Jon & Emmalee Day Family: 2025

Colton got to celebrate becoming on teenager on vacation in Utah this year! We had rented a vrbo in Lehi, Utah with Mark and Jenna's family as a "home base" so that's where we got to be for his big day! Jenna helped me decorate all the windows with fun things for Colton to make his day special. Since we were going to be out in Utah, Colton requested we go back to the Ogden Dinosaur Park that he remembered from his 3rd birthday. We were joined by Mark and Jenna's family and had a great time re-exploring the park! We got 7-11 slushies on the way home and came back to a day family party at the vrbo with pizza and a godzilla cake that my sister Pam made for him! It was lots of fun!

Colton is such an intelligent kid. He can figure out and understand things quicker than most. He is great with anything involving technology or spacial reasoning. He does not particularly likes any sports but he also doesn't like being left out of a good time so if siblings or cousins are playing something together he will likely join in for the fun. He enjoys exploring and finding animals and creatures in the wild. He has loved the lake at the South Dakota Reunion lodge over the years. He will go out and spend hours canoeing or kayaking around looking for fish or turtles. When we go hiking as a family, he is constantly looking for snakes, lizards, squirrels, nests, or any other fun creature he can find.

Colton got a chance this summer to do some computer class camps with his buddies- designing video games and making movies and he had a great time. Colton has a great imagination and he loves to make people laugh. He loves to read and does pretty well in school. Math comes easily to him and he can do pretty advanced stuff in his head.

Colton also attended his first young men's camp this summer. He got to go explore the Maquoketa Cave system in eastern, Iowa. He thought it was awesome and couldn't wait to tell us all about it. He kept pushing for us to go back right away as a family so everyone else could check it out as well. That's something else about Colton. If he finds something he thinks is cool, or funny, he really wants to share it so that everyone else can experience it as well! We were nervous to send him to camp with no contact for 3 days (out of service) but it sounds like he had a good time and he said the food was amazing. We're grateful for good leaders who looked out for him!

We are so grateful to have Colton is our family!

Colton's Favorites:

Color: Blue & Black

Food: White Chicken Chili, Jimmy Johns

Treats: Peanut & Peanut Butter M&Ms, Lindt Truffles

Restaurants: Applebees, McDonalds

Hobbies/Interests: Legos, Minecraft, Godzilla, Jurassic Park/World, Kayaking/Canoeing, Animals

TV Shows/Screens: Minecraft Videos on Youtube, Jurassic Park/World anything

The last few years I've been big about getting out and having adventures with our kids, seeing new things, and checking off bucket-list items. Something that accomplished all 3 was our family road trip to Niagara Falls in May 2024. I have always wanted to see Niagara Falls and when I was in the doldrums of January- planning for warmer and more fun times ahead- I had the realization that the drive to Niagara Falls was actually shorter than our annual trip out to Utah. Once I realized this, the entire trip started to materialize and it became way more do-able than I ever had thought! Of course, any good road trip also needs good stops along the way so I did some research and found a couple of National Parks that also happened to be on the way: Indiana Dunes National Park (Indiana) and Cuoyahoga Valley National Park (Ohio). We also decided that since we would be so close to some key Church History Sites we should go and see those as well. We plotted it all out, booked hotels, and awaited anxiously. Now, no road trip goes perfectly- but the key to having a good time is recognizing that, knowing you'll need to be flexible, patience, and just enjoying the ride! We had to adjust plans on the way TO the Falls because it was pouring rain in Ohio the day we were supposed to visit Cuoyahoga Valley, so we decided to skip it on the way there- drive extra long that day- and make it all the way to Palmyra, NY where the weather was great and do the Church History Sites- and then hit Cuoyahoga Valley on the way home. We had to re-book some hotels but it all worked out. There were some hikes that were too hot, too long, too short because a kid needed a potty break, Oh- and I almost DROPPED MY PHONE IN NIAGARA FALLS! So again, not perfect, but it was such a fun vacation and we made so many memories.

