Summer Trip to Utah

Over the weekend of the 4th of July, we took a trip to Utah to see family. We were very excited to see all the Gibbons families and cousins at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Vernal. Since we travel from the farthest away, we always end up getting there before everyone else. We don't mind that because then the kids gets some one on one time with Grandma and Grandpa Gibbons. However, in addition to that this time, we also took a few scenic stops along the way. When we travel to Utah in the summer, we take the Colorado route because it's shorter. We only take it in the summer because the mountain passes are too dangerous in the winter time. I love going through Colorado because it is so pretty and the last few trips that way, I've remembered a little town that we always go through called Ouray, Colorado. You basically only get to and from there by driving these crazy winding roads, but once you get through those, you drop down into this quaint little town between the mountains. Here's a picture of the road signs through the mountain passes. I've never seen them like this before - straight switchbacks.

One of the first signs you see as you come to the last pass into the town says "Ouray is the Switzerland of America" and it really looks like it. We've always passed by these awesome looking hot springs and Tyler decided we had time to stop and enjoy them this trip. We totally surprised the girls so they didn't know we were stopping there until we pulled in and parked. They were so excited and just kept saying things like, "we get to go there?"

The hot springs really were warm, but their second pool (where all the fun slides and volleyball nets were) was very cold. The slides didn't open until after 12 which we stayed for, but then decided the cold water wasn't worth going down the slides. Plus, the bigger, more exciting slides were still too big for Tessa's and Aubrey's heights, so they were disappointed that they couldn't try them. Besides swimming, we also fed the fish and turtles that were in a pond next to the hot springs.

After a few hours of fun, we finished our journey to Grandma and Granpa's house. We still had a day with them to ourselves. The girls love to snuggle with Grandma while watching movies.

Once all the other families made it to Vernal, we drove up the mountain to camp for a night. Tyler loves camping and fishing, so he was very excited for this trip. Tiffany and her family were with us as we traveled up the mountain and Tim and his family met us up there. While setting up camp, the kids roamed the area and found an old hut where they spent most of their time playing. I found this U-shaped tree that I thought was perfect for taking pictures. Taryn and Aubrey were the only ones who stayed long enough for me to take some pictures.

They spent a lot of time fighting who was having their picture taken first, but they ended happy and even let me take a couple pictures of them together. And here's a picture of the path that we all walked to get to the lake where the dads fished.

Aubrey had fun "being in charge" of the little ones. These girls were so excited to help by carrying the big fish net.  With all the roaming that the kids did, I often caught them walking along the path either to and from the bathroom or the lake. I caught these girls once and had them pose for a picture.

The fishing at the lake was pretty slow. The girls kept going back and forth between the lake and the campsite. Tyler fished a lot over the two days we were there and didn't catch anything. Justin and JT caught one fish. Taryn and I spent a lot of time making jewelry out of the long blades of grass. She liked sharing them with Grandma. Taryn also liked it when she found out how much it echoed when she yelled. Too bad that yelling doesn't go well for a fishing environment.

Grandpa brought his four-wheeler, so the kids loved taking turns for rides on it with either Grandpa or Drew driving. They didn't have to be moving to enjoy sitting on it and wearing the helmets. Right before my camera died, I was able to catch this last picture of Taryn getting her turn on the four-wheeler with Drew driving.

We spent time hanging around the firepit for meals and visiting. Taryn and Lucy figured it was their stage and they spent a lot of time dancing and singing on the grate before we actually used it for fire. Taryn, Lucy, and Anson are all really close in age. They had so much fun chasing after the big kids and enjoying their time camping.

Here's a picture of most of the kids and Grandpa as they ate breakfast around the firepit.

The kids found a little creek that ran along the campsites, and they kept finding fish in little water holes stuck because the water wasn't high enough for the creek to be full. The kids ran up and down the creek and played the game "rock hopping" that Tim made up. I think everyone that played had a wet foot at one time or another. I caught Abby and Drew at one of the water holes where they found a fish. They got Tyler to come with a fishing pole to catch the fish. All the kids watched from the other side of the bank from where Tyler and I were standing.  

