The Trek

So...maybe it's just becuase of my long blogging absence so the system is mad at me or something, but for some reason I'm not being allowed to manipulate the pictures of this post...so...here is a random collection of pictures from what we've been up to.
At the end of June Jake, Alan and I went to Utah (see end of post for details). At the end of 1 week Alan had to return home, but Jake and I stayed and toured around visiting family and friends and such for 5 more weeks....Here are some picture highlights from the first 4 weeks.


This is Jake's cousin, Sienna...one darling little girl. We stayed with them for 2 weeks and she and Jake had a...love/hate relationship, but by the end of our time there is was primarily love so we considered it a success:)

Speaking of love...we introduced Jake to sprinklers...I'm telling you L-O-V-E...at first sight. I don't let Jake run amuck in the lawns of home becuase of MY fear and hatred of chiggers...so we were all very happy to spend some time lounging on the lawn:)

Jake also loves cousins!!! All kids we see now are "cousins" and he wants to talk to them and play with them and be best friends for life...kids at the gas station, park, library...I should probably be a little careful about this, eh? :)

Jas and I took the kids to a petting zoo and this picture pretty much captures how Jake and Sienna felt about it. Sienna could NOT get enough of all the animals...Jake just wanted away. There was a little stream and with a bridge that he loved though...so at least he was still happy:) Bridger and Kennin also thought the animals were fabulous. I think a good time was had by all.

We went to a 4th of July parade...Jake thought that watching people go by wasn't too exciting, but once he discovered that the people throw candy...life was good...his cousins are really fast and pretty nice about sharing so...I got to eat lots of candy when Jake wasn't looking:)

We also got to reconnect with some very dear friends, Matt and Elizabeth...it had been almost 3 years since we last saw them so we were long overdue and it was SOOOO GOOD to see them! How I miss those kids...We attempted to reconnect with several old friends, but weren't as successful as hoped, but it was good to see the ones we were able to find:)

One of the things on our "to-do" list while Jas and Katy were gone was to destroy their piano. Bridger and Kennin dig destruction!!! To say the least:) They were really good about gently taking all the pieces we could apart so we could get the thing outside. I seriously don't know how they got it in there in the first place!!! The thing weighed at least a thousand pounds, maybe two!!! It was heavy...anyway, once we got it outside Jas and Alan took a hatchet to its remains...apparently Bridger and Kennin aren't the only ones who dig destruction... :)

We went to Thanksgiving Point to the Dinosaur museum. Talk about happy boys!!! I didn't even have to do anything...just follow the happy little cloud they kicked up as they explored. They got to create islands with rivers and lakes and watch the water errode the island away as it went by. They could have stayed there for another 2 hours EASY! An expensive, but TOTALLY fun place to visit!

Bridger and Kennin have the coolest train set...it even entertained Alan for a long time. For those of you who know Alan this next bit will say A LOT...I had to work to get him to stop playing and come to dinner. He HAD to figure out the perfect configuration...and he won:)

Ok...now we're bac k to the part that should be the beginning...I'll start a new post and see if me and blogger can be friends again...

So... we went to Utah so we could babysit Jas and Katy's kids while they went off to play Ma and Pa on a trek with their stake. I'll let you check out their blog to find out more about it, but I stole a couple of pictures to share some of the fun with you:) Jas was so proud of the vest he was wearing:) He found it at DI and was putting the finishing touches on his costume the night before they left. The vest was WAY too small, but a little thing like that never stops Jason:) He pulled out some old athletic shorts he doesn't like anyway, cut the vest up the back and used a portion of the shorts leg to fill in as much room as he needed:) It turned out pretty cool:) Though he says he wouldn't wear it to the prom, I think it worked out alright:)