UTAH

When we found that we would be returning back to UT for our summer internship, I was determined to make the very most of our time there. We would go hiking once a week, we would introduce the girls to the downtown historical sites, etc. However, after a couple of good books and a lot of afternoons at the Pepperwood pool, we were quickly running out of time. We were able to squeeze in a couple of amazing outdoor adventures...

 

 We spent a beautiful Friday evening exploring Silver Lake with Mimi and Poppi near the end of our summer. The weather could not have been more perfect and we all enjoyed a peaceful walk around the lake.

Apparently Kylan and I missed the memo that we were taking a crazy face photo?!

These girls are just so much fun. They bring so much joy to our lives and every adventure is better with them there!

 

We were fortunate enough to stumble upon this family of ducks - a mama duck and her 7 little ducklings. It was so much fun to watch these fluffy little ducks swim around and around, but the real treat was watching the reaction of our girls. They were just enthralled and would not continue on the trail until we were certain that the ducks were deep into the reeds and not coming back. 

They talked about the baby ducks for days!

*a note on the bite Serelle has on her cheek: one of the only drawbacks to our summer spent in UT was the spiders. We stayed in my parents basement and caught 12-15 spiders (most likely either wolf or hobo) a week. We found them in the bathroom, bedroom, playroom, closets, etc. Lili was horrified, and Serelle was fascinated! She always wanted to see the spiders we had caught on the little sticky traps before we disposed of them. We felt lucky that there were only two bites for the summer - one on Serelle's cheek and one on Kylan's arm. Neither Kylan nor Serelle reacted to the bites, so it was a relatively painless experience. Still, I'll always have to double check before I climb into bed down there!

 

Our next big outdoor adventure was a Saturday fly fishing on the Middle Provo with my dad. My dad just loves to fly fish and I once mentioned, when I was about 15, that I might be interested in learning how to fly fish so I could go with him and my older brother. The next day I was the proud owner of my own waders, boots, fishing license and fly rod. 

I'm pretty sure I went once.

Kylan received his own fly rod for Christmas and was anxious to test it out. We made the plans, got all geared up, and hit the river.

It was a spectacular day. We were well-outfitted, well-guided and well-prepared...

...but we didn't catch a thing. Not even a bite.