Overloaded schedules and poor planning worked in the twins favor this year. We ended up booking their birthday party a month after they turned twelve. The benefit of this? It’s now officially summer! And summer opens up a lot more possibilities of places to have your party.

This year we booked the celebration at a floating waterpark in nearby Whiting, IN called WhoaZone.

We had the group meet at our house for pizza and messy revelry in our basement. Once we were all assembled and fed, we marched them into the 15 seater sprinter van we rented for the occasion.

When we arrived we had some time to splash around at the beach before kitting up in our floating vests.

We booked 2 hours of fun on the floating waterpark and the kids didn’t stop playing the entire time.

After we tired this crew out, we headed back to our house for cake. Post COVID, we now sing to the cake without candles. No one wants accidental spittle on their slice of cake.

Later the twins opened their presents (I was at the Kite Runner Show with my friend Nicole so no photo for this!).

Happy Birthday Twins!!!

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It all started with an invite to a Bat Mitzvah in Salt Lake City.

From there Adam planned an elaborate 56 hour road trip. Of course he did! It’s Adam!

First we stopped in Boulder for a college tour. We have many friends in Boulder and we were lucky to see them after the tour.

The next day we headed to Salt Lake City.

We took the boys for a hike called Adam’s Canyon Waterfall Trail. It was a considered a hard hike on Alltrails – 3.5miles out and back with an elevation gain of 1,430. There were some parts where we were full on bouldering, not hiking. Also we tried to keep our feet wet but when we finally got to the top we realized not wetting our feet was impossible!

That night we went to the Bat Mitzvah. My friend Heather hosted a beautiful ceremony in the backyard, conducted by another dear friend, Jessica. Jessica also married Adam and I.

After the ceremony we were treated to crepes, fancy themed drinks, a DJ and lots of dancing!

After the Bat Mitzvah we headed to Sun Valley for hiking and white water river rafting. Our first hike was Norton Lakes, in Ketchum, ID. It was a 4.6 mile out and back hike with an elevation gain of 1,476 ft.

There were lots of obstacles to climb, including naviating in the snow!

This hike boasted two lakes. When we were walking we past two ponds that we couldn’t figure out if they were lakes or not. In the end we thought the first lake was the final one. Only because the kids were curious about the waterfall did we end up following it up to the second lake, which was even more spectacular than the first!

Adam was worried after this hike that we blew the trip by doing such a fantastic hike on the first day. What more could we show the kids that would be more spectacular than this?

The next day we hiked Adam’s Gulch. It was a 6.1 mile loop trail with an elevation gain of 780 ft. We saw beautiful vistas, overlooking the town of Ketchum as well as seeing the snow capped Pioneer Mountains and the Sun Valley Ski Resort at Bald Mountain.

The next day we switched it up a bit and did some White Water River Rafting with White Cloud Rafting Adventures.

Our guide, Sam was very cool. He let the twins sit on the front of the boat and crashed them into waves. He also accommodated Ben’s interest in the wildlife, pointing out Eagle’s nests and other points of interest.

On our final day, we went big, Sawtooth Lake. A 9.6 mile out and back hike with an elevation gain of 1,817 ft. This hike was definitely our most challenging of the trip but the kids were ready! They did an incredible job getting to the top and were rewarded with an even more spectacular lake than Norton Lake. It was massive!

After a granola bar stop the kids went and explored the rest of the lake. We were so high up that most of the surrounding area was covered in snow! This video shows how the kids handled that….

When Adam first suggested hiking in Idaho I had my doubts, but this area of America has pristine, untouched beauty that was just breathtaking. Who knew the potato state was this pretty?!

After Sun Valley, we started our long trek back. But we stopped a lot on the way! First at Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.

Next we stopped at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

Finally, we landed in the Badlands, SD. We spent two nights here, hiking one day. We got very lucky on our hiking day. The day before was 94 degrees. That night a wind storm came in, rattling the cabins we rented with 40-65 mile an hour winds. I had never felt anything like it. It made embarrassed that we called ourselves the Windy City when clearly there were much more windy places!

We celebrated Father’s Day in the Badlands. Adam opened his gifts which I lugged around to all the aforementioned stops.

Our final stop was by Madison WI for one more college tour for Jack. Now we are back in town, ready to enjoy the Chicago summer.

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