This was the best fishing Tyler had the whole time. He and I walked along the creek to the bigger water holes and even some spots where it was full like it should be. We caught and released probably a dozen or more fish. When I caught one and reeled it in myself, I made him take a picture of me. One of the first times we went fishing together after we were married, I caught a fish but was so traumatized and freaked out, I couldn't even hold up the fish for a picture. I was excited this time and wanted a real picture of me holding the fish like I know what I'm doing. It was a lot of fun to just roam around with Tyler and enjoy the outdoors. 

After heading back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, we enjoyed the rest of the weekend entertaining the kids and celebrating the 4th of July. The kids did a scavenger hunt and had some three-legged races around the back yard. 

The kids helped Grandma put up her American Flag in the front yard. They even each took a turn pounding in the pole with Grandma's big mallet.

We went to the town parade and sat in our usual spot. I took this picture before the parade started to try and show the huge American Flag that they had raised over the entire street behind them at the end of the parade route. 

It was so hot and sunny. We used the umbrellas to keep the sun off. Taryn and I took a selfie and then she had me take a picture of just her to show off her pretty flower in her hair. 

Here's our group waiting for the parade to start. They don't throw candy anymore, but there were a few who shot out water which the kids liked and there were some other freebies that they passed out like pencils, frisbees, and tiny dinosaurs. 

The kids spent the majority of the rest of the day creating their own rockets which we then got to shoot off in the school parking lot. I took this picture of the kids as they walked with Tara to the school. They were so cute with their arms around each other in their red, white, and blue outfits. The kids waited patiently while Grandpa set up the launch pads. I was surprised when I realized that I got all the grandkids in this picture except for Drew. I love Taryn and Tessa's poses in the back.  

Grandpa has his own design for the rockets that he's had kids do many times in the past at school, but in all the years that I've been in the family, we've never made the rockets. I thought it was so cool! The rockets shot up so high. I tried filming them but they went so fast, I would catch them blasting off but then would have to search for them in the sky as they fell back down. The rockets even had parachutes but only a few of them released like they were supposed to. Tessa's rocket was the first to float back down with the parachute intact. 

 Grandpa's launch pad had a button with the switch to set it off, so all the kids had their own rocket and when it was their turn, they got to help put the rocket on the launch pad, and then they got to throw the switch to blast it off. They all thought it was so awesome. We finished the night by watching the fireworks from the parking lot once it got dark. We even set off some of our own with Drew and Andrew doing the lighting. We of course had to do sparklers, and once the kids figured out which end to hold, they really liked it and had a great time.

 

Before we headed home Sunday morning, we had to get a family picture. This was the best I could get of everyone as we tried to get them all situated. Hopefully I'll get a copy of the real one, but this is pretty much how family pictures go when you have this many kids, so I actually love the unplanned, candid shot. 

We love going to Utah and being with family. We're hoping that next summer we can meet in Ouray or somewhere else in Colorado and just spend the whole time camping because we had so much fun doing that this time. We miss seeing our Gibbons relatives and really love when we get together. We love our family!

The Rest of our Southern California Trip - Beach and Zoo

After Tyler's conference ended, we were able to spend the rest of the weekend with him. We always love going to the beach, so this trip was no exception.  We went to Coronado Island again which we enjoy because you go over the huge bridge to get there. With it being June instead of September or February, we thought it would be nice summer weather this time - perfect for the beach, but it was still cold and pretty windy. I forget not everywhere is 90 degrees by June like it is in Texas! Even though the water was chilly, the girls didn't mind playing with sand toys and looking for shells.

They still went in the water a little bit too. Once they were in, they got used to it and liked running in the waves, even though they spent the majority of their time digging in the sand. I love getting pictures with Tyler and the girls by the ocean. I don't know why, I just do. This one is of Tyler and Tessa.

