Day 3/5: Church and then off to Uncle Rob's for a swim.

On Day 3 we were able to go to church with Grandma Jean Ann and Grandpa Chris and then have a nice Sunday dinner at their house.  It was nice to just sit around, hang out and enjoy the lessons that were taught that day.  Later on, we headed north to Uncle Rob's (Ryan's brother) house to play and swim on Day 4.  The kiddos love visiting their cousins and having some big kids to play with.  In fact, Rachel asked the other day when MeKena and Tyler were coming to visit us in Michigan.  Here are some pictures of the kids having fun swimming and eating.

Day 2 of Summer Vacation

On Day 1 we made it as far as Rawlins, Wyoming.  So we started out at 8am and were on our way.  Here are some pictures from our drive on Day 2.

After being asked over 100 times if we were in Utah yet, Ryan had to take a picture of the wonderful sign that announced our arrival.

Not 5 minutes later the new question was "Are we out of Utah yet?"  What the?????

On our way we stopped at Flaming Gorge.  Here are some pictures of the kiddos in front of the Dam.

We finally arrived in Vernal and had to stop at the temple to take a look.  Here we are happy and excited to be out of the van again.

Then it was off to see some dinosaur bones.  The tour of Dinosaur Monument was closed by the time we arrived, but we did get to explore Dinosaur museum and take our own tour of the Indian Petroglyphs in the area.  The kids loved seeing the writing on the wall.

After seeing the Indians and Dinosaurs, we headed to Grandma Jean Ann's for a good nights rest.

Summer Vacation in Eleven States

This year we decided to take a trip out west to visit family and to go places we haven't been before.  We left on a Friday and planned to be gone for 17 days.  Here are pictures from the first day of traveling.  We left at 4am eastern time hoping the kids would sleep for the first part of the drive.  They were a wide awake for a few hours than finally drifted of to dreamland.  Joshua stayed awake the whole time.  He was a barrel of laughs by the time we stopped that night at 10pm mountain standard time.

Pet Store

The kids love going to the pet store.  They love to walk around and see the animals, but they mostly like that they have kid sized carts.  They get to push them around and collect the stuff we are going to buy.

Sleeping Arrangements

Rachel's room is upstairs and lately she has felt a little lonely being upstairs all by herself.  So, we have been letting her sleep in Morgan and Gracie's room.  Here is a couple of pictures Ryan took one night when they were having a sleep over.

A Photographer is Born

The kids have figured out how to use the camera on our cell phones.  When we are not paying attention, they love to take pictures and it doen't matter what the subject matter is.  They will take pictures of anything.

Emily's Birthday

For my birthday this year Ryan and I went out to dinner and then celebrated with the kiddo's over cake and ice cream.  The kiddos all went with me to Cold Stone and picked out my birthday cake.  We had to take a vote and go with the majority because it was hard to decide what kind to get.  I wanted strawberry cheesecake, Josh wanted cupcakes, Jaxen and Gracie and Morgan wanted Cookie's and Cream, and Rachel wanted chocolate.  So, we went with Cookies and Cream.  Then we showed the kiddos my new bike.  Now we both can take the kids on bike rides, which makes it a little easier to keep track of everyone.