My sisters Melanie and Erin were both making the very long trek to Utah for the 4th of July (coming from Tennessee and Michigan) and since I hadn't seen their families for 18 months I decided to be very brave and drive myself and the kids to Utah too! It was a looooong 16 hours but we finally made it all in one piece - which is all that really matters. My good friend Whitney and I caravanned and it turned out surprisingly not as dreadful as I anticipated. It helped that I had checked out more than 30 videos from the library and my dear friend Aubrey loaded us down with snacks and prizes for the kids! All in all it was a success. If I just forget about the time I almost ran out of gas (who knew there was a million miles between stations in the middle of Idaho?) and the 30 minutes that all the kids were literally screaming bloody murder. It took me that long to figure out my stress was contagious and it had been too long of a day and the van was entirely too hot (couldn't use the ac when we were driving on fumes!) for me to succumb to my own anxieties. Once I calmed down (thanks for the pep talk, Mom), everyone else calmed down too. We found a gas station and were on our merry way. Whew! :) Lesson learned the hard way: it's entirely true that if Mom isn't happy, no one is happy!!
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| Doing yoga during the long drive! |
We spent the week at Matt and Amy's - a real treat for us all! Gabe and Nyah were utterly thrilled to be with Wesley and Logan all the time and there were so many exciting things to do and explore. Matt has done so much work in their yard and so the kids had a fort and swing set, slides and trampoline... not to mention all the toys... and best of all the "desert" and their wilderness fort. Matt's house borders on a golf course and BLM land so the kids have a blast looking for golf balls and running around the 4wheeler trails out there. Gabe and Wesley spent days refurbishing what looked like to me a hut that a homeless person put together out in the BLM land... not the safest place to play but they were so thrilled about it, I couldn't interfere! I got it all on video but didn't get any pics. I'm sure you can use your imagination of how cool it was! ;)
I had a wonderful time with all of my siblings... it's so rare that we all get together. It was so fun seeing all our kids playing together too. Mel's boys were absolutely addicted to riding the 4wheelers and spent part of every day out there racing around. They kindly would give the little kids rides too and Gabe just loved it! We also went to the pool and the splashpad, did sprinklers, had birthday parties for Ben and Coleman, did our own firework show, went to Jump On It (an ultimate trampoline place), had tons of game nights, barbecues, Café Rio and In-N-Out Burgers, and feeding endless treats to the horses (I'm sure Dad was thrilled). The only thing we didn't do was go horseback riding - at least I didn't, I'm sure others did. Anyway, it was a great time and I'm so happy I went!
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| Coleman with Ian and Gage |
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| Coleman and Gabe |
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| Bridger and Ian |
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| Mom, Mindy, Gage |
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| Coleman holding Gage and Ian in a pit of sponge squares at Jump On It! |
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| TJ!! :) |
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| So funny watching Ian, Gage and Charlotte all manhandle each other, haha! |
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| Charlotte and Nyah |
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| Ben's birthday party! |
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| Fireworks at Matt's! |
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| Eliza and Gabe... and all the boys climbing all over that car! |
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| Game night! Amy, Erin, Jed, Dad, Matt, Connor, Mel |
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| Mel, Mom, Me |
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| reverse charades - hilarious!! Mel, Mindy, me, Amy |
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| Connor, Jed, Matt, Mom |
