Camp McDonald

Two things I wanted to do in Utah for myself were to go to the temple (I did that with my sister) and go for a bike ride ( I did that with my brother). Derek wanted to take up the Alpine Loop, a 40 mile ride, and make me puke. Luckily, I didn't puke. It was a great ride and he was patient with me going up, and especially going down!

Other highlights: we celebrated Uncle Dan's birthday.

We even surprised him at his night class with treats .I think his students enjoyed it as well.

Victoria spent a lot of time at her cousins' house. She and Natalie are close in age and enjoyed making up dances. Victoria also enjoyed getting into mischief with Calvin, who's a few years younger. What I liked about it was that she learned how to survive in a house with 7 children. 10-year-old Mariah and 13-year-old Blake are so helpful, I hope some of that rubbed off on Victoria at Camp McDonald.

Meanwhile, Karissa, Austin, and Erik enjoyed activities with the cousins like park visits, miniature golf at Trafalga, and playing with the chickens at Karina's house. We even got to go to Derek and Missy's gym with Missy and their kids (Jake, Layla, and Kallie). I enjoyed a nice work-out with Missy (one tough cookie) while the kids played at the daycare there. We then relaxed at the pool.

All the activities wore Erik out!

We met cousins at the zoo.

Victoria and Natalie 

Hanging out in Grandma's hammock.

Karissa and Austin improved greatly in their swimming in Grandma's hot tub.

Dinner at Grandma's

Erik's line-up

I enjoyed every activity and seeing old friends and family. Though I can't remember all we did now, I remember we had a great time. One more week to record.

Utah With Jason

We've been on two different vacations here in Utah. One with Jason, and one without. Since we hadn't been to visit for about 5 years, we had many people we wanted to see and things we wanted to do. We had lived here the longest before we moved to Michigan, so we are quite familiar with the area. Now, more people that we knew outside of Utah live here too.

July 4th was the first full day we were here, so we enjoyed part of the fabulous Freedom Parade in Provo.

The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins in Aunt Karina's tree house

 and at Uncle Derek's house for a bbq.

Andrew and Blake put on an awesome fireworks show for us that night.

7 Peaks was on the agenda for the next day with the Pass of All Passes (thanks Grandma!)
We also got to see our dear friends from Michigan, the Bensons, who live as close to my sister as they did to us.

Austin went down the slide about 50 times, over and over.

We went to the McKay cabin that night (thanks Derek and Missy!) and on a beautiful hike to a waterfall the next morning.

After returning from the cabin, we ate and swam with our good friends, the Troxels, from our ward in Provo.
The next morning we went to church with Derek's family. We then met another good friend from BYU, Rachel, at Temple Square.

Karina's fourth, Natalie, who's Victoria's age, got to come around with us most of the time.

We went to dinner at my Aunt Karen's and Uncle Bill's with their children and grandchildren. Thanks Karen! It was great to see all of them. They were the closet immediate family I had here until Derek came a semester or two before we left Utah.

My mom and Jim were at a Chatterley reunion, but we enjoyed the next day at Trafalga with Karina's kids, including rock climbing, laser tag, and some rides with the Pass of All Passes.

Last, but not least, we visited BYU.

Erik loves seeing Nikolas, who he calls "Babies". He's Karina's youngest.

We miss Jason, but had a great time visiting all of our old favorites and friends and family.

Out West

People always ask why we say going "out west" or "back east", I guess it just dates back to when the pioneers were settling, they ventured "out west" where not much had been established yet. We got to drive "out west" for our summer vacation. Our first destination was in Colorado to visit Jason's family. Luckily, his sister Auburn and her family live in the Denver area, so we were able to visit with them for a couple of days. Jason's brother Thomas and his family live in Amarillo, TX., a mere 6 hour drive. We only got to visit with them one day, but it was a great reunion.

On the way out, we had to pay tribute to the Cornhuskers in Lincoln.

We got to play with cousin Mali for two days.

Erik loved hugging her since she's not much bigger than him.

 The next day we met Thomas' family at the hotel they stayed at and arrived at late in the night. We're glad they did so we could see them!

Cadence and Austin are about the same age.

The Jasons with their daughters.

They all enjoyed making a rock castle together.

I took three pics of this pose of the kids with Gramms for her birthday surprise and this was the best, but you still can't see Cadence very well with Austin's bored face in the way!

Getting cozy with Abuelo

Erik was spreading the love with Cullen too.

And little Corben, so bald and cute!

My girls loved playing "monster" with Christer.

It was a short, but sweet visit.