Our alarm went off and we jumped out of bed with excitement! We may not have been able to go to the water park or the giant slide, but we still had access to the lake which we hoped to take advantage of today. While I got ready, Tyler prepared breakfast for everyone out of his leftover Tri-Tip. We ate quickly and gathered everything we thought we would need for a day at the lake, loaded up, and headed towards Lake Pleasant.
It was a fairly short drive, maybe 30 minutes and we were in the area of the lake. Angie had never been to the lake before so we were all unfamiliar where there was good beach access. We followed a few vehicles into one area and quickly retreated as it looked more like a marina with a boat ramp. A few more miles down the road and we were able to access the State Park where we paid $7 for all-day access. It was a little after 9 am and people were flowing in rather quickly.
Once we made it into the park and located the beach area, we found a place to park and hiked down to find a place along the bank. I say beach loosely, as it was a sloped hill with rocks of all shapes and sizes. There was no sand! What the beach lacked in sand, it made up for in people and sunshine.
It was beautiful. The lake, the sunshine, the cactuses lining the shore in the distance. Angie had an oversized umbrella we set up with a few chairs for shade and the kids wasted no time getting in the water. Tyler and I decided to do a quick workout while we were there so I ran back to the pickup to grab our weights!
After the workout, we both got in the water. I am a fair-weather, warm water kind of gal and the water was pleasant just as its name suggests! It was warm and I never felt chilled. That could be in part because the temperatures outside were scorching. It was 110 degrees outside and we not only worked out in it, we basked in the sun outside for hours!
Addi and Mason spent much of their time looking for special rocks. Different shapes and sized and some with living plants and mussels attached. Mason wanted to take all of them home with him. We stayed for several hours, but since we arrived so early, we were ready to leave before 1 pm.
As we packed up to leave, Tyler grabbed the dumbbells to carry back to the pickup. He felt some discomfort while carrying them, but continued to the pickup. When he got in the pickup, he realized the weights had burned his hands. He now has blisters on nearly all of his fingers and I will hear about it for weeks!
On our way out, Angie snapped a few pictures of the Church bunch in front of a cactus. We also captured a slow driveby video of the cactuses. It was like a forest of cactuses, or as I called it a cactus canyon!
On our way home, we stopped by the store to grab dinner for tonight. Originally we planned on pulled pork, however, it requires Tyler to put it on rather early and babysit it throughout the day. Since we were at the river for half of the day, we decided to wait until tomorrow for pulled pork. Today’s dinner brought to you by Tyler and Traeger was Teriyaki Chicken Tenderloins.
We played a couple more games of Sequence after dinner. We changed up the teams and Angie and Addison beat Tyler and I, 2-1. Tyler decided he may be the common denominator when it comes to losing! I think we have sold Angie on the game and if she doesn’t miss anything about us when we leave, she will at least miss our Sequence game (only kidding)!
The kids also conned Tyler into taking them to the store to get scooters. Since they have been here and have been riding them in the community and at the local skate parks, they really wanted one. They gave massages for a ride to the store where they left with new scooters to pack around for the duration of our adventure and they are thrilled!
We lit fireworks and watched fireworks lit by others in the area. There were so many different people setting off large displays we were able to see. I love fireworks! What I don’t love is the mess they leave behind, but the kids don’t seem to mind! Chloe also did not appreciate the display and we found her hiding in the litter box (clean).
I would say we are calling it an early night, but once again it’s almost midnight as I type this. We definitely got the most out of this day and packed it full of adventure and activities with friends. Tomorrow I think we will take a more relaxing approach and regroup while watching Tyler grill!
I hope you all had an AMAZING 4th of July!
The Church Hideout 