Thursday, July 9, 2009

June was Vacation Month!!

It has been 9 years since I have been back to Utah to see my extended family and even then I didn't get to see everyone. And my boys have never been. My very generous Uncle Jim invited the boys and I on a river rafting trip the second week in June. We had the best time!! The boys had never been on an airplane before so that in itself was quite the adventure for them! We got to spend the first 2 days of our trip seeing family and all of their adorable children. I hate being so far away from them!! We played games and caught up with eachother. It was so great!





Tyler realized he gets a little sick when the plane descends




On the 3rd day of our trip we all drove down to Moab,Ut. Along the way we stopped at an incredible dinosaur museum. I never knew utah was known for dinosaur findings.
Tyler and Uncle Jim

The cousins meeting eachother
This was a 95% complete mammoth. The only one that complete in the world. It was HUGE
After the museum, we finished our trip to Moab and went to Arches State Park. It was amazing. We did some hiking and was amazed by the scenery. My cousin Chantel and the 2nd cousins.

My Uncle Jim, my cousin laura, me, and the cousins


Trent had to climb this with me! I love his sense of adventure!



The only way I could figure out how to get down after a steep climb!

This is the next morning when we started our river raft trip. We flew in a 6 man airplane over the canyon to get inside of the canyon. Then we hiked a mile down to the river to start our trip. It was beautiful!

We are getting ready to get on the river and already the guides want to throw Trent in the water!! Ha Ha!


Tyler and Jim try out the duckies
Trent and Stockton do really well! They had a great time together on the trip!

This is what we did for every meal. Our guides were the best cooks!!

Here were some of the rapids we encountered

Trent riding the bull!

Tyler and our amazing buff guide Katie
Along the river we stopped at an old camp that was left by early settlers. Their house was intact for the most part left with some of their things. It was really neat to see.

Everyone with our other awesome buff guide Allie


Our last night of camp Katie and Allie cooked us the best steak dinner you can imagine. We ate good on this trip!!


The last day I spent 3 hours in the duckie and had a great time. It was so much more fun hitting the rapids in them than the raft. I'm glad Trent was so persistent I get in with him
We made it through!
Our guides were the best! They made the whole trip for us!! I will cherish the time I had with them, my boys, and my family forever!! Sorry for all of the pictures but it was a great trip! As much as I love living in omaha being close to family and it being a great city to raise our kids in, after this trip I definitely realized how much I love the mountains and the outdoors and how much I hope to continue taking advantage of the beauty of the earth we've been given!! Thanks again Jim!!

Our Weekend at Adventureland

We got in the car on friday night and surprised the kids by telling them we were going to Des Moines to go to Adventureland for the weekend. They were super excited! We stayed in a really nice room thanks to a hotel mix up and spent all Saturday at the park. Briegan was able to ride all of the rides except for about 3 of them and she had a ball! All of the kids' favorite ride of course was one of the big roller coasters which we must have rode 20 times. The girls insisted on keeping their "hands up." It is so fun having our kids get older so all of us can ride together! We have decided though as fun as Adventureland is, we are graduating from there and focusing only on Worlds of Fun now. All of the kids decided there were too many "baby rides" there for them!



One of the perks of this park is that they have a waterpark inside that you can go in. It was awesome to play in when we got hot!


The best ride ever!






It was a really fun weekend!