Utah

A few days after trek, we packed up the car and drove to Utah to spend time with my family.  All three of my sisters were going to be there, so I was very excited to spend time with them and have all of our kids play together.  We were there for two weeks.  Since I don't have a lot of time right now and want to move on with blogging, I'm just going to upload my favorite pictures and not share the hundreds of photos we took.  You are welcome.  My sister Megan already posted about our trip in great detail, so I don't feel like I need to do it again.  Here we go.

Playing with my parents cats.  This one is Ichabod

Cora and Bella





We had a BBQ with my dad's side of the family.  These are my uncles and aunts and parents

My cousins on my dad's side (not everyone could make it)  Brett, Trisha, Jodi, Charee, Megan, Tiffany and me.

 Everyone

July 24th

OK--I know this looks extremely strange, all of us in costumes in July.  My family loves Halloween, and my mom used to throw us Halloween parties when we were younger.  (This where my Halloween party tradition comes from.)  Some of my sisters don't have the parties for their kids and wanted my mom to throw a Halloween party while we were there, so they could experience the fun.  So she did.  This is my family in their costumes. 

My sisters and parents

my parents and the grandkids

before dinner

Doing crafts--Noah loved hanging out on the counter. 

My dad was worn out and snuck in a nap during the party.   

Noah and Emmett (7 months apart)

July 25th

My mom had lots of sewing crafts for the older girls.  They were making a Halloween quilt. 

This night we had a BBQ with my mom's side of the family.  This is all of us.

My sisters and the cousins.  Tiffany, Charee, me, Megan, Tyler, Katie, Heidi, Tysha and Shanda. 

Lydia working on her sewing.

July 26th

My sister Tiffany had to leave this day, so we had to take more pictures.  She's the one in pink.

We had a fire that night and had s'mores. 

July 27th

Today we took the kids to a little "zoo" in Logan.  They had a park next door, so we let the kids play after. 

We had tin foil dinners that night.  (Kids had hot dogs).

July 28

We went up to Logan Canyon for a picnic

The kids all threw rocks in the water.  They had a blast!

After we got home they played some more in the backyard

The older girls were working on their halloween quilts that night. 

July 29th

Having another fire

me and my sister Megan with a georgeous sunset

July 31

My dad wanted to take us all on a hike up in the mountains near his house.  It was nice, but the kids were tired after about 5 minutes. 

Bella and Paigey playing in the dorm room. 

Later that afternoon after the 2 boys took their naps, Grandma and Grandpa took us all out for ice cream at Charlie's.  Yum!

Aug. 1

My sister Megan left today and my mom went with her. Megan is an artist and she does these beautiful oil paintings. She learns her techniques at painting workshops. She was going to go to one as soon as she got home, and it was a week long workshop. My mom went out to watch her kids since her husband is a lawyer and was in trial all week.

These are two paintings that she did of our two grandmothers.  She is awesome!

Aug. 2

My sister Charee and I and our kids drove down past Salt Lake to go to Gardner Village, which is a fun shopping area for crafts and holiday things. 

 the gang

 Emily, Paige and Maggie waiting while I shopped.

 My favorite store is here, called Pine Needles (a quilting/sewing/fabric store).  Charee was a saint and took all the kids outside and watched them so I could look around in peace. 

Garrett was flying in that night so he could drive us home in a few days.  So, I had to stay in Salt Lake to pick him up.  I had a few hours  before I had to go and pick him up.  Charee took all the kids home (7 total), so that I didn't have to take them with me.  She fed them dinner and got the younger ones in bed for me.  She was so nice to help me out!  Thanks Charee!

Aug. 3

The next day, Charee was going to Boondocks with her kids and my cousin Andy and his 2 kids and so they offered to take Maggie and Lydia with them.  They all had a great time. 

 Emily, Lydia and Maggie

 Emily, Lydia, Maggie, Alexis, Rachel

That night, (our last night) we had a campfire.  The kids went out on the grass, in the dark and told jokes and sang songs and played games and just laughed and laughed.  They had so much fun!  We started driving home the next day. 

