Utah summer trip 2010

For our main summer vacation this year we took a trip up to SLC, Utah. We went up to celebrate my grandma's 75th birthday. We had a big party for her with food and 2 different cakes. There was about 65-ish people there! I wish I would have taken more pictures of family members, but things were crazy with trying to get food to everyone and kids running around, and an open pond in the yard. It turned out great and "Honey" as my grandma is called had a great birthday. We did a special little ceremony thing where we told honey something special about her or a special memory or attribute, then lit a candle and put it in the pond to float. This way at the end of everyone doing it, she could see how many lives she has touched. The idea was a great one, the candles however did NOT want to stay lit! It's the thought that counts!

The 75 year old Birthday Girl

Cake 1

Cake 2

Aunt Julie, Lance (cousin) Jason (brother) mandie (s-i-l), and niece Noelle
Dad and Parker eating dinner

We also had a chance to meet some other family members for dinner. My kids were horrible that night! Hailey was crying and laying down on the bench, and Whit was underneath the table next to us screaming as loud as she could. They had fallen asleep on the way to the restaurant and woke up super grumpy! At least we tried!!

Aunt Krissy and cousin Izze

Parker and cousin Zoie

Hailey crying

Another thing we had the opportunity to do was go to a water park! We went to Raging Waters in Salt Lake, thanks to my friend Brynn (her grandparents own the park and let us in free), THANKS BRYNN! It was me, my parents, and my kids. The girls were more scared of the water than I thought-they hate getting water in their eyes. I forced Hailey to go down a slide, although she cried afterwards and said she's NEVER doing that again....I think deep down somewhere she actually enjoyed it.

Whit's favorite funny face

Mommy, parker and whit. Using the kids as a body shield from the camera!

Another adventure we had was going to the zoo. We got to go with a bunch of people, and even met some family members from the other side of the family there. The kids got to ride the carousal and loved it! We saw lots of animals, and our favorite was the new baby elephant. The girls especially enjoyed the fake elephant statue that made noises and spit air out of his trunk!

Looking at the giraffes

Grandpa and Parker

A whole lot of girls! They were trying to spit like the llama.

Izze, Sydney, Carys, whit, rickey, Hailey.

My kiddo's in front of the penguins

Grandma and Parker looking at the Elephants

We also went over to Nannie's (dan's grandma) house to visit. She has this HUGE playroom in the basement that the kids LOVE!!! Every toy imaginable too! The weather was perfect too-lots of time spent outside playing. Nannie's yard was GORGEOUS while we were there. I could have sat outside forever...oh wait, no...I have kids to watch! It was so fun to go and visit and play.

Nannie, parker and La-la
me and bud

The backyard

Beautiful fountain

Gazebo and bridge

We went to Aunt Krissy's new apartment to have dinner, celebrate Izze's birthday, and play. We went to the park in the complex to have some fun. The kids had a great time playing together and playing on all the park equipment....can you guess what day it is base on the colors of all the clothing? The 4th of July! We had a lot of fun, ate some yummy food, and enjoyed seeing them again.

Whit and Zoie on the tire swing

All the girls eating cupcakes

Parker making messes at Aunt Krissy's house

The 4th of July on Honey's backyard deck.

What cute girls!

(Hailey, Noelle, whitney)

Funny little note: We stopped for dinner before going to my grandparents house, after being in the car ALL DAY LONG and of coarse-I have to meet someone! We ran into one of Dan's mission companions at Bajio. It was so crazy-what are the chances? Last time they saw each other was in Brazil like 10 years ago!!!