Utah Trip

We just got back from a kind of impromtu trip to Utah. Ian's mom wanted to go to her niece's reception, and to visit her parents, so we got to tag along! Thank you for letting us go with you on the long drive! My mom came and picked us up in Salt Lake, she had a Relief Society mtg the next morning at the tabernacle, so we stayed in a motel and my brother Mical and his wife Diana came with Abby and brought us some dinner. Then while she was in her mtg. We got to walk around temple square and saw all the water fountains! We also went to the visitor center and they were actually very well behaved, we even watched one of the videos.
(Sorry, the slide shows are kind of small, you can double click them to make them bigger)


The next day, my brother Rand and his wife Shemri and their kids Jake and Braden came up to Enteprise to visit. We got to see the cute little Braden for the first time. We went down to the farm to see the cows and the kids got to feed the little orphan calf, and play on the hay, and yes we all got hay fever.


Gunner loves to copy people especially other guys. He saw my brother on the couch and immediately climbed up just to do what he was doing.

Jake and Malia had a really fun time playing and were able to play together so good, Malia was just the princess in whatever game Jake wanted to play whether it was knights or bad guys or whatever.


Malia and Gunner got to help Grandma make rolls. I am never that patient to let them help like that, I guess that is why we have Grandma's! Of course they made a mess, but had fun!


When Grandpa got off work we went to see the reservoir, it was spilling over the lower dam, and got to see the work on the upper reservoir. Then we had fun hiking around the honeycomb rocks.




On Sat. we met up with my sister ShaRee and Paul, with her kids Dylan, Eryka, and Trey, my brother Colten and Megan, and Shemri, Jake and Braden, and Grandma, and we all went to Zion National Park and had a picnic, then hiked the Emerald Pools hike, which is not an easy hike with little kids! So a huge Thank You! to ShaRee, Colten, and Paul for carrying Gunner almost the whole way, and Malia (who wasn't feeling very well) part of the way!




On Sunday we drove down to Mesquite to Rand and Shemri's house to watch Conference, it was so warm! A nice change to the rainy Oregon weather. The kids had fun playing together outside. Poor Malia did not feel very good and had a fever most of the time.


We all watched conference (well sort of) :)

Then Gunner had to get a few more minutes playing in the dirt before we headed back to Oregon on the long drive home!



Everytime we make the 16+ hour drive down there, I always think I am never going to do it again, but then I guess it is like having a baby, you forget how bad it was, and do it again! And we will in July! Crazy I know! The kids were actually the most well behaved this time that they have ever been on the trip, although at times I bet Grandma Janelle disagrees. Just thank goodness for a DVD player! It is always fun to see Grandpa and Grandma Bracken, and the cousins. Gunner is still a little Grandpa's boy, and would hug him about every two minutes. Overall it was a great trip and we did a lot of fun things, but we are always glad to be home in our own beds, and we missed Dad!