had oatmeal for breakfast


Nixon and I had bagels


There was more bouldering in the morning


It is my understanding that this area is named Roman Nose because this peak looks like a nose?


We got packed up in the morning and hiked back to the truck


We had a great trip and the boys were very appreciative that we did it. Here is a video I made of the trip


Unsurprisingly the drive out was just as miserable as it was going in. The truck got super dirty so Nixon helped me wash it that evening


That's it for now. Summer might be over or nearly over, depending on where you are. Enjoy what you can while you can.

1 comment:

  1. Looks like everyone is having an amazing summer!! Love you lots!

    ReplyDelete