Utah Summer 2015!

And we're off!

Driving to Utah in the summer always takes weeks of planning and packing. Usually (every time) I'm the one doing all the packing and loading of the car. It's a lot of stress for me and I usually get sick. But since we had spent a week away from home two weeks before we left for Utah, I just pulled out dirty cloths and repacked them in all our suitcases. Genius! Ha!

Here is my little pajama'd family at the Mcdonalds train station in Barstow, Ca. Breakfast. (Gross)

I always hear the words, "For the beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the skies..." when we drive to Utah in the summer. The clouds never disappoint. And the pictures never do it justice.

When we finally arrived, this was the best welcome you could ever get. "Aunt Wissa!"

Hunter and Mitchell Wedding Dinner the Night before.

Setting up for the #hitchwedding. My man crush for Scott Hart grew leaps and bounds watching him make things and take things apart with his saw. 

Happy Birthday Wendy! Just what you wanted to be doing.

 It was all fun and games...

 ...till Avery and Cole slid off the front of the raft.

Getting new do's by Aunt Michelle

My parents left to go visit my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Harry on a mission in Nauvoo. So I decided to spend the declining their much neglected home. It was quite therapeutic, with the exception of the largest bees and wasps in the kitchen and living room windows. Utah has some pretty wicked insects.

The Jets and Debbie Gibson in Concert at the Scera Shell Outdoor Theater.

Seven Peaks Round 2!

BBQ at Sam Schultz' house. Lots of Startup cousins came.

Balboa Bike Ride and Balboa Bars

Balboa Island Bike and Running Trail!

When Noami's dance competition was over, I decided to take my girls to balboa to ride all our bikes. Let's say it was way more work and not as much fun as I wanted it to be. First it was reeeeeaaaally hot. Which in turn made Heidi and Audrey whine about having to exert any energy to push the pedals on their bikes. I had to push Audrey most of the way while walking next to her. She would get off and say she just wanted to walk, then realize it was harder to walk. Then Heidi needed to stop over 3-5 minutes saying she needed water. So even though it was a gorgeous day and I had great intentions, you can enjoy the pictures and forget that I told you how it was harder than needed to get my kids out.

Of course we had to stop at the end and get balboa bars. Each girl chose their own.

Brighton California February 2016

I've lived in California almost my whole life, (a 6 month run in Romania, 1 year in Utah, and 3 years traveling the world on Holland America Cruise Line,) but I never knew we have snow just an hour away. What? I know Big Bear has snow, but that is 3 hours from Monrovia and Arcadia. But our girls kept begging to go to the snow, so Ryan said, "OK, let's go to Bryton!" Where is that? I really had no idea. I had heard of it, but had never been there. So as we drove up the 15 freeway, heading towards Victorville, pulled off the freeway at the McDonalds exit, crossed west over the freeway, and headed up a 2 lane road. The longer we drove, the colder it got. And I was so surprised to see snow starting to fall just shortly after we pulled off the freeway. Being Californians, I thought I had purchased enough snow boots and snow jackets to keep us warm as we played in the snow. However, knit gloves and leggings weren't up for the challenge against freezing fingers and bums. But Naomi, Heidi, and Audrey had fun with the one boogie board we had to use as a sled.