Summer Vacation to Utah

Okay so I've totally been slacking on the blogging bit, but not in any other way - Guaranteed! In the middle of August Rich and I decided to have me pick up real quick and take the kids on a little road trip to visit ALOT of people. The boys and I left Monday morning early and drove to Wendell Idaho which is an 8 hr trip. (now I must brag a little...some think I'm crazy...I think I'm awesome. We stopped 1 time in Pendleton Oregon to get gas and lunch and that was absolutely the only stop we made in 8 hrs. Now considering I have a 4 year old and a 7 year old and a 7 month pregnant lady that's pretty darn impressive. Yes Austin did have to pee 1 other time, but an empty water bottle worked just fine. (80 mph, cruise control and a rear view mirror work great for that.) When we got there, the little cousins played and played and played. Riley was super excited to have someone to play with and Madi I don't think knew what to expect but by the time we left her nick name was "shadow". She followed Redden all over the place, he rode the little 4 wheeler she was his passenger. Boy did she love him. Lily loved me or atleast I try to tell myself that she did and Austin was just happy to be there and play with everyone elses exciting new toys. I had a good time with Jenni and Billy and we enjoyed our time there so much. Thank you Jenni for letting us stay with you for a few days. Here are some pics of our 2 1/2 day stay in Wendell Idaho. Then we went onto Sandy Utah where we stayed with my mom. She took lots of time of to spend with us. We went school shopping, played fast scrabble, made good food, shopped for blessing dresses (we were in Utah, can't find a better place - because I was being super picky) and stayed up late chatting and laughing too many times. Here are pics from my moms

While we were down at my moms we saw a bunch of my brother Brian and his wife Mallory who live close by. We visited Brian one day at work and he gave the kids rides on his wheely chair. They loved seeing where he works and we're very proud of him. Here's some pics of that!

We spent a day and night at our good friends Brent & Kathy's house. The kids played and had a blast. Brent actually took my kids on his wards Father Son Camping Trip. So Kathy and I had a girls night with Kaiya. We were supposed to watch a movie and stuff but we have this problem called gabbing...instead we stayed up talking and laughing until I think about 2:00 am. It was so fun to see them. Sorry no pics from that outing.

When we came back we stayed at moms for a few more days. Thank heavens for my brother Brian who rescued my kids from boredom. They got flat tires in wendell from some thorn bushes. Brian came one evening and fixed their bike tires for them with only one little mishap. Do not exceed 40 PSI??? How the heck does someone do that on a bike tire? Ask Brian, he did it and needed a clean pair of underwear after the explosion! hahah. Thanks Bri

We then went back up to our old stomping grounds...good ole Logan Utah. We love it there and miss it in so many ways. We stayed at my dads and helped him a bunch at the fair with his booth for his insurance business. Jenni decided to come down to dad's and we spent a very long....fun day at the outdoor city pool. It was a blast and the kids couldn't get enough of the slides all by themselves. At the pool I ran into one of Rich's old Deacons from our ward there. He's returned from a mission and asked about Rich immediately. He couldn't stop telling me how much of an example Rich was for him and how much he helped him and wanted to see him. So we arranged a time and he met us for lunch so they could chat. They had a good time.

While we were in Logan, Rich flew into the SLC airport on Friday morning and my mom picked him up met me in Ogden. We went back and my sister had planned a surprise baby shower for Rich and I. It was so fun to be able to see so many members of my extended family that I would not have had time to see otherwise. Thank you Jenni and Mom for putting something together for me.

The day before we went home Rich, I and the boys went to visit our old neighbors Pat & Jennifer who we love. They've moved and it was so nice to be able to visit them. While at the fair the last day we ran into a couple of couples that were good friends of our in our old ward. Rich also ran into 2 of his really good old roommates from before we were married. We also maintained our friendships with them after we and they got married. My brother begged Rich to stay another day so he could see him because we had already left the SLC area when Rich had gotten to Utah. My mom is the only one that saw him down there. So Rich decided to stay an extra day. We drove home on Monday instead of Sunday and stopped at Jenni's on the way home to break the trip in half.

We had an awesome trip -thank you to Jenni and Mom for making it possible for us to have an unbelievable time with all our family in friends in Utah that we miss so much. I am so extremely grateful for my parents and siblings who show us absolute unconditional love at all times and who love my husband just as much as they love me. I wouldn't have it any other way. My family couldn't ask for a better family to belong to. We love you guys and miss you tons.