2009 Summer Trip to Utah

its crazy to think that a month could fly by so fast, but it really did. we just got back from our big vacation to utah and we have OODLES of pictures to share!
first of all, i had to take a picture of scott on the airplane to utah. he was %100 determined to get into the flight attendants drink storage. luckily we had a flight attendant who was nice enough to let him explore and help keep him away from the airplane door.

one of the first things we did when we got to Utah was go to Zions National Park with the Keyser side of the family. it was a blast hanging out with everyone so much.

the day we left mom bought us all breakfast at Denny's to help get us on the road.

She also got this nice cabin in the background of the picture for us to stay in at Zions Ponderosa. as you can see in the picture scott likes pushing the stroller more than riding in it.

there was all sorts of stuff for us to do there. here are my mom and scotty petting a horse.

we even got to ride them, too.

i love that james is taller than this horse.
here he is in action. i like to call him my own personalized butch cassady.

a bunch of us got to go on the zip line.

here's actual footage of me on the zip line:

and of course we went on hikes in the actual park. james, scott and i are in the middle of the bridge. you can see us if you look really carefully. this is just a brag video of one of scott's new tricks. it helped entertain scott on the ride home.

when we got back james had to go to california to work at the Betty Ford Center for school. So Scotty and I got to spend a lot of quality time with Grandy.

Scott especially loved bonding with her.

I also got to meet up with some friends. This is my good friend Jenny Bullock and her daughter Bella.

and these are some of my old co-workers Julianna and Jen. (I saw other good friends too but sadly I forgot my camera a lot of the time.)

Scott and I went on lots of walks around the neighborhood. This was his favorite mode of transportation.

my mom and i also got to go to the Draper temple. I tried going to a couple different temples a couple different times and they were always PACKED! it was hard with timing and the babysitters but i love that they are so full!

when james got back we headed down to Salem to be with his family for a while. We could just hang around watching Scott and his cousin Allie playing all day!

this was a funny little video clip of the two of them getting spooked in the bathroom. they'll learn to go into a dark room alone together...

this was a pretty typical scene down in salem. We had tons of fun BBQ picnics on the back porch.

scott loved playing with all of his cousins.

and we loved being able to spend time with everyone too. (amanda, ryan and allie, patricia (james' mom) and brynlynn (jason and christy's daughter) and phil - GQing it as always.)

and here is scott GQing it. he picked up a lot of stuff from phil.

scott, grandma palmer and cousin allie on the hammock. i think the hammock almost broke when scott got on. seriously.

back up with the keyser side of the family - we had a very interesting boating day. my aunt and uncle were nice enough to take us out on Utah lake but we sort of ran into every possible problem we could have had.

- first the boat had no gas

- once they got gas in it and started driving my uncle realized that the motor was smoking

- he and james worked on it for so long in the middle of the wavy lake that my uncle started getting sick

- he was pale and queezy and eventually puked over the side of the boat

- my mom finally called 9-1-1 who told her to "call us back if you don't find any help." (huh?)

- we finally waved down another boat who towed us in to the launching area. (we were happy to provide them with their family home evening service project.)

- when we got back to the cars, kim's car wouldn't work.

- we finally got the boat and wave runners on the trailers and all the cars working and most of the people involved vowed that they would never buy a boat.

- james and i weren't one of those people.

despite the difficulties of the trip i still had a really fun time. here's my mom in the bow of the boat with courtney, steph and josh.

here i am with scott when i got back from wave running. i had a blast but poor james had to work on the boat the whole time and poor scotty hated his life jacket.

sometime during the trip (i'm getting chronilogically messed up now) we went up to Ruth's Diner with my grandma Lola. I tried taking a picture of the event but this was the best we could do. i thought it was hilarious.

a big part of our trip that we don't have a lot of pictures of is the tennis playing. we played a LOT of tennis both in Draper with my mom and in Salem with James' brother and sister. scott loved wondering around the courts chasing tennis balls.

and the BIG EVENT of the trip (i'm joking when i say that) was when james and scott and i took a littly joy ride to LIBERTY LAND! its this po-dunk activity place on the side of the freeway. every time we drove by it we would joke about how we have to go there someday. i guess we joked enough that it became a serious idea. it was just about as junky as it looked... maybe a little more so.

it had a bunch of these old school rides and video games. here is scott in the rocket ride.

here's a video of it too.

this was too cute.


of course, james went straight to the hunting game.

and i had to get in on the action too.

scott loved riding in this little car with the animals until we put a quarter in and it started moving around. at that point he scurried off into our arms. after liberty land we went for a drive up american fork canyon. we took a picture of ourselves here at this look-out. i think it turned out pretty well.

this was also a typical scene throughout our trip. scott was a good sport through it all.

