Le Grand Canyon

We are working on becoming more spontaneous people. So we went to the Grand Canyon with Uncle Ben and Aunt Joanna. It was mucho hot. Poor Lauren (and everyone else) got a bit of a sunburn.

I flew over the Grand Canyon when I went to Utah a couple of months ago. Did you know it's really big? I mean, from the sky it is EXPANSIVE. I finally got it. The canyon is big.

Did you also know what every year, over 5 million people visit this place? I wonder if that is more than what Disneyland gets.

On our roundabout way home we stopped in a lovely forest outside of Flagstaff and wandered around for a bit. I could live in Flagstaff.

 

Then we found this cute little Pioneer Museum in Flagstaff. I recommend it. There were little pioneer homes you could walk through, a train to climb into, and a bunch of old stuff in the main building (which used to be the Flagstaff hospital).

Yay for spontaneous adventures!

Yooty-tooty-tah

Family Vacation: Utah.

First stop: GFR in Park City. I saw my peeps. This means 3 days of girl-only time, lots of chocolate, and lots of laughing.

Lauren was the only family member allowed to come with me for this part.

Salt Lake. Dave and the girls met up with me after GFR, and together we rode the commuter train to Temple Square.

This is Sabrina "watching" Meet the Mormons in the Visitor's Center.

 And Sabrina with her snack and dad.

 And here we all are trying to take a family photo in a picturesque setting. You can see how that worked out.

 We stayed with the Melvilles and their 3 beautiful girls.

 Then we met up with my brother, Joe and his family.

 It was a great vacation that the whole family enjoyed!

5 kids

Dave and I don't know how many kids we want. The ideal number is changing year after year. A few weeks ago, however, we tried out five kids: Sophie, Sabrina and their three cousins Stephanie, Kate, and Megan. To say Sophie loved having some girl cousins around everyday would be an understatement. Our days are quite less eventful now that they are gone.

I learned a few things myself about having five kids in one house. Namely, these:
1. We would need to make a lot more money to feed 5 hungry kids on a gluten free diet. One loaf of GF bread=1 meal.
2. I would need to make a lot more food. Bleh.
3. Five kids under one roof is actually much easier than two kids. They entertain each other.
4. Clean ups can happen more quickly when their are more kids to do it.... If they do it.

The first day they arrived, all three of the Hancock girls found something in Sophie's closet that fit them and they went around wearing her clothes. Little Megan especially loved wearing dress after dress of Sophie's. 

Our days were spent in lots of water environments, dancing to some awesome musics, and playing at some fantastic parks. 

We had some definite fun.

Summer Vacation #4: Duvall Family Reunion in Bear Lake, UT

I'm in love with Bear Lake. I actually didn't want to leave which is really unusual with me and vacations. Usually I am done with the "fun" of vacationing after two, maybe three days. But Bear Lake was so pretty. The weather was gorgeous. And it's pretty much impossible to take a bad photo because everywhere you look it's beautiful. It was great to chill and enjoy the natural beauty found there.

This was the first opportunity I've had of meeting Dave's extended family on his mom's side (excluding the grandparents). They were all very easy going and fun. I learned quite a lot of interesting things about the Duvall side of the family!

One evening, we went on a walk. This is just up the road from the house. We met a farmer.

Sophie had lots of fun with her cousins. I think the main activity that all the little kids kept gravitating to was the sticky ball game (pictured below). And then there was the beautiful beach, of course. You could wade into it for quite awhile before it got knee deep. Sabrina loved splashing in the water. And eating sand.

Dave and Sophie playing the catch-sticky ball thing while Uncle Mike carries Lowe and Caleb on his back. And that's Sammy on the ground.

Sophie, Lowe, Dave, and portions of Sammy's body.

Soph and Lowe.

Digging in the dirt with Caleb and Jakey.


Abram, Sabrina, and Rebecca chillin'.

We drove all the way up with Mike and Lori in their van and made a few little stops along the way. I was a little nervous about driving all the way up to North Utah with all those kids, but they did so well! Sophie, Caleb, and Jakey played together most of the time and occupied themselves with their Nooks. Sabrina did well too, though I have to admit that now she has a huge fit every time I try to wrangle her into her car seat to go to the grocery store!

Sabrina being so comfy. Just look at that little finger holding on to her binky!

Me and the girls in the Tabernacle in SLC. One of our stops was at Temple Square.

Salt Lake City Temple

 
 Oh. And I have a hot husband. Want to see? Look at that smolder.

Summer Vacation #3: Family Reunion in Kaibab Forest

Annual Hancock Family Reunion. Most of us all gathered together in a giant cabin.


Me (while snuggling on the veranda under the moonlight): "I love being out here in the forest, but at night it's kind of creepy. In the horror movies, there's always some freak emerging out of the woods heading towards a house."

Dave: "Well, I think that this time all the freaks are inside the house."

Sometimes it takes an outsider to see us how we really are.
And sometimes not.

The little kids:

 Cherece took some fake engagement photos for us. Thanks, Cherece!

Dave is so handsome.

The quad. Probably Sophie's favorite part.

Weston, Miles, Sophie

 Weston and Miles doing what they're doing.

Laura took this one on my camera and I love it.

You see that little speck in the window?

That is a water balloon on target on getting my brother-in-law David who was reading just inside that window.

Good stuff.

The Sleeping Pose.

Stephanie, Brayden, Kiersten

 And a sleepy Sabrina.

Little Sabrina slept a lot on this trip.
She had a slight teething fever accompanied with a lot of drool and bit of a runny nose.

But who doesn't love them some sleepy eyes?