Utah

This is the final leg of our trip this summer... I'm behind a bit.  After Montana, we headed to Utah to spend (a little less than) a week with family.  We stayed with my sister Ashley first, where we went to church Sunday morning.  We got to meet Hazel, who was born in December 2015.    

In the afternoon, we headed to my sister Alison's, a couple of hours south, for the baby blessing of Ashton.  He was born just a week earlier!  

On the 4th, we did picnic and fun at the splash park.  

  

Later, we enjoyed good food and fireworks.  The city fireworks were amazing, because from where we were, there were also lots of neighborhood fireworks going on.  So we had the surround fireworks show.  

On Tuesday, we headed back to Ashley's.  Alison's husband Micah and kids (and Papa) went to a mini family reunion at Bear Lake with Micah's family.  Alison, Ashton, and Baba stayed home to rest.  We joined Micah's family for one day at Bear Lake.  

We enjoyed a few days hanging out at Ashley's.  Alex, Daniel, and most of the kids went on a hike one afternoon.  Ashley and I worked on getting ready for Hailey's surprise party.

On Friday, we packed a lot into one day.  Alex and I got up early and went to the Brigham City Temple.  

  Then we loaded up, and headed back to Alison's.  On the way, we made a quick stop for lunch to see some friends - Brett, Vivianne, and Guillermo.  The kids liked chasing their chickens around.  

Back at Alison's, I worked on a cake and party preparation.  Ashley put together a really fun art themed party - she did most of the work.  I just helped with the cake and set up.  She had some cute art easels with canvas they could paint on.  She also let the kids decorate their own cupcakes with sprinkles.  Other fun activities were water balloons, ice excavation for little prizes, and some messy activities.  They started out with clean white shirts and ended with a fun mess.  Before it was all over, they also took home a tie dyed shirt.  

  

I like the picture of Ashton and Nathan below - at the time, they were the oldest and youngest grandkids - 12 years and newborn.  (Ashton is not the youngest anymore.)  

Tried to catch a picture of all the girl cousins - only 5 girls of out of 18.    

We had a great time, although by this final day of festivities of our long summer trip, we were exhausted!  I guess the very final day was one long day of driving.  Our longest driving day was the drive back home.  We spent nearly 100 hours driving on our trip!