Summer Vacation 2011: Part 1

Whew...we survived another long road trip to Utah for summer vacation. Aside from the many hours in the car, we had a wonderful time. We stopped in Colorado on our way up to visit GG and Papa. It was so nice to take a day off from driving and just hang out and relax with them. As is tradition, Sadie took a ride on Papa's "horsey"...

She was fascinated by the boys' headphones so those made it onto her horsey ride too...haha.

Our first day in Utah was full of 4th of July fun. We started it out with the Provo parade. The boys were a little disappointed that no one was throwing candy (like they do in Manassa, Colorado for the Pioneer Days) but they still thought it was fun. As you can tell by our red cheeks, it was pretty darn hot too...

Afterward, we met up with some of John's siblings and their kids for lunch at the Riverwoods. The kids had a ball cooling off in the fountains...

Cousin Lucy and Ben

Sadie drenched herself (and thought it was quite hilarious) within five minutes. I ended up running into one of the stores to get her some dry clothes to ride home in. John says I can always find an excuse to shop, haha!

Afterward, I took Sadie home for a nap (she was exhausted from all our travels) while John and the boys hiked up to Stewart Falls with the cousins...

Sad I missed out on this gorgeousness...

The boys were so excited to find that there was still some snow left on the mountain right by the falls! All that snow from this winter also meant the falls were coming down hard and fast, which they loved, of course...

John, Mo, and Ben at Stewart Falls

Cousin Matt Brown and Matt Mo at Stewart Falls

Later that night, we had a family BBQ at Uncle Cory's house. We gorged ourselves on yummy shish-kebabs and home-made ice cream while the kids ran around the backyard. We were having such a wonderful time I didn't even think to take pictures...dang it! I also didn't get any pictures of the impromptu fireworks we saw coming from every direction around the neighborhood...it was pretty darn cool though. We saw plenty more from the car as we drove home to Midway that night. We planned to watch the fireworks show up there, but the kids fell asleep in the car. You know it was a good day of playing hard when this happens...

We decided to use the next day to recover from all our fun and travels. We played at the park, ate pizza, got ice cream cones, and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was heavenly.

To be continued...