back down in salem, patricia's friend steve took us out on his 4-wheelers.
while some of us were riding the rest of us could hang out under this nice netted canopy that steve bought. the kids were happy as long as they were being fed.

patricia & steve and amanda & ryan.

james did a good job of running around chasing the kids while i took all the pictures. :)

and here's the three amigos.

and here is a video of scott's first 4-wheeling ride.

this was so so funny. scott got into the sugar in grandma palmer's pantry. it got all over his hands and we found him walking around the kitchen happy as could be just licking his hands over and over.

scott LOVED his uncle phil. he was so good with him and even babysat him while we went to the temple. he's a great uncle!

here are the kidlings playing around on the tennis court during one of our many tennis matches.

one of scott's favorite places was the payson pool. ever since we went there scott's love for water has shot to the roof. he could have splashed around with cousin allie all day.

here we all are: phil, amanda, allie, scott, james, me (grandma palmer is taking the pic)

we got to visit with james' cousins the davis family and james' grandparents one night too. it was so fun being able to see everyone again.

and here is a video of james pushing scott on the tractor.

though i think scott preferred to be the one doing the pushing. james and ryan pushing the kids.

another high-light of the trip was going to the hogel zoo. we went on the train very first because it looked like it was going to rain. i was pretty enthusiastic about it as you can tell.

phil and james swinging little blaker.

the whole fam looking at the animals. (at least scott knows how to look when someone is taking a picture. :))

these two were so cute together.

scott's first encounter with a turtle.

brynlynn, dustin, allie (hiding), tanner, scott and blake

it was so cute how content scott was hanging out in blake's arms.

another super fun day was going boating with the palmer family. steve took us out on his boat and provided hours of entertainment while pulling us around on this three person tube. we even took the little ones on a ride. they loved it. they seriously almost fell asleep.

this picture makes me laugh every time. (the feet in the middle belong to james' mom - patricia)


and then scott really did fall asleep. he loved the boat ride.

me and james on the tube ride. we were the last ones to ride and by this point in the trip steve and gotten really gutsy with the boat. he was going so fast! it was so fun!

i had to include this picture because it was such a regular part of our trip. we didn't want to wake up the whole house when scott would wake up at 6:15 in the morning so we would take him on walks. it actually felt really nice getting out in the cool air. i think he woke up on purpose just so we would take him out!

here's our cutie little boy at the fourth of july parade in provo, utah. it was a blast eating donuts and snacks with the palmer clan just watching the floats and high school marching bands.

i just like this picture because my face looks so skinny compared to scotts. ha!
on the way back up to draper we stopped in at the wollastons. sister and elder wollston were like my parents away from home while i was on my mission in england.

during the evening of the 4th we had a family reunion on my mom's side of the family. here we are with a bunch of my aunts and uncles. and this is just a classic picture of me and my cousin cristy. ever since i can remember cristy and i have been making faces like this for pictures much to the chagrin of my aunt maryann. its funny how when i'm with my cousins i feel like i'm ten years old again.


here's a group shot of all of us. i was so happy that so many people came. these are cousins and aunts and uncles that meant so much to me growing up and i hardly ever see them anymore because everyone has their own families and plans. it was so good to see everyone again.


grandma palmer bought this cute little sunday outfit for scott. he looks so old in it! (especially when his shirt is tucked in...which doesn't happen very often.)

here are my boys doing their favorite thing... brushing their teeth. i've never known anyone who brushes his teeth longer and more diligently than james, and scott is following suit. he loves it! my mom's friend jaynann was nice enough to come up and take family pictures for us. she is the person who took our wedding pictures for us so i knew they would be really cute. she did such a great job and i'm so thankful to her for doing it.

here are a few of our favorites:
and she took this one of scott by himself (and of course holding the toothbrush) i just love those blue eyes.
the monday night before we left everyone came over to my mom's house for a pool party. here i am with my two sisters (steph and kim) and some of our kids.scott and grandy.the whole clan. (you got to love the camera timer) tuesday, july 8th we were checking in at the airport at 11:30 in the morning to catch our 1:30 flight when the lady behind the desk informed us that the schedule had been changed and the next flight to des moines was at 7:30 PM!!! not something you want to hear when you have a kid and a million bags of luggage. so we called james' family and they rearranged their schedules to come hang out with us one last time before we left. it turned out to be a fun afternoon.

here we all are at a park in salt lake.

and here are the cutie patuties being so good about the change of plans.

we finally caught our plane and got home safely. it's nice to be home to our regular schedule but we miss hanging out with our families and friends. it was a strange feeling to be "vacationing" in the place that was once our home. but i suppose it will always be a home away from home. who says you can't have more than one home anyway?
we are so grateful for eveyone who let us stay with them and fed us and entertained us and spent so much time with us.
thanks for a great trip!