Dog Lake and Ice Box Cake

(July 7th, 2022)

This was our last hike before Girls Camp. Our goal was to go to Donut Falls. We drove out to Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was so beautiful. I've never been there before. We followed GPS and found the parking lot. And then we promptly took the wrong trail. Donut Falls was across the street and the trailhead was a bit farther away, so we missed it by a long shot. Instead, we started up toward Dog Lake or Desolation Lake (if you want a little longer hike). 

Ivory noticed that the trailhead sign didn't say anything about Donut Falls, but I wasn't paying attention. I was looking at my phone. Next time I'll let her lead.

The trail was still gorgeous. The trees were awesome and there were some great rocks. We even saw some flowers we haven't seen before.

It was somewhere on this trail that a nice guy told us that we were not on the right trail. (This was news to me, not Ivory.) He told us that the trail would fork up ahead and we could chose to go to Dog Lake or Desolation Lake. We chose simply by length. Dog Lake was closer. Here we are on a bridge. I tried to get a picture, but we stepped into a patch of sun.

There were a couple areas where the trees looked deadish and scary. We liked it. It was like walking through a haunted wood.

We had a good time chatting on this hike. We played the category game, but I really liked our categories this time around. On the way up, we did 'Things we want to do before we die.' On the way back we did 'Things we'd rather die than do.' We had lots of laughs and much contemplation.

We made it to the lake just fine, but it definitely looked like a dog lake. There were already several dogs playing and the water wasn't as clear or clean as other places. So we sat by the edge and rested for a few minutes before heading back.

On the way back, we passed a stream that had little butterflies flitting all along the waterline. It was kind of magical. It felt a little like a fairytale. Both the girls caught one. Now I'm trying to decide how to release butterflies at the girls' weddings.

It wasn't a crazy strenuous hike, but we rewarded ourselves with ice cream. (Plus, I still owed the girls from Goblin Valley)

In the afternoon, we made our treat, which was an Ice Box Cake. It's all about the layers. Fresh lemon zest and juice whipped into cream, fresh raspberries, graham crackers, and shaved white chocolate.

Layer those up a few times and it suddenly looks epic and fancy.

Love the little photo bomber.

Hikes and treats...so simple and so nice for a day in the summer. 

Youth Conference 2021

(July 9th, 2021)

I honestly had forgotten about youth conference that happened last year. It wasn't really on my radar. My calling was not with the youth at the time, and even though Tyler and I were asked to teach a lesson on etiquette, I still didn't remember this event happened until I ran across pictures on Robyn's phone.

So this is one of those posts where I will post pictures and not have much to say about them since I wasn't there and I don't really know what happened. Super exciting, no? 

It looks like youth conference included...

Friends...

Games...

Hanging with the Bish...

Service project...

Vaccinations?...

JK. I think Robyn and Tyler scheduled their Covid vax the same day.

A lovely dinner... The girls made boutonnieres for the boys.

The girls were supposed to dress nicely. Robyn looked very pretty and she did a little photo shoot before the dinner. 

And then there were no more pictures. But it looks like the event was a success and from what I remember from dinner, it was very nice. I'm actually excited for Stake Youth Conference next year. I've never been involved with it and I think it would be really fun. So, here's to next year. 

I Celebrate Our Breakup with Fireworks

(July 4th, 2022)

Hello! Happy Fourth of July everyone! (Even though it's not the fourth and almost not July.) But who cares. It always feels nice to wish someone a happy holiday. While I'm at it...Merry Christmas!!

Our fourth was actually quite chill this year. In the morning, we had a neighborhood breakfast at the park. We were only a tiny bit late since we were talking to June, which was probably the highlight of the day. But that was closely followed by playing Spikeball all morning. I would have been happy to play all day. That would have been the best holiday, but I guess other people have things to do, so we only played for a couple hours. Still, best morning for me. Also, ain't Daisy so cute with her fourth of July dice earrings?? (Fun fact...June also got to play Spikeball this day. An Elder had a net and June got to play for the first time in months. Obviously she wrecked the competition. Probably in a very Christlike way.)

Most of the day was making sure Robyn was all packed for Africa. That's right. It was time for her to leave for Ghana, by way of Boston. She was so nice to give us some last minute Henna, although Dad's didn't stay on his hand at all. (I guess you need pasty skin like mine for it to show up nicely.)

We played games the night before to spend an evening with Robyn. We ate snacks and Robyn took the alphabet cookies and spelled out her destination. (If I wrote Hawaii, could it work for me too?)

Robyn's flight was pretty late in the evening. We all took her to the airport because we're going to miss her!! See ya...

Love these shots that randomly blur someone out. Looks like Daisy won the lottery this time.

And Robyn. I think she was practicing since that is the face she made the whole time she was in Ghana. (Thanks for that Kaysen.)

It didn't take long to get her baggage checked and she was off. We'll see her in about 3 weeks. I bet she'll practically be a different person. At least she'll have a lot of new experiences under her belt.

