visiting susanville for the 4th // it was a blast!

Susanville, California does not seem like the most exciting vacation spot to some, but to Ammon and me, it is one of our favorite places to visit. Why? Because Ammon's family lives there, and believe it or not, there are so many fun things to do near there! Every time we go, we have so much fun. This last visit was no exception.

June 30th-July 7th.

A visit full of driving through the desert, delicious food, picking currants, eating currants (yuck!), swimming in a river, saving a kid that was drowning in the river (his stupid mom didn't even thank me!), receiving way more mosquito bites than I'd like (I once counted all the mosquito bites on my body and it was more than 15...), playing monopoly over and over again, boating on Lake Almanor (oh my gorgeous!), watching fireworks on the lake shore, reading Harry Potter, going for runs to their mailbox and back (about 1.5 miles with hills), jumping in their backyard pool after running to their mailbox and back, watching home videos, playing Chopped (I was surprised and delighted to find out that the judges, AKA Ammon's mom, dad, 10-year-old sister, and twin brother, thought my dish was the best!),  playing Bocce Ball, and a lot of figuring out what to do with Lily's crying every time I left the room. 

At the river... where I received most of my mosquito bites.

Uncle Nephi helping Lily find rocks

Lily LOVES rocks. 

Getting ready to catch dem crawdads

I kind of like this guy. I think he's really cute.

As the day went on, I asked the boys what they caught. Ammon caught quite a few creatures, including a nice big crawdad. And Nephi? What he caught was a big one alright. We were all so proud of his catch!

This is definitely the most flattering family picture of us, don't you think?

We built a little pool in the middle of the river

Emmalee looking cute and enjoying the little pool

Emmalee not happy because Caleb dumped water on her

Emmalee throwing rocks in retaliation

Our creation from a distance

We thought it was pretty cool

The following pictures beautifully sum up what my 4th looked like.  

We thugs got swag... even puppy!

Lily's turn!

Lily didn't like wearing the sunglasses

So Ammon and I took ours off too

Boating!! 

One-handed!

I thought this pictures was pretty sweet. I can just hear the "snapping" sound the rope made every time I see it.

Getting excited to wakeboard again. The last time I wakeboarded, I crashed big time!
Blog post about my wakeboarding accident here 

Ahh! So fun!!

Out of the wake! 

Classic brotherly love

This one is great!

Two "big-toes" up for boating!

Caleb dunking Ammon

Just moments before I was flung off the tube. It was a gnarly crash.
Let's just say I had to yank my bottoms back up before anyone saw me!

This one is gold.

Ammon getting ready to ski in his Captain's hat

    

Emmalee got up!

Lily's little naptime/bedtime station

She often wants to take the camera from me

Playing Chess

Before this picture was taken, Lily's back was to the camera, and she was happily playing in the water. Of course, as soon as I went to take a picture, a wave splashed her in the face and this was what I got! 

A little bucket in a bucket!

Selfies and S'mores

This beauty not only made it so we could make s'mores, but it also provided relief from the mosquitos.

That sunset!!

I love this picture!! This was taken around 9:45. We put Lily down for bed at 7:00. For the next two hours, instead of hearing silence from her crib, we heard giggling, wiggling, humming, and occasional crying. Needless to say, she was ecstatic when we decided to get her out of her crib and let her stay awake with us until the fireworks were over. 

Watching the fireworks from the Lake shore. It was magical.

Our little family watching the show