Part 2 - Grandma Willes's 90th Birthday Party

After the full week with Tyler's family, we spent the weekend with my family as they started flying in for my grandma's party. Friday morning, we spent some time at my Grandma's house as she told us all stories of some of the things she's been doing that we were going to spotlight at her party that night. John and Mckaye were there, as well as Paul and his family. Grandma is very good about writing down her life stories, so she shared some of them with us and showed us things she had made like her own jewelry box, some pottery bowls, and her own pens.

I took a some pictures of my kids with their great-grandmother because I love having these kinds of pictures. Abby wanted her own picture with Grandma because she kept telling her friends how short her great-grandma was and that she was taller than her. So here's the proof. Grandma Willes is always known as Tiny Grandma.

Once I started the picture taking, we basically had to have a whole photo session so everyone could get pictures with Grandma. Here's our four-generation picture with my kids, me, my dad, and my grandma.

After lunch, we went with Paul and family to the Bean Museum on the BYU campus. They've updated it a ton since the last time our family had visited, so it was fun to see everything new. I took this first picture at the front entry display, but the animals were too big to be in the picture too. I told the kids that at least we got the giraffe bums in the picture. :) 

I told the girls I'd take their individual picture with whatever animal they chose, but it started with Tessa's stare down with this guy which Taryn looked on. Aubrey picked to have her picture taken with the peacocks.

Tessa wanted her official picture by the swans, and Abby loves elephants.

After we finished at the museum, we walked around campus for a bit. We stopped by a waterfall that starts a stream that follows a walkway. Tyler got the kids to have a stick race by dropping sticks on one side of the sidewalk and seeing which one came out the other side first. I think I remember Tyler saying that his stick won.

Tessa did a school project last year about BYU and during her research, she learned about an art piece made from string and light creating a rainbow. We looked it up and found the real thing in the Museum of Art. It was pretty cool. We took one picture from underneath and one from farther away so you can see the rainbow more clearly.

We ended up at the park where the birthday party was going to be held a little early, so that we could help set up. Some of my cousins' kids and some of my Aunt's kids and my kids were having a blast playing together. Aubrey was so excited to tell the other girls that they were her second cousins. Here are some pictures at the beginning of the party and near the end as the sun was going down.

There were paper tablecloths on the picnic tables for the kids to color while we waited to eat. And they had a timeline of Grandma's life that took up two tables. I wish I had taken a picture of all of it, but I only grabbed this closeup of these pictures because it's of my dad with his parents. I love that it shows his curly blond hair and blue eyes, which is where Tessa gets her hair and eye color from. I thought it was so cute!

Here's the table display of all the things my grandma created herself. There was also a table of all the life stories and journal binders that she did, plus a backdrop of tons of pictures with grandma and all her family. I loved the signs they had created too. It really was a fun time celebrating the life of one awesome lady and her 90 years of life so far.

The next morning before people started heading home, we stopped by grandma's house one more time for lunch and to say goodbyes. Some of the group had gone zip-lining that morning because that's what my grandma wanted to do for her 90th birthday. So we got to hear about their adventures as we ate lunch. We also took one big family picture. All we were missing was Scott and his family and Matt and Taylor.

Here were the siblings that were there that afternoon, so it's Grandma with my dad and two of my dad's sisters, Chris and Linda.

We left to drive back home that day. We stayed in a hotel in Farmington, and we got there with time to swim that night. I decided I didn't need to get wet, so I just watched and took this picture of the family while they swam in the pool. They said it was warm water and they liked the waterfall.

We love our family and all the memories we get to make together. It was so fun being able to see both sides of our extended family in one trip. Families are forever!

Our Summer Trip to Utah - Part 1

We usually head to Utah for a summer vacation, and it almost always is around the 4th of July. However, this year, we waited another month so that we would be in Utah for my Grandma's 90th birthday party. We went a week earlier than the party so we could spend time with Tyler's family first. Our first stop was Grandma and Grandpa Gibbons house in Vernal. We stopped at our usual rest stop at the Hole in the Rock outside of Moab, Utah. We took a picture at this same spot where we ate our lunch last time, so we took another picture this time.

As we pulled into Grandma's house, no one was home, so we had to wait around until they got back from the store to let us in. While waiting, I took a picture of Tyler as he showed the girls how to throw crab apples at his mailbox across the street. He said that's how he used to pass the time when he was a kid. It was pretty funny. 

I was trying to get some candid shots of our fun times at Grandma's house this trip, so I took this picture of Aubrey helping Grandma make her hot fudge. Later, I took this picture of Tyler with Tiffany as they worked on a puzzle together. We love our siblings! 

Tiffany's family was at Grandma's house when we got there to hang out with us that first night. The girls love hanging out with their cousins. Taryn and Lucy were pretty much inseparable the entire week. They're so cute! 

