Our 2 week road trip!!

We took an insanely long road trip! The kids and I left for the Provo area on the 26th of July. My sister-in-law, Heidi and her family do swimming lessons in the summer so we took advantage of that. Then we headed to Ogden for a week and then to Bear Lake for a few days. It was so long and exhausting but so worth it! We all had so much fun!! Here is a little bit of what went on.....


Kaylen was a little too young for lessons this year so luckily, there was all kinds of toys and a nice playground to keep her busy! Next year, she'll be in the water!!





On the first day, Masen wouldn't even put his face in the water! By the end of the week, he was doing front stroke, back stroke, knee dives off the side of the pool, and jumping off the diving board! He rocks!!







Braedy wasn't too excited about swim lessons but ended up having a blast. She struggled with diving until Heidi told her, "It's just like doing a handstand in the water!" and then she was doing perfect dives!







Jayden had no desire to take lessons. He was actually mad at me for signing him up. But by the end of the week he didn't want it to end! He struggles with diving but so did I. He learned a lot and got so much better!!






After swim lessons, we headed to my parents house for a week. We got a very pleasant surprise when Dave and Leah and their girls decided to come and spend some time too!! They only pics I got were of the kids "swimming" in the hot tub! They had so much fun catching up with their cousins and spending time with their grandparents! It was a lot of fun and went by way too fast!










The last weekend of our trip we had a mini family reunion on Scott's side. Scott flew into SLC and then we drove up to Bear Lake and stayed the weekend with Robert and his son Cody, Troy and his family, Byron, Kevin and Heidi, and our family. We went up Thursday and came back Sunday. We rented a jet ski and had a blast on that. It was a little colder than I would have liked but it was awesome to just hang out and relax with our family. Here are a few pics.








We picked a bad weekend to go to Bear Lake. It was so cold! The water wasn't bad but I don't think the temperature ever got over 80 degrees! So, we spent a lot of time playing in the sand on the beach! It was so fun! The kids had a blast burying each other and Uncle Kevin and Aunt Heidi!












Beautiful Bear Lake in the background!!



Troy and Lisa's cute kids!!



Kaylen usually missed out on the first part of each day at the lake. She always fell asleep on the way there.



Crazy Mase! We were freezing so we hung out in the car!!




On Sunday, we decided to take a tour of the Minnetonka cave in St. Charles Canyon. It was really cold but lots of fun. The kids loved it, especially Mase and Ethen because the were vampires the whole trip and vampires live in caves! They even turned into bats a couple of times.

The crew-Braedy, Zak, TaeLor, Ethen, Jayden, Masen, Kaylen, and Rian.




While we waited for our tour to start, the kids had a blast feeding the chipmunks. They were really friendly and not at all scared of us. Kevin told Jayden and Zak that if they caught one, he would give them $100. I told Jayden he wasn't allowed to pick one up because I didn't want him to get bitten. He thought I was ridiculous and just plain mean until he say another boy pick one up and get bitten! After that, I think Jayden thinks I might be a little smarter than he previously thought!!





I just have to say how blessed I am to have such a great family! I had so much fun with everyone and I'm so glad that I have such a great relationship with each one of my family members! It sucks living so far away but I guess that just makes the time we have together even more special! Thanks for everything, everyone!!