Our Alphabet Summer (Part 1)

My friend, Camille, told me about the alphabet summer last year and it was such a great idea that I decided I HAD to do it with my kids this summer. We took a pen and paper and wrote down each letter of the alphabet. Next to each letter we wrote down something we would like to do over the summer that starts with that letter. Our goal is to accomplish something for every letter (in no particular order) before summer ends.
We've got a good start so far. Here's some of the fun things we have done:

T stands for tye-dye!

They make it look so easy! Actually, it was. With the help of that little tye-dye kit you see in the background. 

The finished product!

Y is for Yogurtland! (and YUM)

What a great concept. Fill your yogurt cup with as many flavors and toppings as you would like, and pay by the ounce.

When we left the house, it was hot and sunny. The perfect day for a nice, cold, frozen yogurt. 

And then, this happened! No worries, the kids had this log to keep them dry.

C is for camping!

Yes, another camping trip. This time we headed to the La Sal Mountains just above Moab, Utah. We went with the Beck family. It was a blast. 

 

And beautiful! So green, crisp, and cool at 12,000 feet. It was amazing because we camped up here where it was a significant 15 degrees cooler than where we hiked in Moab only 30 miles away.

The guys took the kids fishing a couple of times at the lake pictured above. They caught 40 + fish on their first attempt!

We celebrated Cyndi's birthday while we were there with dutch oven cake and homemade ice cream. The kids are shake, rattle, and rolling the ice cream maker above. 

We kept stumbling upon these HUGE reddish brown mushrooms around the lake and on a few hikes. We decided that the smurfs were occupying camp with us.

Riley hangin with Dad.

I spy with my little eye......one big, fat, green, noisy toad in the swamp! Can you find him? We drove to the Arches in Moab to hike to Delicate Arch. This guy welcomed us as we started our climb.

We made it! The kids did amazing! And, it was well worth the hike.....even in the 101 degree weather!

Snacking in the shade after our victory to the top!

The boys had a great time playing with fire with their magnifying glasses and cardboard.

Strike a pose!

Chillaxin!

The deer were very adapted to the human occupants. They would come right up to our camp. We even saw a mother with her two baby fawns.

It was a wonderful getaway. Nice and stress-free, even in bear country. Yes, you read that read, we stayed in one of the most bear populated mountains in Utah. And, yes, we did see one. He was near the side of the road on our way up the mountain, but he ran off before we realized he was a bear and had a chance to retrieve our cameras. It was just the girls, on our way back from grabbing a few things in Moab. The kids were hoping to find Yogi the whole time we were up there so they were very happy to know that he is indeed out there somewhere!

Z is for Zoo!

We have a season pass to the zoo, so we were so excited when we heard the dinosaurs were in town!

Taking one for the team, thanks Tyler!

As you can see, we've been busy! But we still have 22 letters remaining, so stay tuned for more living by the letter!