On Monday, we drove to Strawberry Reservoir where we had rented some cabin rooms so that we could all be together and Tyler could get in some fishing. We took these cute pictures of my girls and Tiffany's girls while we waited to get into our rooms. 

Lora came out with her kids and the cousins were in heaven. We left them to play in one of the rooms, while the adults got to visit in another room. We ended up getting in trouble for leaving them unattended though, because all those girls together playing in the room got a little rowdy and other people complained about the noise. Oh well. It was a Monday afternoon and they were having fun. Here's Taryn with her buddies, Anson and Lucy - three cousins within 8 months of each other. 

Some of the kids and I followed Tyler and Justin to one of their fishing spots. The landscape was so pretty with these huge purple flowers, so I took a couple pictures before the kids got bored and I took them back to the rooms. The fish just weren't biting. 

That Monday evening was one of the only times that all the cousins were going to be together. I had the idea of taking pictures with all the cousins and Tara came up with the white boards to mark the grandkid order, while the colored shirts were for each family. We were racing the setting sun while we waited for Drew to show up after golf practice, but he made it in time. Even baby Ava was smiley for the group pictures. I loved how they turned out! 

The next morning before checking out of the rooms, the kids got to explore around the lake. I grabbed this picture of Julia, Tessa, and Makaela before we headed off on our adventure. We walked around the lake so you can see the cabin we stayed in on the other side of the lake in the second picture. The girls started throwing rocks in the water and going too far in, and getting too wet, so I made my girls start heading back. As everyone else headed back, Jacob ended up trying to cut across one edge, but the mud was too soft and he got stuck, almost to his knees. Luckily, Tyler had just made it back from his last fishing attempt (he caught 2!), but as Tyler pulled Jacob out, he got stuck himself! It was crazy. Tyler's dad had to help Tyler get out of the mud and save all the shoes and boots that had come off in the process. It was definitely a story to remember, but I was glad everyone was okay. 

We spent the next couple days at Tiffany's house. The kids loved playing outside and Jacob even found a snake, so Drew held it so they could all be in the picture with it. We celebrated the August birthdays, Tyler and Andrew, while we were all together too. They shared the cake and blew out the candles together.

Here's the best picture I took with the majority of the family as we all visited and hung out. 

On Wednesday, we drove towards Tara's house in Payson, Utah and decided to take a hike up the Grotto Trail where there's a waterfall. It was a little rainy, so we waited by the parked cars for awhile until we decided to go ahead. The kids were ready for the adventure. 

The trail wasn't too difficult, and it had stopped raining by the time we made it to the waterfall. We followed the little stream and it was so pretty, I stopped Taryn to get a picture of it. The waterfall was cool and the kids love to take off their shoes to walk through the little water pools, but they said the water was freezing. 

The grotto had some cool rock formations, so we took pictures of the kids all together there. 

Grandma took a picture of all of us back at the beginning of the trails as we finished up our hike. It was really fun. 

This was our first time at Tara's house and the kids had fun playing at a new place. We were hoping to swim at a rec center, but the rain kept us from going, so we played games and watched Olympics instead. Tyler and I had a turn with our newest niece on that side of the family, Ava. It was fun taking selfies with her.

On Thursday, we walked around BYU campus. We love going back to our Alma Mater, shopping in the bookstore, and showing the girls around. This was the only picture I took as we waited for the other half of our group once we parked.

Later that day, we made it to a rec center in Provo, so the girls got their swimming in. It was a lot of fun. They had an indoor and outdoor portion. I stayed indoor the entire time with the littler kids, while Tyler took the older kids outside where the bigger water slides were. Indoor had a rock climbing wall, and the girls loved trying it. This is where I brought out my camera. Here's Aubrey and Tessa taking their turns. 

There were two indoor water slides and Taryn was big enough to ride them. After we talked her into trying it once, she was hooked and just rode them over and over again. It was hard to get a good picture because you never knew when they'd come shooting out, but at least it wasn't too blurry and you could tell it's a picture of Taryn. 

I took a picture of my kids and Tiffany's kids as we were leaving near the jumping water fountains that the kids loved chasing.  

That evening we tried one more lake so Tyler and Justin could fish again. The girls played volleyball with a beach ball, played at a park, and chased some ducks and bunnies. The boys tried catching fish but only ended up catching one I think. It was still a great day. We had so much fun! 

The next couple days were spent with my family as we celebrated my grandma's birthday, but I've decided to make that a separate post, so here are the last few pictures we took at Tiffany's house before we headed home to Texas. Julia was our little buddy who always rode in my car. She was so sad to see us go. I took a selfie with her to get her to smile. Abby and Halley grabbed Tessa and Jacob to give a double-decker hug, so I grabbed a picture. It was too cute.

We took a couple group pictures before we left and of course the kids had to do a silly one after we got our serious one in. I thought they were pretty creative when it came to deciding how silly they wanted to be in the picture. 

We love our family!