Thursday, August 18, 2011

Utah

At the end of July Brennan and I were able to go to Utah for about a week. My cousin Lauren had been visiting my parents so we were able to take her home. My parents came also, which made for a great number of drivers. But it also made for a very tight ride on the way out there. We managed to survive. The trip was a lot of fun. It was good to just get away from every day life for awhile and see so many people that we love.

We got to Utah just in time to celebrate the 24th of July. The parade was fun, but a bit too long and quite hot. But we did get to do sparklers with Nathan and Caleb and their families.
Not sure why Libbie is about to eat the sparkler.

Cute Claire.
A bunch of the kids, just loving the sparklers.

I got to hang out with Jaren during the sparkler excitement.

What won't he do for his grandkids?

There was some serious fun had on the swing near Caleb's house.

One afternoon we headed to Bridal Veil Falls. It was beautiful.

It was a pretty warm day so we enjoyed our time there by dipping our feet in the pool of water at the bottom of the falls. The kids of course thought it was the greatest and could have stayed there all day. They didn't have their swimsuits on but that didn't stop them from getting wet!

Quite a rock that Mia found...and quite the face she is making too.
One of many times when they slipped on the rocks and went a little farther in the water than their parents might have wanted.

Libbie was wearing tennis shoes that day and it was kind of painful to walk barefoot on the rocks. So she borrowed my huge flip flops to walk around in. At one point one fell off and so she went off chasing it. In the process she lost the other one as well. It was pretty entertaining to watch her panic and try to catch them. She did get them both back, but I wish I could have captured her frantic rescue efforts.

Just some cute pictures of Jaren at Texas Roadhouse.

Brennan's dad and step mom have recently moved up to Utah so we were able to see them on this trip as well. We were lucky enough to be out there to hear them all speak in Church and to be at the Harding family reunion. It was great to see everyone. One night we all met up in Salt Lake and Aubrie and Callan's apartment. We enjoyed a yummy dinner and then played some Xbox Kinnect. It was a lot of fun. Thanks for having us Aubrie and Callan!

Me, Aubrie and Thor.

Rex and Kellie.

Callan showing off his sweet dance moves while Abbey looks on.

I swear I got pictures of Brennan doing the dancing as well. So I'm thinking he must have erased all of them. That stinker. He's going to hear from me.

Nathan took us by his tax office to show us the little hummingbirds he has been watching outside his office window. They made a little tiny nest on the one of the Christmas lights Brennan hung for them a couple of years ago. They are just so tiny!

Once again we were not the best at taking pictures. I have Brennan to thank for the ones we do have. We really got to have a lot of fun in Utah. We got to see my grandpa and Brennan's grandparents, lunch with Melanie and Lester, Libbie's soccer games, ice cream with my cousin Alex, dinner in the mountains, and lots more. Mostly we just enjoyed spending time with family. We sure wish we got to see them more often. Now we are back to everyday life. I started back at Grant Wood this week and Brennan starts classes at the University of Iowa on Monday. We will be busy but life is good and we try not to complain....too much. :)