2nd Half of Logan Trip

On Saturday the 6th, we drove down to Kaysville to go to a family fun center called Boondocks. It had mini golf, laser tag, bumper boats, go carts, arcades, etc. We had originally thought that we would take the kids to Lagoon, but my two sisters had gone before we got there (they didn't know we wanted to go), plus, the price was outrageous. We all had a good time at Boondocks, though. My mom kept Noah and watched him all day and then we took my two nieces, Emily and Rachel, with us.
Before we left, this is Bella outside playing with Lulu. Lulu is my aunt and uncles dog. They are staying with my parents while their house is being built. Bella and Noah loved Lulu, although Bella didn't like Lulu getting too close.

Noah watching Lulu through the glass
Paige happened to lose her tooth while we were at Boondocks

Getting lots of tickets!

Outside playing mini golf...it was soo hot!

Lydia, Emily, Rachel, Maggie and Paige

This was the very last hole. If you got a hole in one, you were rewarded with a spray of water. If you missed, the volcano shot out a bunch of fire.

Bella did NOT like getting sprayed on the bumper boats. This picture was taken before we started. In all the other pictures, she is hiding her face.

Maggie and Emily

Bella and I against Rachel against Maggie and Emily. It was all out war. But somehow, Rachel ended up being the dryest.

Emily and Maggie racing.

Taking turns bowling

Lydia about to take off

Bella was bored, so we took her inside to crawl through the tunnels

Paige soon joined her
August 7th

This was the next day, after church.

Garrett and Noah playing blocks. Unfortunately, Garrett wasn't feeling very good this day, which ended up being a week long bout of sickness for almost all of us.

Noah standing on his own
We watched a Yellowstone home video; had pork, funeral potatoes and corn for dinner.

Rachel, Paige, Emily, Maggie, Bella and Lydia.
Charee got back from Elko today.

This was the last night before my sister Charee and her two girls went home

Silly faces

Garrett was so funny! He was trying to carry all 6 girls at once. I don't think he had all of them on at once, but he sure tried.
August 8th

One of the reasons that I like going to Utah is that so my mom and I can hang out and sew. She also has fun projects for the kids to help her with.

This year, they made Halloween pillows. My family is very big into Halloween!

Girls doing a painting project one day.
We cleaned the house while mom went grocery shopping; made tacos for dinner and watched the movie, "State of Play."
August 9th--Finish cutting out material and assembling cars for Noah's quilt.  chicken salad for dinner; start "Catching Fire--Hunger Games #3); Noah pukes like 3X in the night.
August 10th--wash sheets, work on quilt, Noah has a little diarrhea, Eat at Costa Vida; walk around Logan Temple, work on quilt, read.

My mom really wanted to take the girls to see the Logan Temple. My parents were married there and so was my little sister Megan and her husband, Steve. It is such a beautiful temple!

Rolling down the hill...

My mom and I

Noah started throwing up on Tuesday night and was pretty much sick with stomach issues the rest of the trip. Him lying on the floor like that is not normal. Poor baby.
August 11--Noah still has diarrhea, go to Wal-mart for pedialite; lunch at Rumbi's, work on quilt; rodeo, Noah and Paige throw up in night.

Thursday night, we went to the Cache County Rodeo which was a lot of fun.

Still not feeling 100%

Paige threw up that night a couple hours after she went to sleep. So, we cancelled any plans we had made for the next day.

Noah was feeling a little better...at least he was playing again.

Grandpa and Noah

August 12-- clean up, laundry; cancel Gardner village, make taquitos for dinner, sew a little, help mom with her music and read a little bit.
Saturday was the day we were leaving, sometime after getting packed. But that morning, Maggie started puking and I got sick also. We did leave that day, but only drove to Nampa again. It wasn't a very fun day. Whatever bug we had, was a pretty bad one...my parents ended up getting sick that night and my aunt got sick after them. It wasn't a fun way to end the vacation, but it was still a good time.