This post is kind of a potpourri of the different things we did while in Utah this summer.
Our summer vacations to Utah always fill up with fun adventures. One of the traditions that we have had is to enroll our kids in swimming lessons in Payson while we are there. Before we moved to Kazakhstan our kids weren't strong swimmers. After our first adventure to Thailand they understood that to have fun in the water meant they needed to swim better, so they've been diligent about learning. They took two weeks worth of lessons and all passed their levels and their classes and are all getting to be quite strong swimmers.
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| Twins kicking and not having any fun at all. |
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| Diving (Sophia) |
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| Sophie has some water in her ears. |
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| Lexa |
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| Fun times with the Sillardsons. |
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| Lina swimming. |
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| Diving. Lina had to overcome her fears of diving - and did so like a champ. |
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| Nika. |
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| Nika diving. |
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| Nika. |
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| Oma gave the girls some nice summer hats for a fun picture on Lina's birthday. |
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| Sisters! |
Polina always has her birthday somewhere different and fun. Her birthday this year was in Payson. After swimming lessons she wanted to go to Hu-Hot for her birthday lunch. We were supposed to meet her cousin Karlie there. That morning Karlie found out that she has type 1 diabetes. She had to get to the hospital to get her blood chemistry under control, so when she was settled, we went and visited. We took the party to her.
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| With Karlie at the hospital. |
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| Birthday cake - angel food with berries. |
We made up for the missed birthday Hu-Hot by going back on the last day we were in town. Karlie and Aunt Rachel were able to join us this time! Look at those smiles.
The girls wanted/needed covers for their ice skates for when they dress up in their fancy skating costumes. Yulia turned it into a project over the summer and helped the girls learn how to sew at the same time.
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| Working on the pattern. |
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| Sewing (Lexa) |
Another feature of our summer was that the girls did cooking at Oma's house again.
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| Sophie pooped out from all the adventures. |
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| While Nika and Lina were at Girl's camp, the twins had an adventure with mom and Oma! |
The last few years we've tried to do different hikes while we are home visiting. This year we hiked up to Stuart Falls (behind Sundance Ski resort). We went up on the first day it was opened - snow kept the Alpine loop closed until much later than usual this year. The hike was beautiful. It misted a bit on us on our way up. On the way down we got a bit of a soaker going. It is always amazing to me just how quickly you can get totally away from the urban valleys of Utah into the wilderness.
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| Hikers! |
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| View across the valley toward Sundance. |
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| Trees that had been knocked over by an avalanche. |
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| Plenty of snow still. |
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| At the falls. |
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| The falls were beautiful and very full. |
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| The girls and papa. Lina didn't come with us because her stomach hurt. |
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| The expedition leader. |
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| Alexandra without her glasses. |
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| Mama and Papa made it! |
We had a family reunion with our Willardson family members and stayed overnight at aunt Kathi's house. Saturday morning we stopped by the Logan Airport to see the planes at the fly-in breakfast that they put on once a month. A lot of the planes are kit planes that people built. They were fun little planes to look at. There was an Apache helicopter parked there as well. It was being flown to Fort Rucker (home of Army Aviation) for repair. The pilots who were flying it each had over 30 years of flying experience. They were tinkering with it, putting in fluids, and calling on their phone. We stayed and waited until it took off. It was fun. I had seen them quite a bit when I was in Iraq, but none of the kids had ever been up close with a real military helicopter, so that was an adventure.
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| Pilots inspecting. |
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| We got to go up close and look. |
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| Pilots telling us about the bird. |
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| Cache Valley in June. Lots of Snow on the mountains. Beautiful deep colors. |
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| Leaving Cache Valley. |
The simple things that we do are often the most meaningful. Spending time with family, in nature, or just taking advantage of little adventures when they come up is rewarding. Even though we didn't have a lot of "grand adventures" planned during the visit, we had a grand time nonetheless.
