utah and idaho summer trip!

we LIVE for this trip each year.  i have now been sick and pregnant for three summer trips and i can honestly say my burden is significantly light with grandparents around to help with the girls.  hazel and cora automatically go up to my parents room at 6am every morning and i can't say i'm upset about it.  this sick momma needs sleep!  and jolly ranchers.  lots of jolly ranchers to keep the nausea at bay!

hazel LOVES wakesurfing.  she continues to be a little daredevil every year.  

we went horseback riding, and to wade lake... and of course the fourth of july fireworks playlist was on point this year.

 cora did not like wakesurfing.  she is not a daredevil like hazel.  but i was SO PROUD of her for being brave and trying it!  

idaho summer 2017

a quick winter utah/idaho trip

there's nothing like snowmobiling in idaho in the winter.  or hanging out with family and eating delicious food.  john built a snow cave at the lake house, and hazel is definitely a thrill-seeker.  she begged to go on a snowmobiling ride every day.  cora was surprisingly easy - she is great at keeping herself entertained.  and it is clear that she is partial to grandpa and pop pop neff.  she is talking more and more and it's so sweet!

island park

just a few island park photos
floating the snake river is honestly THE BEST.  so beautiful and peaceful.

at the top of sawtelle mountain, where john and i got engaged six years ago! (on july 4th)  two amazing things have happened to us since then.  we were just so happy and in love and we had no idea what a beautiful mess we were in for.  

 hazel and cora loved the atv rides, and jet ski rides, and boat rides.  

look at hazel's boat face. totally hilarious.

that's a wrap!

there is so much that could be said about idaho.... but i think i'll let idaho speak for itself.

Island Park Summer 2016 from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.

what a blast we had in utah and idaho this summer.

no matter how long we stay with family for the summer, it never seems to be quite enough.  we had such a wonderful time in utah and idaho.  if i could have one super power, it would be teleportation so that i could beam my girls and i to hang out with family during the day, and then beam us back to have dinner and hang with john at night.  wouldn't that be nice?  i guess if i saw them that frequently, however, our time with them wouldn't be nearly as precious and treasured as it is now. {sigh}

both grandmas (and i...) got a little teary when we left.  can you blame them?  it hurts my heart a little - living this far away.  people! we live twenty minutes from NYC and just 1 hour from the beach!  come visit us!

for some reason, i {almost} didn't feel compelled at all to blog over our vacay.  but, since returning home i've made a super wonderful video of all the fun things we did in idaho, such as boating/jetskiing/playing/eating/floating, going to west yellowstone, spending quality time with mimi and grandpa and our cousins, swimming, and so many other wonderful fun things.  enjoy!

an island park 4th + unexpected boo boos

the fourth started off like any other. john flew in thursday night and we left right from the airport to go to idaho. i even had an alberto's breakfast burrito in the car waiting for him, because that's the nice kind of wife that i am. 

we played lots of games, and john wake-surfed while hazel and i watched from inside grandpa's boat. 

we went to the sand-dunes, (the boys) put on an amazing aerial fireworks show, and ate truly homemade ice cream.

hazel's cousin lily put a million band bracelets on her cute little arms:

randi took family pictures for everyone, and we went to the rodeo. it was all so much fun!

and then, somehow, as i was trying to prevent hazel from falling off a picnic bench simultaneously with other tasks, she fell the opposite way of me, and i couldn't catch her in time. she fell, and started crying and acting like her arm hurt. i was (still am) riddled with guilt. usually when she's hurt, she rallies very quickly. but this time, she didn't. and as we drove home our plans went from putting her to bed to taking her to the ER in rexburg, the closest one to where we were. 

i'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that they didn't find a break in her arm, and we went to idaho falls to sleep, feeling lame and very, very tired as we all went to bed at 2 a.m.  

the next day, i could tell hazel's arm was still hurting her, but she was still playing so I thought the doctor must have been correct when he said, "she's probably just a really tired baby that bruised her elbow." but by sunday evening, when hazel started crying and grabbing her wrist, i could clearly discern where she was hurt, and that this was no bruised elbow. we made a makeshift splint out of a popsicle stick and a ripped-up dish rag, and headed straight to instacare. 

she indeed had a buckle fracture in her left radius and ulna, and the doctor we saw was so kind and much better than that idiot in the ER. hazel is so much happier with her splint on, and we've been dosing her with tylenol and ibuprophen the last few days, although she hasn't acted like she's needed it. that splint will stay on except for during baths and the occasional pool time for at least 2-3 weeks, and i can't tell you my dismay at having a hurt child, especially when it feels like my fault. but, i am relieved that the break was discovered, and that she is now back to her happy self.  truly, she is on the mend.

our weekend.

john and i both had a couple days off so we decided to take a trip up to idaho falls/island park for the weekend.  although we didn't fit in nearly as much as we would have liked, {i was hoping for an ATV ride to big springs, *sigh*}, we had a fabulous time anyway.  {although hazel has decided that she hates her car seat and hates napping in it even more... and we had some screaming that occurred on the drive home... so there's that...} thanks g&l, for hosting us this weekend, we had a blast!

our weekend in idaho.

we have the so much fun going up to idaho when the stars align and we can make it up there!  john and i were able to make the trip last weekend.  we spent half of the time in beautiful idaho falls and half the time up at the cabin.  i locked myself away for about two hours each day to study for the nclex, but other than that, we mostly just played! {and ate a lot of really good food, including fish tacos and chiz's jumbo shrimp.  that shrimp was so amazing, and now my pregnancy cravings are constantly directing me towards a food item that happens to be four and a half hours away from where we live!  ah!}  george and leslie, thanks for having such a wonderful place for us to escape and to spend time with family.  we are so grateful to you both for the fun memories we all make each time we go up.

horseback riding.

yesterday the whole family went horseback riding. i haven't been horseback riding in about six years, and it was a total blast. my horse's name was three-bars. at the end of the ride we got caught in a thunderstorm and went home soaked. definitely one of my favorite island park memories.

come play at the lake.

i love island park.

yellowstone, island park with family.

our last hoorah with sam.  i'm really going to miss that boy over the next two years....