Then we went out and watched all the fireworks. That's what you get when you drive home from the airport at 10 pm. You get to watch fireworks ALL over the valley. It was actually pretty neat. It still doesn't beat watching one great show though. I missed the booms. We went home and did some sparklers and popits and called it a night. 

Not the most exciting fourth, but definitely a new one for the books. (p.s. All the people going to Ghana were wearing the same shirt and we saw at least two other girls wearing the shirt Robyn was, so I was content knowing she wasn't alone.)

Comes Around Once a Year

(July 25th, 2021)

As you know, I'm continuing to blog our fun summer adventures while also adding anything that happened last year around the same time. It will be interesting as we get into the fall, but I'm dedicated. It's going to happen. 

Today, we'll take you back in time to Daisy's thirteenth birthday. We had it late because she had been in Idaho for almost a month hanging out with Grandma. We got her back a little after her birthday and then we needed to open presents at the earliest convenience. I'm assuming we also made her a cake but there doesn't seem to be any photographic proof of said cake. Oh well. 

Here are some pictures of her opening gifts.

Daisy really loves soft things. (This hasn't changed and will be evident at her next birthday post in a few days.)

I think she was closing her eyes and guessing some of her gifts. (Notice she already donned soft hoodie.) She got some cool earrings from Granny V and a new phone, although the phone was already coming, it just happened to get there right around her birthday.

I believe Daisy had a good birthday, even if we can't prove it. :) Her birthday this year was also delayed. Daisy jokes that it is becoming a tradition to do it late. She doesn't mind and the presents always get there eventually.

We did measure her (although how fair is it that she gets extra days to grow??) She is still one of the tall ones in the family. Keep going Daisy. You can make it past all the rest.

Ivory Leaves Her Family for a Better One in Florida

(July 27th, 2021)

Guest post: Ivory Cazier. The favorite. Obviously.

So as many of you may know, my best friend, Annie, moved to Florida last year. We spent the beginning of June goofing off and enjoying our last moments in Utah together. Later in the summer though, we planned for me to go out and spend a couple days with her in Florida. So off I went, flying solo for the first time, ready to see the world. Or more just like Florida and my best friend. And her family. That'd be her brother, Zach on the right. I call him Zachary. 

The first day we had basically just planned to paint her room. The walls were white and she had convinced her parents to let us write in paint pen on her wall. My color is pink from writing in pink pen when I write her letters. Hers is blue. And then we also do silver for me and gold for her. So we had some paint pens and set off to write random crap on her wall until it was all filled up.

We set off but encountered a minor issue right at the beginning. The first navy blue paint pen broke and spilled on her pants and all over her hand. She had been sitting on her bed but the sheets were safe. Of course we immediately took pictures before cleaning it up. 

It also soaked through her pants as we discovered. We both agreed she looked like some sort of Smurf on her period. Would've been a bad day for that Smurf. 

Honestly the pictures are all funky and out of order so I have no idea what came on which days so we're gonna leave chronology behind. We did go to mutual that evening, I remember, because her mom didn't want her to go with paint all over her hand but we couldn't get it off. Mutual was just a game night and I taught some girls Throw Throw Burrito and then of course smashed them.

We went to the temple at some point. It was the Fort Lauderdale temple and it was so beautiful. Before we went in we found a dead frog in the fountain. I feel like it should be remembered for forever but I don't want to make this all difficult with a video. Plus the video isn't that good so the random detail will have to suffice. We also had someone in the group take our picture and I look super short but the temple is beautiful so that makes up for it. 

On one of the mornings, we woke up super early (and her mom did too cause she's the best) and drove to Dania Beach and watched the sunrise while we wrote in the sand. We talked about maybe someday doing an album cover photoshoot there someday and I would be so down to go back, it was so pretty. 

There was so much wildlife there just randomly. We went to the grocery store after that and there were these weird birds just chilling. And also a Momma Duck with her baby ducklings running around through the parking lot drinking out of puddles. They were adorable. 

We also went to the Flamingo Gardens which was like a mini zoo basically. The wildlife there was also beautiful. Lots of birds. I actually found a peacock feather and carried it around for a while til we got in trouble. We got harassed by a goose and also a flamingo but the flamingo was less frightening and more silly. We went on a little trolley around the place and our tour guide told us lots of cool facts about the plants and animals there. I remember exactly zero but it was still cool. 

We went to the beach again (different beach -- this one was called Jupiter and we drove through a Florida rain storm to get there) later and played in the water and I learned once and for all that I don't super love the ocean so I collected a ton of shells and we made matching necklaces with two that randomly just had holes in them.

On the last night we went to dinner at a place called Chuy's and it was super good. In general the trip was such a blast, from a run in the humidity in the morning, a walk in the rain in the afternoon, and a swim in the pool at night (which we actually did all of those things at one point). It was so good to see Annie again and it's a shame that I couldn't go this year too. And in honor of the insane amount of ugly selfies that Annie took while I was with her, I will put my 5 favorites to finish off this post and randomly she's in her swimsuit for all of them. Honestly, if you knew Annie, you would know this post wouldn't be complete without ugly selfies. She's such a goof sometimes but she's the best best friend I could have ever asked for and the only banana for my angel.