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But so is Sunday!  We were surprised and happy to find out that my brother and his wife were blessing their baby while we were in Salt Lake, and were able to see baby Leila's blessing and visit their house.  In addition to the baby, highlights for the kids had to have been Aunt Lauren's bathroom ducks and Uncle Joe's basement guitar concert.

 

We also got to see a Japanese garden Grandpa B had created that was in a garden show on our way to visit Grandma and Grandpa Woodward.  Being at their house was so much fun for me – we usually see them at my parents' house, so it had been years since I had been to theirs.  Being there, and seeing my kids there, brought back so many fun memories I had there as a child – checking out Grandma's sewing room, playing the piano, running through the house, spinning on the chairs in their living room, having a drink in the tin cup, Grandma passing out cookies. Their house is always filled with good conversation, and lots of love. 

 
 

We finished the day with a family dinner at Nate's parents house – more cousins, more food, more fun!
 

 Next stop was the Adams reunion at Snowbird.  We stayed in a beautiful house looking right at the mountain.  It is rare to have everyone together, and it was so fun for us to see everyone and hang out!  There were lots of boys, lots of hats lying around, lots of baseball, lots of x-box, lots of babies (okay, only 2 and one on the way… but that is a lot for 4 families!), lots of swimming/hot tubbing, lots of laughs.  And of course the ride on the tram… every time we ask Carter what his favorite part of our trip was, he says "I went on the tram!"  And he thought the skiiers (that we could see from our house) were the "snowbirds".  Of course there are more pictures than I have room for, but here are some of my favorites:


Did I mention there was a lot of x-box?  (My kids – and Nate – had the time of their lives.)  

baseball on the tennis courts (the kids played plenty inside, too!)

Jaxon and Carter playing trucks and trains when the weather wasn't conducive to swimming…

In the pool – which was warm, thank goodness, because the air was not!  

Carter and Nate at the top of the mountain after the famous tram ride.

And all the girls (including Emma's baby Ellie) in the warming house.  We really should have brought some coats!  :)

 
We had a wonderful time – thanks, everyone, for arranging your schedules so we could hang out together!     

 It had been years since Nate and I visited Logan together… where we spent our first married years, and have so many fun memories.  We stopped on our way from Yellowstone to Snowbird to see Great Grandma Adams, and had such a fun time visiting her and her cute little dog.  There is never enough time to spend as long as we'd like there.  Her house has such happy memories for me – I spent the night there the night Nate and I got engaged, and she always made me feel so at home.  We love you, Grandma Adams!

 

The first stop on our marathon vacation was a family reunion with my side of the family… and since Yellowstone was our idea, I ended up finding the place for everyone to stay, which I was worried about more and more the closer we got to the trip – hoping it was big enough, nice enough, etc.  We got lucky… it was perfect.  Sure, we had some rain… but never enough when we were out in it that we were soaked through.  The scenery was beautiful, the buffalo were plentiful, Old Faithful went off as promised, and we made it down the 338 hanging off the side of the cliff steps to see the waterfall and back up without major incident (although my pictures are pilfered from other family members who were brave enough to stop and take out their camera… I was holding on to squirmy Carter for dear life.)  The big kids even each got to catch a fish with Grandpa and Uncle Joe… even though Zach was the only one brave enough to eat it. Another highlight for Zach and Emma was fulfilling the requirements to be official "Junior Rangers" – even making it to a ranger program – and the nice ranger who stayed late to go through their packets with them and bestow their ranger patches… quite an event.   

It was so fun to have everyone together, eat great food, and even see some bears.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures…

waiting in the rain for Old Faithful

Mammoth Hot Springs

And everyone fishing (or at least thinking they are…)

the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone" (aka the edge of a huge cliff with 3 crazy kids…)

Cousins on the porch swing (so much fun the Loves decided to stay an extra day!) 

And our Junior Rangers, with a wolf hide.  Awesome.  

Can you believe I didn't post a buffalo picture?  So many pictures, so little space.  It was a fantastic trip!  And it was hardly the beginning of our adventures!       

This is about mid-way of our straight-through drive to Yellowstone:  

  

At this point everyone is still happy.  I wish I could say the same for the last 2 hours of Carter screaming, kids fighting, edge-of-our seat driving through close calls with wildlife on the road in Yellowstone.  We were SO glad to get out of that car!  

 I have never seen Carter happier than when he is running through puddles in his rain boots, soaking wet and grinning ear to ear.  This particular day, there was only one big puddle… and it was in front of the neighbors yard, and it was SO muddy.  So… he stomped the afternoon away, covered in muddy water and perfectly delighted about it.

 Zach's good friend from school was having a birthday party the day we left on vacation, and then moving to Texas before we got home, and the only thing that I could come up with to console him was to take his buddy to a Honkers game.  The sobbing stopped, and the plan was made.  It was a late night (although it could have been later!) and a fun night, and I am grateful that Zach was able to share first grade with such a good friend.

  

 

 We were invited to a sing-a-long and memory book reading to celebrate the end of first grade, and luckily it was before we left on our trip!  It was lots of fun.  We got to sing along with "This Land is Your Land" and lots of other fun songs, and then see the books the kids had made about their year.  Emma and I left Carter at home with my sweet friend while he napped, and we had such a good time!  Zach had a great year in school.  His teacher Ms. Dussol was fantastic, he made new friends, and speaking of the change in himself (taken from his memory book) he said, "I have changed.  I got smarter.  I learned how to do fractions.  I have learned to be a better reader."   Way to go, Zach.  I cannot believe I have a kid who is headed into the second grade! 

 

 

The next best thing to actually owning a bird in Zach's eyes – and better than actually owning a bird in mine.  The kids loved having Sky visit our house for the weekend.  They would sit at his cage and feed him birdseed for hours – and I am not exaggerating.  We can't wait for our friends to go out of town again!
 :)    

Highlights of our adventure:  
Starting out for lunch in a little town with a famous pie shop that ONLY takes cash… and having no cash.

SO… riding 4.9 miles to the town with the ATM… Zach riding like a trooper, and Emma feeding Carter dum-dums and swedish fish to keep him from bothering her in the bike trailer.  

Finding an ATM, and an air-conditioned restaraunt with ice cream.  (It was SO HOT that day!)

Sending Nate riding his bike back to get the car while we ATE the ice cream and waited for him to come back, load up the bikes, and meet us at the park.

At the end of the day, thinking we'd love to do it again… only with the hitchhiker bike attachment and in the cool, comfortable FALL.