Utah/Idaho Vacation 2014

Towards the end of June, we were able to do a family trip to Utah and Idaho for vacation. We started our trip on Thursday, stayed the night in Denver, then drove to Bountiful, Utah where we stayed the weekend. There was a surprise birthday party for Mitch's Grandma who turned 80. That Saturday we celebrated her. We went on "the Barb tour" or important places to her. We started at the Joseph Smith Memorial building where she is a missionary two days a week. It is an absolutley beautiful building. It is neat to hear the history behind the building. It also has an amazing view of the Salt Lake City temple. We were able to go in the tunnels under all of temple square to get to the building. We weren't supposed to be down there apparently since the are doing renovations on the Salt Lake temple so security tracked us down. Luckily, we didn't get in too much trouble. :)We also were able to see Graham who was serving a mission in the family history library while we were there. We were excited about that since we won't be able to go back out when he gets off his mission the end of July. Quite the surprise for everyone.

For the rest of the tour, we went to Centerville and saw where she lived and she told stories about her childhood. We enjoed yummy shakes somewhere along the line. That evening after a delicious dinner we did family pictures and had a talent show. Then a movie about Barbara. It was so fun to get to see Mitch's aunts and uncles and cousins. There are a few the kids age so the kids LOVED it. Sunday we made the drive up to Boise. That week we were blessed with some fun times with the fam. The boys favorite was probably doing S'mores a few times in the backyard.

There were a few trips to the pond to swim with Grandpa, trips to the toy store with Grandma, a weekend with Wayne and Shereen, Mitch mountain biked 26 miles on the 4th with my brother in law Derek. He was pretty sore. We enjoyed the temple twice while we were there (such a blessing considering the closest one is 3.5 hours from us). The kids enjoyed the fireworks we did on the fourth:

Nate was our accident prone child on the trip. One dog jumped up and bit him one day. Left quite a mark:

Not even two days later he burnt his feet on the threshold of the garage apartment. It was not his trip. I enjoyed morning runs up to Camels back park. Blake joined me a few times. What a view:

I was able to meet up with 3 of my good friends from high school: Hollie, Lacey and Caitlin. We had a fun morning at a park letting all our little ones play. IT's strange getting together with them because everyone seemed the same. It felt like no time had passed except we all had at least one kid.It's been a long time since I'd seen them- at least 5 years for Lacey and Caitlin and probably 8 for Hollie. It was a fun reunion. I'm bummed I didn't take pictures. Monday evening we went to the lake with my family. Enjoyed wake boarding and swimming. Eric went on the tube. The boys LOVE their far Sedrick cousins. Sad I didn't take pictures then either. I've got to be better. It was a fun two weeks. We were ready to be home and the drive home was long but it was worth it. We love our far family!