Every year for the month of June and part of July we disappear. We pack up and hit the road to escape the blistering heat and visit family and friends. Its so nice to have so many places to stay along our way and people to see. Our kids start thinking about this trip months before it comes. They love to see their cousins and play outside all day. The beauty of Utah shocks me every time we drive into it. Everything is so green and gorgeous!! This trip we definitely took advantage of our surroundings and had so much fun!! It was an awesome summer to say the least. I took over 800 pics on my iPhone......never took out my regular camera. What a nifty device! I will try and just post a few of them from all our adventures. We decided to drive through Las Vegas to see two groups of friends and happened to run into my Aunt and Uncle while they were there on vacation. It was a perfect stop!
Our first stop was to Michelle and Bryce.......we lived next door to Michelle and her family when Dave was at BYU. Now she's all grown, married and has her own family! We braved the strip to see the fountains and went on a fun hike one morning. We always have fun with Michelle!
Our second stop was just about 10 miles away to Lynsey and Jeremy's. Lynsey has been a long time friend of mine since high school. Dave actually had the hots for her before we started dating! Lol:) I love her to pieces and our kids always have a blast together. Lyns and I were able to sneak away one night for dinner and have some fun girl time......nice bonus! We ate ridiculously good food and giggled for hours.
I found out that my aunt and uncle we have a little getaway together just the two of them in Vegas! They wanted to meet for lunch. On our way out of town we stopped at Ceasers Palace and had lunch and watched the fish. It was great to see them!
We got our booties back in the car and started towards Utah! Our kids have always been pukers in the car. We go on a few roads trips every year and one of them always throws up on the way. It drives me crazy.....lately its been Parker. Which is worse because then you have a messy car seat to clean up too. So before we left I was on the hunt for a solution. I had a lot of advice and decided to try one from my neighbor. I went to this Vitamin Shop place that we love to get natural remedies from. The lady there is awesome and she had this essential oil called "EZ Traveler". It was a combination of different oils and it was amazing!! She also had these homeopathic tablets for motion sickness. I'm happy to say that I didn't have one puke session the entire trip! It was a miracle!!
We finally arrived to Dave's brothers house later that night. I got out of the car and I was freezing! We left a very warm Las Vegas and it was already into the low 70's in Orem. It was so refreshing!! We visited Brad's grave on his birthday.....we just happened to be there on that day. Brad Markham was a close friend of ours that passed away years ago. He was more like a little brother. We lived next door to their family and are still very close. We go to Lake Powell with them every summer. We stayed here for a couple of days and then went up to Heber to stay at Grammy's cabin!
Our neighbors the England's here in AZ were up in Utah for the summer. So we invited them to stay and the cabin and play for a couple days. We met at the Heber Valley Railroad for a train ride. It was so much fun! Parker LOVES trains......well pretty much anything that has a loud engine. He can't get enough. He was so happy on this train!
We went up to Park City one day to do the Alpine Slides. Ashlynn chickened out so Kelli went up with the kids and they all had a blast! The rest of us when on a carousel ride......woohoo:) It was so good to see our friends!!
After Kelli and her kids left the cabin we had another group of friends come and stay with us! Thank goodness Grammy and Grandpa were so easy going with my friends coming and going!! Having our friends stay with us made is so much easier to spend time together. It was perfect!
We have a group of friends that we got really close to when we lived in Iowa. We were like family to each other way out in those corn fields and farms. My friend Nicky let me know that they were soon moving to North Dakota!!! So I was very anxious to have her come stay with us so we could catch up before the move. Another Iowa friend also lives in Heber........the Frogley's. Steve set up his chiropractic office there and they live just 5 min from the cabin. So we all got together and played as much as we could. We went to Deer Creek and to the Park City Outlets and took the kids on a little hike to Cascade Springs. Its so great to pick up with people right where you left off.....even when it's been a year since you've seen them!
This picture cracks me up! The wind was blowing like crazy on the beach....you can't even seen half the kids faces!!
Two of my Iowa soul sisters......Natalie Frogley and Nicky Moss.....love these girls!
Nicky and I both don't know how we each got a blue eyed blond headed child......hilarious:)
Such a fun summer seeing so many of our good friends!!