The trip ended up going as follows:

Day 1: Drive

Day 2: Indiana Dunes National Park & Drive

Day 3: Drive & Palmyra New York- Sacred Grove, Smith Homestead, Hill Cummorah

Day 4: Niagara Falls

Day 5: Drive & Kirtland Ohio- Kirtland Temple and Smith Home & Cuoyahoga Valley National Park

Day 6: Long drive home

Highlights:

*Indiana Dunes was really pretty! It was quite sandy- even on the hike- but right on the shores of lake Michigan and beautiful views. The weather warmed up and kids got hot enough from hiking that the younger 3 and Jon all had a blast playing in the freezing water! It was a bit too cold for Colton and I but we had fun watching and hanging out.

*The Sacred Grove was pretty and peaceful, it was nice to have gone and seen where the Restoration of the Gospel began. We took the tour there and saw the room in the log cabin where the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith. That was really neat. Overall the tour was a little long but interesting. We missed the last tour for the Hill Cummorah but were still able to hike up by ourselves to the monument at the top and talk to the kids about the significance of that place. That was also neat! On the drive back to Buffalo, NY to stay for the night (about 2 hours) we stopped by a roadside Popeyes and I don't even know why it seems worth mentioning because we definitely overbought and overpaid and had way too much fried chicken and fries that some of the kids didn't even like much, but it was fun to be there as a family in a new place, eating at a new place, and spending time together. In the car we cranked up Taylor Swifts "Welcome to New York" (several times on the trip actually) and I just felt happy and grateful for my family and our adventures together.

*Niagara Falls was awesome, breathtaking, everything I wanted it to be. It really is a marvel of God's creations!

*Whirlpool State Park and Niagara Hike- On the way to the Falls in the morning, we stopped at a couple cool places along the river. Whirlpool State Park had a really cool overview of the bend in the river, as well as a suspended cable car going across from the Canadian side. We drove up the river a little more and went on a hike along the river. It was really pretty and fun to explore. It did get cut a little short when Madi had to go to the bathroom- number 2 style- really bad so we had to rush back to find a bathroom. Oh the adventures with kids.

*Cave of the Winds- SO COOL! It was a bit pricey so we hesitated but so fun. We took an elevator down the cliff to the bottom of the Falls and then donned our ponchos and went a walked up and around a wooden staircase built into the American Falls. The water was pouring all around and it was so loud and really neat! We got soaked but everyone loved it!

* (ALMOST) Losing my phone 😬 At Cave of the Winds, we wanted pictures, of course, to remember how cool it was. I was trying to be careful but it was so wet and misty. I had asked a couple to take a picture of our family and took my phone out. The camera was all wet so I went to wipe it off on my pants and it slipped out of my hand and bounced over to merely an inch away from the raging water! My heart DROPPED! It was seriously one of those slow-motion "NOOOOOOOOOooooooooo" moments. It was such a miracle it didn't go in but it made me so sick thinking how close I was to losing all of the photo memeories on there that I hadn't yet uploaded to my computer (months worth). Definitely said some prayers of gratitude after that!

*Maid of the Mist- We also took the boat tour to get right up next to the falls. Again, pricey- but worth it! It gave such a great view of the whole Falls and the majesty of it all! It also gave us access to their big sky-walk out over the river with another great view of the Falls.

*Cuoyahoga Valley National Park- We did two hikes here, both to waterfalls. It was kind of a weird set up for a National Park, it was like interspersed with neighborhoods, but the waterfalls were both cool and fun to see and play for a bit at! We also had another "run to the last 1/4 of the hike to make it to a bathroom" situation. Same child. Haha.

*Kirtland Temple- Really cool to see the first temple that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints built and where so many historical things took place. Without sounding negative though...the tour there was WAY too long. We really need some church history "highlights" or "cliff-notes" tours! We sang The Spirit of God in the temple like they did when they dedicated it, and that was cool. Randomly, my neighbors from childhood in Clifton, Idaho were on the same tour as us there. Crazy!

INDIANA DUNES NATIONAL PARK