Even though moving (and everything that goes along with it) is foremost in our minds at the moment, I’ve still been trying to plan out some fun things we can look forward to this summer so it won’t just be house-house-house all the time (which is kind of what it feels like right now).
After dropping a bunch of our savings and such on our new home, we don’t have a ton of money to spare, but I’m hoping we can budget and cut other expenses in order to be able to do some of these things I’ve planned (and luckily, many of them are free!).
(Note: all of these photos were taken at Raven’s first “real” trip to a splash pad, which we took a few weeks ago. While she took quite awhile to warm up to the whole idea, she was pretty into the whole thing by the end!)
But without further side notes or explanations, here are 12 things on our bucket list this summer:
1. Go to all the splash pads in Cache County (there are four)
Logan is a little late to the splash pad phenomenon, but luckily for us, there are four other towns in the county that have splash pads that are free and available to the public summer-round. (At least, there are four that I’m aware of. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong!)
The one we went to in these pics crosses one off the list (the one in North Logan, which kind of could count as Logan having a splash pad, if you don’t want to get too technical), and there’s another one in the same town as our new place, so if we somehow can’t make it to all four, we should be able to at least make it to two.
Edit: An astute reader pointed out that there are at least 7, possibly 8, splash pads in Cache Valley, giving us all the more places to explore! For a list of at least seven, check out this link that she shared with me.
2. Try out a new restaurant
A couple years ago, Matt and I set the goal of trying to eat at all the locally-owned restaurants in the county (and one day, I plan to do a blog post about them all). Since we’ve been really watching our budget lately and since we’re kind of terrible at planning date nights, we haven’t tried out a new one in quite awhile. I plan to rectify that soon.
3. Have a Sam’s Club family dinner date
Every time I go to Sam’s Club for groceries, I get a massive craving for their hot dogs and frozen yogurt, but since my cart’s already loaded and Raven’s usually already ready to go home by that point, those cravings have remained unsatisfied for months. It’s time to change that, friends! (And besides, it’s basically about the cheapest “dinner out” we could do, so there’s no excuses.)
4. Buy a kiddie pool for Raven to enjoy in our new backyard
I have been wanting a yard for a loooooong time, and it’s mostly because I really, really want Raven to be able to have her own outdoor place to play that doesn’t require us to take a 10-minute walk to get there. We haven’t had very many experiences with taking her to go swim or to water activities thus far in her life, and so she’s kind of tentative around the whole idea of them most of the time (until she gets used to it, that is). I’m hoping that if we buy her her own little pool, she’ll warm up to the idea of playing in water more.
5.Visit my friend at her new house
One of my best friends bought a house about a month before we did, and I’m dying to see her new place. I haven’t been great at regularly keeping up with my closest friends from childhood and high school, but we do try to at least do planned get-togethers a few times a year, so I think this summer is as good of a time as any!
6. Go down to the Children’s Museum in Salt Lake
Basically, Raven’s never been, and I think she’s finally getting old enough to actually “get” some of the activities that kids can do there. Also, my brother’s been raving about this place in Salt Lake that sells pupusas (which I crave like crazy since I spent a year and a half in El Salvador), so we might be able to hit two birds with one stone there.
7. Go camping (Raven’s first time!)
My mom and stepdad have been great about planning a family campout for the past few years now, but since they always rent a campground that’s been super close to us (like, within 10 minutes driving distance), we’ve always just gone home to sleep at night (I know, I know…). This year, we’ll be a *bit* farther out from the campsite (about 35 minutes), and since Raven’s never been camping, I figured we’d better have her official initiation into the Camping Club before she gets too much older.
8. Watch the solar eclipse
My brother-in-law and his wife have planned a backyard campout up in Idaho to watch the eclipse in August, and as of now, we plan to be there!
9. Take a weekend trip down to Capitol Reef
Out of all the things on this list, this is the least likely to happen since it would be the most expensive, but we’ll see if we can swing it. A few years ago, I went on a big bucket list kick and wrote out a ton of things I wanted to do in my life, one of which was visiting all the national parks here in Utah with Matt. Since I’ve never been to Capitol Reef, I’ve been wanting to go for awhile now. We’ll see if we can make this one a reality by the end of the summer. If not, then maybe later in the year I hope!
10. Go on a new local hike
We’ve been on a few of the major hikes around the area, but one of the great things about living in Cache County is the easy access to soooo many outdoor things, and I feel like we’ve hardly scratched the surface. I don’t know if we’ll do a super easy hike so Raven can walk the whole way or if we’ll borrow a hiking backpack so we can carry her, but this is a fairly easy adventure that I know we’ll be glad we did.
11. Check out an event at the library in our new town
I’m hoping to get involved in our community and feel like a real member of our new town as soon as possible, so I plan to scope out the library for free events and attend at least one or two (if not more) this summer. Raven and I are already in the habit of going to the library every week, so it would be fairly easy to slightly alter the time to accommodate a storytime or a mommy-and-me play group or something.
12. Take Raven to an amusement park
This one likely won’t happen until September (when my mom and stepdad said they had discount tickets for us), but I’m still counting it because it will likely still feel hot enough to be summer at that point! Raven’s never been to an amusement park and my mom has already said she might come with us, so that way, we’d get to ride some of the “big” rides ourselves AND have the fun of watching Raven try out all the kiddie rides, too. I can’t wait!
What’s on your bucket list for the summer? And especially for you local people—anything in Cache Valley or Utah that would be great for us to check out?
