Catching Up - June Colorado Trip

We had a week between when our house in NM was packed until our belongings were delivered in Washington. We decided to spend the week at my mom and dad's house in Colorado instead of spending a second week in a hotel. One week was plenty and I'm SO glad we decided to stay in Denver even though we were so ready to be together as a family.  I also needed a serious break from dealing with the emotions of leaving New Mexico. I was a complete wreck for the first couple days and I was so glad to be with my parents to help deflect some of it.

We didn't have a lot of formal plans for the week, which was very intentional. It was so nice to just be together after having a few crazy weeks finishing school and getting ready for the move. We spent lots of time at the neighborhood park, at the pool and playing in the backyard. The park is about a half mile down the street and Emery insisted on walking the entire way by herself. So stinking independent. If you can't tell, everyone is still smitten by her and they still fight over who gets to hold her hand!

 I got up early one morning to do a session at the temple. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home and bought a couple kinds of ice-cream. The kids jokingly asked if we could have it for breakfast and were surprised when I said yes! Emery was a complete disaster but loved her sticky, sweet breakfast!

 We swam almost every day. A couple days it was barely 70 degrees but the kids didn't care and swam all afternoon anyway.

 I finally put Emery in a front facing carseat and she kept falling asleep in it. Poor baby looks so uncomfortable and I wish I would have left her in her infant carrier for awhile longer.

 We spent an afternoon in the mountains at Tiny Town. This is a little town made up of all types of doll-sized houses. The kids got a big kick out of it and loved riding the train around.

 There was a HUGE storm one night while we were there and the area my parents live in got about 2 inches of hail. It was so crazy. My parents lost most of their vegetable garden and all of their exposed flowers. It was so sad. This is a handful of hail I scooped off the front lawn.

 We also spent the one afternoon with my dear friend Melissa and her kids. Our kiddos had a FABULOUS time together and we basically had to pry them apart to leave. We were awed at how well they all got along and seemed to pick up like they see each other all the time and not once a year. I had a marvelous time with Melissa and she made me the cutest necklace ever that I just love!

Allen flew to Denver on Friday night so he could help me with the kids on our flight to Washington on Sunday. We were able to spend the day at Pirates Cove water park on Saturday and had a great time. It's the perfect size of park for little kids and we always go there during our CO trips. The big kids are ready for some "bigger" rides so we will probably hit the huge park in N. Denver on our next trip.

We had a great time in Colorado and it was just what we all needed. Thanks to my parents for such a fun time and for helping me with the kids when I was completely burnt out of single parenting.

Utah Trip, Part 1

Last week we headed to Utah to meet my family for a family reunion at Bear Lake. We had such a great time relaxing, playing and eating together! We left Saturday afternoon and drove to Boise. At the last second we found out that 2 of our favorite college friends were meeting in the Tri-Cities area to hang out for the afternoon. It worked out perfectly for us to stop by and join them for a couple hours. 

Allen with his buddies Dave and Tyler

 All of our kids (13 total):

We stayed at Allen's moms house that night and then drove into Salt Lake on Sunday afternoon. After getting some groceries for the week we met up with Allen's mom and Stephen and Meghan and their girls for dinner at In-n-Out. Steve and Meg had just driven in from Dallas for the week so it was awesome to be able to see them for a bit. Kenna and Lauren just adore each other and we had to pry them apart when saying goodbye. How I wish we lived closer to family!

The rest of the week we played, played, played. We split our time between the lake and the pool at the cabin we rented. It was a blast!

 We stopped for the famous raspberry shakes almost every day on the way home from the lake. Super yummy!

 Nieces on the deck

 One day we rented a couple jet skis and had a total blast! All the kids got lots of turns and Carter even got to drive for awhile. Allen is convinced that jet skis will be our next "toy" purchase. We loved them and loved how easy they are to transport.

 Night swimming at the pool with glow sticks. This ended up being really fun for the kids and they had fun diving for the sticks in the dark.

 This baby LOVED being in the sand this year (in contrast to our trip to FL last summer where she screamed if she touched it. She didn't love the water but would sit under the canopy with Grandma and Grandpa and dig and dig. She was the star of the show with my family and the cousins fought over her every day!

 The only boy cousins really have to stick together in the mess of estrogen that is our family. Parker and Mason were super kind to include Carter in their adventures. He gobbled up the boy time!

The day before we left Bear Lake it poured rain all day. Not the best for us PNWesterners but much needed to help put out the forest fires. Allen and I decided to rent a 6 person bike for the afternoon and we had a lot of fun riding in the rain. There was tons of wildlife out along the riding path and the kids loved seeing the deer and other animals. We were wet and cold by the end but made a great memory together. 

The kids loved warming up in the hot tub every day after time in the cold lake. 

Lots more pictures to come of our trip! Big thanks to my parents (as always) for making this fun trip happen!

(ETA: Every one of these pictures was taken with my iPhone! I adore not having to lug around my huge camera and still get pretty great pictures. It has been quite liberating and I take more pictures than ever. I'll still get out my big camera for low-light pictures because the iPhone isn't the best for those but I'm pleasantly surprised at how good the pics are during the day)