Road Trip: Week 3

Week 3 was spent with my family. We had such a great time.  I grew up with five kids in my family and we now live in five different states!  So, we really have to do some planning if we all want to be together.  I was thrilled that it worked out this summer.

*Family Portraits--We had to commemorate the occasion in photos. We don't have the real pics from the photographer yet, but here are some snapshots I took.

 Mom and Dad

 Destiny, Robby and their girls

 Mark, Taylor, and their boys

Us

Paul, Daneen, and their kids

I didn't get shots of Celeste, Kelly, or Grandma Cuca.  Boo.

Grandpa and Gigi with their 10 grandkids

Great Grandma Cuca

Other shots from that morning.

Drew helping Caroline cross the river

I got to spend more than five minutes with Colt this year.

He is SUCH a cutie pie!

This summer was the longest Drew had spent 

in Utah with us. LOVED that.

This was about as close as I could get to a

portrait of B. He and Carson were way too busy

exploring and getting wet and muddy.
He ruined both pairs of tennis shoes that he
packed for this trip.

*Fishing.  My dad and brothers LOVE fishing.  And Andrew has started to get into fishing over the last couple of months.  One of the days, I left the girls home with their Gigi and took a fabulous fishing trip with the guys. It was gorgeous weather.  The men all caught some fish. (Wish I could say the same for Brandon and Carson...but they still had fun together.) I had such a great time just taking in the scenery, documenting some of the catches, and took a little hike with my dad.

Wow. My parents live in a beautiful part of Utah.

Andrew tried fly fishing for the first time.

He's hooked.

(ha ha ha ha...)

I'm so glad these two have each other to hang out with.

They get along so well.

I wish C still lived in Georgia.

My dad and I hiked up in these aspens.  So pretty.

We had a close encounter with this skinny deer.

*Skate park.  Brandon has been really into scootering lately.  He was excited to hone his skills at the skate park. Carson was happy to give it a try, too.

*My parents rented the city pool for us one night.  I think it was the ONLY cool night of the whole two weeks we spent in Utah.  But, that didn't stop us from having fun.  Especially on the diving board.

On the count of three, jump. One...two...

three! M and G are still working on their timing.  :)

*Dinosaur museum

*Indoor pool at the rec center

Back flip! A new trick for B.

I don't know how many years it has been since I did the high dive.

So fun!

*S'mores and trampoline at Destiny and Robby's house

LOVE that their house is within walking distance of my parents'

O's dancing partner

Frisbee

 What's better than jumping with a giggly 3 year old boy?

Jumping with two of them!

I miss them already.

*Star gazing.  Mark has an awesome telescope that he brought with him.  I loved looking at the stars on a clear night. There are so many more to see when you're away from city lights.

Not an easy event to photograph, though.  :)

*Craft time!  I picked up some of those melty bead things from IKEA and had craft time with the kids.  Whitney really took to it and kept making things all week long. She's awesome!

C's rainbow heart

*Family softball game. We hadn't played softball in so long! Loved it. I forgot how good Andrew is.  I'm already thinking about signing up for a co-ed league with him....

So fun!

*Spa day! OK, this was quite possibly the worst pedicures we've ever gotten.  It was hilarious.  I lost a toenail. Destiny's tub was overflowing with bubbles.  They wanted to charge us $40/person. (We ended up getting "mini" pedis which were more in our price range, but still the most I've paid for a pedicure!) And it ended up taking over two hours. It's a good thing we got some good sister time out of it!

Note the bandage on my right pinky toe.

My first pedicure injury.

*Other random photos from the week:

Breathtaking sunsets!

We went geocaching with my dad.  Shortly after we found this cache, it started pouring rain on us.  I thought it was hilarious and was enjoying the summer shower.  Caroline was bawling and I had to carry her most of the way back to the van. The big kids handled it pretty well.  My dad and I just laughed.

Love this cute kids' table for dinners.

Sidewalk chalk with Aunt Celeste and Kelly

All-at-once bday party courtesy of Paul and Daneen.

Puzzle time with Gigi

SO great to spend time with loved ones that live far, far away.