Summer Adventures Part 1- Trip to AZ and UT

Before I backtrack and tell everyone what happened at work, I figured I would start by telling you the "good stuff" that has happened this summer. I am not sure how far I will get in telling, but bare with me.


The summer started off with a mostly solo trip from me to visit my sister who lives in Cottonwood, AZ and my brother in Salt Lake City, UT. Jason came at the end of the trip in Utah, but I did a lot of solo driving. My first stop was to my sisters. After 12 hours and almost running out of gas on a dirt road, I enjoyed four days with my sister, her husband (who amazingly was off work all four days) and her four kids. This is my first time visiting her with out her nearly popping out a kid, and it was fun. We got to have one day together just us and watched a movie, went shopping, and just had fun. I also enjoyed hiking with the whole family on Monday (Memorial Day) in Sedona which is only 30 minutes away from where they live. The picture above is of all the kids right before we left on the hike. We actually went about 3 miles round trip which was pretty good for such little legs. We even made it out without any bruises or scrapes. I was also able to play lots of games with my sister and her hubby (he's the game player, not my sister) and she even got me hooked on "The Bachelorette". On Tuesday, I allowed her and her hubby to go out on a date and watched the kids all afternoon. We went to the park and out to eat, got prizes from Family Dollar, and enjoyed some fun naps. I really had a great time there.This is a picture of my niece at the park. She looks exactly like I did when i was a kid. I have a picture of me on the swings at this same age, and we look the same : )

The next stop on my journey was to see my brother Chad and his family. It was my first time seeing my new nephew and he looks just like a cabbage patch kid!

This picture was the very first picture my nephew Kayden took in his life, so I had to post it for him-heehee.

While I was there, Chad took me on a tour of our Church Headquarters (since that is where he is now working) and it was amazing. I had really been struggling with my testimony and going to church, and it really helped remind me of everything I knew to be true. We also went on a long bike ride and enjoyed the "spring-like" weather they were experiencing at the end of May. I also took the boys to a park in Orem (south of SLC and north of Provo) where I met up with a friend i hadn't seen in a long while. I also took the boys to the mall and got them a crazy game and fun tattoos. Friday night we went to Chuck E. Cheese (kind of a tradition with these boys, I take them every time we visit them).This is a picture of my bro with his three boys winning some fun tickets! On that Saturday, Jason flew in early in the morning. After picking him up at the airport, we rushed to Eagle Mountain (where his sister Janelle lives) and saw her son being baptized. It was really neat. Right after, we headed to the temple to see her and her family be sealed together in the South Jordan temple. It was a beautiful day and we were so happy to be there. We went to a small reception for them afterwards and then headed back to my brother's to play games and sleep. We arrived home the next day which made my trip a total of 9 days! A DEFINITE much needed vacation for sure!

This is Jason kissing his niece Adella at the temple.


This is Jason with his two sisters Lynn (on the left) and Janelle (on the right) at the temple after the ceremony.