The water was definitely too cold for Taryn, so we entertained her by burying her in the sand. Once she was buried, I decided I could easily turn her into a mermaid, which she loved. We then spent the next half hour or so turning everyone into mermaids.

The people next to us on the beach had created this amazing rendition of a turtle. They left before we did, so we were quick to head over there and take pictures with it. Tessa was so excited because she loves turtles so much. Isn't it amazing?! 

We spent the entire day Saturday at the San Diego Zoo. Tyler was excited to do this because it was his one full day off, so this was his real vacation. Plus we all love zoos and all the animals.

Aubrey's favorite animal is the flamingo which was our first stop. We saw flamingo nests and even a flamingo egg which was awesome. 

Abby posed in front of a monkey for me which is still my favorite animal. And we of course had to get one with Tessa by her favorite animal.

These monkey face masks were a definite picture spot. I thought it was hilarious that Tessa was able to climb up and reach the tall mask. 

 Tyler wanted to join in on the fun as well, so he took his turn with Taryn.

There were so many baby animals at the zoo. We stayed and watched the baby hippo for a long time. It was really funny watching the mom push the baby along with her snout to help the baby hippo swim. We watched the baby from underneath the water swim all the way to the top and then climb out which is when I took the picture.

Monkeys and gorillas are my favorite. We saw some baby monkeys too and it was fun to watch them swing and play around. My four monkey girls had fun playing around too on the statues. 

They had these metal statues throughout the zoo. I'm only including a few pictures even though we probably stopped to take pictures at all of them. Here's one when all for girls were happy enough to take a picture together. (Although maybe not, considering Taryn's face.) I had Aubrey stop to take a selfie with me and this pretty flower. They were all over, and they were so big and colorful.

We took the sky tram to the opposite side of the zoo. This is what the girls said was their favorite part of the whole trip when we talked about it on our drive back home. We were up pretty high and the girls didn't seem to be scared at all. They liked that each tram car had a different animal on it. Ours had the Kookaburra bird. Tyler and Abby rode in the tram behind us since they wouldn't allow more than four per tram.

One of the zoo's most recent new animals was the polar bear. They had a whole new section called the Polar Bear Plunge with lots of fun picture spots.

 

They had this awesome sea lion display complete with tunnels for the kids to climb through and these lookout holes. I loved these pictures.

 

We waited for a very long time to see another one of their newer exhibits - the panda bear exhibit. It was a long line, but the girls were good and we saw some cool animals along the way. The pandas were sleeping when we got to see them, and so was Taryn who had fallen asleep in the stroller during the wait.

The San Diego zoo is the largest zoo in the United States so we did a lot of walking. There are a ton of stairs too, but luckily they also had some moving walkways. We took some pictures as we waited to be carted up to the top of a particularly high part of the zoo. One picture of the girls in front of me and one picture of Tyler and Taryn behind me.

As we neared the closing time of the zoo, we still had a couple sections of the zoo that we hadn't made it to yet. We decided to hop on one of the double decker buses to save our feet and see the last few animals like the lions and elephants. We were able to get on the top deck to be able to see the animals better, but it was pretty sunny. Taryn and I sat across from everyone else. 

Our bus drive who talked about all the animals we saw was very excited to tell us about the baby giraffe that was only a couple weeks old. I don't think they had even named it yet. Once we got off the bus, we had to walk closer to get a better look. It was so cute. It's right between the two big giraffes, directly above Tessa's head in the picture.

We finished off our day on the very last tour bus that circles the entire zoo. We were one of the last ones on the bus so we were on the bottom level for this ride, but we were happy to be in the shade. 

We had a great time at the zoo and everyone was happy seeing their favorite animals and all the other awesome things we saw and did there. It was a great way to finish off our family vacation and the perfect way to start our summer.