Summer Vacation!!!

Yeah!! Summer has finally arrived. It was a long time coming for me. It would just not stop raining around here. I finally felt like it was summer when we took our trip to Utah last week. We had so much fun. We didn't go to bed before midnight the whole trip and woke up by 8:00 ready for more fun. I feel a little overwhelmed with trying to put all that fun into a blog post but I will try. Here is what we did:

1. On the car rides to Utah and on the way back to Oregon the boys did a lot of movie watching which made the trip quite pleasant for us. I had 2 NEW movies for Wes to watch on the trip, "Toy Story 2" & and a Scooby Doo Movie. He watched those two movies over and over on our 30 hour round trip. We loved hearing Wes sing to the Scooby Doo movie.





2. We stopped 1/2 way along our trip and stayed with our favorite people in Idaho, the Binghams (Orrin's Aunt, Uncle, & Cousins). We love visiting them and their beautiful gardens/yards. Wesley had so much fun playing. Thanks Mandy and Mike for the fun time!

3. Once we got to Utah we had so much fun spending time family we had not seen in a really long time. I was really excited to see my Grandparents (who's house we stayed at) and also my family. We also got to see Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins. We are so blessed to have such fun families. Wes & Brad got some good Grandma and Great Grandma time. Wesley followed great grandma around everywere. I dont blame him, she is one of my favorite people to spend time with too. Wes also got to meet his "army cousin" (my cousin that had just returned from army training). He was so excited to meet him. I figure its like little girl meeting a princess :). He was in awe. He loved playing with his cousin Brinlee. It was fun to see them play a lot more together as they have gotten older.

<--what funny faces

4. Orrin and my Dad had been planning on hiking Mt. Timpanogas and decided to get it over with on the first day. They were wanting to make it up to the top but it ended being an even longer hike without making it to the top. About 1/2 way up they hit some snow and were not able to really find the path. They decided to just find there own way up. They climbed over a glacier bridge on the way up and then on the way back it was melted so they had to find another way down. I am sure glad I decided not to go.

5. One day we visited my cousin-in-law's family dairy farm. They have a really big farm with the most cows I have seen in one place . They said they have about 30 new calf's born a day. My favorite part of visiting the farm was the baby calf's. We got to see some that had just been born a few hours before. The baby cows for some reason really like Wes.

6. We also couldn't go to Grandpa and Grandma's without having Grandpa's BBQ chicken. It is so amazing and something that everyone looks forward too. Bradley ate almost a whole breast. So Yummy!

7. The main attraction of this trip was going to see "Toy Story 3". Wesley was counting down the days until we could go to Utah to first see family and then see toy story 3. Before the movie sweet Aunt Emily got Brad and Wes a stuffed Buzz and Wood. They love them. Wes even brought his to the movie. Bradley got to stay home and play which made it really nice for Orrin and I. Thanks Aunt Jana!! You are too sweet!

8. During our trip we ate a lot of yummy good food. I feel like we had dessert with every meal (including breakfast). The boys loved it. They had a lot of ice cream cones and Popsicles.

9. And what is a family gathering without playing games. We played hours & hours of a card game called "Hand and Foot"-not to be confused with this ;). Well the girls really played cards a lot and the guys played a lot of basketball (where Orrin almost lost his two front teeth). Thank goodness he still has them.

10. We took one day to go to BYU. We checked out this free museum all about animals which was really interesting. Bradley has been fascinated with birds and can spot them from miles, so he loved the exhibit on birds. We also HAD to go the the BYU Creamery and of course get some more ice cream cones. The boys were in heaven. We also had fun shopping in the BYU bookstore (well at least the girls did).

11. One of my favorite place we went was Hobble Creek. We had so much fun playing in a little creek. The boys had a blast and didn't want to leave.

12. The best place to be when the fourth of July is on a Sunday is Utah because they do all the celebration on the Saturday before. They have a huge firework show call the Stadium of Fire they do every year. This year they had Carrie Underwood performing before the fireworks. I guess you have to get your tickets a year in advance to be in the stadium but we ended up finding the perfect place to watch them. There is a little park that is usually only for the missionaries in the MTC and they open it up for people to come and watch the fireworks. Right behind us was the Provo Temple. It was so beautiful. It was a really nice place to watch the fireworks. We even could hear Carrie Underwood singing (very faintly). The kids had lots of fun playing with poppers and sparklers. It was a really nice night.

13. We were back in Idaho on the Fourth of July. It was also really neat. We were able to watch another fireworks show just from Orrin cousin's (mike and mandy's) back yard. I think it was the best view in town. They shot them of really right in front of us.

14. We decided to take some family pictures while we were all dressed and matching for church one day. We got it all set up and then it started to rain on us. They still turned out ok but you can see the rain on the ground.



The best part of the trip was being with all of that family. I miss them already. It was a great trip and we made great memories.