The North Country

A couple of weeks ago we ventured north to Logan to welcome home my niece Jaana. She had been doing an internship for Rep. Stewart and working for a lobbyist, all in DC. We missed her! Even though we don't see her too often because she lives in Logan anyway, my kids were well aware that their beloved Jaana was across the country and they could feel it. We are so glad she decided to come home for her senior year at USU (instead of finishing online) so we can see her more.

When we rolled into town Friday night, we stopped at a snowcone shack because surprise! my brother and sister-in-law now own two snowcone shacks. It made the request to stop there instead of their house at 8 pm make so much more sense.

Snowcone queen Lisa. All the other aunts and uncles have quite the challenge to dethrone Matt and Lisa as favorite aunt and uncle. They have a snowcone shack, guys. This is how Lisa is going to meet the other half of Logan.

Since I was craving Aggie ice cream like nobody's business we drove up to the creamery and brought our ice cream back to the shack on 4th north.

The kids had a great time eating ice cream and snowcones and hanging out in a parking lot way past their bedtime.

Lisa even let me go inside and make a snowcone! I made horchata for Justin and made him guess. He did. The first two hours of our time in Logan were probably the most fun for all of us. I just like being up there.

Saturday my parents and Meredith and Rachel and their families joined us (James slept great that night, btw, as long as he has a dark room all to himself). We packed lunches and went to Tony Grove up Logan Canyon. I don't know why I had never been there. I lived the first 8 years of my life in Logan and a year of college and I don't think I had even heard of it.

First we ate lunch at the campground. There were a lot of wasps so Henry sat far away from where they were buzzing.

Fun fact about my mom: She always brings a tablecloth. Either she hates dirty picnic tables or just loves tablecloths. That and earrings, she never leaves home without them. And James is cutest.

My cute girls. Sarah decided most emphatically that she does not like peanut butter on her jam sandwiches. Nevermind she ate them most days last school year.

James just gets dirtier from this point on.

Fallen logs are nature's playground.

Then we moved over to Tony Grove lake. It's such a pretty pond/lake. There were some kayakers and paddleboarders. It was too cold to swim so at first the activity was throwing rocks into the water.

It's times like this that I'm glad James doesn't care to get wet. I don't have to worry about him walking or falling in.

Hey there's Jaana! No one is as loved by these kids as Jaana. Kyra wasn't there that day as she was getting adjusted to her new life as a college freshman at USU (All 3 of the Syme kids are USU students this year. Isn't that fun?). Kyra is a favorite too.

A select group of men from the family were hiking on to White Pine Lake. Justin tried out the log before they departed.

Then most of us went on a walk around Tony Grove. The men left us at their turn-off and the moms and the kids continued on around the lake.

Tom Brady Henry and the rest of the kids climbed on every rock they could find.

Fun fact #2: A great big white owl flew out of this cave as the kids arrived. It was cool.

Then we made it back to our spot and the kids played on the log in the water. James ate other people's food.

Henry tripped and got mostly wet so then he decided to just get all wet. Erica followed soon thereafter.

Cute little cousin friends.

I'm going to make them recreate these photos in 15 years.

When the men came back we drove to Garden City and got dinner at Le Beau's. Then we drove across the border into Idaho and took the Wyoming way home so that Henry could loudly tell his friend in the chapel the next day that he was in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming all in the same day.

It was a short trip but a fun trip and we definitely tired this boy out. He barfed as soon as we pulled onto our street at 10:30pm. Poor kid.