Trip to Utah!

We just got home from visiting Utah. Amazingly enough it wasn't too bad traveling hundreds of miles with five kids. I drove out with my mother-in-law and in the first couple of hours Lindsay threw up and Emily got her pants wet by peeing on the side of the road (there was no other choice! when you gotta go, you gotta go!!) But other than that things went fine. We went to my sister Jeanette's house in Colorado the first night. The kids had fun playing Rock Band and eating Blue Bell ice cream. They love their Aunt!

We got to Utah late on the 2nd. Jason flew in on the 3rd. We had a great 4th of July. We went to the Snyder Family annual 4th of July celebration. There were waterslides, carnival games, sno cones, prizes. and more kids than you can count! The kids had a blast. We had a great time at the Stadium of Fire. Miley Cyrus performed. Jessica, Joshua, Mike, and Sarah came with me, Jason, Alisha, and Lindsay while my parents watched our little ones. The girls loved it! There were a lot of young screaming girls there that night!! Sat. the 5th, We went to the Peck family reunion and visited with my Aunts and Uncles and my cousins. It was good seeing everyone again. We went to Joshua Farley's Baptism and then to a party at my brother Mike's in-laws. It was a lot of fun. It was good to see my brothers' families again. We had pizza, cake (the MAMMOTH chocolate cake from Costco that I LOVE) and ice cream. We swam, played tennis, and lit off fireworks.

On July 8th I celebrated my 35th birthday. We went to Tucanos in the Riverbottoms. We went for our Anniversary in March and just had to go back. It is good!! My parents also took us to Trafalga and we went miniture golfing in the black lights, it was cool. We went to several parks while we were out there with Grandma and Grandpa. My kids enjoyed picking up trash at the park with Grandpa using trash picker uppers that just happened to be in their trunk. We had a busy week, we saw Stacy Lynn (Temple) Lafeber (who our Stacy Lynn is named after) and her family, we had fun with my missionary companions and their families at the Ottley home, I went out to eat with my school friends Mandy, Jen E., Jen F., and Kris, We visited Jason's friend, Ryan from California and BYU, we went to the CS Alumni Barbeque, we went to several parks with Grandma and Grandpa Oaks, did quite a bit of shopping, and we went to the Serra pool with Jason's mom and sister. While we were there, Tyler was rescued by a lifeguard while his dad was having fun on the water slides and I was dealing with Emily. It was good that the lifeguard was doing her job. I felt like such a bad mom. I couldn't see Tyler and I had my mother-in -law help me look and then I spotted him turned sideways in the arms of a lifeguard. She said he was drowning right where it starts to get deep. I swear that boy is going to give me a heart attack!

The kids loved playing with all of their cousins and all the kids they came in contact with each day. Alisha misses some of the friends she made, especially SamathaBrandow and of course her cousin Jessica Farley. We did the usual things, Cafe Rio, Jamba Juice, SEE's candy, the Cemetary to see Grandpa Farley, attempted to see the Rienwands (which I still have not been able to do), Lehi Roller Mills, and Seagull Book & Tape (where I ran in to my old YW leader, Carolyn Jones, who was there with her youngest who is a Beehive and I am the counselor over the Beehives in my ward. Wow! It made me feel old.) There were a few not so happy moments of our trip like when Tyler got a black eye from his baby sister and when I got clobberd by a flying iron shepherd's hook at Roberts crafts. I have a HUGE bruise to prove it. I would like to say I didn't shed a tear, but it HURT! Of course it didn't look bad until hours later and has continued to look bad
everyday after. I look like I was abused!

We came home Monday morning at 12:20 am. Lindsay did throw up twice while driving through the Rockies, but we got a beautiful rock on the side of the road where we stopped. We stayed in Denver with my sister again Sat. night and we all went to CASA BONITA . The kids loved it. It is a great place to take kids, there are divers, a diving pool, waterfall, skits, pinatas, caves, palm trees, candy, a puppet show, ect... It is the largest indoor restaurant in the world. All in all we had a wonderful trip! We are grateful for the opportunity to go!