Summer Vacation 2015- Part 3- Oregon

 We left Utah and headed for Oregon! The fun part was, the kids had no idea we were going to Oregon, they thought we were headed home! They were tired, and so over being in the car. When we pulled up to my parents house and they realized where we were, they were shocked and excited! They had been asking to go to Oregon since Christmas! So they were super happy but then the realization that we had to drive all the way home hit. Luckily we got to stay for 2 1/2 weeks. And I forgot to mention that Merrill was with us, and he got to stay in Oregon with us for a week!

Lots of Fun things to do while we were there

Definitely spent some time in the pool. I got lots of videos but unfortunately won't upload.  

 

Helping with the yard work

 

 Little Brodie all ready to drive Grandmas Jeep!

 We helped paint my brothers house

Water fight

 Merrill and I took the kids to the beach!

 Jarret made himself a little seat in the sand

 One day my mom took us all to the zoo. We also met up with my Aunt Jody, cousin Kristy and her kids. We were there from about 9-3. Long day but lots of fun.

 Everyone eating lunch

Jarret loved sitting on this little lion

 It was a bit difficult to try to get a picture of the 3 of us. This was the best we got.

 Huge polar bear

 These two were adorable together. They just loved that there was another girl around among all those boys.

baby elephant

 This little guy had a blast. He was enjoying being in his stroller riding all around the zoo.

All the kids

Cousins! My mom had the idea to get them all the same shirts so we can keep track of them better. It worked out great. We typically had 3 in strollers the whole time. So then just counted 3 red shirts walking and were good to go! They called themselves the red team!

If you zoom in you can see a hippo with his mouth open

Grandma with half her grandkids

 My nephews do BMX racing. During the race they do a little kids strider race. So we took Jarret and signed him up for the race. He'd never been on a track before and he got first place! They all get participation ribbons. He was so excited and wanted to go again.

 My parents neighbor has horses and we got to go over there a ride them. This is one big horse, got all the cousins on. Darci was a little nervous since it was such a big horse.

Its hard to tell in the picture, but this horse has quite the mustache.

Summer Vacation 2015 Part 2- Utah

We left Texas along with my sister in law and her 3 girls to head to our family reunion in Utah. The drive is over 14 hours. we opted to take it in 2 days. With 2 of us and 5 kids driving 2 vehicles, we knew it wouldn't be worth taking it in one day. So we stayed in a hotel in Farmington New Mexico. When we got to the hotel Sharon and I were, of course, exhausted (espeically Sharon who was up all night before with the baby). The kids were ready to get all their energy out..

 So we got some KFC and headed to a park. And let the kids play for a bit and get all their wiggles out.

Somehow the kids all pretty much slept through the night. With five kids under 6 I was a bit surprised how well they did. And then it was time to get back in the car and finish our trip to Utah.

 We finally reached the reunion and fun was had by all. The kids enjoyed every single minute. Running around everywhere, making crafts, swimming in the river, floating the river (darci was a bit nervous floating the river, so she only did it once). Jarret LOVED floating the river and did it multiple times.

We did an activity where we had the "Olymics"! We all split up into teams, Darci and Merrill were the Jamaica Team and they won. We all got chocolate "medals". Darci was so proud that her team won. She still goes around spouting their team chant.

Some of the family brought out the squirt guns and waited on the bridge for river floaters and then soaked them with the freezing cold water.

Rock finding was a big hit with the kids. they loved hanging out in the shallow water searching for cool rocks.

We also got some visitors. My friend Mandy lives in Vernal, only and hour or so from our reunion (better than the 3+ hours to drive to provo). So she came for the day and had some funny playing in the river with us.

Aunt Linda brought some of Uncle Roys old hats and gave them away to all the kids. They all thought that was pretty cool!

 After the reunion we headed to Provo. We took the kids to see the duck pond at BYU. They made some changes to the area since we were last there, alomst 6 years ago. We saw lots of Ducks, little baby ducklings too. And fish and turtles. The kids loved it.

We stayed in Layton with Merrill's sister, and the next day was July4th, so we headed to a parade in the morning. It was very hot and we were right in the sun. The kids and i went back a little was to some shade while we waited to the parade to reach where we were. And Uncle Lance bought a big milkshake and lots of cups to share with everyone. :)

Next we headed back to Provo for a family BBQ and then to see some friends. Which I didn't get any pictures at either place.

After that we headed back up North to Merrill's brothers house for another BBQ and an amazing fireworks display with their neighbors.

"yay for fireworks!"