Utah Trip

We traveled to Saratoga Springs over the 4th of July weekend this year. We were happy to go because Jim's family was visiting from Florida, which doesn't happen super often! We had fun spending time with them and stayed for about 5 days.

Ashlyn was a little more of a fan of Sean than he was of her..... at least while he was playing DS. Ha ha.

Ash with Sean and Brett at the park....it was sweltering and awful heat when I took this!

We all went to the Lehi pool, which is a super fun pool for all ages. Lots of stuff to do. It took Ashlyn about an hour to warm up to being ok with swimming. She was still traumatized from getting splashed by a big bucket of water there LAST summer. :)

The Queen sitting on her throne

Helping Daddy with some yard work

Happy 4th of July! I did not break tradition and we all still had new outfits for the 4th. I will never stop doing that tradition!!

My beautiful girl.

Ashlyn had been having fun with her Florida cousins....but she was ECSTATIC when Scotty and Aiden arrived on the 4th! These 2 are SO awesome with her. And check out that wrestling gear they've got on! :)

It wouldn't be a visit to Nana's without lots of treats.... including whipped cream!

5 of Collin's 6 brothers and Mom all together again. We were just missing Brock, who lived in Ohio. Hopefully someday they'll all get to hang out together. 

The empty space for Brock...right there!

We went to visit Papa's grave on the 4th. We are always thinking of him, especially when we're there visiting, but it's really all the time. I suppose it will always be hard, and we'll always miss him. 

Hugs for Nana

After visiting the cemetery, the party got started! Everyone but Nana, Debbie, Ashlyn and Sean drove up to Salt Lake for the rest of our festivities. We stopped at In-N-Out, which you know I'm a big fan of!

Then we went to a Real Salt Lake soccer game. I was not super looking forward to it as I'm not a huge soccer fan. I was thinking the game would drag on and be boring. But we were seated really close, and I was pleasantly surprised with how fun it was to watch! Pro athletes are just fun to watch! :)

There was a great fireworks show after the game! I was of course thinking of my family up in IF and being a little sad that this was my very first 4th of July away from there. But the fun we had that night was great, and actually I was glad I was where I was! These fireworks were so fun. It was like 20 minutes long, and the music in the stadium was super LOUD which I loved! (as compared to hearing it faintly from a few cars in the driveway, you know what I'm talking about family! ;) )

 We had a great 4th! Thanks again Deb and Nana for watching Ashlyn that night so we could go out with everyone else. We had a great time. And I'm sure Ashlyn had a great time in bed sleeping too. :)

 The fun continued for a couple more days!

One morning the teenagers came with Collin, Morgan and I to the high school track field to do drills and exercise and play soccer. I got some pretty hilarious action shots, I couldn't find the best ones but here are a few.

We spent an afternoon and evening out riding Jet Skis and tubing behind Beau's boat. Nana lives literally a 2-minute drive from Utah Lake, which is awesome at times like this! I only wish it had a beach area for kids. Ashlyn was difficult to entertain while everyone else was out on the boat. She did ride with Collin on the Jetski! Kiersten was so sweet letting Ashlyn listen to some tunes! OK she looks like a teenager in this picture!

Luffffff these kids!!!