Trading Places, like in Freaky Friday

So my parents drove back through Utah [from Nebraska on their way home California] and stayed with us one more night. This time they splurged and got a hotel! They had been staying at our house,  i so graciously gave them our bed, since and only since they gave me life and Jordan and I slept on the floor of our living room... in July... in Provo... sans air conditioning! My dad felt bad, so he booked a hotel for the last night which meant-- TV! POOL! SPA!
Anyway, as it turns out; my in-laws were coming into town the very next day. Aaaand since we had so much fun going down the river with my parents we thought we'd take Jordans parents and the kids too! We decided to take tubes down this time since we had just done the kayaks and the tubers looked so relaxed last week. BULL. Oh my gosh! Tubing was ten times more physically demanding than kayaking! I don't know how, but it was. I guess you don't have as much weight in a tube as you do on a kayak plus no oar to guide you. So if you're on the lighter side like we three girls are-- well, you're just at the mercy of the current of the river. We bounced into about every rock and stick there was!
It was still really fun though and the kids, especially the boys, really seemed to enjoy it.

The boys getting ready to head out! 

Cal putting on his best fake smile. He was convinced I was trying to kill him... 

he said he suffered a near death experience on this very same river twice already. 

Listen, Cal, my mom did this river the week prior-- and that's saying a lot!

This is Sadies excited face. I promise.

Jordan and I hittin' the river for Round Two! 

Family photo-op as we rested for a minute after The Bridge of Death! 

Holding hands was a nice idea, but this didn't last long! 

Because soon Jordan got a'hold of Sadie-- and this happened...! 

He pushed her out into the middle of the rapids all alone so he could take a picture of her. I wish this picture was more clear so you could see her face because it is covered with sheer terror! Haha. Poor Sadie. And Natalie probably thought she's be safer with Jordan, the experienced one. My poor twin. 

Just a trace of fear. 

It was a long and bumpy ride, but eventually all us girls caught up with one another and held on for safety's sake. We all made it to the end alive, but not unscathed. Natalie's inner arms were so raw from paddling against the canvas tube jacket. It is fun adventure, but definitely a work out!

We wish we could have had more time with the fam, but they're kind of a big deal around these parts, so we were lucky to snag a day with them! Thanks for visiting. All this family time made for a great start to the summer. 

Cowboy Up!

"Now you're just somebody at the rodeo! Some-bodddddddy, some-boddddddyyy!" --to the tune of Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" 

Grandpa Jerry & Uncle Cameron got us tickets to the RODEO. Unfortunately we didn't get any cool pictures of cowboys being stabbed by bull horns, but we did see this on our way there...!

[...and videos!??]

Right??

My favorite part of the rodeo was the very first event-- the bareback bucking broncos. Those horses were crazy! And the riders were all over the place. Next they did the same thing, but with saddles-- lets just say they probably shouldn't have lead without the saddles if they wanted anyone to actually think the saddled riders were tough. The bulls were cool, but the bucking horses had more agility to twist and buck about. Jord and I were secretly hoping someone would get sphered with a bull horn! Is that terrible? [Oh well.]

The fireworks afterwards more than made up for the ones we missed the night before for the 4th. The whole night was really cool, I just wish they had nachos at concessions. Mmm.

"Dad, I bet if you ask the neighbors they'll let you mow their lawn!"

It's been a busy summer-- lots happening.
My dad hasn't been out to Utah since we moved here-- TWO YEARS AGO!, so my parents came to visit the week before 4th of July. The thing is my dad apparently doesn't know how to vacation. Vacation being a  verb in this scenario. He can't r-e-l-a-x, he always has to be doing something... and reading does not count as "something" in his book. ["in his book," get the play on words, hmm? Ha!] I'm convinced it's because he's Mexican and can't actually read books in English, but he says it's because books are BOOOOOOORING! Okay, am I talking to a 3rd grader?
Well, Jordan and I wound up seeing more of Utah in 4 days than we have in 2 years! I suppose now we're cultured.

Day One: We went to church in the morning. When I say "we" I mean Jordan and I went to sacrament while my parents walked down to Juice n' Java to get their morning coffee and searched for garage sales... on a Sunday... in Utah... Provo, Utah.
Then we hiked to Timpanogos Caves [Like 3.5 miles. No joke]

[Admiring Jordan's utility pack aka 'fanny pack']

Day Two: We kayaked the Provo River with High Country Adventure. We had a Groupon, so it was BOGO! Yay!! Jord and I did singles, but my mom said she's die if she had to do it alone, so my parents did a double. We all tricked my mom into thinking that the person in back does all the work, so she needed to be in front [in plain sight of my dad so he could yell at her when she was lounging and not helping row], none of us had any evidence to back this up, but she fell for it! Really, though, I think back has a lot more work to do! 

[My mom kept asking about the "rapids" it's like a Class II river 

in the roughest spots, ha!]

 [Jordan- always showin' off!]

 [You can see how hard my dad is working in the back! ;) ]

I wish we would have known you could stop on the river for a picnic; we just ended up taking my parents to my work, since my dad has never been to my restaurant. YUM! 

That night we took the old folks laser tagging! Unfortunately no pictures. What was I thinking not bringing the camera!? Someone let me choose the music--so of course I chose the Jurassic Park theme music... well, I'm never allowed to pick laser tag music again. It's boring without the right selection to get you pumped up! 

Day Three: We thought we'd take a nice hike to Bridal Veil Falls and then maybe have some lunch up in Heber... well this day turned out to be the L-O-N-G-E-S-T day evvvvvvvver! We started early, got some breakfast at the new diner in town [the waitress spilled three glasses of water on Jordan's lap!], mini-hiked to the bottom of Bridal Veil Falls [where my parents wanted to spend all day looking around at everything, but we convinced them it was just more of the same old nature-y crap we've already seen the last two days! *sigh, 'old people!'] then headed to Heber to show my dad the street walking signs [no pictures, bummer.]

 [My parents wanted to walk all over Heber and look at Antique Shoppes. *sigh- 'old people,' so Jordan and I lounged in the park until it was time for Dairy Keen.]

[What a babe!]

Theeeennnnnnn... my mom thought it would be cool to go to Olympic Park in Park City. 

 [Just cover the green wall with your hand and it looks like he's really there!] 

[About to go zip-lining!]

[We could tell when they were coming down because they were 

both screaming like little girls! Especially my dad.]

We finally ended the day with a nice dip in Ryans pool... 

...and I had the best steak of my life at GoodWood that night for dinner! Mmmm! Seriously, mouth watering just thinking about it! 

[My dad finally got some relaxation time!]

"No coffee, no beer, no tv? How do these kids live?"

We did so much more inbetween, but these are the highlights. My mom and dad left the next morning to get to Nebraska in time to meet their friends Julie and Jeff for dinner and fireworks. Jordan and I rented a movie, grabbed some Taco Bell, shut the blinds and had a nice 4th of July IN!