Family Vacation: Part I

I don't have all the pictures from our vacation, my camera battery died and my in-laws are going to send me the rest of the pictures on CD. So this is all I have for now. But there are certain people, I won't name names, who are very impatient for a new post.

We had a great time! We spent a week at Bear Lake, on the border of UT and ID. Addie and I ended up flying out on Tuesday morning (I got the flu, too, so we had to wait until then.) We met up with everyone on Tuesday night. We spent all our time at the lake. Aaron's uncle just bought a boat, so we had so much fun playing out on the boat. The kids played so hard, all day. They were up at 8 and didn't get to bed until 10 or 11 each night. Despite our very earnest attempts to leave Addie behind in CA, she did really well and had just as much fun as the boys. The kids loved meeting (2nd) cousins. All the kids got along really well, so that made it extra fun. We had such a great time, we ended up staying 2 extra days! One night we went to pizza and to a cute little play called "A Pirate's Life" at the Pickleville Playhouse. Each night one of the families was in charge of dinner and then we just sat outside and visited while the kids played. Then once all the kids were in bed, the older cousins and aunts/uncles reconvened for games. We left Bear Lake on Saturday and headed to Provo.

We went straight to BYU and took the kids to the campus and went to the bookstore. We are in heaven there and picked out all our BYU apparel for the 2007 football season- there are 3 games in our area this year! You can bet Aaron's already got every gamed planned out! He took the boys to the new football facility and I kept shopping. Then we visited our friends, the Wendt's, who live in Pleasant Grove. We were neighbors in our married ward at BYU. We stayed at Aaron's uncle's house in Draper that night. They have an amazing house, 7 bedrooms, awesome pool- it was so fun to stay there and we even got a good night's sleep! (The first one since leaving home.) The next day we packed up and after breakfast at IHOP, we started our trek home.

Oh my gosh, it was the most intense drive of my life! There was always at least one child that needed a snack, a drink, a potty break, a blanket or just some attention. I thought I would never see our off-ramp, "Haven Ave." Those blessed words finally came at 11:30 that night.

Hooray for family vacations/family reunions- double hooray for being back home safe and sound!

The boys on one of many potty stops on their way to Utah.

Launching water balloons

Nana and Addie playing in the sand.

Addie found some snacks and made a run for it!

Jake and Anna Sophia

Girl Cousins!
Madelyn, Anna Sophia, me, Katelyn, Kiely

A night on the town!



Uncle Lee and Jake driving the boat.

Tyler (he looks so mad!), Jacob and Dustin


More pictures to follow!!

PS- For the record, Addison Beth WILL NOT be going on anymore family vacations that involve an excess of 2 hours of driving. You think I'm joking?? I'm not, trust me. That drive has scarred me for a very long time. The girl seriously screamed (not yelled, but ear-piercing shrieks) every 4-5 minutes the whole way home. Yes, she's cute, but oh my, she can scream like no other!