Steamboat Trip Day #1

We got up today and got on the road.  We decided to take the scenic route on our vacation since there was really no where we had to be at a certain time. 

This is how happy we were to get started.  Everyone was in a great mood.  We couldn't quite get everyone in the picture but we tried.

Rachel got the back seat.  She was set up with DVD player, toys, and the Ipad.  As you can tell she was happy happy happy.  She was a great little traveler.

Since we decided to go a day earlier than we had the timeshare reserved we decided we would go to Vernal Utah.  No one had been there.  Our scenic route that day took us through Flaming Gorge.  Nothing like what I thought it would be.  I can now say I've seen flaming Gorge.

 The scenery at the look out.

Rachel and me at the top of the look out.  I had to hold on tight to her because she has no fear and was trying to get as close as she could to the edge.

There were of course dogs around up at the look out and that was what Rachel went to first.  She mauled this dog but it was so good to her.  It was a golden labradoodle. 

These are the people that own the dogs that Rachel took to.  They wanted her in a picture with them because they thought she was so cute.  We laughed so hard about it.

Our groups picture at the top.

I was the 1st one to draw blood.  I was trying to hurry and get Rachel buckled up but hit my seat belt clip so hard it drew blood.  I was in a hurry so that we could beat the motorcycles out of the parking lot since we followed them all the way up this windy road and they were slow.  Needless to say we had to get a band-aid to stop the bleeding and we didn't bet the motorcyclers. It hurt like a beast all week long.

We stopped here for the little porta potties.  No real rest area's on this stretch of the road.

 This bridge was on the road to the dam.  Totally weird to see it out there when everything else was just desert area. 

 One side of the dam.  We looked at the visitor center while there.  Funny story:  Rachel was looking over the edge and talking with her imaginary friends telling them to get back on the other side of the fence.  The guy walking by took a double take to make sure there wasn't anyone who needed help.  Needless to say we had to talk to Rachel about what she says to her imaginary friends when people are walking by.

We couldn't go any further than this on the sidewalk.  Part of the dam.

After the dam we headed to Vernal.  We checked in to our hotel the Super 8 and then went to find somewhere to eat.  The place we eat at wasn't very good at all.  Scott got sick that night and was sick for a few more days after that.  We did stop to see the Temple there in Vernal since there wasn't anything else to do except go back to the hotel and go to bed.

The Temple.

Rachel in front of the sign.  She loved posing for pictures when she wanted to.

 The best family picture we could get with the wiggle worm.

Had to put this in because it was so cute.  She was smelling this flower before she popped up and we got this picture.  Well that's the 1st day of our trip.

Baby Emmory's Blessing Day & Bryson's Bday

Scott got off Saturday morning and when he got home I let him sleep for a little bit.  We then headed to Montpelier because we had Emmory's baby blessing on Sunday and then on Monday we were heading on vacation with Scott's parents to Steamboat Springs to our timeshares.  We stopped in and saw my parents for dinner and then headed to Montpelier.  We got ourselves unpacked and I headed to Jamie's house and she gave me a pedi.  It was so awesome.  I loved it.  We went to bed that night and got up on Sunday and headed to Logan for Emmory's baby blessing.  We got there a little bit early so we got to hold her and meet our new niece.  She was so cute and looked so much like her sister Kylee.

 Emmory isn't she so cute.

The gorgeous blessing dress.

 Scott likes to sit down at the piano and play his music that he is learning.

 Grani was there with us also.

Scott showing Bop that he can play music like Bop does.  It was fun to watch them.

After sacrament we headed back to Amber's house and ate lunch then celebrated Byrson's birthday.

 Bryson opening our present.  We got him a Disney shirt.

 His cute birthday cake.  Yes Amber made it.  So stinking cute.

and then headed back to Montpelier.  The rest of the night was just hanging out at Jamie's house.  Rachel really wanted to play in the water.  So Uncle Keith put their swimming pool back up and Rachel and Karlee played out there.  They didn't stay in the water for very long because it was so cold.  

 They had fun playing in the playhouse outside.  Rachel has a lady bug that is in her hands in this picture.

Aunt Jamie was so nice to paint Rachel's nails also.  We were all ready for our vacation now.

Walk to a party

We wanted to go to a going away party for Rachel's primary teacher.  It was at the Tolman's house and so I decided we needed to walk over there.  Rachel wanted to ride her scooter.  That was a disaster because I pretty much ended up carrying it down the street.  She would stop and beg for me to carry her but I wouldn't.  I only carried her scooter and made her walk the rest of the way.  It was fun for Rachel to say good bye to her teacher.  This is the picture they took of us as we were leaving.  It's actually a really good picture if I do say so myself.

4th of July

This year Scott was home from work and so we were trying to figure out what to do for the day.  We asked a bunch of people around our neighborhood but they all had plans already.  So we ended up going to the parade downtown by ourselves.

 Rachel and Scott

 Rachel and Susan

Rachel with her free flag.

The parade was pretty good.  After the parade we ended up heading to eat at Old Chicago.  After we finished eating we headed home to gather our stuff for Paul's house.  We decided to go to Twin Falls so we could BBQ and hang out with Paul's family for the night.  We got there around 4:00 and started to get stuff ready for dinner.  Kaylene had to work and so we were trying to time dinner to be ready when she got her break.

 Scott made delicious dutch oven potatoes.  Paul had steak, chicken, and hot dogs.  It was a little bit of a smorgasbord but oh it was so good.

 

So what do the kids do while dinner is getting ready.......

Yep they play with fireworks.  Rachel has pop its and Ashley is making snakes.

A storm came through as we were eating dinner.  It was so crazy how quickly it came in and then left.  This was what I caught after the rain storm.

A double rainbow clear across the sky.

We attempted to lite off some fireworks before it got dark but we had a bunch of duds and the wind was ruthless.  I was really disappointed in the fireworks we had bought.

 Matthew likes to play with fire.  

It was so windy it took them both to get the fireworks lit when we did get them actually to burn.

 Our spot for the city fireworks.  It was actually a really good spot.  It was easy access in and easy access out.  This is the whole group of us that watched the firework show.

Our family portrait for the 4th.  It was fun and we were happy we found someone to hang with.  We did drive home that night just so we could get up the next day to do things at the house.  That was rough because both Scott and I were really tired but we made it home safe and sound.