The Big Getaway

This summer has been the best! Here are some of the highlights!

1)Our fun started before we even left! Aunt Haley (Ryan's sister) flew down to help me drive up to UT with the kids. We had so much fun renting paddle boats on Tempe Lake. Haley, thanks for all the fun and for your help during the drive!
2) Once in Idaho, the kids had SO much fun playing with their cousins! Indi has requested that we have a baby just like baby Paige. Tall order. We will see what we can do.
3)Watching the kids play in the fort and ditch with Uncle Kent and with cousins (cousin Ryan in the pictures).
4)Uncle Kent is awesome (and handsome)
5)Watching the kids get dirty.... constantly
6)Watching Walker play chubby bunny with Grandpa
7)Being with Uncle Seth before he left for his mission. (Hearing him speak in church before he left was definitely a highlight! He will be such an amazing missionary!)
8)Spending the day with my cousin Diane and her kids at Roaring Springs. We had SO MUCH FUN thanks to them! Her older boy was so sweet to Remington. Eric stayed with Remington the WHOLE day and took him on ride after ride after ride. Rem was in HEAVEN, and I just wanted to give Eric the biggest hug for being so good to Rem. He made Rem so happy! The younger kids all had fun with the younger cousins their age, and Indi loved the attention from Diane's two oldest girls, Jessica and Nicole. AND, I had the greatest time with Diane. I never get to spend enough time with her, so having the whole day with her was a dream come true for me! She is one of my idols.
9)Picking raspberries in Grandma's garden. Indi spent HOURS out there picking and eating the berries. Even Walker helped.
10)Ryan and I having a little get away--what a treat! Thanks Mom!
11)Spending the 4th with more family! Uncle Don and Aunt Renae (who I LOVE SO MUCH!) and cousins Katie and Lexi!)
12)Watching Rem put his rt hand on heart and doing some sort of salute with his left hand during the star spangled banner! Love that kid!
13)More cousins (they were all so good and sweet to my kids! My kids were in heaven the whole trip because of the love of family!)
14)Making bread with Grammy
15)Fishing with Grandpa and Uncle Kent, and then grandpa and uncle Kent cleaning the fish!
16)Shooting a gun with Grandpa (yes, Remington was in heaven!)
17)Going to the cabin. My Grandparents built this when my mom was a young girl. Now it belongs to my uncle. I hadn't been up there for atleast 12 years, so it was so fun to revisit a place with so many wonderful memories! It was far more beautiful than I remembered, and just as fun! We fished and swam and canoed and played with cousins. Uncle Don and Aunt Renae came up too, which meant so much to me! And, they were so good and loving to my children...I was in heaven because my kids were in heaven.
18)S'mores. Yum!
19)Being with Family!
20)Uncle Don took Ry and I and uncle Kent up to the top of West Mountain on four wheelers. From here, we could see the area where I grew up, plus you could see Cascade Lake. It was one of the most picturesque scenes I have ever seen. It was breathtaking. Just being up there and seeing the beauty made me want to never leave! It was a testament to the reality of a God who loves us and who is in control. Thanks Uncle Don!
21)Next we headed to the Stum Reunion. The cabin was AMAZING! Moose Mountain as it is called was the perfect setting for lots of fun! The cousins had such a great time sleeping in "Buffalo Bunks", and we even saw a moose while we were there (it was named MOOSE MOUNTAIN for a reason!) I love the cliff jumping pictures--the first is Ryan's dad, he is a stud, even in his old age (just kidding dad!) Ryan's bro, Nate, is the crazy one doing the superman! I wish I had more pictures from this reunion, but our camera battery decided to go bonkers on us and not work...awesome. If we had the pictures, they would be of fun ping-pong games, amazing family devotionals, delicious meals, fun runs (the fun is debatable--the altitude combined with the steep terrain about killed me) in the crisp morning air, dance parties, and lots and lots of goodness and love. I am very blessed to be part of the Stum family and the Walker family--two very choice groups of people!

I can't imagine a more fun, or a more fulfilling vacation! We were able to spend time with the people we love and our kids LOVED being with grandparents, and uncles and aunts, and cousins! In my dreams we will someday live closer, but for now, we will be satisfied with the little time we were able to spend together! Thank you for loving me and my family!