Little Girls and Home Sweet Home

We ended our Utah trip by staying with our best friends from college, Mike and Kelli and their little girls Brinley and McKenna. It was one of the best parts of our trip. I got to see their darling house for the first time and meet McKenna for the first time too. We got to stay up late talking and catching up and see our kiddos play together. I wish we lived closer and just soaked up how fun it is to spend time with them while we were there.

 

 

LOVE this shot. So cute of Easton and Brin.

 

McKenna is a sweetheart.

 

Kesler in his little blue leg bandage.

We went to a duck pond and Easton practiced fishing while we were with them.

 

My boys were a little ready for the trip to be done by now.

 

On the day we left I got to meet up with my other best friend from college, Seidi. It was brief, but at least we got to say hello in the flesh. Miss them!

 

And then we drove home. It went much better than on the way out. We weren't sure whether we would try to drive straight through or stop, but by about 11 we decided to find a place to stop. We stopped in Cheyenne and were so glad for it. The kids slept great, we slept great, and they had biscuits and gravy for breakfast (my favorite.) The next day was a long one of driving, but we finally made it home.

We stopped at Cabella's for a pit stop.

 

 

 

A friend at a rest stop.

 

 

Utah Adventures

We definitely found our that vacation is not vacation with kids- call it a trip instead, but we did do some fun things. One day we met my Dad's family up at Park City do swim and do the Alpine slide and the other attractions they have up there. Another day we went to Thanksgiving Point to the Dinosaur Museum. I think we all had a great time there.

 

Soren in a rare photo.

Uncle Cody and Easton

 

Soren, Easton and my brothers building a sand dam for the dinosaurs.

 

We also got to go to Seven Peaks for the day with my Mom's side of the family. It was really fun to take the kids and see what they enjoyed. Easton is definitely getting old enough to do the more daring slides with Soren. I chickened out and was glad to wade with Kesler in the baby pool.

 

 

Soren and Easton down their first slide.

 

My Mom and Kesler after a long day.

Of course I didn't take enough pictures of everything else we did. We had a lot of time with family including a family game day and movie night complete with a popcorn and cotton candy machine. I got to spend time with my cousins and catch up. One of my cousins also has an Etsy shop so we got to talk business and my other cousin recently had her first little baby girl.

Soren also took some of my cousins out to try a little archery. Within minutes of starting he cut his finger open with a pocket knife and had to go to the Urgent Care center. It was bad enough to need five stitches and a lot of anesthetic. I'll spare you the disgusting photo. Who would have expected that???

St. George Nickels Family

This was probably our best visit ever to visit Soren's family. We had such a good time catching up with them and letting our boys meet their grandparent's and aunts. Aunt Cara and Aunt Amy were so fun for Easton and Kelser to play with. They did a great job making friends with them. I am amazed at how grown up they are now too! When Soren and I got married they were both little girls but now they are gorgeous young women!

 

 

Easton was excited to meet Grandpa Nickels because he was getting his own gun from him. Soren's Dad is a gunsmith and made a small rifle for Soren when he was a little. Grandpa Nickels passed it on to Easton this trip and although he is too young to use it, he appreciated the excitement of it.

Soren pulled out his bow and arrows to show his family while we were visiting as well. Apparently his sister Cara has had a secret wish to shoot one and was very serious about her mini lesson. It turned out to be a great activity to involve almost the whole family.

I spent some time catching up with Grandma Dot. She lives with Soren's parents and is a great help to the family. She is so sweet.

 

The boys had a really fun visit and were sad to go. It will be great to visit again and continue to strengthen the relationships we have with them. Here they are with their Grandma and Grandpa Nickels.

 

Grandma Dot and her great-grandsons.

Little Soren

When we visit Soren's family we always get to look at old photos and here family stories with his Grandma Dot. She keeps amazing photo albums and I am so glad that she loves doing it. We looked a lot of photos of Soren as a kid this time around to see if our boys resemble him at all. We found pictures where he looks like each of them. I took pictures of them with my phone so that we would at least have crude copies of them.

 

Here are a few fun ones. I think he looks a lot like Kesler here.

 

 

This climbing one definitely looks (and acts) like Easton!

 

Soren and his sister Janisa. His love of motorcycles started way back then.

 

Soren and his little brother Reagan. I think this photo is so sweet. It reminds me a lot of how much Easton helps Kesler.

 

Soren has been in love with archery since he was a kid. He made his own arrows and spent hours shooting. Its great to have pictures of it since he has taken up the hobby again as an adult.

22 Hours in the Car

For family vacation this year we headed to Utah for two weeks. Although it wasn't our first preference, we decided to drive- our first official family road trip. And maybe our last. Taking advice from friends, we tried driving through the night. I hope the kids would sleep all night and we would have a blissful, easy drive for at least 10 hours. Had it just been Easton in the car, we might have.

 

We left around 5:30 and drove for about an hour and a half. Then we stopped, ate a bit and put on pjs. We turned on a movie and the kids did ok. I had to sit back there by them, which is when I was really wishing we had an eight-seater. Easton fell asleep fine once it got dark enough and we hung up some blankets to block the light. Kesler got more grouchy and more awake as the night wore on. To make a long, sad story short, Kesler hardly slept a wink and cried all night. I had to hold him for most of the night and got almost no sleep myself. I tried to drive for about an hour, but my eyes wouldn't focus enough to keep going.

 

Faking smiles after the worst night ever. In the morning we found out that Kesler's leg had been bothering him all night. When we took the bandage off his burn it was swollen and red and infected. It looked awful. We cleaned it up really well and wrapped it. Then we kept on driving.

 

 

Don't be fooled- he isn't sleeping.

 

The views in southern Utah were amazing. The second day of the drive was much better. We arrived in St. George at around 3 in the afternoon to stay with his family. I'd say the worst part of the drive was the next day when I woke up with the worst migraine of my life. I was sick the entire day with flu symptoms and a splitting headache. No more driving all night for me.