The NEXT trip.

I'm back! ...did you even know I was gone? :) I went on a whirlwind trip to Utah/Idaho. My journey started in Idaho Falls visiting my family. It was heaven. Beautiful Idaho Falls summers. I adore them. The weather. the views. the people. all of it. I loved it. My first morning there I drove to the river (the snake river) to take a jog. On my drive over I just about teared up thinking about how much I love Idaho Falls. There are so many memories. I feel so lucky to have had such a good childhood.







One memory I have is going to Don Wilson's after our swimming lessons in the summer. It was a cool old fashioned soda fountain where we would buy penny candy and the occasional egg salad sandwich. The store is a land mark of Idaho Falls but it was sold several years ago. My Dad found where the sign was laid to rest so I felt I needed to take some pictures to document and remember Don Wilson's.





This is my Dad posing on a rail car. He and his family actually lived in one of these when he was very young! I can't even imagine.
While I was in IF my Mom, Lindsey and I got to spend a lot of fun time together. What did we do? We went thrift store and garage sale hunting for treasures. It was a blast. I found lots of great stuff. One of my favorite items I found was a set of Tupperware Popsicle makers for only $0.25! Score! I must say, we would all get very excited to find what we would consider "treasures". ...it' the simple things is life, huh?

I also got to see Heather, Kelly and the kids while they were visiting Idaho Falls too. It is always so fun to be together. We had a big Dutch oven dinner together on Saturday night. It was delicious. My Dad's baked beans are to die for. Heaven. I sure missed my own little family that night though. It felt kind of empty without them there.





Sunday morning started the next leg of my journey...a girls trip to St. George, UT with 4 of best best gals. Shyla, Amy, Kenia Ann and Jolene. We were all friends in jr. high, high school and college. I feel so blessed to have friendships like these. We are truly sisters. We all lived apart now but we try and get together once a year for a little reunion. This year we went to Amy's vacation house in St. George. It was so FUN. Talking...eating...shopping...hiking...eating...talking. Not much has changed between the 5 of us in past few decades. How lucky are we?

Playing a game...Amy is CONCENTRATING.

...so is Kenia Ann.

I set up my camera on the timer to get a couple shots before we headed out one of the days. We were trying to get a jumping shot but as you can see...we never quite nailed it. I thought the pictures were hilarious though. :)





Us trying to be serious. Shyla could do it and brought me down with her....
Amy and Shyla brought their littlest babies with us on the trip. They were such good babies! We enjoyed having them with us.




One day we went into Zion's National Park to do a little hiking. It was so BEAUTIFUL. Oh, it was just amazing.











Then the last and final leg of my trip was spent downtown Salt Lake City. I got to photograph a wedding on Saturday. But before the wedding I had a day or so to just mosey around downtown and take some pictures of the Salt Lake Temple. Isn't it beautiful? I also got to see Rick and JoAnn Laing. (Kelly's, my brother-in-law, parents) They are serving a mission at the Family History center on Temple square. They invited me to their condo and JoAnn made the BEST dinner. It was so yummy. After dinner we played a round of cribbage. A next end to a nice dinner.

the next day I met up with my friends Ellen and Mallory. (Mother and sister of the groom.) We got to spend the remainder of my trip together. I love them. They are truly great people. I really feel like family when we are together. It was so easy and enjoyable being together. Maddie and Lyndon adore them too. Maddie asked me one time, "Is Ellen my Grandma?"















The wedding went great. it was fun to take the pictures. We had to elbow our way around amongst the many other brides and grooms also getting married that day but it was a fun experience. Check back on my photo blog to see some pictures of the wedding soon.

All in all is was a fantastic trip!! But I was very ready to see my cute family again. Jonathon and the kids surprised me by showing up at the Austin airport greeting me with flowers and a Dr. Pepper. Ahhh, it's nice to be home.

The trip

The Nebraska trip...oh, so fun.

We went downtown Omaha with my sister and brother-in-law, Heather and Kelly. They are living in Omaha for a short time. We really haven't gotten to just hang out together since...hummm....I think it's really been since we lived in Orlando and Heather and Kelly lived just a couple hours North in Georgia. I love being with these two. We had a blast. We ate at Zio's Pizza (my mouth is watering just thinking about it) and then went and saw "Eclipse" at a really fun luxurious theater.



Here is Maddie with Cole. He is Jonathon's dog who still lives at Jim and Kris' house.


Lyndon LOVES being at Grandma and Grandpa's house. He calls their barn "the farm". So he'll say, "Come on! Let's go to the farm!"





There were little tiny brand new birds waiting to be fed by their mamma in the rafters of the barn.



The 4th of July was lots of fun. Heather, Ashley and Mason came out to Blair to celebrate with us since Kelly and the older boys were at scout camp.

Jonathon's loot. He was very pleased.

lighting some of it off...

So here is a picture of Lyndon being "Wolverine". Sweet, huh?

Grandpa making cookies with the kids. Chocolate chip. It's tradition.

The kids and I went and stayed overnight with Heather, Ashley and Mason. We took one afternoon and went to the Omaha Children's museum. It was pretty cool.

This is the "Clifford the Big Red Dog" exhibit.

This is how Maddie enjoyed the Clifford exhibit...sitting next to Heather. There were too many kids for her liking.




I laughed when I looked over at Lyndon to find his signature drawing on a huge etch-a-sketch. A few months ago Jonathon and I actually found these little (okay, big) faces ALL over our upstairs in marker. Lyndon was supposed to be in bed. he even drew one on our bedroom door...while we were in there. I think he was taunting us. Oh yeah, and we found one in the bottom of his bathtub.

Playing around in the gift shop afterward.

What a dork.

We also hit their awesome thrift store. We shopped and the kids played. They were exhausted...



This is our trip to the "Pizza Machine". It's like a big Chuck-E-Cheese but it has actual amusement park rides INSIDE! Lyndon was lovin' the bowling that was just his size.

Lyndon was loving the buffet.

last but not least we had to throw in a little impromptu photo shoot with Grandma and Grandpa.






We had a GREAT time. This kids were already talking about our return trip as we were pulling out of their driveway to drive home.

P.S. yes, we drove and it was surprisingly great!
P.P.S. (Or is it P.S.S.? ...never sure.) We also got to see a lot of Jonathons sister, Sarah, and her sweet family. They have an adorable new little edition, Julianna. I'm not sure how we didn't get any pictures of them!

out on the farm

The kids are going through Grandma and Grandpa withdrawals...we are too.

Lots more pictures to follow. lucky you.