Summer Vacation - Part 2

We continue our Utah vacation story by spending the rest of the week with Tyler's family. I felt like this was the best way to do our trip. Tyler has two siblings and his parents who live in Utah, so by making a large circle around Utah, we were able to see each family individually and spend time with them before all meeting up at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was definitely the way to go. So we spent two days with Tyler's sister and family. We went to a splash park which all the kids enjoyed. There were slides that you could ride down with a kid in your lap, so Tyler took turns taking the older girls down. Abby got me to go down with her once and unfortunately I got in the wrong line, so we went down the fast slide. (I'm not a huge fan of water slides) But we made it and it was fun. Here are the cousins waiting to go into the pool. Don't you love how when one kids says "let's make a funny face" everyone loves to participate? It's hard to get them to take a regular picture after that. Here's Aubrey. She even got to feel the water, although it was a bit chilly for her.
The next day we got to spend walking around the old stomping ground of BYU. My brother showed us the new band hall, which is in the BYU stadium now that I never got to use. And we saw all the new buildings and landscaping that has taken place since we left 6 years ago. (where does the time go?!?) I made Tyler stop by this waterfall (which used to not be there) so we could get a picture.

I had no idea Tessa was making a funny face. So typical. Besides visiting the bookstore, we took the girls to the Bean Museum on campus which is full of animals. Even though I spent the majority of the time in the bathroom due to a blowout by Aubrey, the girls enjoyed seeing all the huge animals. And of course, I had to get their picture by something, so they chose the moose.

The next day we traveled up to the Salt Lake area and stayed with Tyler's brother and family for a few days. While the boys took a day golfing, the girls hung out at home. The kids played, ran in the sprinkler, and created their own games. Here they are jumping off the bed and onto the air mattress. I tried to get a picture of them standing up before jumping but as soon as they'd all get up, they couldn't wait to just jump, so all I could get were "in motion" pictures.

Once we made it out to Tyler's parent's house, we waited for all the families to join us. We spent the last couple days of our trip there enjoying time together with the entire family. The kids loved playing in the huge puddles in the driveway while the dads were away fishing for the day.

Here's Aubrey with her cousin Jacob. He's only like 2 1/2 weeks older than Aubrey, but I love to see how different they look. So cute to watch them roll around the floor together and just stare at each other with the look on their faces like, "who are you? I'm supposed to be the baby here." We wanted to go camping but with the busyness of the weekend (4th of July) and all the little kids, we decided to do our camping activites at the house, so we pitched tents in the backyard and let those who wanted to sleep outside do so. The three oldest grandkids and Tyler and his brother were the only ones who slept outside, but that included Abby so I had to get pictures of her first "camping" trip in the tent. She was so cute!

We got to cook tinfoil dinners and one of the fish that was caught. We also did some fireworks and roasted marshmallows for s'mores. So it was like a real camping trip. It was funny to see as the night wore on how the kids fell asleep one by one from youngest to oldest until only the last 5 awake were the tent sleepers. (and the moms making sure the tent sleepers were settled in)

The next morning was the 4th of July so we went to the city parade. It was fun, but very hot.

And it's not a family get together until you take pictures of the grandkids, so we got them all in red, white, and blue clothes and took some pictures. And with 11 grandkids now, it's hard to get one where everyone's smiling. You're lucky to get them all in the shot. This was one of my favorites that I took on my camera. Besides cousin Makaela with her finger in her nose, it's not a bad picture! :)

We had such a fun time in Utah, and making the drive to and from was actually enjoyable for me. We'll definitely be making that trip often, and it's well worth it.